I’ve broken my own rules, but in blogging the rules are like the Pirate’s Code, “more what you’d call ‘guidelines.’” From time to time I forget that the Music Monday feature differs from Saturday Songs in that on Mondays we also explore a little poetry at the same time.

Sometimes, it’s a very obvious connection between the song and the poem, but more often the connection is more tenuous. This Monday things fall somewhere in between with Audre Lorde and Vampire Weekend. Say what you will, but I do love my Ezra and his band, and as much as I enjoyed “Unbelievers” and Modern Vampires of the City, I think I will like this new album even more.

Back in 2010 to 2013 there were some who complained about them being a “white, rich boy band,” which seemed to me astonishingly anti-Semitic and unaware. Once people did find out more of the identity details of the group, some critics still moaned that Rostam Batmanglij’s gay, Iranian identity was brushed over. Rostam left the group in 2016 to pursue his own career, but he and Ezra parted on good terms.

This is the second single from Vampire Weekend’s new album, Father of the Bride. The song is called “This Life,” and the official video makes me somehow both happy and teary eyed. It also made me think of a poem shared by the Poetry Foundation for this year’s pride month: “A Litany for Survival” by Audre Lorde. Here’s a brief piece of it.

Read the whole poem at the Poetry Foundation here, and enjoy “This Life,” or the video, at least.