TONY VAUGHAN

by Ana Elsner


so much
so much
LIFE,

so much
so much
LIVED;

hard
jabs
heart
break

the tyranny
of love and tenderness
transcended,
transcending,
and lapping
at the shore of consciousness;

this valiance
of gingerly rebelling against
the intimacy
of a merciless reality

in soft words
in gentle song
in pastels
on paper;

drifting

on a whiff of the herb,
on a whim of the soul,
on the threadbare sole
of street-corner anonymity
and bus-stop penance;

retracing your footprints,
embedded
in the un-cured clay of mind,

and always seeking by feel,
by feel;

wagering in the currency
of song,
of poem,
of shape and color,
pinned-down,

at times half-veiled in riddles
and distant echoes,

yet decoded to all those
who hold the key of
shared mysticism and wonderment.

You navigated
the un-fathom-able BEING of it all
with stubborn tenacity

while doing battle with the ever-present
specter of resignation.

You kept on moving,
kept on riding the rails,
kept on strumming your guitar,
perhaps to an inattentive crowd,

kept on sketching and re-sketching
the outer reaches
of self.

I call you POET

I call you FRIEND

I call you BROTHER

I RECOLLECT YOU

© Ana Elsner

 

 

Tony Vaughan sharing his music
Photo above: Tony Vaughan performs at the UCSF Cancer Center,
Healing Garden Music Series
* Thank you, Ana *

"CIPHERS Of Uncommon Origin, Poems by Ana Elsner"

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