Carpe Diem Baby -- James Hetfield

Guest poem sent in by Ajit Narayanan

(Poem #1341) Carpe Diem Baby Hit dirt Shake tree Split sky Part sea Strip smile Lose cool Bleed the day And break the rule Live win Dare fail Eat the dirt And bite the nail Then make me miss you… Then make me miss you… So wash your face away with dirt It don't feel good until it hurts So take this world and shake it Come squeeze and suck the day Come carpe diem, baby Draw Lead Piss wine Sink teeth All mine Stoke fire Break neck Suffer through this Cheat on death Hug the curve Lose the time Tear the map And shoot the sign Then make me miss you… Then make me miss you… So wash your face away with dirt It don't feel good until it hurts So take this world and shake it Come squeeze and suck the day Come carpe diem, baby Live win Dare fail Eat dirt Bite the nail Strip smile Lose cool Bleed the day And break the rule Hug the curve Lose the time Tear the map And shoot the sign Then make me miss you… Then make me miss you… So wash your face away with dirt It don't feel good until it hurts So take this world and shake it Come squeeze and suck the day Come make me miss you… Come carpe diem baby Come carpe diem baby -- James Hetfield

           (Metallica)

It has become unfashionable to like Metallica these days, but nonetheless,
of all the hard-rock and heavy-metal groups that I have heard, I think
Metallica would rank very high indeed for the power and beauty of their
lyrics. Indeed, they are one of the few bands that I started listening to
because I was very powerfully moved by the _poetry_ of songs like 'Sad But
True', 'Holier Than Thou', 'Fade To Black', 'Sanatarium' etc. 'Carpe Diem
Baby' is one of my favourites -- short lines, chosen and brought together
with a mastery that gives the whole song tremendous coherence and meaning.

In suggesting that you run this song on Minstrels, my judgment is clouded by
the fact that, having listened to the song before having read the lyrics, I
cannot imagine what the words sound like when read as poetry -- despite my
best attempts at self-control, whenever I read it out loud, I lapse into the
languid drawled-out melody of the song. However, reading it, one cannot
under any circumstances mistake it for the scribblings of an illiterate or
unskilled man. Metallica, for all the trappings of the genre that they
chose, still project an image of _culture_, and for that reason, I do think
their work deserves a place among the greats.

- Ajitq

[Martin adds]

Interestingly, until I got to the "then make me miss you..." bit, I didn't
realise it was a song at all. I was even more surprised to hear that the
music was languid and drawled-out; read in isolation the lyrics project a
sort of intense, driven energy, and a rhythm reminiscent of Hood's "No!"
[Poem #251] with its short, choppy and tightly rhymed lines. I ought to hunt
up the song sometime.

martin