I'd liked to give some love to the musician friends I played with long ago.
First - ‘The In Crowd’ - my first teenage band that morphed into ‘The Associated Few’.
(L to R) The In Crowd - Steve Semensky, Joe Vella,
Larry Heffering, Fredrick Brooks and Mike Rogers
(L to R) The Associated Few - Joe Vella, Larry Heffering,
Fredrick Brooks, Steve Semensky and Paul Hay.
After this, I put an experimental duo together with David Hawes - Fender Rhodes/B3/ Mellotron/Mini-Moog and flute. I played guitars and sang. Ronnie Biggs did sound and we were called Brookfield and Hawes.
Brookfield & Hawes - Dave Hawes and
Fredrick Brooks at The Black Bull in Toronto.
Now back to 1990
Longing for You
I remember writing this in winter, waiting - staring out the window and talking to myself.
I felt paralysed by what to do next - an introspective time.
We all go through it - “I can find no answers - so why question the balance, as I sit alone Longing for You.” - the ‘You’ was Me.
Fredrick - Guitar/Piano/Bass/Vocal
<Click here to listen to Longing For You>
Sparrows cry - aloft in morning dance
Sunlight, fingers through
As windows bleed in reckless columns
I sit alone longing for you
Winter’s white is high in the laneway
As I watch the day travel through
I can find no answer - so why question the balance
As I sit alone longing for you
I’ve been stealing fire from the mouth of truth
Watching the road with no thought to move
I crossed this point one day in my time
Sitting alone - Longing For You
Yes I crossed this point one day I’n my time
Sitting alone - Longing For You
© Fredrick Brooks
Poetry - Blue Iris from my second collection
The Quarterly - Guitar Intro and spoken word Fredrick Brooks
<Click here to listen to Blue Iris read by Fredrick Brooks from The Quarterly 2014>
BLUE IRIS
Whorl shells spot the shallows
Blue Iris plucks pearl from stone
Casts her heart into the bay’s calm womb
As fishes wait with mouths wide
Wanting
Waiting on her story
She gives voice to the Earth
Shows us her vivid and tragic journey
Opens the river
Spills her deep ink
Marking
Carving the land
Revealing it's swiftness
Blue Iris plucks pearl from stone
Shows us this place where we all breathe
Where sleep washes over the lullaby of waves
And melancholy abandons our hearts
For Katherine (Love’s Camp - Linger Longer)
© Fredrick Brooks
Painting by Ruth Read
From The Quarterly