John Barnard

I've been hearing and reading incredible poems and songs lately and I thought I'd share them with you here from time to time. I hope they bring you as much joy as they bring me.

JB

Temporarily in Oxford 

Where they will bury me 
I don't know. 
Many places might not be 
sorry to store me. 

The Midwest has right of origin. 
Already it has welcomed my mother 
to its flat sheets. 

The English fens that bore me 
have been close curiously often. 
It seems I can't get away from 
dampness and learning. 
If I stay where I…

" Sometimes I'm working on getting by 
   sometimes I'm climbing the walls 
   sometimes I'm working on me and you 
   lately I ain't been working at all "  

   - Broken Hearts and Love Letters - 
          -  Erik Koskinen - 

It's been raining for two weeks solid. The streets look like shiny black snakes, man made arteries of the city. Koskinen on the radio, Bukowsi in my head. Love is a dog from hell.... someone's been reading my mail. I'm staring at notebooks full of lyrics, half completed songs, ideas…

"Inside of him a boy looks up to his father 
For a sign or an approvin' eye 
Oh, it's funny how those once so close and now gone 
Still so affect our lives"  

   The Crossing - Johnny Clegg 

He was smiling at me with fiery eyes. I was trying to catch my breath and I was looking at his shiny, muscular body. His boxing gloves were old and torn and his teeth were shiny like diamonds. He was dancing around urging me to keep my hands up. We were warriors, hidden away in our own world of childlike innocence and…

"It is hard to know that you're moving on, that youre trying to forget me and get along

 You say you're busy and you dont dwell, on the times we had and you wished me well".

         Trouble with the Curve - John Barnard

How Johnny became a Songwriter

I walked into a tiny "Townie Bar" in Wausau Wisconsin just off Highway K on Merrill Ave. The heat was coming off the asphalt in the parking lot that hot June afternoon. It was Tuesday and after a really hard shift on the farm I decided to go into town for a…

Some Friday mornings you wake up and feel the cool floor underneath your bare feet.You think about how it keeps getting harder to straighten out your legs and back as you get olderYou think about the day as you are having your first cup of coffee.You wonder what she's doing, where she's going.Whether she's running late or perhaps waking up in someone else's bed. You dismiss the thought. There is a new day waiting out there for you. Cattle to tend to and calves to brand. Aircraft to separate and bills to…

It is still quiet on the farm at night. Even with the noticeable increase in vehicle, recreational and pedestrian traffic Tygerfontein still holds a certain allure when the work day is done, the dust settles and the creatures of the night start their chatter. It has been a hot one. Tremendous clouds started building and by six pm the sky was on fire with heat lightning and thunder. I'm sitting outside smoking an old cigar and nursing some bourbon. Grandpa and Grandma are buried not a full kilometer from…

Vagabonds and Broken Hearts

I threw myself on a single bed at the old farmhouse. Pulled off my sweaty clothes and dusty Stetson. The heat stifling. Not a breeze in the air. It's been a long day, a good one, but a long day. I shared the stage with my good friends and we, The Vagabonds , made a beautiful noise. I felt the safety of friends and family and my eyes met the eyes of friendly strangers. We sang our songs and told our stories with a highveld thunderstorm brewing and gathering momentum in the South…

"I think I've seen this film before, so I'm leaving out the side door" 

   - Exile - Taylor Swift feat. Bon Iver

Leaving out the side door...the fire escape, the wings, the side stairs. These are the places where you'll see us hide, see us pray, see us worry or freak out about possibly not being able to remember the words or hear the drummer. The place where you run when an audience chewed you up and spat you out on the floor with your life's work in a pile of scraps. Worn out jeans and sweaty Stetson over…

Heroes and Vagabonds

He was walking across the tarmac at the airfield. Khaki trousers, brown army jacket and a sweaty shemagh around his neck. He was walking fast, lighting up a cigarette. He stuck out his hand to greet me. He smelled like jet fuel and his handshake was firm and sincere. A real bush pilot. My love affair with aviation has led me to incredible places and people. It has given me friends, lovers and heroes. It has given me sunsets, adventures and moments of sheer terror. I believe that…

" I've been working all winter

  I've been working on a fence

  And the borders I'm creating

  Never making any sense"

  But I'm feeling pretty good

  Despite all the tears

  Yeah I'm feeling pretty good

  for the first time in years"

Erik Koskinen on the truck radio. The August winds are still at it. Picking up buckets of dust in the Free State, blowing it across the plains and the Vaal River and dumping it on every weary soul it finds in its path. Early Spring in the country. Hot, dry days and icy…