Parrot Head in Cornwall

What, Jimmy Buffet in England?! 

Well, I haven't actually seen him, but he'd be perfect for Cornwall, to be sure.  Since I've been here the last two weeks I have learned enough about Cornish smugglers, pirates, divers, surfers and drinkers to fill up at least two Jimmy albums.  Newquay, Cornwall, where I am currently, is the classic beach town with VW microbusses and enough surf shops to give you a rash.

So I went surfing twice here.  I bought myself a 5 mm wetsuit and dove in and I didn't feel anything too bad...until I got sick the next day and have been bed ridden for a week.  It didn't help that I started drinking again, which I knew was going to happen and had accepted before I came--after all, this is Britain--and staying out until four in the morning didn't help my almost pneumonia.

But one thing about the drinking was that I learned that I don't really care for it no matter where I am.  It's not that it's not a good time, cause it is, but boy your body really takes the beating.  I've been sober for about five days now and am just starting to feel my chi strengthening up again. After a good night out you can really feel your liver giving way too.  So I'm going out tonight but I'm sticking to club soda.

Anyway, here's another tune that calls up some pictures of Cornwall.  It's the opening bit from the 1990 TNT production of "Treasure Island" with a very young Christian Bale.  Great version of a great story, but the opening bit with Oliver Reed coming in on the boat is the best, and this looks and feels exactly like Cornwall.
(I couldn't find just the intro nor could I cut it down so I'll beg your forgiveness as the first 10 minutes of the film are here.  If you don't like the poetry below you might enjoy the film at least...)

I'm heading out on the Southwest Trail for two weeks on Saturday, so hopefully I'll have some good stories to tell when I get back.  Until then here's the latest passable poetry as well:



02-23-10


Solitude:

Like singularity’s twin

A moon without a sun

A summer without end;

The Valley’s dip deep

And cliffs are mounted high:

Why did I chase her away

For this loneliness inside?

I guess it’s just the cowboy in me.



Melancholy on the sea cliffs of

Grey ocean sky,

More than sunny days

This solitude is so high

I guess it’s just the cowboy inside.





02-24-10

So in love but so far away

Lost in gone today, here yesterday,

Wanting to just go back

Or come back

And you just don’t know.

So hard to feel in this used-to-be

So hard to see in this what-could-be

So hard to tell

Which-way-is-me,

Without me

Without you

Without

Without



Without in the night

The lights are within

And one of these doorways

Is the right

And one of these doorways

Is the right

And one of these doorways is the way that led out

Where you were led

led

led

like a ball full of sinking

you sit on the stoop and wait,

and you know:

the outside is the worst within,

where every step is the way back in

to one place.

But out here is every place,

But no place,

But never any place

Always every place

Without...end.



So in love, but so far away

Lost in used-to-be

A me

With you,

With me.







02-24-10

Trying to hold on

To the romantic

The seascape

And sky

Pulled away by the jungle

The truth of the bush

Of the other on the other side.



A pillar of clouds

In the sea

Of the both:

The center is missing

And truth’s lost in a ghost

And it swallows us whole.

The sea

The sea--

Like Adonais

We still strive

And the depths are our comfort

Our graves

Our last wife.





02-24-10

I do love it here:

Each day the feeling grows deeper,

And broader,

Flowing from within and without

The great womb of God

Embracing me,

The great broad way,

No longer straight and narrow as it once was,

But now slow and vast,

The timing of wise men,

Whose time, perhaps,

Is past,

Is past,

Is perhaps never again already always the time of tomorrow

For tomorrow shall come

And I am grateful

And pray that it will

And perhaps

I will have the chance to fall

In love

As I did once with you.



But tonight is the sound of sleep

In a far away glen

Calling through the curtains

To the dreams of a child,

And the great grey way

Of an eternal womb

Of embrace

And the eternal wisdom of a father,

Whose eye flashes long love

And a glancing pain of the cross

That he bears into time-enough-for-today’s-tomorrows.





02-24-10

Dear Body,

I love you. You are not a second-class citizen. But if I have to choose between you or my spirit, and one of you has to take the weight and punishment of living, I decide for you to take it. I hope you’ll understand, dear earth-born citizen, dirt of dirt, grass of grass, tree of tree, animal of animal: the spirit is more important because it is the vehicle of the soul, as you are the vehicle of the spirit. I love a Lamborghini but if I had to destroy a Lamborghini or its driver I’d destroy the Lamborghini.

Just saying,

I hope you understand,

-N





02-25-10

One week.

One week like my rum:

Sweet and strong.

Is there a world beyond the one we’re on?

Neil Young always gets me

Is there a world beyond the one we’re on?

One week

And the ocean flows strong

Is there another world beyond the one we’re on?



I’ve looked forever for a girl to love

Perhaps forever’s just not long enough

Perhaps forever is just too long

For the young and strong

And the young and the strong

And the young and the strong.



Overlook the overlook:

It’s all so well lit anyway

Overlook the overlook

Just one way home here anyway

And it might be with me

And it might be with me.

“I want to live

I want to give

I’ve been a miner for

A Heart of gold

And I’m getting old…”

The ocean…

I’m getting old.



02-25-10

“Hi. You’re the most interesting person here.”

“Her?”

“She’s so dull she’s actually interesting.”

“Doesn’t mean I’d enjoy doing her,

Though I would,

But that’s a different story.”



“Story? Would you like a story? No? too bad, hoity toity, cause I could tell you a story…but you’re too dull to follow. Never mind, I’m shallow, don’t bother,

I’ve got nothing left to offer.”

“Wait…her?”

“I’d wait up for her till five.”







02-26-10

I take the best of all I’ve ever seen

But sometimes what I’ve seen takes the piss right out of me.

And I’d say you grabbed me even though you’ve never been so ungrabbed in all the days of your life.



I’m here as a part of a permanent star

Traveled far, traveled far,

To end up where you are,

And I’m glad you smile in the evening when the black cat walks through the dark.



You make life more special,

Every time I see

Your smile

And your style

And your being

Like a body that doesn’t know where it’s been

But only that it’s been being,

And to quit is a sacrifice too heavy to ever consider taking on.



You’ve got a hard shell and you’re comfortable there,

And inside you know how much you’re loving it here,

And like me you try to open

Try to open

Try to open

The door.



But the way seems barred

And you’ve been pondering hard

Break the bank

Break the bank

Break the bank

Or the bank’s gonna break me.

And someday soon I hope we know what it’s like to be free.