Return to Forever

When we consent and are sent here
steered near

via cosmic, Karmic ocean post

we arrive as love letters
no fetters

pure

burdenless

smitten and hurtless

unhaunted by makeshift, seasick futures 

undaunted by tsunamified years of aqueous tears 

we can't yet conceive 

will harden, aggrieved

to skeletal masts

of immutable pasts imperfect

Come a few

or one or two

inner/outer revo-evolutions

fate illuminates an open window

through which we'll try to beam

our deepest fevered dreams 

to shadows we can stand by
command the clam'rous band by
the moment that 

it's time for us to go

No one knows the when

or how the port'll close

just that it goes

loud and clear

gravity's finality severe

an atmosphere that binds us here

our slopery slice of 

fleeting now and then

For some of the dumb

it's a scrum

a crumb for a bum

they curse themselves numb

imperious, vain soul oaths

flung down from the window

at the big, bustling boulevard below

Not engaging

suspended, spent, raging

they flay the dwindling day

even as it melts away

to an unsane

complaint-maimed, membrane-framed name

that drains the solar rays 

and rains on the parade  

whose place bears no such stain

whose face wears no such pained, disdainful caging

Made of living's thankless jobs

now he sings and now he sobs

 water for his baleful brothers
 fountains fall on neutral others

watch what's left go right on by

add, divide and multiply

sigh, get high and live and die

but never quest or wonder why

It's gone on

will go on

and flow on just so on 

oceans of motion

that master ad astra

stupendous and endless

serene and unseen

eternity cedes

infinity's needs

bookending mysteries 

of histories between

The Leaders

the feeders

the freedom-teaching deed achievers

instruct constructively

their time applied in flight

to lend a little light

exemplary and Heaven-sent endeavor

 the windows close alone
but before he sleeps in stones

anyone with half a heart
or head intones his bones

they know he made the most

his ghost won't be lost in the post 

he planted seeds

inscription reads

Your Work Is Done

Return To Forever

Return to Forever

Ebbets Field

Denver, Colorado USA

8.9.1974

01 Beyond the Seventh Galaxy

02 Vulcan Worlds

03 The Shadow of Lo

04 piano solo

05 guitar solo

06 bass solo

07 drum solo

08 Song to the Pharoah Kings

Total time: 1:19:58

Chick Corea - piano & keyboards

Al DiMeola - guitar

Lenny White - drums & percussion

Stanley Clarke - bass

pre-FM reels of indeterminate origin, remastered by The TooleMan
499 MB FLAC/February 2021 archive link

Thank you so inexpressibly much for everything, Maestro.--J.

6.12.1941 - 2.9.2021