Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

Sometimes.
The soundtrack for this life,
is poetry.
Walt Whitman
Langston Hughes
e.e. cummings
Pablo Neruda in the evening
and Rumi.
Always Rumi.

Sometimes.
The soundtrack is static.
Incessant and
neurotic.

Sometimes.
The moment is perfect,
it is Nina Simone
with big broken heart
on phonograph.
Or Bob Marley
with Redemption
with Love.
Or Bob Dylan
with Revolution
with Revolution.

Sometimes.
We march to a common theme,
the Sesame Street song,
the voice of James Earl Jones,
a neighbors harmonica.

Sometimes
our soundtrack is
completely commercial
buy, buy now.
New and improved!
Buy more!
Just for you!
Buy it now!

Sometimes.
We follow the muse
in the voice of a child
curious,
appreciative,
kind and
inquisitive.
Or a documentary narrative
actual and factual.

Sometimes.
The soundtrack for this life
is fight music.
Uninvited.
Unwelcome.
Undeterred.
Fight music.
And we fight.

…until the music changes.

-joe gerstandt