It's all about Jeff

“Words are beautiful but restricted. They're very masculine, with a compact frame. But voice is over, the dark, the place where there's nothing to hang on: it comes from a part of yourself that simply knows, expresses itself, and is.”

A quote from Jeff Buckley, decidedly lyrical (no surprises there!) but not everyone has the capacity to sing as beautifully, as emotionally, as he did. How many of us feel we have the capacity to conjure up such sense of place and identity with our voices? Certainly not me.

But, he was a singer (albeit, one who often wrote his own songs). His voice was his focus and words merely a form for it to take. For a writer, it's all about the words; how well we can create a voice out of silence. There are writers out there who can give words the depth that Jeff Buckley created with his song performances. This is even more of a feat when considering that a song when performed has both text and context. There is both a tangible and intangible quality, appealing to both the senses and the mind.

I think this video encapsulates his emphasis on otherness. It's not one of his most well known songs (indeed, he did not write it), but his performance of it is utterly haunting.



And, of course, his absolutely moving rendition of Cohen's 'Hallelujah'.



There's a saying, 'poetry in motion' (also the name of a Johnny Tillotson song, but let's not go there). And I think this should be the endeavour of anyone who picks up a pen with an idea. Words don't necessarily have to be restrictive.