{"id":3153,"date":"2009-02-06T10:14:49","date_gmt":"2009-02-06T15:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=3153"},"modified":"2009-08-28T15:37:12","modified_gmt":"2009-08-28T19:37:12","slug":"finding-whats-important-holding-onto-it-once-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/finding-whats-important-holding-onto-it-once-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding What’s Important, Holding onto It Once Found"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"From whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Nothing is ever lost. If you have moved over vast territories and dared to love silly things, you will have learned even from the most primitive items collected and put aside in your life. From an ever-roaming curiosity in all the arts, from bad radio to good theatre, from nursery rhyme to symphony, from jungle compound to Kafka’s Castle, there is basic excellence to be winnowed out, truths found, kept, savored, and used on some later day. To be a child of one’s time is to do all these things.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Ray Bradbury, from Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Inside You<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river:<\/p>\n

Happiness<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why, Dot asks, stuck in the back
\nseat of her sister’s two-door, her freckled hand
\nfeeling the roof for the right spot
\nto pull her wide self up onto her left,
\nthe unarthritic, ankle — why
\ndoes her sister, coaching outside on her cane,
\nhave to make her laugh so, she flops
\nback just as she was, though now
\nlooking wistfully out through the restaurant
\nreflected in her back window, she seems bigger,
\nand couldn’t possibly mean we should go
\nahead in without her, she’ll be all right, and so
\nwhen you finally place the pillow behind her back
\nand lift her right out into the sunshine,
\nall four of us are happy, none more
\nthan she, who straightens the blossoms
\non her blouse, says how nice it is to get out
\nonce in a while, and then goes in to eat
\nwith the greatest delicacy (oh
\nI could never finish all that) and aplomb
\nthe complete roast beef dinner with apple crisp
\nand ice cream, just a small scoop.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(by Wesley McNair<\/a>, from The Town of No and My Brother Running<\/em>)<\/p>\n

…and —\u00a0 simply because Wesley McNair has landed in my mind, swooping in out of nowhere, and now I keep finding more of his stuff I love — this:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mina Bell’s Cows<\/strong><\/p>\n

O where are Mina Bell’s cows who gave no milk
\nand grazed on her dead husband’s farm?
\nEach day she walked with them into the field,
\nloving their swayback dreaminess more
\nthan the quickness of any dog or chicken.
\nEach night she brought them grain in the dim barn,
\nholding their breath in her hands.
\nO when the lightning struck Daisy and Bets,
\nher son dug such great holes in the yard
\nshe could not bear to watch him.
\nAnd when the baby, April, growing old
\nand wayward, fell down the hay chute,
\nMina just sat in the kitchen, crying, “Ape,
\nApe,” as if she called all three cows,
\nher walleyed girls who never would come home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(by Wesley McNair)<\/p>\n

Finally, Tom Waits adds his own gravelly, inimitable two cents (lyrics below):<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Lyrics:<\/p>\n

Hold On<\/strong>
\n(music, lyrics, and performance by Tom Waits)<\/em><\/p>\n

They hung a sign up in our town
\n“If you live it up, you won’t live it down”
\nSo she left Monte Rio, son
\nJust like a bullet leaves a gun
\nWith her charcoal eyes and Monroe hips
\nShe went and took that California trip
\nOh, the moon was gold, her hair like wind
\nSaid, Don’t look back, just come on, Jim<\/p>\n

Oh, you got to hold on, hold on
\nYou gotta hold on
\nTake my hand, I’m standing right here
\nYou gotta hold on<\/p>\n

Well, he gave her a dimestore watch
\nAnd a ring made from a spoon
\nEveryone’s looking for someone to blame
\nWhen you share my bed, you share my name<\/p>\n

Well, go ahead and call the cops
\nYou don’t meet nice girls in coffee shops
\nShe said, Baby, I still love you
\nSometimes there’s nothin’ left to do<\/p>\n

Oh, but you got to hold on, hold on
\nBabe, you gotta hold on
\nAnd take my hand, I’m standing right here
\nYou gotta hold on<\/p>\n

[Not in video:
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, God bless your crooked little heart
\nSt. Louis got the best of me
\nI miss your broken China voice
\nHow I wish you were still here with me
\nOh, you build it up, you wreck it down
\nThen you burn your mansion to the ground
\nOh, there’s nothing left to keep you here
\nBut when you’re falling behind in this big blue world<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, youve got to hold on, hold on
\nBabe, you gotta hold on
\nTake my hand, I’m standing right here
\nYou gotta hold on]<\/em><\/p>\n

Down by the Riverside motel
\nIt’s 10 below and falling
\nBy a 99 cent store
\nShe closed her eyes and started swaying
\nBut it’s so hard to dance that way
\nWhen it’s cold and there’s no music
\nOh, your old hometown’s so far away
\nBut inside your head there’s a record that’s playing<\/p>\n

A song called Hold On, hold on
\nBabe, you gotta hold on
\nTake my hand, I’m standing right there
\nYou gotta hold on<\/p>\n

You gotta hold on, hold on
\nBabe, you gotta hold on
\nTake my hand, I’m standing right there
\nYou gotta hold on<\/p>\n

You gotta hold on, hold on
\nBabe, you gotta hold on
\nAnd take my hand, I’m standing right here
\nYou gotta hold on<\/p>\n

You gotta hold on, hold on
\nBabe, you gotta hold on
\nAnd take my hand, I’m standing right here
\nYou gotta hold on<\/p>\n

You gotta hold on
\nYou gotta hold on
\nYou gotta hold on
\nYou gotta hold on
\nYou gotta hold on, baby
\nYou gotta hold on, girl
\nYou gotta hold on
\nYou gotta hold on<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From whiskey river: Nothing is ever lost. If you have moved over vast territories and dared to love silly things, you will have learned even from the most primitive items collected and put aside in your life. From an ever-roaming curiosity in all the arts, from bad radio to good theatre, from nursery rhyme to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,74,5,36,251,372],"tags":[178,474,959,960,961,962],"class_list":{"0":"post-3153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-music","9":"category-06_writing","10":"category-reading","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"category-style-and-craft","13":"tag-whiskey-river","14":"tag-tom-waits","15":"tag-suzanne-farrell","16":"tag-holding-on","17":"tag-hold-on","18":"tag-wesley-mcnair","19":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-OR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3153"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5537,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153\/revisions\/5537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}