KIRK LAFFERTY

--> For the right reasons. The Sound / Voom: Neck of the Woods. A back story. In the 80’s, The Sound was played at every party I went to. Friends’ bands covered the songs, felt them. The lyrics echoed our own struggles. Unbeknown to us, they were coming from much heavier personnel struggles the singer on the other side of the world was going through. We felt the power of his politics in ‘Missiles’, from the first Album Jeopardy. Post-cold-war-punked-up-England echoed our thoughts of growing stockpiles of nuclear weapons in a world going to hell. Down here we did our bit, waving antinuclear flags and protesting ships in our harbour. The Sound played music of an era, some songs lifted us up, and others stated how things were. “I can’t escape myself,” another hit from the album Jeopardy, spoke to me, as a teenager growing up and breaking out of a depressed South Auckland, of not being listened to - it fed on my teenage angst. The song builds up and sh

Sense and Sensibility. (On fibromyalgia) Senses working 1,2,3,4,5   Jesus, 6 is on overload Actually 5 not far behind 4 , sort of cool. 4, touch First noticed when my teeth started to feel temperature When my lips tingled from the morning breeze The sun coming out from behind a cloud The slight difference a more than slight surprise Pins and needles on the ends of my fingers Just from lifting my hand The slide of sheet over a toe As if it had never happened before Which of course it had I just never noticed. But I notice now When touch leads to pain. 5. Smell I love you the best The rain in the morning Halted holding still before the wind takes it away A walk down the cobbled lanes in Genoa Coffee in the air Espresso Italiano, The barrista,   an old man in San Remo Toast cooking in the neighbor’s apartment A thousand breakfasts before heading to school Grass cut Long distant schoolyards Jasmine You alwa