"Back in Time/ Between the Lines"

by MARJORIE MC KENZIE
(East Hartford, CT, U.S.A.)

"I hear your voice in every corridor

see your face in every picture frame,
I feel your eyes in every starry sky,
Lover am I coming home again..."

My sobs are deep and loud,as I sing along.
My tears are cleansing and stunning in surprise. I had no idea all of that was still in me, waiting to again be triggered. My God, it's been 38 years and there it still is. All of it. The entire album,"Between the Lines" is falling off my lips as I try to keep up with you as the needle moves rhythmically on the old vinyl.... And this is just the first of all your old albums that I've saved all these years.

"And how we loved 'til the years were days
How we laughed, all our tears away.."

I am filled with such emotion and the more I cry, remembering, singing, the more stuffed up and unable to breath.....the more I smile, touching again memories and a time you played an important role in comforting me with your songs...with your poetry.

Every line, every word returns, no, was simply stored within...for all this time! This was music I cried to when I lost my great love. Well,actually, probably more than one...but all these tunes represent another time, my youth, and important moments of loss and sadness, but also a time when I was young, so alive, sexual, creative and often foolish about men and only just beginning to know my own strength and wisdom...

"Now am I humble, who once was proud
Now am I silent who once was loud"

How did you know, Janis, how could you know that these words would mean as much today, 38 years later, as they did when I played them over and over and over the first time? You were a brilliant writer then because your words are as appropriate and sharp now....

Thank you, Janis Ian...


I had put you away with my complicated youth, away with lots of other objects and memories from those years. Now I realize you are still as relavent and I see on the web that you are still creating...can't wait to hear what came next and I'm so sorry I didn't keep in touch...but hey, you never wrote to me either! Thank you.

Maggie