Many good hearts these days
are looking to help one another in this life. Phil
Ochs wrote a song for our times – and Allison Crowe
helps deliver the message, “When I’m Gone”:
Times of great trouble in this world. Times,
also, of great inspiration. And of great hope.
Hear “The Elusive Resurrection”, from
Newfoundland poet Al Pittman’s first collection
(Brunswick Press, 1966*):
“Oh for the strength
the indomitable courage
to cast away
this shroud
and leap to life
to run and sing
to free these lips
that now do nothing
but argue
and would kiss
to reach
into the sun and stars
and grasp
what little of heaven
has been given us
to devour”
Another NL great, singer-songwriter Ron Hynes,
turned a poem from Pittman’s final collection, “Thirty-for-Sixty”,
(published by Breakwater Books in 1999*), into a
song. Musician Allison Crowe, home in Corner Brook,
NL, where Al Pittman grew up, delivers here the
essence of those words:
* Both poems appears in Breakwater’s 2015
release “Al Pittman: Collected Poetry”.
