All That Matters is…

From another blog entry, Folk Alley listener, John Hobson, wrote this, which I believe may be of great interest to many of us:
“Elena See just commented on Willie Nelson‘s song “I Gotta Get Drunk.” “Why must you get drunk? Because it’s what’s expected of you.” Here is a much better answer (if Elena doesn’t mind), from a prose poem by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867):

“Get Drunk!” – by Charles Baudelaire

One should always be drunk. That’s all that matters;
that’s our one imperative need. So as not to feel Time’s
horrible burden one which breaks your shoulders and bows

you down, you must get drunk without cease.

But with what?
With wine, poetry, or virtue
as you choose.
But get drunk.

And if, at some time, on steps of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the bleak solitude of your room,
you are waking and the drunkenness has already abated,
ask the wind, the wave, the stars, the clock,
all that which flees,
all that which groans,
all that which rolls,
all that which sings,
all that which speaks,
ask them, what time it is;
and the wind, the wave, the stars, the birds, and the clock,
they will all reply:

“It is time to get drunk!”

So that you may not be the martyred slaves of Time,
get drunk, get drunk,
and never pause for rest!
With wine, poetry, or virtue,
as you choose!”‘

(Originally posted by: John Hobson at January 11, 2007 11:35 AM to the blog, ‘Free & Unnecessary Thought’.) Note: At this writing, there are two versions of “I Gotta Get Drunk” in the Folk Alley Play List.

On these cold and blistering wintery nights, I’m sure that some of us will gather comfort from these words, and may have thoughts of our own, on the matter, to share. Have at it – I’m tottering off to grab “THE SWEETEST & THE MEANEST” – Poems by Tom Kimmel, and to make another hot buttered something-or-other, as my nose is still frozen!