Pocket of the Heart

 Lou Reed, rock musician and soul singer died this week, but his music lives on in the hearts of  those who found his poetic style riveting. I was introduced to the music of Lou Reed when I was in college. I wrote record reviews for my college newspaper and one of the first albums I reviewed was Lou Reed’s Rock N' Roll Animal, his first gold record. His songs had so much to say and the music was unrelenting.

   A few years later I saw a guy standing on the street in New York's Greenwich Village whom  I immediately recognized as Lou Reed. He was thinner than I expected and wearing shorts. He looked at me and I smiled back at him, with a look of recognition. Sure, he was famous, but I kept my distance. That is how many New Yorkers act  around the rich and famous.

     His recent death reminds me how much I loved his music. This song I’ve chosen to remember him is about transformation into a new man. The phrase that seems most memorable to me is his understanding of love that fits inside him like "a pocket of the heart." 

    I look at the shirt I am wearing. Right over my heart is a pocket. Inside that shirt pocket you can only stuff something small: a phone number, a photograph, two tickets to a concert. That little pocket can hold so much promise and if it’s the right  person,  there are no regrets. In the pocket of the heart, love can fill that space. Not just any love, but a mindful, mindless love.

Lyrics to Set The Twilight Reeling :

Take me for what I am ... a star newly emerging

Long simmering explodes ... inside the self is reeling

In the pocket of the heart, in the rushing of the blood

In the muscle of my sex, in the mindful mindless love

I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling

At 5 am the moon and the sun ... sit set before my window

Light glances off the blue glass we set ... right before the window

And you who accept ... in your soul and your head

What was misunderstood ... what was thought of with dread

A new self is born ... the other self dead

I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling

A soul singer stands on the stage ... the spotlight shows him sweating

He sinks to one knee ... Seems to cry ... the horn are unrelenting

But as the drums beats he finds himself growing hard

In the microphone's face he sees her face growing large

And the swelling crescendo no longer retards

I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling

As the twilight sunburst gleams

As the chromium moon it sets

As I lose all my regrets and set the twilight reeling