Category Archives: music

Inspiration in a Crisis

In early December we got news that a dear friend was in the hospital and doing very poorly. Her husband called and it sounded dire. Stephen and I were supposed to attend a Folkstage concert that night (Buskin and Batteau at the WFMT radio station in Chicago), but my husband had the flu and couldn’t go. I was upset, but he encouraged me to go on my own, as the music often moves me and we have made many friends there. During the concert, this poem began in my head for my friend, Barbara, expressing my love for her. (She gave permission to share this poem.) I am very happy to say she has recovered! The line “choose joy” came from one of the songs they performed that night, because Barbara is one of the most joyful people I know.

12/4/10

For Barbara and Me

Begun during Buskin and Batteau

Choice-time.
Choose to stay,
choose to live,

take care of yourself
as if you were someone else,
as you took care of me

so unselfishly
able to put aside
all other consideration.

Choose that
for yourself
my sparkle girl

(it takes one to know one).
And if you choose to go
know I am grateful

for you here
up to now.
But stay,

choose to live,
choose joy…
“Missing you already”

you wrote to me
on a flower post-it
stuck where I would find it

when you left for home.
Love you forever
whether days are short

or however long.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
©2010

Priming the Pump

One of the delights in 2010 were the amazing performers I heard and met at live Folkstage concerts on many Saturday nights, (also heard on WFMT just before The Midnight Special. Both shows are masterminded by Rich Warren.) My husband, Stephen, and I have been members for a while and really look forward to the music and the company (and the treats). Recently the concerts have stimulated my writing in a big way (priming the pump). I’ll be sharing some of those poems (and artists) with you.

12/5/10 Sunday

Buskin and Batteau

(at Folkstage)

If I had known you better
before I met you,
before I heard you sing,

I might not have
gathered the courage to speak,
taken advantage of opportunity,

grace, and graciousness.
But I didn’t know of your vast accomplishments
(of course discounting my own)

I only heard the call of the song,
the stories that sprang out apparently
fresh and unjaded when you weren’t looking.

I only knew the music, the dance, the vibration.
And because I was there alone last night, which is unusual,
and because it was the first big storm of the season

and because I had just heard bad news
that pierced me, shaking my defenses,
taking away any semblance of invulnerability,

because I had been waiting in some essential way
to speak to you, to give to you just a bit
and to receive what you offered perhaps surprised.

Well then, the Universe made the set up
and I walked through the open door.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

More about David Buskin and Robin Batteau can be found here