Spirit in the sky

Two youtubes. First Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in the sky.

Then my words, recorded live in April 2015. Of course, I was thinking of a few young baristas that early morning. I had quite absurdly punched up Greenbaum's song on a device for them the day before. And I would be doing something else besides stopping in at Aimee's on a Sunday afternoon for something to drink and a smile. I was quite literally planning instead to walk among the dead - at a cemetery - while the baristas would likely be dying among the laughing regulars while they did their jobs near the end of their shifts.

But 'you' are many different people. There will be other nights that I will be thinking of you as surely as there are stars and the moon in the sky. And some of you have already passed on.

Spirit in the sky

Bert Haverkate-Ens

This will be a little rough.

But why shouldn’t I be thinking of you.

The sky is so overcast you can nearly count the stars on one hand.

The full moon is fuzzed out like Norman Greenbaum’s guitar.

It’s probably Maya’s cheek on my cheek that’s keeping me awake.

She’s barely two.

And tonight it’s the night wind on my cheek.

The pond is bubbling at my feet.

And tomorrow will be a day like no other day.

But there are times when a man can’t sleep.

And the people who loved him number more than the stars.

I will never catch up in giving back what I’ve been given.

But I stare at the moon, anyway.

I don’t want to be twenty.

I don’t want to be two.
I just don’t want to die.


And one more:

And now a link to an unconcluding (open) postscript to you