"Last Song" [by Terence Winch]

Last Song

 

Mother! Where have you been? Your
children are drinking beer and playing
the piano. Every single thing you ever
owned has long ago disappeared. We’re
not even sure when exactly you were born
or what ship you came here on.

Sweet hope, show me the way
out of this mess. I keep talking to people
who can’t remember who they are.

And then there’s this feeling of every
thing being just out of reach or not quite
audible. I couldn’t remember John Prine’s
name this morning on the way to the Safeway
listening to him in the car singing
“Remember Me When the Candlelights 
Are Gleaming” with Kathy Mattea.

His last song, “I Remember Everything”—
so frail and beautiful, it moves you to tears.

I remember now where
all of you have gone.
Floating in the air
from song to song.

—Terence Winch

from Glimpse (#56, Spring 2023)

Drawing of Terence Winch by Joe Giordano in Baltimore, 20 Sept 2023.

Comments

[Emily Fragos]

Thank you, Terence, for this deeply moving poem. The world we have clung to: "Every single thing you ever/owned has long ago disappeared."

Lovely drawing, too, of the intense poet reading his work.

[Jody Payne]

Beautiful.
Terence you send warm thoughts that cushion the blows and sooth so gently.
Many thanks.

[Abbie Mulvihill]

I listened to “I Remember Everything” after reading your poem. They compliment each other beautifully. Thank you for sharing this touching poem and the spot-on drawing!

[Bill Nevins]

Did anyone ever write a more beautiful lyric set to waltz tempo than this one written by John Prine?
" It was Christmas in prison/And the food was real good/We had turkey and pistols/Carved out of wood/And I dream of her always/
Even when I don't dream/Her name's on my tongue/And her blood's in my stream/Wait awhile eternity/Old mother nature's got nothing on me/Come to me/Run to me/Come to me, now/We're rolling/My sweetheart/We're flowing/By God"
John's albums played in our northern Vermont mountain cabin were the lullabies for my children when they were little. Especially his Bruised Orange album. I wonder if they remember those songs now, all these years on? Thanks for this incredibly wondrous poem, Terence, most worthy of John Prine. I bet he is grinning listening to it right now somewhere up yonder, and maybe picking out a tune to go with it!

[lally]

doesn't get any better, brilliant

[Patrick Clancy]

Thank you, Terry. Really, I mean it, ... thank you!

Patrick J. Clancy

[Clarinda]

Yes. Thank you to both of you!

[Dr. Earle Hitchner]

For those who saw and heard Terence reading his poem “Great Sizzle” this past Thursday night (10-2-23) via Zoom with other poets published in THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2023, you learned again how exceptional a poet he is. “Last Song” is one of his finest poems and further asserts his inimitable gift for expressing the often inexpressible in how we feel, think, remember, act, and don’t act. Consider his extraordinary opener here: “Mother!” He uses not an expected comma but an exclamation point. It’s peremptory punctuation, almost commanding or shouting for attention amid the mix of loss and impatience that follows, and the reader snaps to full alertness, upended in any presumption. The plural “Your children” and “we’re” in that first stanza yields to the singular “me” and “I” in the second stanza. It begins with “Sweet hope,” a contrastive, tender entreaty that precedes a soul-tortured hope for her to “show me the way / out of this mess.” The second stanza ends with a sentence arguably as much about the speaker as the “people / who can’t remember who they are.” In the third stanza the speaker makes explicit his loss: “this feeling of every / thing being just out of reach or not quite / audible.” That sense of hearing or, more aptly, listening is restored by John Prine’s solo singing of his own song “I Remember Everything” (fourth stanza) as well as the song Prine shares with Mattea. In the last stanza the speaker recalls “now where / all of you have gone.” It should not come as a surprise that Terence, who composed the Irish American hit “When New York Was Irish,” would have his poem’s speaker recapture memory through songs. That memory rekindles our own. “Last Song” is utterly unforgettable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVhA01J0Zsg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaHNUYAKDn4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5Rja0TITQU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L21Tc_DtL6M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcErDLCmgis

The five links above are (in descending order) “Hello in There” sung by Prine, “Angel from Montgomery” sung by Raitt and Prine, “Remember Me (When the Candlelights Are Gleaming”) sung by Prine and Mattea, “I Remember Everything” sung by Prine, and “When New York Was Irish” composed by Terence Winch and performed by the REAL Celtic Thunder. Copy and paste into your browser to hear them all.

FINAL NOTE: The song “Remember Me (When the Candlelights Are Gleaming”) was composed by Scotty Wiseman and first released as a single by Lulu Belle and Scotty Wiseman in October 1940. Since then, it has been covered by a host of singers, including Ernest Tubb, Willie Nelson, Roy Acuff, Tim and Mollie O’Brien, and, in 1964, even the Limeliters. Chalk this last historical tidbit to my music critic background.

[Dr. Earle Hitchner]

Those Zoom readings that included one by Terence Winch took place on 11-2-23, not 10-2-23.

[Dr. Earle Hitchner]

One last comment: I apologize for those insufferable, unexpungeable "clips" fronting the songs. Hit the countdown "skip" as soon as you can to get to the actual songs.

[Maureen Owen]

A great poem and a drawing by Joe Giordano! What a combo!

[Eileen Reich]

I love the poem and the artist’s drawing. Beautiful and touching.

[Summer Brenner]

Wonderful poem, dynamic drawing. I can practically 'see' words inside your mouth.

[immaculate grid]

https://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2023/11/last-song-mother-where-have-you-been-yourchildren-are-drinking-beer-and-playingthe-piano-every-single-thing-you-everowned.html