Desolation Row, then and now…

https://youtu.be/XyTn1I47ohs scroll to 17.24 to see ‘Desolation Row’

Wow, it was an ordeal to find a halfway great rendition of this song…
SO, for those of you who remember Desmond O’Grady (my stepfather) and an English teacher at the American Overseas School of Rome back in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Desmond used to crucify me at dinner over the music that I listened to. The one exception was Bob Dylan, he grudgingly admitted that Bob Dylan was a poet. This song (poem) is incredible, Bob Dylan is a truly gifted poet and will be immortalized by his writings.
Here are the lyrics of Desolation Row

BTW, for those of you who may know who Ezra Pound is/was (mentioned in this poem) he came and stayed with us during those years of chaos, creativity, growth and insanity.

DESOLATION ROW

They’re selling postcards of the hanging, they’re painting the passports brown

The beauty parlor is filled with sailors, the circus is in town

Here comes the blind commissioner, they’ve got him in a trance

One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker, the other is in his pants

And the riot squad they’re restless, they need somewhere to go

As Lady and I look out tonight, from Desolation Row

Cinderella, she seems so easy, “It takes one to know one, ” she smiles

And puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style

And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning. “You Belong to Me I Believe”

And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place, my friend, you’d better leave”

And the only sound that’s left after the ambulances go

Is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row

Now the moon is almost hidden, the stars are beginning to hide

The fortune telling lady has even taken all her things inside

All except for Cain and Abel and the hunchback of Notre Dame

Everybody is making love or else expecting rain

And the Good Samaritan, he’s dressing, he’s getting ready for the show

He’s going to the carnival tonight on Desolation Row

Ophelia, she’s ‘neath the window for her I feel so afraid

On her twenty-second birthday she already is an old maid

To her, death is quite romantic she wears an iron vest

Her profession’s her religion, her sin is her lifelessness

And though her eyes are fixed upon Noah’s great rainbow

She spends her time peeking into Desolation Row

Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood with his memories in a trunk

Passed this way an hour ago with his friend, a jealous monk

Now he looked so immaculately frightful as he bummed a cigarette

And he when off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet

You would not think to look at him, but he was famous long ago

For playing the electric violin on Desolation Row

Dr. Filth, he keeps his world inside of a leather cup

But all his sexless patients, they’re trying to blow it up

Now his nurse, some local loser, she’s in charge of the cyanide hole

And she also keeps the cards that read, “Have Mercy on His Soul”

They all play on the penny whistles, you can hear them blow

If you lean your head out far enough from Desolation Row

Across the street they’ve nailed the curtains, they’re getting ready for the feast

The Phantom of the Opera in a perfect image of a priest

They are spoon feeding Casanova to get him to feel more assured

Then they’ll kill him with self-confidence after poisoning him with words

And the Phantom’s shouting to skinny girls, “Get outta here if you don’t know”

Casanova is just being punished for going to Desolation Row”

At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew

Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do

Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine

Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene

Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go

Check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row

Praise be to Nero’s Neptune, the Titanic sails at dawn

Everybody’s shouting, “Which side are you on?!”

And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain’s tower

While calypso singers laugh at them and fishermen hold flowers

Between the windows of the sea where lovely mermaids flow

And nobody has to think too much about Desolation Row

Yes, I received your letter yesterday, about the time the doorknob broke

When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke

All these people that you mention, yes, I know them, they’re quite lame

I had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name

Right now, I can’t read too good, don’t send me no more letters no

Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row

Songwriters: Bob Dylan

I SAID YES

Yes to feeling everything—
Every blissful expansion and every excruciating contraction
This isn’t about being swingers, sex addicts, or tantric lovers
We are pioneers
Out exploring the full spectrum of intimacy
Living life on our own terms
Relating in uncharted waters
And co-creating a partnership
That fits the unique shape of our uncaged hearts

Yet, still—I regress
I find myself grasping, clenching, holding on tight
Somewhere beyond ideas of utopic free-love communities,
I am still just a girl surviving inside an animal body
Fighting biological instincts and outdated societal confines
I am not immune to pain, jealousy, or the threat of your beauty
I just choose to be bigger
Than that small version of myself
And, sometimes, as hard as I try—
I am not bigger
I’m terrified to open up this much.

But I said yes—
Yes to swimming out beyond what’s comfortable
Because I can’t bare the suffocating box of possession
I would rather go down in flames.
So we jump
Into the deep sea
To follow the flow
To trust the connection to it all.

I allow my wings to open
We individually reclaim our freedom
All the feelings we get to feel
When he and me
Are free to love
At the speed of love
As big and as many as our hearts desire.

I said yes—
Yes to embarking on this journey
With you too—sister and brother.
And when I say yes
To open my heart to include you
It’s an all-encompassing yes!

From the bright field of our expansive love
To the caves of our darkest shadows
Beware: the ocean here is deep
The bottom can’t be seen
Infinitely unknown, terrifying.

I yearn for you to feel the intensity of my vulnerability
I ache for empathy for all the work I’ve done to get here
I passionately desire for you to know how much this love means to me.

I don’t know a more raw, infantile, exposed version of myself
Than this version—
On my knees
As the tears rush over my entire body
At the shoreline of fear and excitement
Be gentle with my heart
This gift I am opening for you and me
The gift of we
A mirror image
Where worlds collide
And bodies meet
In breath, sound, touch, and sight
We find intimacy
I discover the entire universe.

The more I let go—
The deeper I see
Into me.

I said yes
Yes to more love
Yes to space
Yes to the mystery
Yes to share my most precious gift
All the tiny pieces of my throbbing heart
With you, and you, and you
Yes to you
Yes to we
Yes to me.

Author: Rachel Rickards 

A Twinkle in your Eye…For Bryan

A Twinkle in your Eye…For Bryan

Our worlds collided

Our bodies united

And enveloped each other

As we fell into surrender

Allowing ourselves to be intoxicated with love,

Our souls reunited

Into a space, familiar

Alive and yet calm

There’s an understanding

From one being to the other.

*  At the Core *

I am moved by you Bryan

You have a way of making everything

Feel Okay in my world.

I see the twinkle in your eye

You are alive

You are connected

With your nature

You inspire me

In gratitude I await with anticipation

The next unfolding of the moments

We spend together.

Each one is cherished and felt as

We deepen into the mystery.

~Lucia Nicola Evans

WHO AM I?

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
― Dr. Seuss,

Do you know who YOU ARE?

The Song of the Soul

I Am Not Old

I Am Not Old
I am not old…she said
I am rare.
I am the standing ovation
At the end of the play.
I am the retrospective
Of my life as art
I am the hours
Connected like dots
Into good sense
I am the fullness
Of existing.
You think I am waiting to die…
But I am waiting to be found
I am a treasure.
I am a map.
And these wrinkles are
Imprints of my journey
Ask me anything.
– Samantha Reynolds
Photo: Riitta Ikonen and Norwegian photographer Karoline Hjorth

~Ying & Yang: The Unity of Opposites~

~Yin & Yang: The Unity of Opposites~

“In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang describes how apparently opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.

Many tangible dualities (such as light and dark, fire and water, and male and female) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang.

Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts.

Yin is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity, and nighttime.

Yang, by contrast, is fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, dry, and aggressive; and is associated with fire, sky, the sun, masculinity and daytime.

Everything has both yin and yang aspects, (for instance shadow cannot exist without light). Either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation.

The yin yang (i.e. taijitu symbol) shows a balance between two opposites with a portion of the opposite element in each section.

In Daoist metaphysics, distinctions between good and bad, along with other dichotomous moral judgments, are perceptual, not real; so, the duality of yin and yang is an indivisible whole…

Yin and yang applies to the human body. In traditional Chinese medicine good health is directly related to the balance between yin and yang qualities within oneself.”