THE DEEP POOL - MARCH 2003 - no.2

ITALIAN POOL

- three days at Tre Re (three kings) Hotel in the Italian town of Sesto Calende, where the river Ticino leaves Lago Maggiore...

i'm feeling better after a serious tour low - they always come, and at first you just think your life is crashing to an end. It's not - you're just tired and want to go home, like it sez in the old Scottish song. ...sitting on a bench by the river - two ducks asleep on a boat are pissed of when a bunch of seagulls - or is that lakegulls? - start a soggy bread fight above them.

My father decided late in life that it was 'wrong' to eat ducks, although eating everything else was fine. He offered no real explanation for this: 'maybe it's just a personal thing' was the most he would volunteer. now when i see these irritated Italian ducks, i think to myself 'peace be with the uneaten'.
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- a beautiful mid-march morning
in the Italian alpine town of Trento.
cappucino and a chocolate croissant
in the Bar Everest
which is filled with old men
drinking 'dirty wine'
- that's local wine
with a shot of campari.

outside the window
the Dolomites zoom
up to the sky
like impossible songs
from before the time of christ

further down the street
an old tearful Turkish woman
walks away from her husband
- he watches her going with guilt and alarm
- she turns back to look at him,
at once imploring and reproachful,
but he moves his face to a mask of stone,
although not so quickly that she doesn't see his remorse:

it's a terrible ancient game
and i've played it myself
on beautiful mornings
just like this
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i hear some of my more sensitive afficionados were dismayed to hear about my business class flights to Scandinavia and back. My Norwegian agent is also a close personal friend of long standing, and he has so many air miles because of the nature of his job (that's booking flights for musicians) that it would probably be cheaper if SAS just gave him his own plane. Knowing that i travel cattle class for a living, he donated some of his air miles so that for once in my life (sounds like a song) i didn't have to fly with my knees twisted into the seat in front,eating the same old refrigerated cheese roll, and for this i say 'thanks frank', and so should you... However, the glory is firmly over - my flight home from Rome was the usual nightmare, at the end of which the airline had lost my Morgan guitar, and as of writing, hasn't found it either - as i start touring again tomorrow in Frankfurt, the stress level is quite high - but at least normal service has been resumed! - hope this helps...................


jl