Gene Hyde - Evening Meditation with Charles Lloyd on the Hi-Fi

Blue Ridge Mountain poet Gene Hyde meditates on the transcendence of a day’s collapse into dusk with his “Evening Meditation with Charles Lloyd on the Hi-Fi”. With the spiritual jazz on the record player serving as a ringing bell of sorts, calling the narrator forth into meditation, into supreme awareness, we are allowed to witness sounds and signs of civilization coming to a rest with the sun. A mossy Buddha statue serves as the witness from the opening lines to the closing.

Evening Meditation with Charles Lloyd on the Hi-Fi

The sun has yet to reach the
moss enshrouded Buddha,
softly nestled in his fern bed.

Sounds come and go, as
Charles Lloyd’s tenor sax
soulfully fills my head.

Lloyd’s not afraid to share
as a lonely robin makes
its plea, again and again

and I try to stay aware.
High on the hill a hacksaw
noisily gnaws on a metal

pipe, while farther off
down the valley, a chainsaw
comes on now and then, as if

finally completing some task.
The neighbor’s golden retriever
issues a greeting to someone

on the road, passing just out
of sight high up on the hill.
Lloyd transfixes with a gentle

ballad, my senses gleefully
along for the ride. He digs deeper,
softly, putting all to rest just

as the sun sets on the day,
bathing the mossy Buddha
in its final, waning gaze.

Gene Hyde

Gene Hyde is a retired archivist and librarian. His poetry and photography have appeared in Cold Mountain Review, Amethyst Review, Salvation South, Appalachian Journal, San Antonio Review, Shelia-na-Gig Online, Third Wednesday, Raven’s Perch, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, and elsewhere. He lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with his partner and a scruffy little dog. You can find out more on his website: https://www.banteringbibliocrat.com/