As I look into the brightening sky
I reflect on my life,
A life nearer its end than its beginning,
A life that has been filled with joy and love.
The joy and love that family can bring,
From parents and siblings.
Parents now on their celestial voyage
Sailing down the Rhine forever,
As they often did in life.
My younger brother
So happy in his life
Now that the shackles of work
Are no longer pulling him down,
As his wife and he travel the world
In their new-found freedom.
The wonder of life with my loved one
Together now for so many years,
Our lives so wonderful as our souls combine
Going together as one towards our destiny.
The joy of children and grandchildren
All so talented in their given sphere of life,
Their gifts giving so much pleasure to me,
As they have always done.
My life with music.
Music has always been with me,
I cannot remember a time when it was not there.
The glory that the great composers give me,
The emotions they have created within me,
Within my Spirit,
Knowing that their music will be with me,
Be with me to infinity and beyond.
The wonder that is Jazz,
So profound in so many ways,
Bringing trad and modern,
Mainstream and swing in all its guises,
And of course that glory of Jazz,
Cool Jazz,
born that day in forty nine,
When Miles and Chet found that sound,
That sound that talks to me,
That brings calm my life each time I listen to it.
These words that I write on the page,
Taking me to a world where troubles cease.
Writing takes me over and reality stops
As words flow from my mind, my soul, my Spirit
Sometimes without thought,
Into the world around me,
This broken world in which we live.
But words and music can cure this world,
All it takes is for people to listen,
To listen not just hear.
Then one day when I look down on the world
From My Spirit travelling the ether,
I will look down
And see all will be good,
All people will be helping each other
The ills of the world perished
And the world will be full of love,
Full of love, laughter and joy.