Back home from a long-ish work day and glad to finally be starting my weekend. I have the poem for tonight recorded, but I need to do some editing, after a much needed nap! So first I thought I’d share this gorgeous interpretation of Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving, But Drowning.” Stevie was our poet for yesterday’s reading, and you can check out my reading there if you’d like.
I had put a link to my old reading of this poem in yesterday’s post, but I just watched it and cringed the whole way through the commentary! lol So I’m not providing that link again. I might redo that one someday and the old version will just quietly disappear.
Tanita Tikaram gets it; she knows how this poem should be sung, and her voice just moves me so much. Sad to think this was only a B-side back in the mid-1990’s. I never tire of hearing it.
David J. Bauman 
I can’t believe you found this – I was looking for it a while back. Someone mentioned the poem and I told them about this version but I couldn’t find it. I’ve got a feeling I thought it was by someone else, so no wonder.
Serendipity at work. Thanks!
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Oh! That’s wonderful that I could help you out without even trying. 🙂 It is a wonderful poem, and they don’t always go well to music, as songs sometimes limp without their melody. But this one is lovely either way. And I just cannot get over her voice.
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Magic ~the beautiful is heard by the beautiful Only ~ THANK you friend ~Sincerely Deborah
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Really moving track. It was sang like a psalm. The poem evokes in me the way people can misinterpret human need for nothing more than attention seeking……I have my own little ideas as you can see!!!!
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Oh yes, I like and agree with the interpretation of the poem you offer.
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Reblogged this on David J. Bauman and commented:
It’s been such an amazing weekend already, and it’s only Saturday evening. For now, as we come close to the end of this Poetry Month, 2018 here’s a flashback to a Saturday Song Feature with Tinita Tikarum’s deeply moving and beautiful rendition of a favorite Stevie Smith poem.
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