Abram Van Engen, a professor of humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, once said in an interview that "What matters about poetry is which poems work for you… Not every poem will work for you. Keep pushing on until you find the poem that does work for you – when suddenly you read this turn of phrase in a poem and are moved or challenged or something really resonates.” I have been fortunate to be good friends since my early 20's with Douglas A. Sharp, I did not know he was a poet when I first met him at Texas A&M University in the basement of Nagle Hall, which housed some desks for graduate students in economics. He was sitting with his feet propped up on a desk reading the Lord of The Rings. Not long thereafter, Doug returned to his first love - mathematics - in which he earned his master's degree. Doug and I got together frequently, as we shared a great love for music. My recollection is that after I left Texas A&M in the fall of 1971 to go to …
She’ll Teach You Like A Child
She’ll Teach You Like A Child by Dr .Fry's Texas Medicine Band Carefree aching hunger for the beauty of her touch Will keep you from ever getting tired of loving her so much Her love is not that violent so she tells you from the start And then she scoffs at simple hatchet jobs, rips you at the heart She sends a river bolt of lightning to the caverns of your brain As she takes you by the hand and hauls you toward her like a chain She can toss you as a bucking’ bronc, flood you like the rain Or she can love you in the kitchen like a wayward travelin’ train CHORUS: And you’ll be lucky if she finds you, she’ll teach you like a child That love can be so very rough even when it’s mild You’ll not forget her easy as she travels on her way And you will not regret that for a while she chose to stay Break She can shield you as a baby with a love you cannot buy She can keep you off of that lonesome road if you look into her eyes Her soft searching …
Texas Medicine
Dr. Fry's Texas Medicine Band was was popular in Houston from the mid-1980s through the early 1990's and was one of the most played Indie artists in the early 2000s. The Reason was one of the band's most played songs, which is ironic because it was marketed to country radio and is really more poetic than country songs. Doug Sharp wrote all lyrics, and I wrote the music. There were two other choruses written before deciding on this one. I reduced the song to a time more conducive to radio play, and though that worked well I miss the real version of the song, which is only available on home demo tape. In the longer version, the second verse completes the vision in the first one. There's almost a music in the moon's yellow light That sings its song near and afar To hear it is to wish for night without end And a sky full of bright twinkling stars. Another original verse that is omitted in the official release is: I'm glad of you coming though it was …