Wilderness 2

 Trying to write about wilderness is like trying to look at your backside in a mirror

You know it is there somewhere, but you just can't seem to see it.

I think wilderness exists in the mind

It is the other

Sometimes the strangers of a town are the wilderness

Sometimes the people you know in a town

Are a wilderness too

But often we escape into nature to get away from society

A forest walk or along a hill top can be freeing

It's not wilderness exactly just away.

Perhaps true wilderness is being separated from civilization

And having only nature

I've felt very free walking in the Blue mountains on my own with just a bottle of water in my rucksack

I met another hiker some hours later with his backpack full of water and he thought I was mad to be walking with so little water.

I suppose if I had a good knee I would be doing that again,

But I've broken it and now the idea of being away and relying on

my body to run or walk enough without extreme arthritic pain

means I don't want to consider it

garden of Eden

 Wilderness in the garden

Taming the garden of Eden

The garden is really the closest thing most of us get to the wilderness

The fact is if left unattended the weeds grow over us and we have to fight to survive

So even outside our front door we have wilderness

We really, when we are older or frail, rely on others to fight off the wilderness.

There is an interesting paradox here, in that peace of mind can come from order

And yet to throw yourself into the wilderness of forest or jungle with near abandon is also

freedom and freeing.

Though of course you need to learn or know how to survive. And it is only human to try to bring order out of chaos. Even these tribes in the Amazon are sweeping up and keeping their homesteads clean and tidy and there is order in the community. To think otherwise is delusional and I'd say too much the basis of green or hippy thought. You cannot function as a society on such an individualistic basis in my opinion. 

You go into the wilderness to escape people and find people living there. They live in more harmony with nature though. I only want to live and be around real nature not just agricultural lands but Scotland and mountains. And forests. 

Wilderness/Call me home

 I've got a place for us underneath the stars

But I can't hold your hand anymore

Life and death are one, near or far

We hold the keys to the door

When you were out in the wilderness

Did you see God?

did you know what he was thinking of

Did you meet the Devil

Or an Angel of love?

Oh call me home from the Wilderness

Call me home

The wild called me for a while

The thrill, the will to survive, the threat

But in all that adventure I managed to forget

All those who loved me dearly

I managed to neglect my family

And that is the deeper wilderness

It is the lost life

The life without love

So I'm asking you to call me home

But your voice is lost in the wind

I can't remember to forget you

And you've already forgotten me

In the forest of memory

Where the twisted trees

Have blocked out the sunlight

Do you remember swimming

Swimming across the bay with me?

I thought I couldn't keep going

But with you by my side 

we swam across the sea

A love story

 Well I once loved a woman her name it was Bess

I asked her to marry me, of course she said yes

And we had many children, and we had lots of fun

And we rested by the river when our day was done

And the windmills kept turning, and sea was a froth

And the haystacks were burning upon the hill tops

And I saw in her eyes that she loved the soldier

And I saw in her stare she wished I were older

The little ones grew up and they visited the fare

And they asked all around for the crown of the Mayor

And he came and gave out bread and fine ale

And we drank it all down until the barrels went pale

Well I knew my first love was above all the rest

I knew when I married her, I had married the best

For she never looked down and was always well dressed

And I walked proud through the town for I'd married my Bess

And she saw that I loved her, she saw it so true

But did I kid glove her, the only woman I knew?

I kept her and gave her my hand that was strong

To hold onto the plough for the whole lived-day long

I gave her a house and a coat so warm

I protected the house, battened down to the storm

But one day something changed and she turned the screw

And it blew off the roof of the only home we knew 

A finer man with a house grand and a soldier sworn

Returned to claim the title to which he was first born

And he threw out the farmers and brought in new ones

He said the old timers are over, on this land they are done

And so into the streets us tennant farmers went

To beg for our scraps of work, on the land we were spent

And our families they shivered in the houses of the poor

When the rich folk all abandoned us, to us they closed their door

But we kept on looking into that gleaming, golden sun

That rose in the the morning the same for everyone

And we knew that our time was not at an end

And that soon around the corner there must come a friend

So we waited and we worked, we whistled and we chewed

And the little ones grew stronger for their parents gave them food

And we drank our cup of ale at the county fair, 

And we yelled when crops did fail, for in truth we fought despair

And then the winter struck and we were caught in storm

The taverns were stocked with ale, but their beds could not keep us warm

And so we moved camp and trudged a while through snow fall

But God in his infinite mercy sought to keep us from biting maul

On and on relentless, the night winds did wail

Calling for our souls, but in our hearts we did not fail

Even though little Tommy fell back, and his eyes began to close

We pulled him closer to us, put him back upon the road

For only in our trust in God could our love also be strong

Together through the wilderness, our hearts they were in song

Though cold did bite, and bitterness might cause our lips to freeze

We knew full right, His merciful right was in the end to be our ease

And through trial and tribulation, there comes the victory fare

That we conquered all adversity and came out with love to spare

But never rest in complacent arrogance, that you have got somewhere

For always up the mountain we must push the thinning air

Finally my family, it came to breach the gap

Between restless uncertainty and the icy trap

We found a lodge abandoned in the dead of night

And such was our condition we entered without the right

Some matches and some fuel were left and a few husks of corn

But after fire and melted ice water we felt ourselves reborn

The corn it made for a soup, with the remainder of our provisions

And we slept well that night, though wolf pack sights appeared in our visions

In the morning we could see our humble barn was made of strong lumber

And although the wind did blow we felt revived after our long slumber

The outside was of a scene of delicate majesty

In the background were high mountains, before us a river ran free

And salmon leapt inside the stream, as our hearts slept inside our dream

And certain then were we that this place would make our family home

I set to work teaching Tommy how to fish, we sharpened long poles

And hunted the shoals of fish trapped in artificial rock pools

And Maisy and Bess they went out to look and forage for mushrooms

They brought them back and made a soup, and soon had made up our bedrooms

The lodge looked beautiful there, it really resembled a home

And we were happy without a care, and we were quite alone

Only when night came did we fear the wolves and made our fires strong

And Tommy and I soon constructed a high fence, like the walls of Babylon

I found wild wheat and so made the feat of planting it within our compound

And within a few weeks, as the spring ice leaked, their seeds took root in the ground

And happy were we when finally we did see the first green shoots begin to grow

And that was fifteen summers back and now our wheat fields are all a golden glow

Because we had followed God's ruling hand, and followed our own hearts too

Love led the way out of shadowy lands to the promised pastures where life grew

And I look back now in memory with the wisdom of passing years

At what joy we have had and given more thanks to the good times than their due

While we remembered not to dwell too long on the bad times of tears

For they can impact and detract from the true path by which to steer

So keep up your spirits young man for the fires of heaven are raging

And they are calling you to follow the plan of God's war which he is waging

Against all evil, against all sin, against anything but the virtue to win

And fight for the right to meet the king, and live once again in his kingdom

Travelling Home

There’s a sky that is a foreign sky

A cloud that rolls too high

There’s a mountain gives an eerie feel

As an Eagle’s cry

There’s a land that lies like a kaleidoscope

Of all the other lands

And brings back to memory

Fragments like cracks in your hands

There’s a time and a freshness of air

That you search for but just cannot find

And then there’s the touch of a tree

Like its bark is a layer of mind

And as you recall these things suddenly

Where you are seems quite bare

And you look about you for signs or a landmark

To keep you from this despair

There’s a thing that the wilderness does

-it calls you from the depths of your brain

It calls you to prove yourself brave

Be courageous and prepared to suffer great pain

There’s even a thing Society does –

It calls you to seek out fortune or fame

It says where you’ve come from means nothing

Go forth and make a great name

And even your own mother and father

Insist on you going somewhere else

This place where you’re born was your playground

Go forth and discover yourself

All these voices are calling you

And so you go forth in good faith

To board on a ship or a train or a plane

And you travel out at a pace

And you arrive in a great excitement

Full of yourself and own ideas

And it doesn’t seem to you like an arrogance

To have turned up in a foreign land

To face your fears

It seems you do what is expected of you

It seems living must mean to go to extremes

And so you throw your money at the carnival caravan

And you follow it like you follow your dreams

Except one day something is stolen

Some possession worth to you more than Gold

And it lies on you to be beholden

That a thing can be worth more than for what it is sold

And a series of catastrophes strikes you

And you start to see in shades of black

And it seems that the paradise where you’ve chosen to stay

Is beginning to want you to go back

And you start fights with the local lawmen

For not helping you when you were down

And they beat you until you’re battered and broken

Then they leave on the outskirts of town

And it seems too your dreams are broken

As they lie like shattered glass on the ground

And when you look into their mirror you are frozen

Into a thousand selves spread all around

Now you’re lost and you wish you had a home where

They all knew you, and what you are about

And so you figure you may start to travel homeward there

You’re sure they’ll welcome you back with a shout

And the road it is long, it is arduous

It is filled with peril and pain

And on the way many towns offer comfort and rest

The kind to which the Devil would not complain

But there is a voice that doesn’t shout loudest

There’s a voice like a humble refrain

And it calls to the boastful and proudest

It tells them to let go of being vain

And it cuts through the crowds like a fire hose

And it quenches the burning house of its flame

And it tells the Emperor to try on New clothes

And it tells you to remember your true name

And for the first time in your life you are listening

You listen and it starts to speak again

And the more time you give it the more its glistening

The more it shines like a jewel in the rain

It tells you to go back to your father

It tells you he’s grieved for your loss

It tells you not to travel any farther

No more the gamblers dice you must toss

And you wander over the mountains

And you travel out beyond streams

Until you come to the land of fresh fountains

To the home where you first had your dreams

And you call, call up to your father’s Homestead

You say forgive me for I was so lost

Your father embraces his Son who was a Ghost

By returning you are brought back from the dead

King Alfred

Many times I've hid away

Many times I stand and fight

But if this were yesterday

Tomorrow would be alright

It's just been a nagging

this wilderness in the back of my mind

Someday soon I'll journey there

And see what I may find

I dreamt:

I was a great king in the past

When heroes walked the land

And ships carried two ton masts

When men were born and died in reigns

That neither victor nor defeated

Could buy in vain

This grist that etched old Briton

As was how we called her

Was beset with Tribes and Factions

Though in strength together I did bind them

For we faced a common foe

That of the Dane who's greatness came in tow

And not more did commoner or saint

Have the wear with all to weather that complaint

I being of Christian heart

Fought hard to see a peaceful way

But tethered to the mortal spell

The fates decreed another path to tell

And so into ditches up to our britches

We wandered now

Then finding a friend with a long canoe

Up the rhines and river we did plough

Coming at last to a fateful place

Named Athelney then gave up the chase

For thought I, with mind bent on War

The military advantage proved most likely to endure

With treacherous swamp and tidal rills

Surrounding us always even up to the hills

And no enemy could find or try to invade

An army so well fortified by barriers nature-made

Therefore there did we rest with what was left of our number

Until we could regroup and gather strength and make weapons of lumber

Then we might be the one with the power

Of choosing time and place to fight a battle

At what’s now called Alfred's Tower

The long nights passed

And my resolve it did last

Until I was ready

To charge down the Eddy

And whirlpool of damage into the Danes

They stood there now in the screaming battleground

 Which forever I'll see in my dreams

As match sticks on the burning horizon

And all did us surround

Like frozen mirrors their armour

catching the sun's gleam

Yet this symbol I saw rising above me

Was the risen Lord now on the cross

I know without doubt, the Lord was on our side

And, though battle and bloodshed were our lot

We would not come to great loss

So I remember well the Saviours Land

Who felt our weary footfall

Those levels of the Summer lands

And Athelney's borough above all

No rich merchants did abode us

For they were all lost at sea

When Briton's hour was at it's darkest

Who saved us were the poor folk of this sweet country

They sheltered and clothed our soldiers

Gave them food and warmth

And when time came to turn the tides of War

So too the waters they did part

Like the Hebrew tribes of old

When Moses led them away

The sea again did save God's people

Until their judgment day

And like the Tribes of the Pharaoh

The Danes were smothered in the wash

To show that all of the unworthy

Shall be dashed upon the rocks and their forces quashed

So let this be a reminder to all those who come here after

This land was once so holy

And filled with a people's happy laughter

That it's essence is in Nature

That will provide food enough for man

And protection when times are hardest

This holy sacred Land