RHAPSODY for the FUTURE

By Gavin Bourke

Image by DreamStudio

Rhapsody for The Future
By Gavin Bourke

I remember the very first time I heard Rhapsody in Blue
I just never knew what it was
where it was
or how it came to be
that the sound that I had heard many years before
just came over me.
I could not remember it until I heard it again
arrested this time
so evocative and captivating
like seeing a film you never saw
images and colours appearing out of nowhere and everywhere
conjuring magic in my mind
picturing pianos, clarinets, cigarettes, Broadway, curtains, seats, audiences with hats
suits, cigars, long wavy hair, elegant dresses
transported back about a hundred years.    

A sound and time converging so perfectly
so as to be almost other-worldly
felt like a trip to The Big Apple I never took 
to see a show I never saw
to meet people who no longer exist from a hundred years before. 
Laughing, joking, enjoying their lives
blazers, coats and skirts, veils and hats.  
The seductiveness of the clarinets
the bass notes getting right under my skin
giving shivers and goose-bumps
not knowing exactly how or why.    
Transported to the epicentre of America in the roaring twenties
the haircuts and the harmonicas, black cats with large yellow eyes
opulent curtains and the constant feeling of music in the air that was breathed   
an excitement for the things and times to come
if I could bottle it
I would.    

Joy, excitement, prospects, expressed happiness
the new world opening-up, peace and love, joy and fun.    
I could see typewriters, rolled-up newspapers, large thick-rimmed glasses
moustaches, pinstripe suits, Saturday nights out in the city
sophisticated women like Marylyn Monroe, Honour Blackman
Audrey Hepburn and Joanna Lumley
flowing locks, smoking long cigarettes in an age of glamour 
a truly golden era.    

Cast a spell over me
night skies full of stars, moons and saxophones
artists singing Cole Porter out loud on high walls
like Ginsberg poems coming to life. 
Characters filling the space 
the future in the hypnotic sounds
a sonic vision of the future that was possible.  
Tall buildings lighting up the night sky
lasting until the end of time.
Gershwin’s vision invoking the magical qualities of the time
that could well be again
with a little heart and imagination.

Gavin Bourke grew up in the suburb of Tallaght in West Dublin. Married to Annemarie living in County Meath, he holds a B.A. in Humanities from Dublin City University, an M.A. Degree in Modern Drama Studies and a Higher Diploma in Information Studies from University College Dublin. His work broadly covers nature, time, memory, addiction, mental health, human relationships, the inner and outer life, creating meaning and purpose, politics, contemporary and historical social issues, injustice, the human situation, power and its abuse, absurdism, existentialisms, human psychology, cognition, emotion and behaviour, truth and deception, the sociological imagination, illness, socio-economics, disability, inclusivity, human life, selfishness and its consequences as well as urban and rural life, personal autonomy, ethics, commerce, science, grand schemes and the technological life in English and to a lesser extent in the Irish Language.