Backwards to Go Foward

I am revisiting a 22-day canoe trip taken with five others in 1969 using lyrics and text from others not on the trip, but these voices assist me in the examination. I went on other long trips after this one, but this group, and this trip, was the most group process challenging.

I did learn and grow.

The entrees are listed in new to old order, so if you want to start at beginning of the trip, click on “older posts (twice). To move back up toward the ending, click on “newer posts (twice).

redditt and duggan brothers

“Give me a horse, a great big horse,
and give me a buckeroo,
and let me wahoo, wahoo, wahoo.
Give me a ranch, and a big pair of pants,
and give me a stetson too,
and let me wahoo, wahoo, wahho.
Give me those wide open spaces.
I’m just like a prairie flower,
growin wilder every hour.
Give me a turkey, a hunk of beef jerky
and dishup some doggie stew,
and let me wahoo, wahoo, wahoo.

I never could sing a high class thing,
good music I never knew.
But I can wahoo, wahoo, wahoo.
I never could dance cause when I dance
I ruin the ladies shoes.
But I can wahoo, wahoo, wahoo.
It’s just a gift from the prairie.
You shout it when a bad jigs,
it’s might good for calling pigs.
I never could speak a word of greek.
I could never shoo-be-do-be-do.
But I can wahoo, wahoo, wahoo.

Why did the wildcat get so wild,
he didn’t know what to do?
He couldn’t wahoo, wahoo, wahoo.
Why did the Zulu warrior lose the batttle of Timbuktu?
He couldn’t wahoo, wahoo, wahoo.
The world has wahooed for ages.
Some like to wahoo soft and low,
others like to let it go.
Why did ol’ Sitting Bull sit around feeling blue?
He couldn’t wahoo, wahoo, wahoo.”
Red Clay Ramblers

Taking Out Lat 50°14’29.42″N Long 90° 9’16.23″W

“The panic bird just flew inside my chest. Some days it lights inside my brain, but today it’s in my bonehouse, rattling ribs like a birdcage.”  Robert Phillips

“Now as the dark gathers into the sky
and legions of might go thundering by
regions of light grow dim and then die
and we with our wings
wait for morning to fly.

Here where the angels
have appeared and are gone
your face like an ember
glows in the dawn
But I want you to remember
all wild deeds live on
all good times, all good friends
all good things got to come to an end.”
Jackson Browne

night 20 harmon

“When we stride or stroll across a frozen lake, we place our feet where they have never been. We walk upon the unwalked. But we are uneasy. Who is down there but our old teachers?”    Robert Bly

“The gypies know my future
the angels know my past.
I roll around this big wide world
to find a love to last.
I’m weary from my wandering
Lord I’m wounded in a war
I’ll lay me low where the willows grow
listen to that river song
river runs by my window
river runs by my door
river runs sp sweet might
never roam no more.
might never roam no more.”
Tom Rush

night 19 brightsand

“Sailing down my golden river,
sun and water all my own.
But I was never alone.
Sun and water, oh, life giver.
I’ll have them where ever I roam.
And I was not far from home.
Sunlight gleaming on the water,
life and death are all my own,
Yet I was never alone.
Like to raise my sons and daughters,
golden sparkles in the foam.
And I was not far from home.
Sailing down this winding highway,
travellers from near and far.
Yet I was never alone.
Exploring all the little byways,
sighting all the distant stars.
And I was not far from home.
Sailing down my golden river,
sun and water all my own.
Yet I was not far from home.”
Pete Seeger

night 18 dasent

“There is a town in north Ontario, dream comfort memory to spare, in my mind I still need a place to go, all my changes were there. Blue, blue windows behind he stars, yellow moon on the rise, big bird fly across the sky throwing shadows on our eyes leave us helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless.”

night 13 english river purple twilight

“I’m not Einstein but I am smart enough to know a bad idea when I see it taking up space, bidding it’s time.”   David Clewell

Shoes,

I wear them but I don’t like them.

Those walls of leather

stitched together

to make a prison for my feet,

and again,

and again,

and again,

my toesstruggletogetfree.

The big ones lift and stand momentarily alone,

the two next to it cringe

and the little ones on the end

push against

the walls. The leather

s t r e t c h e s slightly,

but gradually,

one-by-one,

the toes tire

and surrender

to the bottom

of the shoe.

night 12 indian again

“Once I ran the rock down to the seashore
Once I climbed the cliffs up to the skyline
I lay on the shore like a child
waiting for the wind to blow me wild.”
Hedge and Donna

“Yes, your birds of stone are resting in my hands, I do not mind.
I broke their wings, they cannot fly and they do not care, they may in time.
But with the fear of the flower to dust they will fall,
they are not kings, they are not gods they mean nothing at all
Ah, you don’t have to fly to be free, please understand me.”
Hedge and Donna

night 11 sandbar to indian

“One more night, the moon is shining bright
and the wind blows high above the trees.
Well I miss my darling so
I didn’t mean to see her go
but tonight no light will shine on me.
Oh its shameful and its sad
I lost the only friend I had
I just could not be what she wanted me to be
Well I miss my darling so
I didn’t mean to see her go
but tonight no light will shine on me.”
Bob Dylan

night ten agimak

“Sailing round the world in a dirty gondola, oh to be back in the land of coca cola.”          The Band

“One of America’s great national pastimes is drinking a coke
Taking a smoke telling a joke
One of America’s great national pastimes is playing ball
Taking it all and thinking so small
But the great taste of coke has refreshed players
The hot and tired the weary and the sore
But the great taste of coke has refreshed players
The hot and tired the weary and the sore
One of America’s great national pastimes is chocolate fudge
Carrying a grudge bribing a judge
One of America’s great national pastimes is poisoning rain
Acting insane inflicting pain
But the great taste of coke has refreshed players
The hot and tired the weary and the sore
But the great taste of coke has refreshed players
The hot and tired the weary and the sore
One of America’s great national pastimes is the worship of speed
Planting the seeds taking more than she needs
One of America’s great national pastime is cutting the grass
Grabbing some ass living too fast
But the great taste of coke has refreshed players
The hot and tired the weary and the sore
But the great taste of coke has refreshed players
The hot and tired the weary and the sore.”                                                                            The Byrds