Jane Voss
Poem • Visitation

Recorded by Rosalie Sorrels on her new album
No Closing Chord • The Songs of Malvina Reynolds
Red House Records RHR CD 143

Visitation, 1985
For Malvina Reynolds

today a song of yours went through my mind
I sang to myself
missed you suddenly with such intensity
I must have conjured you
for here you were! out of the blue
squinting into memory’s eye
smiling like the sun
voice crackling with kindness
white hair a corona, raging
fierce as ever, the aura of you
so strong I felt warmed
in that old familiar glow

seven years dead – can it be true?
and yet you
who had no truck with mystical stuff
came back to me all the same
no ouija board, no medium’s trance
none of this rapping-on-the-table business for you
you made yourself known by a neat trick
of your own: a handmade song
that sticks in the head and circulates
in the heart
durable as a penny
passed hand to hand
its value
expanding
like
 magic

by Jane Voss

copyright © 1985 Jane Voss

Complete list of song lyrics