'The DREAMERS and the BELIEVERS'. Rivers Answer Moons gives music to a poem about two Teams of Disabled but Triumphant Athletes, Playing on New Orleans' Field of Miracles, and Their Fans

"It's like that old Song. You remember? How they all asked for you!"

The Rivers Answer Moons band that was then of ROGER LEWIS and KIRK JOSEPH and DON VAPPIE and ALEXEY MARTI and me recorded this celebration on our first afternoon in the Dockside Studio, overlooking the Vermillion River, in the town of Maurice, Acadiana of Louisiana, last July. I can’t praise enough the players and engineer Justin Tocket. Each musician jumped into the story and scene like they were born among its energies. I hope that you, listening, can see as well as hear what’s happening. Inestimable thanks, again, to the fine lady FLORENCE ANDRE, director for Philanthropy at Touro Hospital, who introduced me to these athletes, fans, the Field of Miracles and Angels in the Outfield…. “That was beautiful,” Alexey says at close this Track.

The Dreamers and the Believers

One languid, lambent evening
In New Orleans' 
Riverside Park,
Behind the Audubon Zoo,
Where, you may remember
From that old Song,
They all asked for you,
The Dreamers and the Believers
Play in their wheelchairs
With Angels in the Outfield
On rhe Field of Miracles.
And--as for Orson Welles 
Encounering
The bravery and beauties of fishing-folk
Along the Northeast Coast of Brasil
In 1942--
"It's All True."
Logos across chests of the players' uniforms
Tell the two teams' shared identity. 
B--I----S-C-I----S
Brain Injury--Spinal Cord Injury--Survivors,

Pre-recorded music
Plays from speakers on  a table 
Behind fans of the Dreamers and the Believers 
Who are seated in rows 
Within the grandstand's mesh-wire fence. 
The Catcher is also
The Home-Place Umpire. She
Dances to the music, bouncing, 
Kicking her left leg 
Up, her right leg
Up, while fielding pitches
And calling Balls and Strikes.
She's a Physician at Touro Hospital.
The Base-Umpire
Comes from Touro's Professional Staff, too.
He leaps and flourishes,
Striding across the Infield like a Drum-Major,
Jerking his right thumb up for "Out",
Spreading his hands wide for "Safe",
Loving this theater.

Batters approach Home-Plate.
Some walk with a limp. Most 
Wheel in their chairs. 
The sidelong stares of a few to their fans
Convey whole novels of longing. 
Some use one hand. Some use a tee. 
The majority look like they played ball in their youth.
They assume stances in the batter's-box
Intently. They may even waggle hips
Like Babe Ruth or Beyoncé. Swagger can be fun!

The bat is cocked. The pitch arcs into light.
Smack! Crack! The hits are sharp,
Straight line-drives onto the Field of Miracles,
Between Angels in the Outfield, 
Or they're whacking wallops
That carry over the fence!
Either accomplishment--Base-Hit, Home-Run--
Batters advance--assisted by other Angels--
In their chairs or with their limps, to First Base,
Second Base, Third, Home!
Fans rise! Fans jump up and clap and cheer!
"Go, baby! Go, baby! You're doin' it, baby!"
Jubilation! Ovation! "Go, baby!"

It's like that old Song. You remember?
That old Song about the Audubon Zoo?
How they all asked for you. How the ask
Across parking-lots in New Orleans--"How
You doin', man? You makin' it alright?"
"How you doin', baby? You're lookin' good! How's
Your Mama?" Yeah, even: "How's your Mama?"
They all ask about YOU. Here, now--
Jubilation! Ovation!
Everybody here is for everybody here.

And November's crescent-moon
Shine's like a cat's
Cut-diamond eye.
Over the unseen Mississippi

                                                  September 21, 2024 (a little different, of course,
                                                  than in our Rivers Answer Moons' recording of it
                                                  on July 30).
                                                  First, November 11, 2010

The Dreamers and the Belivevers INSTRUMENTAL

The Rivers Answer Moons band of July 31, 2024 with our guests André Michot and Louis Michot. Photo by Justin Tocket.

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