In Memory Of Billie Holiday Poem by Tom Billsborough
In Memory Of Billie Holiday
Lady Day, lady Day.
You will always take my breath away.
Your rich brown voice
Tears me apart with the power
Of its genuine anguish.
How I wish
I could write as you sang
But I have not suffered
The indignity of racial hate
Which was your fate
And of those strange fruit
You sang about.
Lady Day, Lady Day,
You will always take my breath away.
A vey powerful poem Tom and yes with a fine economy of words. Deeply moved she sang from the depths of her soul with such raw passion.
It was a wonderful era for song with Sarah, Ella and the others but Billie was my favourite. She had a narrow range but her voice tears your heart out. The Spanish call it Duende. It's the ultimate compliment to an great artist.
Your prose sentence is a fine assessment of her artistry: other singers were technically more gifted but she was gifted in her ability to fully exploit what she was given. She takes us deep, then deeper into every song, revealing so much more than surface delights. I love the movement of your poem, circling back on itself and returning us to yours and ours breathless appreciation. And yes, GREAT HEART sums up the musician and the woman.
Dear Daniel, I cry when I hear her voice and when I read her biography which I bought some years ago. The Spanish have a word duende which Garcia Lorca used to dscribe a great gypsy flamenco dancer. It means genuine heart and Billie has it too. In fact duende means poetry in its true sense.
Thank you, Fabrizio. It was written today just on the spur of the moment. Billie was a true heroine. Tom Billsborough
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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9/20/2024 11:46:51 AM # 1.0.0.1119
according to a movie i saw about her [Lady Sings The Blues, i believe, with singer Diana Ross playing the lead role] Billie also had a heroin habit. show business can be tough. bri ;)
The Drugs Squad tried to arrest her on her death bed! I have her biography here and if there's anything you need to know, please send me a message. Great voice... Chaotic love life. And Billie was like that too!