Monday, January 29, 2007

Slow and Lazy


Ridin' down the river on a lazy afternoon
Ridin' down the river on a steamboat built
for two
Muddy River...
Carry me home with you.
I wanna swim with the fishes on the way
down to the deep blue sea
Sometimes I wishes I could fly like
the birdies in the trees
Muddy River...
Keep on rollin' and carryin' me.
I think I see something big and fat
I think I see a big 'ol channel cat
Don't get your pole, don't even get your line
He's too tough to chew, I couldn't eat'em
if I tried
Ridin' down the river underneath
the pale moonlight
Lookin' at all the stars in the velvet night
Muddy River knows...
Everything gonna be all right.
Muddy Rih-hih-ver knows...
Everything gonna be all right.

19 Comments:

Blogger Tseka said...

Songs of Water
My current inspiration.

This is such a pretty song.

One of my favorite images; the Nooksack surging over icy boulders on a winter midnight with moonlight racing on her back. She is not the lazy muddy under a velvet sky but a clear fast song of the mountains and wind.
River Music.

Glad to see you posting here again. I want to hear all of your songs, where you found them, where they have taken you.

25/1/07 9:44 PM  
Blogger jm said...

OMG. Tseka. I am so moved by your request. I am on a journey back to myself now and a reuniting with my music is just ahead.

where you found them, where they have taken you
So much to say on this. They're not through with me yet. The journey is taking new twists and turns.

This is a very early one of mine. So simple and I don't sing it often. I'm always unsure about simplicity, although I know my own feelings, the doubt comes in when I see how hard others try to make a point. I don't think it's always necessary.

If I had past lives, one was in the southern swamps I am so akin to this music. And people from there find it uncanny, how genuine my sound is.

I do remember one night downtown in a bar many years ago, a man loving this song and telling me so. That's how much I appreciate response! Still vivid.

This is going to be good. I'm going to put more energy into the cafe. Interesting actually. Tonight I created some new posts in my mind. And here you are! And exactly what I have in mind. Music, poetry, and our true inner selves.

Are you ready to give up the secrecy of our cave? Maybe we won't have to even if others join with.

clear fast song of the mountains and wind.
I have written and love these too. Lots of river songs in my copper lined box.

25/1/07 10:35 PM  
Blogger Tseka said...

Lots of river songs in my copper lined box.

i'm convinced that is our job, unroll the bundles in the copperlined boxes that were set aside several millennia ago for us to discover when the time was right.

I had a dream a few years ago that i was in a cave. Perhaps it was by the sea. It was very cold illuminated by an odd bluish white light. In the sand i found a bundle, white, perhaps rabbit or deerskin. Carefully unrolling it, symbols; a language unknown, but runic in design, played sounds, tones. I am still listening for them. Perhaps you have always heard them?

26/1/07 9:32 PM  
Blogger Tseka said...

I'm always unsure about simplicity, although I know my own feelings, the doubt comes in when I see how hard others try to make a point. I don't think it's always necessary.

Simple and elegant, usually the right answer in physics. Simple and elegant was the mantra for a while (quite a while before "gradual Progress") this was how i came to writing haiku instead of drawing prior to painting. I can get too carried away in my desire to get it all down "make a point" as you say. Reduce, simplify, down to the bone, cut apart, leave lots of space for the "other" to complete, this feel correct to me now.

26/1/07 9:39 PM  
Blogger jm said...

What a magnificent dream.

I, too, believe this is our job. Unrolling these treasured items so beautifully preserved for us. It's wonderful to talk this way in the midst of the warring, unsatisfying elements in places I'd like to weave around.

The copper lined boxes when you brought them in, resonated with me profoundly and I knew they were always here. I will stay with them from now on. The copper is much more alluring to me than all the other metals. What a fortunate introduction.

am still listening for them. Perhaps you have always heard them?

They come and go. They're a little far away now and I sometimes miss them too much and get worried, but I know they have the wisdom I seek and I need the separation. They are here anyway. I can retrieve them at any time. Empty space is calling for me at the moment. I think if I can embrace this without reserve, they will return.

One thing I must learn as an artist is to detach completely from others' preconceived expectations. How to marry this with recognition will be an enlightening challenge in the coming years.

language unknown, but runic in design, played sounds, tones.

This says it so well. It seems impossible to translate perfectly. The artist's universal longing. Torn bewteen capturing the language and keeping it illusive.

I hope I can get into the realm I've always wanted...complete immersion in these tones. Fearless and not running off to some other pursuit too quickly. I think my life has been leading up to this, although I know truly, I've been here all along. All the courage I can find is called for now.

I love your approach to painting through haiku. This speaks to me. I know it's right. Done for no one. Just done.

It's been awhile since I've had an exchange with another artist on this level. Quite awhile.

27/1/07 12:00 AM  
Blogger jm said...

For example.

I love copper-bottom pots. I use to have them exclusively, but they're a pain to maintain, and I love love love that pink copper shine. Love it in my water pipes too.

So in my advancing age, to make things simple, I only have one copper-bottomed pan left. But I use it almost exclusively.

28/1/07 2:48 AM  
Blogger Tseka said...

There you go simple and elegant.

My direction also.

28/1/07 6:25 PM  
Blogger jm said...

We're two simple peas.

28/1/07 10:15 PM  
Blogger Tseka said...

or possibly Uranian Qs

29/1/07 10:17 AM  
Blogger jm said...

LOL!!!

With seeing Neptunian i's.

29/1/07 2:31 PM  
Blogger jm said...

About six years age I moved to this little modest townhouse I have now, overlooking wild land and a tattered old golf course. I had a clear view to the mountains and afternoon sun, no civilization in-between.

A few years later, the golf course was sold and mansions were built. As the one across from my living room was constructed the most beautiful shimmering copper roof came up...an underlining. I was entranced and watched this roof shine in the sun for months. I wrote one of my best poems about it (will try to find), I was so inspired. Every day I looked forward to morning coffee and afternoon music with the company of this brilliant copper. Eventually the dull roof covered it, but the memory will continue forever.

It seemed to represent all my aspirations as my music developed those days and my longing to go out into the world and the spotlight beckoned. The coming of civilization to my secluded world was heralded by copper.

I love copper. It's left an afterglow in me that gold and the others can't match.

29/1/07 2:43 PM  
Blogger Tseka said...

Copper certainly has advanced our society. Copper pipes to carry water. Copper wire to carry sound into out ears via the telephone.

2/2/07 6:16 PM  
Blogger jm said...

Of course. The telephone! I'm just in the mood to look into this further. Must be that copper is a great conducter of energy.

2/2/07 7:11 PM  
Blogger jm said...

I think copper is also highly malleable amd flexible.

There's something about the light reflection for me. Also pennies as the first money denomination. Medium of exchange.

2/2/07 7:15 PM  
Blogger Tseka said...

Don't forget Tibetan Chi bracelets!

2/2/07 7:37 PM  
Blogger jm said...

I forgot about those.

Now I wonder why the boxes are lined in copper.

Looking up at a copper pipe right now I see the sunset. I'm always amazed how this magnificent event occurs daily over a troubled world.

The Saturn in Leo is bringing this to mind and now the Neptune is coming. I'm feeling a lot of unnamed things now.

All the energy, radiance, vitality pouring over us, and here the human race is battling over energy. Seeking warmth and happiness that eludes. Why the disconnect?
And does it matter?

2/2/07 8:14 PM  
Blogger Tseka said...

Here's another.
Brass or bronze are copper based metals. The early Gaelic Harps were strung with these glowing metal strings.

2/2/07 8:23 PM  
Blogger Tseka said...

For some reason i have always thought of copper as firelight. I can easily see your sunset.

Does it matter that the human race is battling over energy? They are just maintaining the structure. Doing their job til we or others figure out something they can understand to replace it with.

What do we who look at the patterns see, how do we make songs, stories, visions to set the new pattern into their hands. Once they see it, hold it, They will exert all their energy to maintain it.

2/2/07 8:30 PM  
Blogger jm said...

OMG. The harps. I also love brass and bronze. Bronze especially.

It's the red of blood, life, and vitality I think I love so. Mixed with gold and pink.
In my travels, Afghanistan struck me immediately as a bronze place for some reason.

This is funny. I had a copper sequined tube top for years and years that I wore onstage until it stretched beyond hope. Two weeks ago, just by chance, I ran across a clearance tube top exactly like it. $5 and it's now home with me. Still in my kitchen where I can look at it daily.

You are right.

how do we make songs, stories, visions to set the new pattern into their hands.

I think we just make them, simply. Just keep making them. Gradual progress, gradual progress, gradual pro....

2/2/07 9:11 PM  

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