Forward
Just recently I had the opportunity to see the play, “Hair”. It was the “Saddam & Gomorra” of the 1960’s, so to speak, now celebrating its 40th Anniversary touring the United States. Back in 1968 it was almost taboo to go to New York’s Great White Way to get tickets for this play about the free-loving youth of that time. Well, readers, we (C. J. Krieger and I) the youth of that time among our other peers are the adults of today’s world along with other adults such as doctors, nurses, lawyers and other professional people you would not think of as a hippie or a Flower Child.
Perhaps we did or did not actively partake in the revolutionary counter-culture that spread from coast to coast that may very well have begun across the seas. The Peace Movement with its band of unique-looking youths was definitely seen here from Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco to Laguna Beach in Southern California and all across our nation from New York City’s Greenwich Village to Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York where for 4 days in August, 1969 a music festival that was billed the “Aquarian Age Exposition” reigned. Today that festival has come to be known and remembered as Woodstock (which was a sleepy village some 40+ miles southwest of the original site). On that rainy long weekend 40 years ago the true age of enlightenment began as the music flowed while the youths danced. There long-haired men wearing Peace Beads and young women in soft gathered ankle length dresses wearing flowers in their long tresses stepped lightly in bare feet on the earth, enjoying the Freedom of the moment yet chanting for peace as other young people fought in Viet Nam, many losing their lives.
C. J. Krieger, poet, writer, father, grandfather, martial arts expert, massage therapist, lived during that freedom loving era as I did. He, however, served his country in the military during that time of war, but that does not mean that he did not also want peace. He is a man who has sought peace all of his adult life and settled in the famously significant locale associated with Peace, Woodstock, NY. He lives and breathes the atmosphere of the area daily, so who could better write poems about the loves, hurts, scenery, weather or the area than C. J. himself.
We tagged an on line friendship awhile back and the warmth continues to flourish because C. J. is who he is and who brings out the best in his friends due to his sincerity, his honesty, his caring, his manners, his love of people. I am proud to call C. J. my friend; I am proud to say I am a fan of his poetry. You all do know that this is not his first book, don’t you? When one reads C. J.’s poetry they can feel the words physically from a simple walk down Tinker Street that brings back, to me, a memory of Christmas lights along the older shopping area of my hometown in New Jersey and onto all the emotions felt in his every poem whether it be one of love, tragedy or whimsy.
The poems of C. J. are ones you will remember for a long time to come. Perhaps one day they will be required reading in high schools and, unlike the stuffy “Thee and Thou” of olden text, his works will be appreciated by future youths. So now, all ages, take a page by page poetry journey into the world of Woodstock and C. J. Krieger… Enjoy.
Patricia "Tish" Marie Schau
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Shadows of Tinker Street
I watched
As the long winter shadows
Grew past the travelers on the green
Touching the Tinker Street stores
Like an actor in a play
The evening light dimmed
While the early night lights appeared
One by one by one
Lighting up
All the stores on Tinker Street
As I listened
To the sound of music and drums
Filter past the growing crowd
The local Tinker Street musicians
Gathered once again
For another evening’s performance
All these things painted a picture
As I watched a mystical vision
Of shadows and visitors and musicians
And of course the townsfolk
Swirl and mix into the Woodstock night
It was flawless
The perfect country street
Magically remembering its roots
And passing them on
During a dreamy cool wintry night
All to the delight
Of Tinker Street
A Morning Of Long Shadows
It was a Tinker Street Morning
As the yawning shadows
Fell far down the old road
Stretching their long slender arms
Away from the morning sun
But as I looked
At the falling shadows
There seemed to be an emptiness
No one walked the street
Or smiled hello or goodbye
And the shadows
Didn’t hold any stories
Or tales to tell of Tinker Street
They were just shadows of objects
Not shadows of life
This was a lesson
That could not be caught
By a camera’s lens
But only by the heart
For the only thing that walked
In this cold Woodstock morning
Passed the shadows of Tinker Street
Was a lonesome photographer and poet
Yes
It was a morning of long shadows
That rose and fell along the road
Except for me
It was a morning of longing
For the shadow of someone else
For A Chance To Be Happy
The winter weekend came in cold
Chasing the last remnants of autumn away
Looking down Tinker Street
Far, far off in the distance
One could almost see
The last of autumn
Waving it’s farewells to Woodstock
The music and voices
That normally appeared
No longer filled the village green
Still, there were a few stragglers
Who foolishly waited
Never taking to account
The cold north wind
And biting chill in the air
That somehow managed
To push the winter coats aside
And chill the bones
Of the few who came
Staring down Tinker's winding road
There was an emptiness
That balanced the summer crowds
A yin and yang of life
That shared two sides
Of the same coin
While inside of my head
I wondered
If I walked through this Catskill hamlet
Just beyond the turn
Of the bend in the road up ahead
I might find summer
Hiding somewhere
Between the old shops
That lined the street
Just waiting
Waiting
Waiting
Like me
For a chance
To be happy again
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I am watching Woodstock change
In its mystery and beauty
And even though
You are not here
It doesn't matter
You see
I am watching
All of this
For you as well
Music by: C. J. Krieger
"Variations on a Tune"
Single Accoustic (TAMA) Guitar
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