The end of the world as he knew it

“This has been a wonderful universe,” he said. “I shall miss it.”

“Don’t talk like that,” his son said.

“Why not? It’s my universe,” he said. “You are all figments of my imagination. Nothing exists outside of what I’ve constructed in my mind, and now my mind and body are failing at last.”

“An existentialist to the end,” said his wife. “What do you suppose will happen to us?”

“I’m so sorry, my love,” he said, “but I’m afraid you will be leaving with me.”

“Well, I’ve had a good life, even since before you conjured me fully grown out of your mind,” she said.

“Oh, I’m good,” he said with a wink. “You said so yourself.”

“Of course I did,” she said with a sad sigh.

“Oh! Ouch!” he said with a wince. “I believe this is it. Thank you, my love. I’m sorry this was all the time I could give you all. Especially you, my son.”

And with that, he and the vast universe he had created with his mind expired.

The room was very quiet for a long time.

Then …

“Why didn’t you tell him?”

“Oh my dear, I did try to tell him, many times, early on,” said the widow. “He never believed me.”

“I bet he believes now,” said the son.

“Of that,” she said. “I have no doubt.”

And somewhere in another plane of existence …

“Jesus!” he exclaimed.

“That’s me,” Jesus said with a gentle smile. “You and I have much to discuss.”

Scene from a Happily Ever After

“Tell me there will be a happy ending,” she pleaded.

“I can’t,” he confessed. “Endings are always sad. Even stories with a happy ending have a bittersweet quality, because the story may have ended at a happy moment but, you know, everything ends. All things must pass.”

“That’s sad and cynical,” she protested.

“No, just real,” he soothed. “That’s why it’s so important to savor the moment. When you’re happiest, you should fold the moment into some unbreakable safe in your heart, to comfort you after the inevitable.”

She sighed, hearing the truth of it all.

“Tell me, at least, that this is one of those moments,” she pleaded.

“Oh, darling,” he said, wrapping his arms around her, “of course it is, because this is nowhere near the end.”

Crimson Sky Release Party, Part 2

I have always fiddled with putting poems to music. The very first homemade album I made back in 1972 had a version of the old poem “Lord Lovel,” which probably has a real melody out there somewhere but I found it in a poetry book. Come to think of it, I have a pretty funky song using Longfellow’s “Excelsior” that I have never recorded … hmmm.

So it’s not surprising that I might borrow some lyrics from Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I did commit the sacrilege of changing “thee” to “you” throughout my adaptation of the immortal Sonnet 43.

I arranged the words into verses on Jan. 24, and then decided on a rather standard G-Em-C-D chord progression on Jan. 25. I recorded the song on Feb. 3 and tweaked it into this form six days later. If I say so myself, I’m getting better at crafting three-part harmony.

I experimented with song order a lot before settling on the track list that appears in the released album, but “When She Smiles” always came right after “How Do I Love You.” In fact, until the very last minute these two songs opened the album. I ultimately decided the set works best if the album title is the first words you hear.

I wrote “When She Smiles” Jan. 14 and 15, and the song is unabashedly about my sweetheart, Mary. I had the rhythm first even before the melody or the words — my mind was hearkening back to Jimmy Gilmer’s 1962 song “Sugar Shack” — “There’s a crazy little shack beyond the tracks, and everybody calls it the Sugar Shack” — when I wrote, “There’s a cute little mama living down the street, and let me tell you, buddy, she is kind of sweet.”

(Yikes, now that I listen side-by-side, I wonder if I need to add K. McCormack and F. Voss to the writing credits. Is this how George Harrison felt when he gave another listen to “He’s So Fine”?)

This is not hyperbole: Sometimes when Mary smiles, my heart melts. She has that effect on me. I put “How Do I Love Thee” to music about a week after writing “When She Smiles” specifically thinking Browning’s poem would make a good introduction to my sweet little mama.

Here’s a link to clips from Crimson Sky on New Year’s Morn with further links to your favorite streaming services, or you can just go to Spotify or Apple Music or YouTube, or wherever you usually stream music, and do a search for “Bluhm Crimson Sky” — and thanks for listening!