Friday, September 13, 2013

Saturday Night Soup for the Soul (19)




he year of mourning ends next week. April 21st. Next week's soup will be an expression of joy and saddness, of smiles and of tears. I leave tomorrow, or Sunday, for another road trip, back to the geological lands of lava flows and of the apocalyptic flood to end all floods. I find great peace at this time standing on and gazing upon the lands where it passed through so long ago.



Here are pictures of my leaving Spokane and heading south along one of the branches of the great flood. The house in the second picture is several blocks from the bluff overlooking the Spokane river and is the home that my mother grew up in. I have many happy memories visiting my grandparents who lived here until shortly before they died.



I headed south thru intermittent howling whirlwinds of dusty snow, alternating with gentle patches of brisk and bright spring sunlight, thru rolling hills of winter and spring wheat, and skirting along the edges of the still barren and ravaged scab lands left by the roaring flood.of the apocalypse.




Finally I drove into the zone of devastated landscape, descending in altitude until I reached the edge of the canyon of Palouse river, and of Palouse falls.













The Queen of Light took her bow, And then she turned to go,
The Prince of Peace embraced the gloom, And walked the night alone. Oh, dance in the dark of night, Sing to the morning light.

The dark Lord rides in force tonight, And time will tell us all.
Oh, throw down your plow and hoe, Rest not to lock your homes.

Side by side we wait the might of the darkest of them all.
I hear the horses' thunder down in the valley below,
I'm waiting for the angels of Avalon, waiting for the eastern glow.


The next squall was bearing down on me and I snapped these last pictures of the falls and of the canyon. Then I drove back up onto the plateau, past horizons of spring wheat fantasia, and on back to Spokane.



Oh what are those hills yonder, my love
They look as white as snow
Those are the hill of heaven, my love
You and I'll never know
Oh what are those hills yonder, my love
They look as dark as night
Those are the hills of hell-fire my love
Where you and I will unite


I went to Manito Park in Spokane, a place of many ancient childhood memories of days long passed.



I drove due west on highway 2, across across the rolling landscape headed towards the barrier that holds back the mighty Columbia River: the Grand Coulee Dam.




I left Grand Coulee and ventured across a landscape littered with stray boulders the size of houses and across the final flood channel towards the Cascade Mountains, and home.






And now let us break bread and share Saturday Night Soup.

1. The Battle of Evermore is Led Zeppelin's epic which is commonly believed to be based on events in The Return of the King , primarily The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, in the final volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy book, The Lord of the Rings . "The drums will shake the castle wall, The ring wraiths ride in black".

2. Pomme Fritz is from  the 1994 debut release by UK group The Orb.  Their music is very  druggy, which if you have ever been "experienced", you will instantly recognize. Me?  I go back to the LSD generation.








3. House Carpenter is an outtake from Bob Dylan's first LP. I wrote extensively about it here.


All of this makes it's way into this week's soup.
You can get your bowl of Saturday Night
by clicking the jukebox.

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