{"id":8053,"date":"2011-03-18T06:52:33","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T10:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8053"},"modified":"2011-03-15T16:36:18","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T20:36:18","slug":"it-calls-me-on-and-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/it-calls-me-on-and-on\/","title":{"rendered":"It Calls Me On and On"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: audio-animatronic scene at the 1960s-era Disneyland “Carousel of Progress” display. See yesterland.com<\/a> for more information and a larger version of this image.]<\/em><\/p>\n

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

The Bones<\/strong>
\n(excerpt)<\/em><\/p>\n

…Shells were to shut out the sea,
\nThe bones of birds were built for floating
\nOn air and water, and those of fish were devised
\nFor their feeding depths, while a man’s bones were framed
\nFor what? For knowing the sands are here,
\nAnd coming to hear them a long time; for giving
\nShapes to the sprawled sea, weight to its winds,
\nAnd wrecks to plead for its sands. These things are not
\nLimitless: we know there is somewhere
\nAn end to them, though every way you look
\nThey extend farther than a man can see.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(W. S. Merwin [read the whole thing here<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We clutter the earth with our inventions, never dreaming that possibly they are unnecessary — or disadvantageous. We devise astounding means of communication, but do we communicate with one another? We move our bodies to and fro at incredible speeds, but do we really leave the spot we started from? Mentally, morally, spiritually, we are fettered. What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before? To call such activity progress is utter delusion. We may succeed in altering the face of the earth until it is unrecognizable even to the Creator, but if we are unaffected wherein lies the meaning?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Henry Miller [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

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

Parable of the Dove<\/strong><\/p>\n

A dove lived in a village.
\nWhen it opened its mouth
\nsweetness came out, sound
\nlike a silver light around
\nthe cherry bough. But
\nthe dove wasn’t satisfied.<\/p>\n

It saw the villagers
\ngathered to listen under
\nthe blossoming tree.
\nIt didn’t think: I
\nam higher that they are.
\nIt wanted to walk among them,
\nto experience the violence of human feeling,
\nin part for its song’s sake.<\/p>\n

So it became human.
\nIt found passion, it found violence,
\nfirst conflated, then
\nas separate emotions
\nand these were not
\ncontained by music. Thus
\nits song changed,
\nthe sweet notes of its longing to become human
\nsoured and flattened. Then<\/p>\n

the world drew back; the mutant
\nfell from love
\nas from the cherry branch,
\nit fell stained with the bloody
\nfruit of the tree.<\/p>\n

So it is true after all, not merely
\na rule of art:
\nchange your form and you change your nature.
\nAnd time does this to us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Louise Gl\u00fcck, from Meadowlands<\/em> [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

The Beatles<\/strong><\/p>\n

I never really understood why The Beatles
\nbroke up, the whole
\nYoko Ono thing seemed an excuse
\nfor something deeper.
\nSure, she was an irritation
\nwith her helium screech, her skimpy
\nleatherette skirts, those tinted ovoid glasses
\neclipsing half her face.<\/p>\n

But come on, Hey Jude<\/em><\/span>
\nwas putting caviar on the table, not to mention
\nthose glittering lines of cocaine. Beatle music
\nwas playing for moats dug out with a fleet
\nof backhoes circling the stadium-sized perimeters
\nof four manicured estates. Why Don’t We<\/em>
\n Do It In the Road<\/em> was backing up traffic
\naround the amphitheaters of the industrial world.
\nYoko’s avant-garde art projects and op-art
\noutfits were nothing against the shiploads of lucre
\nI’m Fixing a Hole<\/em> and Here Comes the Sun<\/em>
\nwere bringing in.
\nSo why did they do it?<\/span>
\nThey had wives, kids, ex-wives, mortgages,
\nthoroughbreds and waist-coated butlers, lithe
\nyoung assistants power-lunching with publicists
\nin Paris, Rome. And they must have loved
\none another almost as much as John
\nloved Yoko, brothers from the ghetto,
\ntheir shaggy heads touching
\nabove the grand piano, their voices
\nstraining toward perfect harmony.<\/p>\n

Maybe they arrived<\/span>
\nat a place where nothing seemed real. A field
\nbigger than love or greed or jealousy.
\nAn open space
\nwhere nothing is enough.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Dorianne Laux [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

Maybe I’m, well, twisted. But I love that the Beatles’ “Across the Universe” had its inception in a bout of domestic malaise. Wikipedia<\/a>, quoting John Lennon:<\/p>\n

I was lying next to my first wife in bed and I was thinking. It started off as a negative song and she must have been going on and on about something. She’d gone to sleep and I kept hearing, “Words are flowing out like endless streams…” I was a bit irritated and I went downstairs and it turned into a sort of cosmic song rather than, “Why are you always mouthing off at me?”…<\/p>\n

The words are purely inspirational and were given to me — except for maybe one or two where I had to resolve a line or something like that. I don’t own it; it came through like that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lennon was justifiably proud of the song itself, although not of the version on the Let It Be<\/em> album — the version which I and probably you know best. (He apparently preferred the one behind this YouTube video<\/a>.) I’m sorry, O ghost of John Lennon: I think this sounds just wonderful.<\/p>\n

[Below, click Play button to begin <\/em>Across the Universe. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 3:47 long.]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[audio:acrosstheuniverse_beatles.mp3|titles=’Across the Universe’|artists=The Beatles]<\/div>\n

Lyrics:<\/p>\n

Across the Universe<\/em><\/strong>
\n (Lennon\/McCartney)<\/em><\/p>\n

Words are flying out like
\nendless rain into a paper cup
\nThey slither while they pass
\nThey slip away across the universe
\nPools of sorrow waves of joy
\nare drifting through my open mind
\nPossessing and caressing me<\/p>\n

Jai guru deva om<\/em>
\nNothing’s gonna change my world
\nNothing’s gonna change my world
\nNothing’s gonna change my world
\nNothing’s gonna change my world<\/p>\n

Images of broken light which
\ndance before me like a million eyes
\nThat call me on and on across the universe
\nThoughts meander like a
\nrestless wind inside a letter box
\nthey tumble blindly as
\nthey make their way across the universe<\/p>\n

Jai guru deva om<\/em>
\nNothing’s gonna change my world
\nNothing’s gonna change my world
\nNothing’s gonna change my world
\nNothing’s gonna change my world<\/p>\n

Sounds of laughter shades of life
\nare ringing through my open ears
\nexciting and inviting me
\nLimitless undying love which
\nshines around me like a million suns
\nIt calls me on and on across the universe<\/p>\n

Jai guru deva om<\/em>
\nNothing’s gonna change my world
\nNothing’s gonna change my world
\nNothing’s gonna change my world
\nNothing’s gonna change my world
\nJai guru deva<\/em>
\n Jai guru deva<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

__________________<\/em><\/p>\n

* According to various sources, the Sanskrit mantra translates, loosely, as something like “Hail and glory to the great guru.” Guru Dev was the name by which Maharishi Mahesh Yogi — of whom the Beatles were adherents — referred to his own teacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: audio-animatronic scene at the 1960s-era Disneyland “Carousel of Progress” display. See yesterland.com for more information and a larger version of this image.] From whiskey river: The Bones (excerpt) …Shells were to shut out the sea, The bones of birds were built for floating On air and water, and those of fish were devised For […]<\/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":[247,1393,74,196,50,36,251],"tags":[351,376,2161,2268,2269,2270,2271],"class_list":{"0":"post-8053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-music","9":"category-television","10":"category-language-writing_cat","11":"category-reading","12":"category-poetry-writing_cat","13":"tag-ws-merwin","14":"tag-louise-gluck","15":"tag-henry-miller","16":"tag-dorianne-laux","17":"tag-the-beatles","18":"tag-john-lennon","19":"tag-across-the-universe","20":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-25T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8053","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=8053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}