Sweet Baby James

My teen days sang
to the melancholy ballads
of James Taylor
as I climbed my way to adulthood

Being a teen was a mixture
of fire and rain,
young adulthood came on like
steamroller blues
then parenthood, (how sweet it is)
mixed with career and
more fire and rain

The challenge of growing up
was to find the right hand-hold
secure a solid toe-hold
to scale the mountain of maturity
but James Taylor was there
to help me make a stand

Taylor now pets his old dog,
Ting, by the fire
youthful angst dissolving
into domestic content
yet, he’s still making music –
his 19^th album soon to be released
while on his way down a country road
on the other side of the mountain

Like Taylor I’m on my way down, too
enjoying the ride of growing older
sliding down faster now
than I lived while climbing up
but ahhhh
on this trip I can enjoy
the breeze

 

James Taylor’s new album, American Standard, will be released February 28, 2020.

Italicized words are song lyrics or titles from James Taylor’s album Sweet Baby James (1970).

This post is one in a series of my creative benefactors. Others include Walking with Thich Nhat Hanh, Chopping Veggies with the Buddha, and For Billy.