My handle, Wooden Bird is from the song "Morning Morgantown":
I'd like to buy you everything(here's a link to the song on YouTube)
A wooden bird with painted wings
A window full of colored rings
In morning Morgantown
Joni is an inspiration to me. I think she is one of the most creative songwriters and poets that Canada has had to offer. I would love to be able to communicate the way she does.
The title of this blog, Her Small White Bed, is also a Joni Mitchell reference, from the song Rainy Night House. The relevant verse goes such:
It was a rainy night
We took a taxi to your mother's home
She went to Florida and left you
With your father's gun, alone
Upon her small white bed,
I fell into a dream
You sat up all the night and watched me
To see who in the world I might be
Another inspiration to me is Leonard Cohen.
He's another treasure of poetry and lyrics and melody that has wandered out of Canada.
The first song I ever heard by Leonard Cohen was "Suzanne"...
And Jesus was a sailorThese two poets had incredible impacts on me as I was growing up. Their music always struck me with a sort of desperate and intimate need.
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
It is in them that I find the beauty that inspires me.
<3
Wooden Bird
