The eagle and the serpent

Walhydra has been grumbling in the back seat for several weeks now.

She's had to wait for the fifty-something, etc., amanuensis to get done writing another serious piece about what he calls "survival faith and practice."

"He's such a conscientious, stuck-in-the-head sort of guy," she says. "Especially when he's struggling with emotions he doesn't like. Why doesn't he just bitch and whine like I do?"

Walhydra gives an evil grin.

So, anyway...after all the theosophizing had been published on the other blog, Walhydra was sitting in her favorite Ten Bucks coffeehouse last Saturday, trying to get back in the mood to tell one of her own stories.

Problem was, Ten Bucks keeps piping in excellent satellite music. Worse still, that morning they kept switching between tracks from Joni Mitchell's newest album, Shine, and some of her most powerful classics.

Now, the gentle reader needs to know that Walhydra considers Joni to be one of our greatest living bards—certainly one of the handful Walhydra most reveres.

By midday, Walhydra was vibrating on that painfully perceptive higher plane which Joni's lyrics and singing tend to yank her up to, often against her will. The song which finally got Walhydra gasping with a spiritual lump in the throat was the title cut from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter.

She wasn't initially paying attention to the lyrics, even though she loves the song.

Before long, though, Joni's rapid-fire meter and lucid delivery were insisting, and the repeated mention of snakes and eagles had seduced Walhydra's witchy sensabilities.

By the time Joni got to these lines...

And it howled so spooky for its eagle soul
I nearly broke down and cried
But the split tongue spirit laughed at me
He says, "Your serpent cannot be denied"

...Walhydra was sitting upright, straining to hear every word.

You're a coward against the altitude
You're a coward against the flesh
Coward caught between yes and no
Reckless this time on the line for yes, yes, yes!

Oh, yes!

we center behind the eight ball
As we rock between the sheets
As we siphon the colored language
Off the farms and the streets
Here in Good-Old-God-Save-America
the home of the brave and the free
We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards
Of some duality
Of restless multiplicity

Woof!

Here are the words which brought the lump in the throat.

The eagle and the serpent are at war in me
The serpent fighting for blind desire
The eagle for clarity
What strange prizes these battles bring
These hectic joys these weary blues
Puffed up and strutting when I think I win
Down and shaken when I think I lose

But this is ridiculous. Walhydra can't vaguely do justice to Goddess Joni by talking about her own reactions to this hymn.

Here it is.

And even though the words alone are knife-like, you really must hear Joni's voice, demanding that you listen.

I'm Don Juan's reckless daughter
I came out two days on your tail
Those two bald-headed days in November
Before the first snowflakes sail
Out on the vast and subtle plains of mystery
A split tongue spirit talks
Noble as a nickel chief
Striking up an old juke box
And he says:
"Snakes along the railroad tracks"
He says, "Eagles in jet trails"
He says, "Coils around feathers and talons on scales
Gravel under the belly plates"
He says, "Wind in the Wings"
He says, "Big bird dragging its tail in the dust
Snake kite flying on a string"

I come from open prairie
Given some wisdom and a lot of jive
Last night the ghosts of my old ideas
Reran on channel five
And it howled so spooky for its eagle soul
I nearly broke down and cried
But the split tongue spirit laughed at me
He says, "Your serpent cannot be denied"
Our serpents love the whisky bars
They love the romance of the crime
But didn't I see a neon sign
Fester on your hotel blind
And a country road come off the wall
And swoop down at the crowd at the bar
And put me at the top of your danger list
Just for being so much like you are

You're a coward against the altitude
You're a coward against the flesh
Coward caught between yes and no
Reckless this time on the line for yes, yes, yes!
Reckless brazen in the play
Of your changing traffic lights
Coward slinking down the hall
To another restless night
As we center behind the eight ball
As we rock between the sheets
As we siphon the colored language
Off the farms and the streets
Here in Good-Old-God-Save-America
the home of the brave and the free
We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards
Of some duality
Of restless multiplicity
(Oh say can you see)

Restless for streets and honky tonks
Restless for home and routine
Restless for country safety and her
Restless for the likes of reckless me
Restless sweeps like fire and rain
Over virgin wilderness
It prowls like hookers and thieves
Through bolt locked tenements
Behind my bolt locked door
The eagle and the serpent are at war in me
The serpent fighting for blind desire
The eagle for clarity
What strange prizes these battles bring
These hectic joys these weary blues
Puffed up and strutting when I think I win
Down and shaken when I think I lose
There are rivets up here in this eagle
There are box cars down there on your snake
And we are twins of spirit
No matter which route home we take
Or what we forsake
We're going to come up to the eyes of clarity
And we'll go down to the beads of guile
There is danger and education
In living out such a reckless life style
I touched you on the central plains
It was plane to train my twin
It was just plane shadow to train shadow
But to me it was skin to skin
The spirit talks in spectrums
He talks to mother earth to father sky
Self indulgence to self denial
Man to woman
Scales to feathers
You and I
Eagles in the sky
You and I
Snakes in the grass
You and I
Crawl and fly
You and I

Copyright © 1976; Crazy Crow Music

And so it is.

Blessèd Be.