50th Anniversary of The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show
by Steven McCabe
The
black and white
television
flickers
reconfiguring
now
*
Flowers blooming
with
signs & symbols
reconfigure
a
flickering
*
My father
on the sofa
refolding
the creased and worn
shaking his head
Step forward
sideways & back
in
physical education class
repeating the Fox Trot
with L
again Jingle Bell Rock
she quivers and laughs
flat feet she offers
we were rocking
no reason
to watch the clock
*
C
my friend
fingers aglow
his urgent hand
Introducing The Beatles
I was torn
in steam the flowers were worn
*
C & L
exhaling
into the frosted black air
cloaking almost touching
one another
oceans of diamonds
rolling overhead
*
I couldn’t make out every word
the album cradled like an
illuminated manuscript
under his arm
*
My gloved finger
drawing in white snow
uncovering the dark metal
of a late model sedan
*
I Want to Hold Your Hand
A dinner party ceremony for
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
*
Cellophane flowers
dissolving
in crystal glasses
*
Comets curving
free fall
a sign
*
B, D & R asleep already
I walk beneath
into
awakening sparrow song
tiny electric sitars flitter
through branches green & brown
*
Translucent animals bounding leap
*
The solstice pulsing in waves
a pushing tide
subsides
*
I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in
to stop my mind from wandering
Aluminum & ink folio
jukebox affixed to the counter
Strawberry Fields Forever
*
T dressed in black
opening a black umbrella
hitchhiking after dark
*
Living is easy with eyes closed…
What a trip to travel
through space & time emotionally and imagistically
enhanced
by these Liverpool musician/storyteller
icons of the cultural landscape
***
Introducing The Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFWXBn2d1d8
***
Jingle Bell Rock (Bobby Helms)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itcMLwMEeMQ
***
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYRSgbDw7xA
***
Strawberry Fields Forever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nehRB1FTeTo
***
I Want to Hold Your Hand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipADNlW7yBM
***
Photo credit: CBS photo archives – Comet: Visoki Decani Monastery, Metohia, Yugoslavia, 1330 (approx)
I do not own the copyright to these works have simply reconfigured for non commercial purposes of commentary
***
poemimage 
I’ve heard it said that our entire cellular structure changes over to new cells completely in seven years time. I don’t know the truth in this, but if it is true, the music of the Beatles… the music of the 60’s and 70’s is still firmly embedded that deeply. There’s plenty of nostalgia but it’s so much more…
Great post Steven…
Hi j.h., Thinking about our cellular structure changing over a number of years reminds me of things I have heard about memories in the body, various places they are said to be, & accessing emotional memories in the body…certainly The Beatles are more of an emotional memory or emotional reality than nostalgia that’s true…Beatle cards might be nostalgia…. and JPGR are tied into being young and changing at the speed of light/blowing our minds…their incredible musical journey &
‘everything else’ including the 60s/the war/etc… it’s an endless subject isn’t it? Thanks so much for the way your thoughts are going on this.
time traveling through your poetry…their Liverpudlian laughter and word play echoing my innocence…the Beats, the Beetles, conjoined… everyday insects born of surreal adventures through language joy and musical mischief …changing my consciousness in strawberry fields forever…you honour them well Steven in kind and visual poetics…thank you
Hi John, Yes, time traveling into their humour/sometimes dark, always irreverent…their irony…film is a trickster making 50 year old press conferences as real as yesterday. Love this idea of a Surreal Insect Adventure. Yes the ecstatic blur of Strawberry Fields forever…just thinking of the sound of it takes me to that sensation of first hearing …Why can’t everything be so beautiful? To think of how it came twisting out of the Hamburg clubs & grotty noir. The tide washed in a lot but little that sticks like this decade after unhinged decade…your phrase language joy and musical mischief strikes a chord about their laboratory of storytelling (not to mention musical brilliance). Thanks for relating your thoughts to this post.
Brilliant. and again… Brilliant.
Hi Stephia, Thank you for visiting and thank you for this thought.