Never on land or by sea will you find the marvelous road to the feasts of Hyperborea.
Pindar
I did not go to amsterdam this time i
chose to meet you somewhere else a
place i never arrived and now this place
is just a place in my mind.
but
when i was much younger i visited amsterdam once,
but i was a person of great extremes and
the torrid sun beat down on my scorched youth, on a
thirst insatiable as the parched castillian plain and so i was
driven
driven
to cross the great North Sea to
scandinavia
where i thought perhaps
the fjords might quench my thirst
and the chill air and ice cleanse desire and
so you see i never would have chosen amsterdam but
amsterdam chose me.
i got as far as hamburg on my eurail pass and i stood before the Sea, but then i
ran into some friends from munich headed to holland and they
were very good friends and they insisted i go with them. and I
really couldn’t say no. And so i never crossed the great North Sea. i inhaled it
but i never crossed it
and
they drove me
they drove me to holland.
it
was fall in amsterdam and cool and bright and
everyone spoke english and everyone was friendly even the police and
in the rijksmuseum even the paintings were friendly. And
we walked along the canals and i remember so clearly
how the houses all seemed to be smiling, with two big windows for eyes and a great door mouth. i remember
amsterdam as a smile
yet
this time when you asked me to go to Amsterdam i
said no. i don’t know why. i
chose to meet you somewhere else, a place i never arrived. a place that is now just a
place in my mind.
from amsterdam you phoned me we
wanted each other so i
asked you what if you fell into a canal all shitfaced stoned. you
laughed you said you wouldn’t, they were all frozen over. it
was cold you see, it was winter. but i
have since come to understand that
you are not a person who falls easily into canals and
you skate very well on ice thank you always
avoiding the cracks. i
am not like you i am
different
i
did not go i
don’t know why i
chose to meet you elsewhere then
you said no i
didn’t understand i
loved you so i
said please please don’t but you
drove me you
drove me
away anyway
you
were frozen cold you see
you were winter
and now that place, you, amsterdam, all places in my mind
yet
still i cannot help but know deep in my bone that had i
chosen amsterdam this time when you
wanted me so that
you would”ve fallen into a canal after all, into the
cracks in the ice and
let me pull you out, both shitfaced stoned, or pulled me in with you
wouldn’t’ve mattered which,
with the houses all seeming to smile
just as they did when the sun seared down on the torrid plains of my scorched and thirsty youth and drove me
drove me
to cross the great North Sea
i inhaled it
but i never crossed it.
and well i know you. and you will say
it is all my imagination anyway and
imagination is just a place in the mind
and
yes, it’s true, i agree with you
but it is a large place
a very large place
it looms very large in the mind.
**Hyperborea was a place far beyond Thrace. It was the home of the North Wind where the sun shone twenty-four hours a day. And it was perfect. It was a place ithat existed n the Greek imagination.
