Carried Away

Below, for this bright day, is a poem called "Request" by Lawrence Raab. Maybe it's all those flowers and leaves, swooning so beautifully toward death, that puts me in mind of it. The poet writes of what music he would like to have played at his funeral services... 

For a long time I was sureit should be "Jumping Jack Flash," thenthe adagio from Schubert's C major Quintet,but right now I want Oscar Peterson's"You Look Good to Me." That's my request.Play it at the end of the service,after my friends have spoken.I don't believe I'll be listening in,but sitting here I'm imaginingyou could be feeling what I'd like to feel—defiance from the Stones, griefand resignation with Schubert, but nowPeterson and Ray Brown are makingthe moment sound like some kindof release. Sad enoughat first, but doesn't it slide intotapping your feet, then clappingyour hands, maybe standing upin that shadowy hall in Parisin the late sixties when this was recorded,getting up and dancingas I would not have done,and being dead, cannot, but mightwish for you, who would thenunderstand what a poem—or perhaps onlythe making of a poem, just that momentwhen it starts, when so muchis still possible—has allowed me to feel.Happy to be there. Carried away.

And now, here is that very song, as it was performed 37 years ago by Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l85eHT1BDnE]