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Steam and Grind

from Tendrils by Kevin Healey

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about

Inspired by an anecdote in John Cage's piece "Indeterminacy." When the Zen master Suzuki was giving a talk near an open window, Cage could hear the sounds from nearby La Guardia airport. Suzuki didn't stop speaking, even if the noise of the planes drowned out his words. Cage had an epiphany: it's not the words that matter, after all.

This song re-imagines this scenario at a coffee shop, where instead of an airplane, the noisy koan is the steam and grind of tattooed baristas.

lyrics

Funny the wiser voices know
To choose as their favorite
A spot besieged by noise

Tucked behind dividing walls
Safe from the coming-in crowd
Whose outgoing charms are
Warm as milk but over-sweet

Hear the whispered virtues of—many things
Of coffee black and strong
Or forty-year-old wine
And others still as yet unheard
Buried beneath the din of ink-skinned servers’
Steam and grind

Once I heard a story:
A Zen master spoke near open windows
He chose not to pause as planes passed by
For one in the crowd, his muffled words
Triggered the insight for which all had come:
Words, at last, are not the thing;
We’ve come here to be, and not speak.

Today I am an audience of one
Grateful for the steam and grind
A jet-loud noise that buries words
Just long enough that you can hear
One sweet thought arise like steam:
“Let’s just be here for a while.”

Suddenly this noisy spot
Now oddly wise
Becomes my favorite, too.

credits

from Tendrils, track released June 8, 2018
KH: bass and electric guitars, vocals, drum loops, editing, and cover art.

Cover art features an image of John Cage.

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about

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Kevin Healey New Hampshire

singer-songwriter and professor of media studies based in the New Hampshire seacoast region.

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