Joan And Gabriele
Joan Baez walked into my mother’s house looking better in her 70s then she did in her 20s, when she and then-boyfriend Bob Dylan were playing Woodstock and rocking the music world.
“You look more beautiful now than ever,” Joan said as she hugged Gabriele, snatching the unspoken thought out of my head. Joan, who once spent the night meditating under the stars in my mother’s tree house, has brown eyes that take you in completely and moves with the quiet grace of a cat–but that’s not what makes her extraordinary. With with her olive skin, silky voice, and silver jewelry, it is more Baez’s aura of a modern-day gypsy fortune-teller–a seer wise beyond this world.
Understanding
Joan met Gabriele in one of my mom’s writing workshops and they stayed close– perhaps because Baez recognized a fellow seer in my mom (Gabriele does have gypsy heritage, so watch out!). I have no idea what my mom and Joan talked about sitting side by side on the couch, their voices low and gentle, but I bet it was more about life than death. At one point, when I interrupted to adjust my mom’s feeding tube, its plastic edges digging into her skin like a painful crown of thorns, Joan whipped on some sterile gloves like some matter-of-fact nurse and helped, her sienna-painted fingernails splattered with white from a recent painting session. I don’t know why this simple kindness made my heart feel too full.
Emotion
Baez left the same way she came in, the door clicking quietly behind her, no tears or real goodbye to her weakened, white-haired friend. I wanted to follow along behind, just like her giant blond dog, feeling desperate to repurpose some of the peace Joan radiates for my own edgy sanity. Instead, I sat down at my computer and pulled up a poem Joan wrote for my mom a few months ago. And in its words, I found solace.
- Big Beautiful Bouvier
Poem for Gabriele – by Joan Baez
- Life’s fucking twists and turns are
- Spinning out of control for this little minute
- And the next and the next
- Remember, then how much you are loved
- By all of us
- Who exploded into
- Words on paper
- Yes this is what it can be!
- As easy as this
- A turn of the mind
- A glance
- A ray
- A speck
- The field a workshop
- The cricket a visitor
- The cow my sister
- My mom the fountain of youth
- And my son
- A father
- To correct the sins
- Of generations
- As for you,
- You kicked the devil in the shins once or twice
- You are the woman who will do it again.
Wow- amazing- thanks for sharing this! Rosalyn
What a lovely thing to share – thank you.
I am touched once again by your writting. I so appreciate your blogs. Give Gabriele a gentle hug for me. I send you all my love.
Love, love, love your way.
Marvelous. Your mom’s smile says what words cannot. xoxo -Molly
The beauty of Friendship and knowing… Very well expressed by you and Joan! Thank you for this one Suzanne!! I Love you all!!
This is emotion! Grazie
robert
WOW WOW WOW..Love you!!!!!! Thanks for sharing. You are the greatest daughter ever!!!!!!!!!!!
Me
Oh, my. This is amazing. What a beautiful piece of writing, what beautiful women, what an amazing poem. I shall always look at Joan Baez differently now. Thank you all for making me cry–in a good way.
Just beautiful! Thanks Suzanne. Thanks Joan. Thanks Gabriele for touching my heart on this day.
Your words blow me away, as does Joan’s.
I love the story about Baez calling your Mom out of the blue when she’d felt that “Writing the Natural Way” had helped her write again after a dry spell. Your mom didn’t believe at first it was Baez on the phone!
I was with your mom at the workshop in Berkeley that Joan attended. During the lunch break, Gabriele, Joan and I were talking and walking down the street, when a car pulled over; a guy stuck his head out the window and shouted, “Are you Joan Baez?!!” She shot him that dazzling smile and a thumb’s up.
I went with Gabriele and Rich to a Baez concert in Redwood City a few years later, and I was blown away by how Joan’s voice was still so pure–like a crystal bell. And how funny Baez is! She is like a ventriloquist in the way she can mimic people’s voices. Her version of Dylan had us in stitches.
I’m so grateful to have had these experiences because of my relationship with your mom. Please give her a big hug and kiss for me.
(PS: I sent her something in the mail the other day.)
wow….so glad you got to witness that… and more glad that you shared it with all of us. Hi to you and to your Mommy…still thinking about you often…
Oh, YES Joanie! A song in the wind … under the stars … listening to the far whisper of the heavens. Jimmie-in-Dallas