rusty old and beautiful

[Bernard]

My whole life is a song, I sing it to tell you that I love you. My whole life is a song, I offer it to the world.

Is it time to get out of the ute, stretch our legs, light a fire and have some tucker Jamesy? Lizzy, Diane and Boss can get out their guitars (hippy-hippy shakers). Switz and Katrin can do harmonies while Mat and I play the didge. And we all will sing.

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to meditate -
To pause a while to reflect,
To listen and to wait.

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to dream -
To be still, to be open
To secrets that may be gleaned.

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to belong -
To share with others our significance
In our stories and in our songs.

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to remember -
To recall our past and history
Now burning in the embers.

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to embrace -
To share our hearts in love
And to stir the life pulse of our human race

Love to you all. I am a moon traveller, a lover of mercy, a stranger standing in an open doorway.

Sebastian...uh..uh..Bernard

[Diane]

Boss, that is a wonderful poem you wrote for your neice. I imagine it touched her deeply.

Mat, there are many lovely pubs in Wales, including an excellent one I know where the local male voice choir meet informally and sing along in the bar. Maybe we'll end up in one later. But I don't really know where we are going, either. As the old zen proverb has it, "I drive my ute to drive my ute".

Katrin, you said

...I ought to go back to my country, but I still want to walk side by side with you, on this ground, which is well nurished of knowledge, love and rhythme...

Thanks for that! I'm so glad you've joined us. Who did you spend time with in Africa?

Is it time to get out of the ute, stretch our legs, light a fire and have some tucker Jamesy? Lizzy, Diane and Boss can get out their guitars (hippy-hippy shakers). Switz and Katrin can do harmonies while Mat and I play the didge. And we all will sing.

What is 'tucker Jamesy'? Whatever it is, oh yes let's have some!

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to belong -
To share with others our significance
In our stories and in our songs.

Love to you all. I am a moon traveller, a lover of mercy, a stranger standing in an open doorway.

Beautiful words, thanks. We are singing along, Bernard.

Love,

Diane

What, a bunch of hippies? Us? What makes you say that ?

I am glad we have cleared up Sebastian's identity (I can see how easy this is to confuse with 'Bernard'), but who is Alice?

[lizzytysh]

Thank you for sharing your song , Katrin . It reads like an old, verbal tradition passed down through generations. The love song of a nomad, longing for her/his true love, a love which also includes the earth, the sky, the water, the sun, and life. I'd love to hear it recited or sung. I'm very taken by its beauty.

We've been blessed by your fatigue and your thirst, Katrin. Stay awhile... and after you've refreshed, I hope we'll see you on the road again.

I am still that women, who wants to be there, Lizzy!

I had that feeling.

I'd like to try some of your Schnappes. Sebastian became Bernard ... and Alice slipped down the rabbit hole . Who is s.o.?

More later...

Love,
Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Mmmm... the didge. We need Witty Owl here, now . Meanwhile, Bernard and Mat can lead with the didge. We'll fall in when our part comes. Katrin and I will sing loooooow . Or, maybe I'll just sing loooooow, since Katrin and Switz will be harmonizing... I guess you could still do a low harmony, though, Katrin. If Colleen was here, she could cover for all of us . What a tremendous, collective, human nature song, Sebard ~ I mean Bernastian [sounds like a flower, doesn't it?]!! I keep wanting to single out a verse or two as one I particularly liked, but as soon as I do, I look below or above and realize I'd just be reciting the whole dang thing all over again. Does it already have a melody? What a dynamite campfire song it would be! [Thanks for the back-up on Sebastian, Diane . They are sorta the same kinda name, aren't they ?]

No guitar for me, either . I'll take the tambourine. Maybe if Linda's far enough along with her lessons, she can fill in for me on guitar . No matter how far along she is, she'd surpass me .

. . . a stranger standing in an open doorway.

I knew I felt a draft... and now who's here ?

~ Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Yes ~ a shot of Schnappes with a tucker Jamesy chaser... or vice versa. However, since you mentioned beer, Katrin, I could still use a Mythos.

Mat ~ You don't mind holding off on the pub, yet, do you? I think we'd be best to wait till Diane finishes her ute meditation and decides where to go.

A bunch of hippies? Now ~ just wait a minute here, guy... I'm looking to get my hair cut, huh, Diane ?


~ Lizzy

[Diane]

Lizzy, just who is Sebastian, anyway ? And it don't matter, the length of your hair...

(Alice?)

If Colleen were here she'd be complaining about her eggs. I wish she were though . She'd be singing Waltzing Matilda again, just like she did in Berlin. (Blimey, that'd be another Aussie. Would there be enough didgeridoos to go around I wonder?)

Gosh you're a boozy lot. Mind you, If a tucker Jameson whiskey is available, don't mind if I do...

Now then, whilst you good people continue to recite your poems, I need to go collect some more firewood. Collecting firewood is one of my most favourite occupations, and something I never dreamed I'd be doing on the LC forum. So, excuse me whilst I walk into the dark night, keeping the glow of the warm fire in sight. I may be gone for a while...

In beauty I walk.
With beauty before me, I walk.
With beauty behind me, I walk.
With beauty below me, I walk.
With beauty above me, I walk.
With beauty all around me, I walk.
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty.

Navajo Night Chant, translated by Washington Matthews

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to meditate -
To pause a while to reflect,
To listen and to wait.

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to dream -
To be still, to be open
To secrets that may be gleaned.

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to belong -
To share with others our significance
In our stories and in our songs.

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to remember -
To recall our past and history
Now burning in the embers.

Our fires have sung for centuries
Our human need to embrace -
To share our hearts in love
And to stir the life pulse of our human race

Bernard

Hope we get hear Katrin's stories of Africa...

[mat james]

Yeh Bernard!!!!!
All the Welsh sing, even their visitors. Shit, it’s raining again and Switz and Boss are behaving like those kids on the beach….They're back on the ute, they’re moving but the ute is not. It’s pissing rain …. just on them and they’re singing some old half-familiar ballad…wet through with abandon, they sing there, swaying… with such passion !!!
Listen girls, can you hear them?

The ballad of Lizzy’s ute


Truck me to freedom
steed of salvation
slayer of mountains
moan with abandon
as you climb these steep slopes
carry me onward
carry me inward
back to my own throb
back through these old lands
cauldron of childhood
blasting assunder
brazen to gold these brutes through the blue
brazen to gold these Boys in the ute
there’s more to this blood than brute !

throb of freedom…
heart
of these hunters !!!

wing those sirens
to these celtic cowboys
…whip through the wind
sting through the rain
bathe us in moaning
as you tend to our wounds
carry us inward
carry us onward

o’er that broken line
…………….
…through humming blue.

[SWITZ]

Nice poetry...everyone..

just give me the blindfold....I know this road by heart...


I drive right by in my old blue ute
not a care in the world
got my own horn to toot
haven't made a payment in over five years
same with the house
and the tv that I love so dear
cuz the repo men are my friends

Drive right by the bank and wave
their right next door so you can imagine
the gas I save
gotta Cee..gar boat and a big satellite dish
and on my 40th birthdays I finially got
my wish
that the repo men would be my friends

My hippy chums pass around the bottle and grin
this is a real nice town to be livin' in
when the repo men are your friends
We drive right by in my old blue ute
bangin' out tunes like an old loose goose
cuz the repo men are my friends.




...forward......into the past

[lizzytysh]

Lizzy, just who is Sebastian, anyway ?

You got me ! The best I can come up with is that it's a subconscious link to Johannes [Sebastian Bach] , that lovely man from Germany who attended the Event with his delightful six-year-old son... and was attentive to his parental priorities, to the extent of having to turn in earlier and miss some things , on behalf of his son's needs . I was impressed by his gentle demeanour and this, and wish I'd had the opportunity to spend more time with him, beyond fleeting, on-the-run conversation.

"Waltzing Matilda" ~ I can just hear it and see it .

And it don't matter, the length of your hair...

This was a cousin reference .


The Navajo Night Chant is, well, beautiful .

Switz and Mat ~ you two are really rising to this occasion lyrically .

All the Welsh sing, even their visitors.

Oh, really...!! This sure makes the idea of visiting Wales appealing !

As Diane noted on her Sarah photo... singing in the rain... loving your half-familiar ballad, Mat ... and Switz, we all have our own ways of coming by our old utes, don't we ?

Now, where'd Sebastain [I mean, Bernard ] go ?? He's sure got a way with those beautiful words .

Carry on folks, I have work to do . "I'd rather be gathering firewood." ~ the latest in bumper stickers .


~ Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Good Lord! I just saw all those bloody emoticons . Sorry guys... my apologies... don't have time to go back and edit some out! I only got two hours sleep last night... and they were poor! Maybe that has something to do with it...

~ Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Hi Katrin ~

When, where, and under what circumstances did you first hear Leonard? How did/does your male friend feel about him? I so understand the poem you've written about him. What part[s] of Africa did you work in and what was the nature of your job? Though there may have [understandably] been some hardship[s] associated with it, it sounds like you loved what you were doing.


~ Lizzy

[katrin]

I must have fallen a sleep. All the great reciting and talk I have missed! I try to stay awake for a while.
[quote]Love to you all. I am a moon traveller, a lover of mercy, a stranger standing in an open doorway.

Thanks for those words Bernard. I love it!
Yes Lizzy, I loved the time in Africa, although it probably was one ofthe thoughest times I had in life. I worked as a nurse in Cameroon's grassland. It's beautiful there!
[quote]
In beauty I walk.
With beauty before me, I walk.
With beauty behind me, I walk.
With beauty below me, I walk.
With beauty above me, I walk.
With beauty all around me, I walk.
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty.

Navajo Night Chant, translated by Washington Matthews


What is beauty? I'll reflect abit and tell you later.
I think I grew up with Leonards voice in my ears. My sister who is 12 years older than I am was listening to his lyrics and melodies. Since I am not a native English speaker ( yes, that explains all the stumbling etc.
) I only listend to his sound. From were early on I was attracted to his deep voice. When I travelled to Australia I met some people who loved his music too, and who helped me understand some of his lyrics.
Some of the people thought it is throught cutting music.

I will reflect now what beauty is and maybe help to collect some fire wood.

Katrin

Hey how do you guys do the quote thing, I am playing around but arn't able to do it properly, HELP

[lizzytysh]

I must have fallen a sleep.

You and Bernard, both. Two off getting drunk. Two sleeping. One in the woods. Two holding the fort. Well ~ one the fort, the other the wheel [celebrating getting over on the repo man]. Oh, love, aren't you tired yet?

Mat fell down on the job of keeping you two awake. Must be that great ballad he wrote took more concentration than I anticipated. Like I said before, what a crew.

Thanks for your personal story on becoming acquainted with Leonard . I try to imagine how it would have been hearing him at the beginning without understanding the words. I can relate to the draw of his voice.

Some of the people thought it is throught cutting music.

Ahhh ~ they were just listening to those rumours instead of the music .

So, where is it that you are actually from, Katrin? Looking forward to your perception of beauty.

The Quote thing, now... the easiest way for me to do it is to use the mouse. Left-click and hold it down, as you drag the cursor across whatever it is you want within the quote. It will paint it blue as you drag. When you release, that area will still be blue. Then you merely click once on the Quote button above and presto voila! You won't see it actually within the Quote box until after you Submit... but once you do, it'll all be where you wanted and instructed it to go. Try it and see how it goes.

~ Lizzy

[katrin]

Lizzy, thanks for the quote tip, but I'm not getting it. There always appears an empty quote box at the end of the text, no matter where my cursor is. Mh!! I am originally from Switzerland, I live in California since a couple of years, but the language is still hard to master.

Diane, I still owe you an answer about, whether I really am that woman. I only can say so much, weren't you once that woman, some where, some time? But I do know Mat, but I also know you. Don't we all know each other somehow since thousands of years? You really have to ask the poet.

About beauty, I don't know really, but maybe true beauty is that spiritual unison, which we call love. The sound of the vibration of that love.

[quote]With beauty before me, I walk. ...

(Navajo Night Chant, translated by Washington Matthews)

I walk with love, in love,through love, I guess I am love.

Maybe Mat has something to add here, I have a feeling that he knows about beauty! Where is Boss? Maybe he also knows something about it.
Who does know something about beauty?

Are we still sitting by the fire? I am still thirsty, where is that promised beer?

Katrin

[lizzytysh]

Whoops, sorry, Katrin. I drank it whilst waiting for your answer. Well, here ya' go... here's another.

Ha. Language. Memorized some key phrases in Poland. Some more in Greece. And ~ dang it ~ got by without any in Berlin . Didn't even think to open the phrase book that Margaret[?] sent me .

Other languages are rarely not difficult for us, I think. I feel Europeans have an advantage though, as they are so much more exposed to various ones on an ongoing basis... and I believe more than one may be a part of their school curriculum, as well. You're doing fine with your English, Katrin.

Yes, we're still here by the fire. The embers are getting low, though. Hope Diane shows back up soon. Maybe she got lost in the beauty of the beauty of the moonlight.

~ Lizzy