Mistress Orleans

I can't stand to watch the devastation any longer. I don't know quite what to say about the Katrina that hasn't been said by a million other people, I just know that I grieve for the victims in all the surrounding areas of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I used to live in Biloxi, and it is so surreal for me to see the Grand Casino in the middle of I-10. Biloxi; even though I hated it when I first moved there, holds monumental memories that have shaped my life forever. My daughter was born in Biloxi and I went to college in Gautier MS.

New Orleans, well that's a memory that I treasure, with it's eclectic old world elegance, the saintly yet sinner city will stay with me always. I have wondered frequently if New Orleans would loose it's charm when it's rebuilt. Would the "new", New Orleans hold the mysticism, the hospitality, and the carefree non judgmental attitude that welcomed strangers to the Big Easy in the first place? Would one be able to walk down the French Quarter and smell Beneigns and hear jazz in the air? And would it still be the place that inspired authors, musicians and other creative people? Would it still be an epicenter for religion and culture as well as hedonism? Only time will tell.

Still, a city is no greater than the citizens that inhabit it. That being the case, I'm sure New Orleans will be even better, retaining it's old adorable attributes while adding the spice of new ones. That is the spirit of the people of New Orleans. THAT is the New Orleans that 150 mile an hour winds and flood waters couldn't destroy. God bless the MS Gulf Coast.

I wrote this poem about a year ago to celebrate vitality of one of my favorite places.

Mistress Orleans

Mistress Orleans wail the blues.
Bang the ivories of alabaster hue.

Jazz crystallized in the humid air.
voodoo mystique sprinkled here and there.

A million staggered footprints on a dirty street,
smell the Magnolia soft and sweet.

See the muddy Mississippi churned by a riverboat wheel.
Another sensuous southern night; feel the feel.

Mistress Orleans wail the blues.
Bang the ivories of alabaster hue.
Mistress Orleans wail the blues...Blue.