22 April 2012

Islands

In the social club there's a state-of-the-art pub jukebox with access to over quarter of a million songs. Flicking through the index, I found this 1971 song by King Crimson. It's a song that has often echoed in my mind and somehow it seems to reflect the far distant and peaceful mood of Blogland. I was still humming it as I sauntered along the coastal path, under silver moonlight and the silhouettes of palm fronds back to my new home where Henry the peafowl stirred in the shadows:-

Earth, stream and tree encircled by sea
Waves sweep the sand from my island.
My sunsets fade.
Field and glade wait only for rain
Grain after grain love erodes my
High weathered walls which fend off the tide
Cradle the wind
to my island.

Gaunt granite climbs where gulls wheel and glide
Mournfully glide o'er my island.
My dawn bride's veil, damp and pale,
Dissolves in the sun.
Love's web is spun - cats prowl, mice run
Wreathe snatch-hand briars where owls know my eyes
Violet skies
Touch my island,
Touch me.

Beneath the wind turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands
'Neath heaven's sea.

Dark harbour quays like fingers of stone
Hungrily reach from my island.
Clutch sailor's words - pearls and gourds
Are strewn on my shore.
Equal in love, bound in circles.
Earth, stream and tree return to the sea
Waves sweep sand from my island,
from me.



YouTube video clip by Vesmar who is the maintenance engineer at our wind farm and a thoroughly nice chap. The young lady who agreed to star in the filming is Chit who had been specially selected to be Arctic Fox's housekeeper...


2 comments:

  1. This is almost exactly like MY island… well, except for the rabbit, loch ness monster, boats and dream sequences. I have been very busy - no time for dreams.
    I think I am about half way around the perimeter of the island now because the sun is rising to my left now, whereas it was setting there before. It's tough going at times because of the cliffs and mangroves; I have to wait until the tide is out to pass them.

    Robert has asked what I'm eating: I have posted a few images on my blog. There's not a huge variety, but I try a little of something new each day. if it doesn't make me sick, I try a little more the following day etc.

    I've mostly been eating coconuts (and their milk), pawpaw, and shellfish. I have found some baby bananas - much smaller than I could buy in the supermarket at home (I expect there was once a few people living here as there is an area that looks like it may have been a plantation.) And, so exciting! : - yesterday I managed to trap about a dozen good-sized prawns by chasing them into a rock-pool and grabbing them with my hands (not as easy as it sounds!). They had pretty blue tips to their tails.
    I have found an oniony-flavoured root, and also something that I think is lemongrass. I chopped up some of the onion root and lemon grass, added chopped banana, wrapped the prawns in banana leaves and baked them in embers. Delicious! It would have been acceptable in a good restaurant at home!

    I feel fit, have lost a lot of weight (not a problem!) and if I drink lots of coconut water and keep under shade for the hottest part of the day, the headaches don't come back.

    I would of course, be finding it much more difficult without my swiss-army-type pen-knife and spectacles. If I was longsighted (or is it shortsighted?) my glasses would be the wrong type to magnify and there's no way I know how to rub two sticks together to make fire!

    All is quite comfortable, more or less, given my situation. Except I'm a bit nervous of the centipedes and snakes, although fortunately I haven't seen any yet. And also I have these cravings. Today it's for cheese! Gosh I'd kill for a fat chunk of cheddar right now!

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  2. KATHERINE Thank you for the update. It's amazing how strong the survival instinct can be. Your story could easily make a new blog about an alternative Blogland dependency where life is even simpler and more isolated than it is over here. I have now reported your dilemma to the New Zealand Police with whom I have a chummy relationship. People are still working on your whereabouts. You are out of sight but not out of mind.

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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