The Sestina’d History of Rock and Roll
(1964)
February 7th: the Kennedy PA announces their arrival.
A Yankee Clipper Plane delivers Beatlemania to the world.
Long hair. Clanging twin-guitar.
The birth (the beginning) of music-
Giving song to our souls and opening our eyes:
All we really need is love.
(1965)
Outside Shea, official pins and handmade posters profess our love
Shaking, screaming, Yeah Yeah Yeah-ing the arrival
of the Fab Four, or maybe just Paul…with those eyes…
Breaking young girls’ hearts all ’round the world
and in the stadium. Adolescent energy drowns VOX-amplified music.
We watch them sing and play guitar.
(1966)
Revolver and Rubber Soul give unto us prophesying guitar;
Preaching peace, spreading The Word (love).
Lennon’s comparing Christianity to rock music
Eclipses their message of Inner Light and existential arrival.
Respectable citizens bemoan the fallen state of our world.
The believing know where to cast their eyes.
(1967)
And so we follow that girl with kaleidoscope eyes
to the rocking horse fountain where George trades his rhythm guitar
for the harmonium and its sounds of the eastern world.
India’s ancient medicine and psychedelic love
welcome us to surround sound and acid– this is our arrival.
This is the measure of the creation of music.
(1968)
Through the double album, ballads and folklore become the music;
Bungalow Bill aims for the eyes.
Gideon and Rocky plot the showdown demise of a rival.
George’s gently weeping guitar
Unfolds our sleeping love
To a revolution that will change the world.
(1969)
A long, cold, lonely winter, and nothing would change our world.
Mother Mary again awakes us to the sounds of music.
The love we take is equal to the love
we make; golden slumbers no longer fill our eyes.
A rooftop concert (John’s fingers too cold to play guitar)
One last time, until the Heat’s arrival.
(The End)
Their divorce shakes the world, but years before in sunken eyes
We saw the separation. Negotiations over music, money, and guitar
Broke down the love that inspired early Sunday drives with no arrival.
