A Tree More Valuable than Gold

 

Here along the reef lies a sunken treasure

Of a ship that sailed but did not measure

I seek to find it soon

Under eloquent stars and moon

I use starlight to navigate the seas

It will be in moonlight the treasure will be freed

Of foolish men who did not see

That numbers will ruin their destiny

I reach the treasure sailing East

But the stars disappear with my endless needs

I throw the treasure overboard

I need the stars to sail back home

The stars guide me to reach my isle

I walk inland a hundred miles

I reach a jungle of a billion trees

But I came here for just one tree

Here in this jungle grows a hidden tree

That all the eyes in the world cannot see

I seek to find it soon

Before they seal my doom

What is gold but a hideous thing

That kills more men than a ruthless king

But each atom in this wondrous tree

Has magic in it that can cure all ills

Cartoon

 

The dialog is as follows: This is the coolest Planet I've been to so far........Where else have you been to idiot Mars?.....No but I've been to Sri Lanka

A WALK IN THE DARK

 

Once I took the old sea route
For I had missed the bus
Taking the road on that dark night
Was for me just too much

An old man told of this old beach route
That he alone once tread
But now as I walk on this strange beach I wonder
Was the old man dead

As I gaze at the dark night's stars
The constellations now seem strange
To the left of me is the strange dark sea
To the right a Portuguese grave

These men had been dead for centuries
But why did they die here
So far from their homeland
It fills me with a terrible fear

Why did these men come here
This was not their land
To die on a foreign beach
I never understood it man

When I set out this night
I thought I saw the Great Bear
But now strange stars loom so large
That it gives me a scare

The Sea now seems to say something
Or did someone scream
Northern Lights seem so strange
In this Eastern beach

Are these the sands I left behind
Or the famed Sands of Time
Will I reach my home beach
Or the very dawn of Life

Has a night now passed
Or perhaps a Century
Is that a sea turtle out there
Or a Creature of some Primordial beach

I wake up in my home beach
Where fishermen cry fish, fish
But did I really walk out there
Or was I half asleep.

THE MAGIC OF UNREALITY

 

I didn't study art and am not an expert in it, so when I first saw Salvador Dali's paintings I was astounded and wondered what it was all about. Surrealism was an art and literary movement that began in the 1920s. Its leader Andre Breton had earlier worked in a hospital and had even met Sigmund Freud, perhaps it was this meeting that got him interested in the study of the unconscious for he founded the Surrealist movement, which he considered a revolutionary movement. Surrealism seeks to free the unconscious to express itself. The first technique was automatic writing which Breton expressed in 1924 as pure psychic automatism - by which the real processes of thought could be expressed. It is the dictation of thought free from control from reason and any aesthetic or moral considerations. If this seems odd it gets odder still when we view the surrealist paintings. Everyone accepts that something that is illogical has no value, but the objective of this movement is exactly this – to create unnerving, illogical scenes with the objective of freeing the unconscious.

Amazed by what I saw and read about Surrealism I drew the landscape shown below following the strange theories of the Surrealist. I think too much rational thinking can sometimes be bad, because logic can take you only so far. When there is too much rational thinking and too little creativity I think it leads to unhappiness. With logic you can prove many things, with creativity you don't have to. So I decided to draw "automatically". In an attempt to draw realistic or impressive drawings and avoid mistakes the artist sometimes loses the thrill of drawing and painting.........his output drops........in this new Surrealist method I used, mistakes are modified or left as they are to make the drawing more energetic......the artist finds the true purpose of art - to express oneself and be happy...As anyone looking at the drawing can see, it was a horrible drawing, but it really was a liberating and enjoyable experience.

A few years ago I read a book by a famous scientist and in it he says that while fields like physics were truly profound, artists pretend to have done something great by describing their work in a profound way, even going to the extent of using extravagant names, while in reality, it was all nonsense. If that was so I wondered why some artists' work sells for hundreds of millions of dollars while this scientist's books fetch him a relatively small amount. The reason for this is that there are at least some instances when an artist can capture our imagination far more than a famous physicist can and when this happens it's not called nonsense, it's called magic...

In memory of many days that were happy

 

In memory of many days that were happy

And some that were sad

From an Island I was born in

I don’t feel so bad

This ain’t no New Zealand

This ain’t no France

But if I had to choose again

I’ll always choose my land

On her quiet beaches

On her restless sands

Some men call her thoughtful

Some men call her mad

But I’ll only remember her mountains

And her precious sands

Trees that seem to talk to me

Birds that sing I can

I only hear what I want to hear

I only see good things

Time here ticks to her own beat

The birds here always sing

When bad times come remember even your shadow might disappear.......But then the Sun will shine and then......

Shadow Shadow darkest shadow 

Will you too leave me

When the meaningless reeds on the southern river bank move with the wind

Will you still believe me

Shadow Shadow my own shadow

Will they even sway you

If in anger they bend the truth

Will you then lie too

Shadow Shadow my best friend

If the wind blows slow

And wicked men use oars to reach me

Will you join them too

Shadow Shadow darketh shadow

If darkness helps your goals

And the Sun disappears for me

Will you help them kill my Soul

Shadow Shadow my very own Shadow

If you ever lose your Soul

In the darkest hour that comes before dawn

Remember the Sun will still unite us.

RJX