Mike Bayles' "A Day Cast in Gray"

Photograph  by Konstantin Tilberg
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Sometimes a day cast in gray is oppressive, but our recent weather in Rockville makes coolness and the color gray a relief.  Tonight I am posting Midwestern poet Mike Bayles' pantoum.

A Day Cast in Gray

A Hard Day’s Night Playing in my Mind

Today lies in shadows-

I’ve come inside from the rain

to bear the reflections of life,

A Hard Day’s Night playing in my mind.

I’ve come inside from the rain.

In solitude I look outside at a cloudy day,

A Hard Day’s Night playing in my mind

in a sea of melancholy.

In solitude I look outside at a cloudy day.

I feel the depths of sorrow well-known.

In a sea of melancholy

I listen to the undertones of life.

I feel the depths of sorrow well-known,

and a constant rain hides the sun.

I listen to the undertones of life

while spring leaves me for another day.

A constant rain hides the sun

stirs a chill felt within my bones.

While spring leaves me for another day,

in solitude, a song plays in my mind.

Bio- Mike Bayles, a life-long Midwest resident, writes about human connections, in this case, with the weather and song. He is the author of three books of poetry: The Harbor I Seek, The Rabbit House, and Threshold. Threshold won the 2013 Book of the Year Award from Rockford Writers’ Guild.

Here is a jazz version of "A Hard Day's Night."  The vocalist is Jeanne Lee.  Ran Blake is the pianist.  Their version is from a 1966 album of "free standards."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLhah6UU-3o 

This version below by the Red Hot Jazz Trio is more contemporary and is purely instrumental:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLsETIfnL0w

Jeanne Lee sings "I Thought About You."  This time the pianist is Mal Waldron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg2GmTcRwRU

This is her "Your Ballad": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BSzenIyFqA

I'll finish with Ran Blake's "The Short Life of Barbara Monk": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tlWitva3Z0