2004-12-15T20:56:00.003+11:00

White-line to Walwa
& San Francisco Re-visited

White-line to Walwa
sleepy, dusty
moving highway towns
heat-haze mirage
sign-post blur
big, big cloud sky
to Confest colour
pagan colour
people movement
on the main stage
eleven didjeridoos
move earth, heaven
and the soul
of Terra Australis
quakes beneath our feet
this eternal drone
this magic mantra
drawn from all quarters
except black Australia

And in the sixties
the 'Grateful' Dead'
seep into San Francisco
tribes, clans, communes
gang-bangs and be-ins
everyone is painting
dancing and writing
flower-children
dead-heads
smoking grass
L.S.D.
meditation
the mafia
and 'joyous sex'
hips or squares
nothing in between

Confest morning
Ananda Marga mantra
meditating on self
chanting brain-fazing
saturating with repetition
earth-dance
reaching for the sun
see you tomorrow
we meditate at seven

The beatnicks move out
everyone's scoring
in come skinny-dipping
and the word 'fuck'
for which the saying of
lands you in jail
sandals, berets, flutes
Kerouac and jazz
fade, to Haight Ashbury
psychedelic rock
it's '64 and everyone's
in the Haight
Keasey, Leary
Baez and Ginsberg
poetry blossoms
there are peace centres
coffee houses
street-markets
cosmic artisans

They're all
in the river swimming
nut-brown body's bask
burned-lizard sun-lovers
free-wheeling play-spirits
I'm dozing, dreaming
droning hazy
in the roots of a tree
falling in and out
of a distant book
Rama comes to visit
brown-dust dreadlocks
rolled-in-earth yogi robes
all at once mystical, sensual
he hands me a fig
I wish it had deeper
significance for him
four years into his spiritual
Indian odyssey
found and lost simultaneously
he gives me his German address
'Yes' I say 'I'll send the photos
of you chanting on the main stage'
we talk astrology
'How beautiful' he says
'My Venus is on your Sun
and your Venus is on my Sun'
'Yes' I say meaningfully
'See you in the chai tent later'
he disappears
bare earth feet
raise the dust of my aloneness
and I am left
feeling like Neil Cassady
flowing against the traffic

'66 and it's The Family Dog'
'Jefferson Airplane'
'Big Brother and the Holding Company'
and Janis arrives
speaking to all the children of the earth
she comes from Port Arthur Texas
a pilgrim to godhead San Francisco
she comes, she says
'to smoke, lick and fuck dope'
she carries around with her
'the troubled truth'
and John Lennon's words
'if you don't know, man,
then there's no pain'

An eternal 'aum'
rises from the blue camp
30 voices seek blissful oneness
and the tent of miracles is silent
perhaps there are none today
but the food goes on forever
macro-biotic
vegetarian
organic
bio-dynamic
Ananda Marga 'takeaway'
and the market is selling
alternative cosmic 'knick-knacks'
rainbows of every shape and size
Egyptian mystery
the Koorie's dreaming
earth clay totems
crystal magic
crystal for money
goods for money
down to earth
material goods
and the chai tent
never ends
drumming
drumming tea
drumming talk
drumming business
drumming submission

1970
the million dollar bash
a chaos of guitar, amp, voice and ego
130 freaks rock across Canada
in a subtle state of panic
(5 days enclosed on a train)
'The Dead', 'Full Tilt Boogie'
'New Riders of the Purple Sage'
and Rick Danko
the dominating force is Janis
tequila, lemons psychedelic feathers
tie-dye velvet, bells and hooker shoes
one long party - she drinks 'The Dead'
under the table the music doesn't stop
and Bobby Mc Gee is the national anthem

and in the first-aid tent are the receivers
of small karma sunburn, cuts, bruises
Ananda Marga food poisoning
earth-mother Nightingale
hugs us all - karmic delinquents
sets us back on our earth-wheel
gets us moving again
Stephanie shares
a moon-poem with us
she misses the moon
gives us cosmic shivers
earth-mother gives us aloe vera
and a lot of love, she says 'It's thirty years
I've been married today'
we marvel at the length of time
she laughs , she's so good at laughing

Meanwhile, the 'Hells' Angels'
party along with The Grateful Dead'
play henchmen to the 'Rolling Stones'
bit-players in the unfolding
of the long black night
Morrison, Hendrix
Jones and Joplin
fade to vinyl
and collective memory
rock and roll
has created its' legends

And we dance
dance at the main-stage
dancing like a groupie
syphoning musicians dry
thirsting for more
more sounds elongated
more sweet soul food
midnight I feel alone
it's '89 we cheer the end
of the bicentenary year
thank goddess it's gone
now we can breathe
the black man can live
and we can dance
dance the dust of four days
the impressions of a million
the loving freedom of spirit
the nakedness of people
the openness of heart
all these I leave
'til confest '89/'90
right now
it's rock and roll legends
sun-lizard memories
and the white-line
to Melbourne

Pamela Sidney 1989

'CONFEST' POEMby MELBOURNE POET PAMELA SIDNEY