Story Behind The Song
Written 18 months after the 9/11 tragedy, songwriter James F.Curley struggled with understanding not only the event, but the responses to it, which included jingoism, false patriotism, suppression of dissent, widespread fear and general depression. Asking 'Where's our bold new Bodhisattava' at one point, as though what we may really need is a spiritual savior, not a political one. At once a cry for meaning, and delivering meaning of its own kind, Poet Laureate is a powerfully evocative song. This recording, done LIVE in concert is less than technically excellent, but even the musical and production flaws in this track can't hide the power of the song.
Song Description
Asking the rhetorical question: 'Where's our poet laureate?', the singer poses a series of scenarios that seem to suggest that we in the modern world drift aimlessly amidst confusing events while searching for meaning.
| Song Length |
4:32 |
Genre |
Folk - Rock, Country - Alternative |
| Tempo |
Medium Slow (91 - 110) |
Lead Vocal |
Male Vocal |
| Mood |
Poignant, Troubled |
Subject |
Frustration, Peace |
| Similar Artists |
Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan |
Language |
English |
| Era |
2000 and later |
| |
Lyrics
POET LAUREATE
©2003 James F. Curley
500 miles an hour
Not quite the speed of sound
Two residential Molotovs
800 feet above the ground
Below the dragons over Dresden
When the firestorms touched down
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
With their world-changing report
Bore unwitting witness
To that morning in New York
One more bastard testament
To human handiwork
Where?s our poet laureate?
Where?s our burnished bard?
Who can manufacture meaning
From circumstance so hard?
Who will weave together
The blood and bone and tears
Into a myth we tell our children
That makes hatred disappear?
A jingo junkie shakes a fist
Swears jackals rule the day
Raging in a vain attempt
To shout the pain away
As though the troubled heart
Finds comfort in cliché
A poised and perfect TV pundit
Wails and gnashes teeth
Offers hollow rhetoric
Diminishing true grief
But can?t explain why anyone
Would murder for belief
The modern tower of Babel boasts a parabolic dish
Without understanding, information?s meaningless
Where?s our bold new bodhisattva?
Where?s our sinless saint?
Who is willing to be crucified
So we can get the hint?
Where?s our poet laureate?
Where?s our burnished bard?
Who can manufacture meaning
From circumstance so hard?