Course:Down by the Bay
| CRWR 501P 003 |
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| Advanced Writing of Poetry |
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Stay with me on this one. It’s a journey (honestly, all of my wiki entries seem to be), but I swear we will get there.
“Down by the bay/where the watermelons grow/back to my home/I dare not go/for if I do/my mother will say…”
This is a very old and very silly song of uncertain origins. I grew up on Raffi’s version, and now, so is my son. The structure of the song is designed for improvisational rhyme play. The lyrics (above) repeat with every verse, but then the singer gets to invent their own little absurdity: “Have you ever seen a _____ ____ing a _______, down by the bay?”
Have you ever seen a duck washing a truck?
Have you ever seen a dolphin practicing their golfin?
Have you ever seen a yak writing on substack?
Down by the bay.
A lot of crazy shit goes down by the bay.
At almost two years old, my kid is obsessed with music, and has been for most of his young life. He was dancing at three days old (tiny wrinkled newborn flail-kicks) and as soon as he learned how to grunt he was communicating his song preferences: Urgent grunt = pick a new song. Silence = this is acceptable to me. Now he says: “Not this one!” often after only hearing the first few words or bars. He’s a kid who knows what he likes, and when he’s into a song, like most kids he can listen to it ten times in a row. At the end he’ll say: “Nice one!” or “Like this one!”
I don’t know if this is good parenting or not, but every night my husband and I take turns carrying him in circles around the room and singing until he starts to get sleepy. He used to fall asleep on our chests, and still does sometimes, but now we just get him as close to sleep as we can. This can take a while. He’s a big two year old and really freaking heavy. At every stage of his growth it has felt like I couldn’t possibly carry him anymore, and somehow my arms just keep getting stronger. We pace, and the songs get us through. When he was too young for us to understand his complaints, he got Bob Dylan and David Berman and Joni Mitchell. And sometimes we can still slip one of those tunes into the mix, but pretty much as soon as he could communicate he told us that what he wanted to hear was ‘Wheels bus’ and ‘Bay.’
Our friends have asked about his preferences… do kids really prefer kids music? What if you only play them cool adult stuff? I will say that my kid seems to have a thing for grungy rock. Like, if we play The Velvet Underground he starts to boogie. But mostly? It’s kids music all the way. Raffi all day every day. The Muppets for the win. It’s partly because the songs are cheerful, upbeat and non-threatening. But also I think it’s because kids music is designed for learning about language. Repetition offers the opportunity to deepen understanding. Rhyme is pleasing to the ear, it helps kids make the subtle distinctions between similar-sounding words, and it allows the mind to practice making associative leaps.
When you are dragged out of deep sleep and forced to carry a giant toddler in circles in the dark singing 'Down by the Bay' until the end of time, it is hard to be creative. When your arms are on fire is very, very tempting to just repeat the same lyrics Raffi used: “Have you ever seen a whale with a polka-dot tail?” “Have you ever had a time when you couldn’t make a rhyme?” Yes, Raffi. I have. Probably, sticking with the classics would be even more soothing than inventing new combinations.
But (and here, at long last, we come to the point) what I have learned from singing ‘Down by the Bay’ innumerable times, is that the pull of cliché, the easy image, the well-trodden line is strong. Especially when I am tired, which is pretty much always. As a writer it is my job to keep working toward de-familiarization, to reach, always, for the unexpected connection that illuminates. My husband, who is also a writer and poet, is a master at this. 4am? No problem. He’ll find some ridiculous rhyme that I would never have thought of, and makes me giggle when I want to be snoozing. If this is the only wiki reference to the profound influence he has on my work (certainly my most powerful, nurturing and enduring influence,) I think he will be pleased.
Having a kid, in general, is great practice in de-familiarization because everything is new to them. Their brains are not yet stuck in the grooves of expectation. Anything can be anything! Give a child some blocks and you will be very tempted to show them how to make a tower, but to a toddler there are so many more interesting configurations than simply ‘up.’ Two nights ago, my son started making up his own rhymes as I sang him ‘Bay.’ He came up with some amazing connections. “Have you ever seen a tree…?” “Nee”… Okay! “Have you ever seen a tree, down on one knee down by the bay? Have you ever seen a Raccoon…?” “Joon!” “Have you ever seen a Racoon planting seeds in June, down by the bay? Have you ever seen a Lobster...?" "Obster!" "Yes! Have you ever seen a Lobster dressed up like a mobster down by the bay?"
We might not be sleeping, but we're having a lot of fun exploring the wild world down by the bay.