i
It was the year of the Octopus bong
Stairway to Heaven was our favorite song
And when the past spoke of tomorrow it said
Never let the promising future go to your head
ii
We vowed to love till death’s last breath
But we were too young to hedge the bet
When forever came calling in ’93
No one wanted to write a new CD
iii
Statues of heroes missing their noses
Played out Sphinxes whom the future exposed
As blowhards who ruled for gold and by prick
Even those fey foals named Elizabeth
iv
It’s always the year of the powerchord
On which generations still light bowls
Forward not straight we go merrily along
Some wondering why Stairway is the greatest song
Saragun Springs 
Bong is possibly a good name for an octopus! That aside this has a melancholy tone which suits the observation of the passage of time perfectly – thank you dd
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I never thought of that! It would be a good name. I recall reading about the one in an Australian aquarium, who, after many hours of observing the staff, learned how to work the manual valves and escaped to the sea by manipulating the controls. They got him tape, reaching out twisting this and that and going from to tank to pipe and eventually opening his way back to the ocean. He was in a “inescapable” holding pen. Someone that smart should not be caged!
Leila
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This has me back in those days at the four way stop, “Forward never straight,” says a pothead sitting beside me pointing like some kind of cheap Rasputin.
I remember seeing a CD spinning like tin foil in the strange bubble top player. it was another moment in a cold back room.
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Ha! Christopher
A friend’s boyfriend ALWAYS said that. “Foreward never straight.” No matter what Duane would say it. For a spell I would use it as much as possible, but he always auto-reacted.
Thank you!
Leila
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LA
Like all the best poetry, these verses play on the chords of past, present, and future time all at once.
This feels wistful, wise, and it wins the reader’s heart, at least this reader.
I can FEEL the truth of this through the screen, and while I don’t know the details, I CAN imagine them, because of this.
In brief outline, you let the reader in on many secrets that remind them of their own secrets.
This also has a broken-hearted AND life-affirming tone same time.
And the music in your lines is multi-leveled, manifold-layered.
Another song for the ages!
“The Drifter”
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Hello Drifter
Thank you! I like songs that have personal lyrics. Dylan got Beatles to quit “Love Me Do” stuff. So most of my poems are little songs.
Thank you as always!
Leila
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ROCK ‘n Roll and Trampled Under Foot better than Stairway. Maybe more. Exceeded my wine limit so may be incoherent.
As the Free Wheelin Bob Dylan said “Keep On Rocking In The Free World”. No that was the not so young Neil. Bob said “I was so much younger then, I’m older than that now”. My back pages.
Mirthless inmate of sunset city
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Hi Doug
I never understood why “Stairway” was made number one. But when I was a teen, the FM rock stations KISW and KZOK voted it best and left it that way. I recently saw a poll and it was still there (although I’ve been told it finishes number three some years). It is now “greatest” in the “classic rock” category; with age comes specimen jars and categories, each duller than the one before it. Personally I think there cannot be a greatest song, and if there was that would not be it. Just can’t hear it anymore–not since 77 or so.
Leila
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Life In The Fast Lane
Rocking In The Free World
A few Elvis, Buddy, Fats, Little Richard, Little River Band, Marvin Gaye, Jerry Lee, Frankie Lane, Perry Como, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Van Morrison, Patti Page.
I didn’t know that you are just a kid says the guy old enough to grow tentacles.
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