[1668] Love Over Gold

Guest poem submitted by Sachin Desai, <desai.sachin@>:

You walk out on the high wire
you're a dancer on thin ice
you pay no heed to the danger
and less to advice
your footsteps are forbidden
but with a knowledge of your sin
you throw your love to all the strangers
and caution to the wind

And you go dancing through doorways
just to see what you will find
leaving nothing to interfere
with the crazy balance of your mind
and when you finally reappear
at the place where you came in
you've thrown your love to all the strangers
and caution to the wind

It takes love over gold
and mind over matter
to do what you do that you must
when the things that you hold
can fall and be shattered
or run through your fingers like dust

	-- Mark Knopfler

Seeing the Suzzane Vega poem/song set me thinking about various artists
whose work falls in the twilight zone between poetry and music. I am
submitting a rather well known song by Dire Straits. I love the simplicity
of their songs - straightforward (but meaningful) lyrics, hummable tunes,
and above all the lovely voice and chords of Mark Knopfler. Dire Straits
songs, in my opinion, fall into two categories - the racy rock songs like
Sultans of Swing /Money for Nothing and the softer ones like Love Over
Gold/Brothers In Arms. I think some of the latter songs come close to
qualifying as poetry (or almost poetry with due apologies to all the
purists).

This song expresses a beautiful sentiment.The essence of the human spirit is
intense curiosity. The desire to explore, to experience, to understand is
what sets us apart from other species and is resposible for our current
state of affairs. (For better or for worse). :-) To really appreciate this
song, of course, one has to listen to it.

There have been no previous postings of Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler on the
Minstrels website so here is a short bio - Mark Knopfler, a singer,
songwriter, guitarist formed the group in 1977. The group was immensely
popular during the 70s and 80s. The distinctive feature of the group was the
meaningful songs, excellent guitaring (which seems to be 'singing' along
with Knopfler) and the gravelly voice of Knopfler. They have had many hit
songs among which the best loved song is arguably 'Romeo and Juliet'. Dire
Straits disbanded in 1995 after which Knopfler has pursued a solo career.

Thanks
Sachin Desai.

[this poem is archived, accessible and awaiting your comments at]
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1668.html
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From: Lawrence.Morgan@  Tue Nov  8 14:15:51 2005