The Cumberland Post

The Cumberland Post
My Backyard, Six Miles from the Cumberland River

Friday, February 17, 2012

tenuousness

as i age i sometimes feel so tenuous
that the words coming out of my mouth
or out of my fingers
have even more substance than i do.

I wrote the above words late last night after Joyce and I watched a movie. The movie didn't provoke these thoughts. But a song did. We heard it last night as the end credits rolled on the movie "Crazy, Stupid, Love." The movie was fun. I'm not quite sure why they played that song as the end credits rolled. It didn't seem to have very much to do with the movie. But the song, "Tenuousness," stayed with me. I looked it up today and found that it's sung and written by Andrew Bird.

It's one of those songs with lyrics that you could easily brush off as sophomoric bullshit, or neo philosphical claptrap, or well, you know what I mean. The individual words or phrases in isolation seem to be just that kind of crap. (e.g. "Tenuousness/ Less seven comes to three.")

But the whole seems to somehow make a kind of sense. I think. Or at least it feels that way. Bird seems to be as much into the sounds his words make as the meanings they might have. He seems to be having fun with certain words' sounds and with rhymes. The line "So procreate and pay your taxes," which he almost seems to throw away, is a nice and unexpected rhyme with "waxes." It also means something. As does the word "coprophagia." Look it up. If you already know what it means you probably need to consult a psychologist. Just joking.

And I'll bet you've known quite a few people who thanked the heavens for their "elasticity." I know I have. Anyway, give a listen and tell me what you think.


Tenuous at best was all he had to say
when pressed about the rest of it, the world that is
from proto-Sanskrit Minoans to Porto-centric Lisboans
Greek Cypriots and and harbor-sorts who hang around in quotes a lot

Here's where things start getting weird
while chinless men will scratch their beards
and to their minds a sharpened axe
is brushed upon the Uralic syntaxes

Love of hate acts as an axis
Love of hate acts as an axis
First it wanes and then it waxes
So procreate and pay your taxes

Tenuousness
Less seven comes to three
Them, you, us plus eleven thank the heavens for their elasticity
And as for those who live and die for astronomy

When coprophagia was writ
Know when to stand or when to sit
Can't stand to stand can't stand to sit
Now who would want to know this

Click
Click
Click

Who wants to look upon this
Who wants to look upon this
Pray tell

Who wants to look upon this
Who wants to look upon this
Pray tell
Pray tell

Tenuousness
Less seven comes to three
Them, you, us plus eleven comes just shy of infinity
and as for those who live and die from numerology
 

7 comments:

  1. Koyaanisqatsi, a hopi word that means "out of balance" The video reminded me of that '83 film.

    The song reminded me of a Simon & Garfunkel tune.

    The song is pleasing to the ear...but the lyrics, I shrug my shoulders.

    My favorite: "...those who live & die for astronomy" ( I forget, does the period come before or after the closing quotation mark?)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Would context have sumthin' to do with your feelings about the song... by that I mean as the end piece to an enjoyable movie?

    I thought of S&G as I listened, as well. I'm not fully caffeinated as yet so I'm incapable of any sorta analysis, other than to say the lyrics are quite clever.

    As for needing a psychologist... anyone who's owned a shit-eating dog and consulted a vet for a cure knows the word. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. George, the song does sound a little like S and G. I've turned in my Punctuation Police badge, but if I remember right, periods always go inside q.m. How much snow you guys got up there?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Buck, you may be right about the song and the movie. Joyce and I talked about the song a little which rolled after the actors and other big name collaborators rolled. I wondered at the time in what way (if any) the song connected to the movie, but couldn't come up with anything. As for the shit-eating dog (coprophagia) thing, I was joking around, but I'm serious now when I say I've known a few liberals and Islamist apologists and anti-semites who had a keen taste for fecal matter. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ed, Strange indeed. On another note, guess what? Yours truly is now coughing and blowing his nose on a more than regular basis. Yeah, it seems I got the crud too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dan, sorry you've got ol' Mr. Crud. It'll pass.

    I enjoyed the song, and like the others my mind immediately went to S & G. Well, really just Simon...but close enough.

    I did not know what coprophagia meant...but now I've discovered that our beloved long-dead black lab, Midnight was afflicted with it.

    She was the smartest, most loyal, bravest, finest shit-eatin' dog in the history of the world!

    ReplyDelete