The Hammock Papers: Mighty.

01 July 2023

Mighty.

de Maus, Rigging and Sailors, 1903

TRIANGLE (A poem in waltz time)

Oh the gist of it all is the first day of fall

Is the day when my ship will set sail

The best of all friends will say good-bye again

There's still time for one last glass of ale

We'll sail away proudly, our backs to the wall

On a southwind and lots of good cheer

And when we've looked over the white cliffs of Dover

We'll be in Bahama next year

From Bermuda on down the Triangle around us

Will teach us a lesson or two

There's many a mate who unevenyly stated

The course he had charted was true

Don't worry 'bout me, he said "Go down below

Give a certified sailor a turn

Just sip on your rum or I'll give you my thumb and say,

Son you got something to learn"

It's a mighty hard way to come down

And a mighty fine way to be found

So hand me my grip from an old sailing ship

Put the kiss of the dawn on my lips

With some luck tonight I might have her at my fingertips

Oh the best of all things is the first day of spring

When when the water runs heavy and fast

The mermaids have all gone to Davy Jones' Ball

And it seems their first trip was their last

They had so much fun they don't wish to return

To the beach where they lay all day long

They'd rather stay under and boy it's no wonder

When all the rock lobsters roll on

It's a mighty fine way to be found

Triangle Triangle, oh see my ship dangle

We're bound for Bahama my friend

Like lovers like danger like babies like mangers

But that's where my storybook ends

Like soldiers of fortune, believers in God

And all kings without crosses to bear

All sweepers and cleaners with no misdemeanors

Should try the triangle out there

It's a mighty hard way to come down

And a mighty fine way to be found

So hand me my grip from an old sailing ship

Put the kiss of dawn on my lips

With some luck tonight I might have her at my fingertips

When she took her last tumble the sea bottom rumbled

There was no confusion or blame

The captain said "Men we must answer again

To the sea so ye may not complain"

And as they lay sleeping down there in the deep

With their faces turned up to the stars

A tuna fish turned to a mermaid in bed and said

"There goes another sandbar"

It's a mighty hard way to come down

And a mighty fine way to be found

So hand me my grip from an old sailing ship

Put the kiss of the dawn on my lips

With some luck tonight I might have her at my fingertips

Gordon Lightfoot

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone and of good cheer – say travelling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence, and how, they come I know not ; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please me I retain in memory and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may turn this dainty morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it. That is to say, agreeable to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of various instruments etc. All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised, and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it like a fine picture or a beautiful statue at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is, I cannot tell."

MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL