edward's guitar

you can't tune this guitar,
the necks broken,
the spines broken
and all you've got is
spineless tuning,
tuneless spineing
barely held together
and you can't fret,
don't fret too hard
at least,
you've got spineless fretting
scared the whole things
gonna break
the strings, they will break
comin off one
by one
till all you've got's a g-string and a giggle
(but pluck that spineless G string--
open)

the heart's triptych

I lost my way, I forgot to call on your name. The raw heart beat against the world, and the tears were for my lost victory. But you are here. You have always been here. The world is all forgetting, and the heart is a rage of directions, but your name unifies the heart, and the world is lifted into its place. Blessed is the one who waits in the traveller's heart for his turning.
--Leonard Cohen, Poem 50

Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody's got a hungry heart
I met her in a Kingston bar
We fell in love I knew it had to end
We took what we had and we ripped it apart
Now here I am down in Kingston again
--Bruce Springsteen, Hungry Heart

I know I was a cripple.
Of course, I'd known it from the start.
My father took the crowbar

and broke the wringer's heart.

--Anne Sexton, Cripples and Other Stories