230. Christopher Columbus

That’s my little essay. I thought it over quite a lot. I notice when I’m reading it that it’s so much different from the way I speak. Its much more dense because I thought a lot about it and then I wrote it out as compactly as I could, but anyway I use the term “gloss” which is a word I heard used by a student one time. I don’t know if I’ve used the definition that the sociologists in America use. I had to make up my own because I don’t remember exactly what the definition was, but I think I got it more or less the same as it’s used in America. Anyway, I wrote that essay and I’m passing it along to you folks to sort of let you know what I think about.

Before I arrived in Lebanon I had spent several weeks in Egypt. I had done a lot of traveling and was really weary and needed a rest. I thought it would be nice to go off in the country by myself and eat right and sleep and just take it easy, so I went up to a little valley a fellow from Beirut showed me. It’s only about thirty kilometers out of Beirut—up in the mountains—down in the olive groves and right beside a beautiful little stream. I spent a week there just mellowing out and while I was there I wrote some poems and I’m going to read you some of the poems I wrote. The first one I call:

Christopher Columbus

I was out in the woods and my campfire said to me:

“How ‘bout putting on a pot o’ coffee or some sassafras tea?”

I was out in the woods and a big stone said to me:

“I may be gray and mossy, but it’s all the same to me.”

I was out in the woods and a river said to me:

“If you want more life, man, just take a drink from me.”

I was out in the woods and a white star said to me:

“There’s nothing between us but a deep, blue sea.”

(Sail ho!)

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