The Bob Dylan Song

 

Dear Mr. Zimmerman,

 

Played all your records

Hummed all your tunes

Been to some concerts

Read your writ ruins

 

Tried to keep this short and sweet

But that ended up too hard

Know it is barely complete

Enough to lay down one card

 

Protested, proclaimed, been Saved, right inside

Got nothing, left to lose, and nothing left to hide

Free to thank you, for your efforts, and your wide tide

Relax and listen, save your blistered feet

You surely must be weary, keeping the unique beat.

 

My mind’s eye tells me, says it sees

Knew you not when I was a kid, playing on Daddy’s knees

So maybe I’ve come within, some forty one degrees

Of understanding what you said, you did believe

You nor I would write it down, if you ever told me.

 

A boy from a little, cold Soda town

With an energy so vast, you looked upside down

Crooning and picking, and tickling too

Some woman called, what she told was true

 

Woody was a bountiful, destined nation

A righteous reflection, not a hesitation

Had made the mark, and peeled the bark

Used to build the Ark, of your soul

Hammered and nailed, his wood has turned to coal.

 

Thoughts and dreams and blues, filled the nights and days

Listenin’, readin’, thinkin’, through the smoky slippery blaze

All the while they heard, the cold Soda kid amaze

Like no one before, for real or just a craze ?

 

The many stages grew fast, they flashed and went

Day by day, hither and beyond was spent

The seeking crowds, roared to their amusement

The shiny suits locked step with, their rhymin’ new accruement

 

What do you think? What do you do?

Seemed all wanted to know, and gave a care

But only what they wanted, needed to hear

Gossip or foolishness or witness a real tear

For love, lust, or crime or fear

 

Were you uptight, not right, untrue or unkind ?

Or just tried to keep your gifts as precious in your mind?

You had the sight to see, they need to be,

Left deaf, dumb and stick-poked blind.

 

It was your God-given right, not to say or share

More than the size of your shoe and length of your hair

Which they could easily see, when they stood to stare

 

Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan

What is it you got, that you’re spillin’ ?

Is it some, penicillin ?

Or a divine drop, of red wine ?

Some people think your foolin’ them

Lending them a line

 

Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan

What is it you got, that you’re spillin’ ?

The words, like timely medicine

The melodies, ripe from the vine

Nobody told them, they had to listen

To make reason, of your treasonous rhyme

 

You kept them all, always guessin

Blowing the sparks, of time alive

Just when they thought, you were confessin

You took a brand new deep dive

Teaching another, wind blown lesson.

They wanted a spoon, you gave them the knives.

 

Bent the scales, with words of weight

Broke the rails, with tunes of freight

Screwed the nails, into the gate

The unjust fails, to negotiate

Where you are, your gravity is great

All amassed, magnetically drawn

Where you’ve been, the light was shone

Having made, mind shadows long.

A creature of God, that got the nod

For his DNA, ‘twas tied,

In such a way

To make the letters fit

And the notes sway

To wiggle into the right place

On command, with righteous grace

Blending blinding ambition

That cradled no one tradition

And strung the chords to a fertile musician.

 

More songs than can be counted

Bootlegged,  ripped off,  and mis-mounted

More concerts than can be heard

Profanitized, insanitized, and absurd

 

Looked into the eye of The Hurricane

And imagined what you saw

Am sure I saw the same

Black innocence and a drivinpourin’ pain

 

Dare to think about the warring Masters

All speaking in Satanic tongues

Smiling with their platinum teeth of plaster

They bought with the wholesome purely young

 

Once worked at old Maggie’s place

Went young and came back old

Thought it was a just fine race

Til I turned round in a square mold

 

Was born in the North Country

Laced the skates and shot the puck

Stacked some hay and drove the truck

Will die in the North Country

With just a little of God’s luck

 

Got a sweet lovin’ Sara, all my own

Been listening to her, pleading song

Aim to never leave her, left alone

We pray to hold tight and run slow long

 

You sang straight on about Jesus

That was some tune

Surely the Spirit sent to please us

And reflect Truth for high noon

 

Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan

What is it you got, that you’re spillin’?

Your swords, mend by piercing,

The unsuspecting mind

Your sounds, grease the steel

Time and time

They don’t know what to name, your condition

But I call you the one, song physician!

 

Connecting the dots of despair

Into figures of mystique

Blessed connections for soul repair

And mind mending critique

 

Words to sew the stitches

For gashes in the head mast

Notes that dissolve the poisons

Of snake bites from the past

 

Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan

Give us some more, a little more

One of a kind, not in a store, we had some before

Give us some, Bobby Boo, just a little more will do

Right here and now, a little medicine, med us in, medicine

Another shot, right in our head, tell us again, what you said.

You’re full, to the brim, spill us a little, medicine, man, dear, dear Mr. Zimmerman.

 

Sincerely,

Patience.

 

PS.

 

I pray that He has meant you and bent you and sent you

To the Streets of Gold when they unfold as He foretold.

The inclusive, the confident and the bold, the Loving Faithful.

 

 

Copyright © 2005 Patience Protruding Publishing