OLDIES AND GOODIES

The magic spell of music swells my heart
As songs from yesteryear evoke those times
Of which my generation was a part,
Folk songs with touching melodies and rhymes:

Bellefonte, Dylan, Peter, Paul
And Mary, Joan Baez and Johnny Cash,
The Kingston Trio and the best of all—
No, I won’t judge—all better than the trash

That fills the charts and airways of today,
That who can even hear the lyrics of?
So smothered and occluded, what they say
No drum-dinned ear can tell or, much less, love.

     The good old songs were lyrical and dear—
     If only such a Muse might reappear.

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