Words & Music

by Mike Power

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  • Music 101: Gratitude

    One of the most valuable lessons I learned as a musician came from Carlos Santana. He said that when you work on your instrument – learning scales and patterns, working repetitiously until your playing flows naturally – you should not think of it as ‘practice.’ Practice is a chore. Instead, you should think of it,… Read more

  • Music 101: Origin Story

    The music of our lives begins with the beating of our hearts. One day it will end with the final beat. Since everything has its beginning, I wondered: when did music start? Was it invented or discovered? Music has been around for so long that it cannot be traced back to a specific time. It… Read more

  • Genius in our Midst: X

    2020 is a tough year. Tough, tough, tough, tough, tough. In the middle of a year that rivals the insanity of 1918, 1941, and 1968, something unexpectedly wonderful happened. In April of this year, while people were dying in New York at the rate of 1,000 a day, four people in California – John Doe,… Read more

  • Awkward as an Angel

    Awkward as an angel who bears the burden of black beauty she turns, unaware of the emptiness that swirls around her lost legs   Legs on which balance the twin curses of comfort and congeniality   She is a solitary saint in a universe of undistinguished souls She is shy and unsure of her shine… Read more

  • Lost Days

    These are the lost days. The ones that do not aspire toward recovery. At the end of days, when all is lost, these days will be even more lost than the others. On days like these the fat fly hovers on air that is heavy enough to sustain him without the beating of a wing.… Read more

  • Not a tree

    I love a tree that is not a tree with a love that is a love and apologize to her for swinging from her branches and monopolizing her shade I built a racetrack around my heart to watch the blurry world fly by I have lost track of the number of times I need to… Read more