“N” is for the Nothing Feeling

This is a poem that Russ wrote in April, 1979. I was in New York shortly after he wrote these verses and I wonder how things would have been had I met him then. Would I have continued on to Italy? Would we have been draw to each other, as we were in later years? Or would we have hated each other, so different then, yet so alike? Even now, I yearn to take away the pain and sadness described in this bitter-sweet poem. And yet, I think all of us have felt this way at least once in our life.

 

The Nothing Feeling

A neon moon is flashing

With midnight coming soon

a neon moon is rising

the juke box plays it’s tune

and a thousand little sorrows

overflow an empty glass

as I sit and think of nothing

and nothing comes to pass.

 

Sometimes I feel so weary

sometimes I gather strength

sometimes I feel so weary

at my story and it’s length

It’s like a nickel novel

with  a slowly turning page

as I sit and think of nothing

and nothing comes of age.

 

So lay me down

Lay me down

On the far side of the river

By the Holy ground

Lay me down

Lay me down

On the bright side of the river

I’ll be heaven bound.

 

The whiskey’s in the tumbler

the beer is in the stein

the whiskey’s in the tumbler

my money’s on the line

sometimes I feel so lonely

that the only thing’s to cry

as I sit and think of nothing

and nothing passes by.

 

And a thousand little sorrows

overflow an empty glass

a thousand little sorrows

letting nothing come to pass

and a neon moon is flashing

on a slowly turning page

as I sit and think of nothing

 

and nothing comes of age.

 

So lay me down

Lay me down

On the far side of the river

By the Holy ground

Lay me down

Lay me down

On the other side of the river

I’ll be heaven bound.

 

4/79

 

© Mary Purpari and Russ Kelly “N” is for the Nothing Feeling April 16, 2014