To Mary Travers

Our beloved Mary

of Peter, Paul and Mary

you sang not just to delight

or to entertain

but to awake, cajole

and beseech our social conscience.

Singing not of romantic yearnings

or petty melodramas

no dancing beats

or twisting of the hips

but just plain folk-rock

straight from your heart.

If I had a hammer, you pleaded

I would smash the war mongers

on their heads

so young soldiers may return home

and no more of their ashes

blowin’ in the wind!

With music born at a time of social unrest

you shaped our minds

you touched our very souls.

You’re gone but you’ll always be

our beloved Mary

of Peter, Paul and Mary!

(Dedicated to Mary Travers who died of Leukemia on September 16, 2009 at the age of 72.)