Nothing Is Real… Strawberry Fields Forever
by Steven McCabe
John Lennon & the gates of
Strawberry Field
Where he played
As a young boy…
(and still)
Nothing is real…
Strawberry Fields Forever.
Every year at this time
The hole
Where the spark of you
Was,
…it must be high or low,
Appearing
Like a cosmic holograph,
Zooming into view,
A thumbprint,
Touching &
Sailing into the sound
Of all that is
Going down.
Rockabilly blues overlap into
A new dimension
&
You, again, deliver us into…
(and still)
Nothing is real…
Strawberry Fields Forever.
Steering through,
Beyond,
Ornately fashioned
Gates of Perception…
Ah, Irish John of England,
Blake, Luddites and
Nell Gwyn,
Entering that space
Within your self,
Where
In your absence
You can always be.
Let me take you
down…
Cause I’m going to…
(and still)
Nothing is real…
Strawberry Fields Forever.
Lyrics to Strawberry Fields Forever: http://letras.com/the-beatles/186/
Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles video: http://vimeo.com/75657441
I had a friend in high school who would wear all black clothing, as well as sunglasses, walk beneath a black umbrella no matter the weather, and hitchhike at night. He laughed that he wanted to make people wonder whether they had actually seen somebody or not. We thumbed a ride a couple miles to a diner past the edge of town, with small jukeboxes on the counter, spending all our spare change playing Strawberry Fields Forever. He was, of course, in black, the small town atmosphere verging on confrontational, and the music, even though coming from tiny speakers, aiming rays of otherworldly colours and sensations into one’s mind. This song has never ceased to touch my sense of what might be mystical. I know I am not alone in missing John Lennon terribly.
poemimage 
I had a friend at school who was so devastated by JL’s death that he was granted several days off to mourn. This was unheard of at the time. Also, I wonder how different the media would be if Lennon was alive.
hi Richard, I knew somebody like that also. He wore a black armband for weeks. One end of it trailed behind him as he walked. Personally I didn’t idolize John but loved him not only for his musical voice but also as a bit of a trickster figure in the cultural landscape. Have you seen the film clips of when they were burning Beatle records in the southern U.S.A.? Particularly I think Birmingham. Whether John would have also come out of ‘political retirement’ we’ll never know (as Reagan revved up his conflicts against Central America, etc…)
I guess it’s a personal thing of mine but I’d have liked to seen John embrace his son Julian more fully. Maybe he did behind the scenes.
I didn’t idolise him either, but I’d love to know what he thought of the world in the present day. His political retirement, I think, was partly to do with his citizenship application. Yes, the whole side of his life to do with Cynthia and Julian is not really talked about in the books I’ve read – they tend to take off on a particular tangent once John meets Yoko (who I think is great). Yes, I hope so.
Saw an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario a few short years ago of Yoko’s Fluxus/Dada work. Including the hammer, ladder and imaginary nail installation where (according to some reports) John first met and became enraptured with her. Now there is a love story.
He is much missed. Great post Steven.
Thank you Anna. I feel most fortunate to have grown up with the Beatles in their heyday and to have been pulled along for the ride as they translated rock & rolling into new layers of artistic expression and of course John’s ‘working it all out with fear and trembling’ and humour. Liverpool. What a word.
Such a beautiful gate, I have never been
It’s beautiful. Same here, never been.
Beautiful. I love that gate and the strawberry red of it. And how it appears to be a portal in that one image. Music is a portal itself, I suppose.
Thank you Karen. I just saw this now. A year and two months later. Some portal brought me to your portal thoughts.