I've watched today "The Cavemen" documentary. I am listening to "Pilgrimage" now. We are a step toward source, aren't we? A cavemen who lived 3 millions years ago, I know they had to be as I have to be in such a shape. We all inherited so much. It comes to my mind a poem by Leopold Staff - Polish poet, who lived in the beginning of 20th century.

Harm

My wise little dog
Lived his life
Not knowing even
That this world is a riddle.

But we are here to know that it's a riddle. "Pilgrimage" is a song for me about a miracle of this world, life and death. Many poets wrote and have been writing about this. But there is a something special in "Pigrimage", what makes me very thoughtful. I have never heard before such beautiful words and music about this. It has a Buddhist influence in it (I recommend rusted pipe - www.rustedpipe.vega.net ). I am thinking of all suffering which, if is not connected with fear, could be beautiful. Suffering of existence - it's Monday or Sunday, this line is burning, a march over million of years.

be well

Anna Maria K.

---

"like a shadow, I am and I am not"

I also see Pilgrimage as the bigger whole of life and death, af stopping and starting.

The strophe "This land is burning..." is integrated into that concept, and awakens a desire within me to know every place and human being on earth. Which is impossible of course. Oh well.

Yeah, Spikey. I only would like to know myself....

I forgot about something.

Everything is burning so quickly and beyond recall, isn't it?

Anna Maria K.

---

"like a shadow, I am and I am not"

Since I first heard this track, I have always thought that it would be lovely to have it played at my funeral!

Just a thought..........

Chris.

i always thought the "source" mentioned in "pilgrimage", and the constant movement towards it, referred to everybody's source (suzanne's quest included, of course), and to everyone's search for that place where we all derive our equality and see our sameness. so, in that sense, spikey, the "desire to know every human being on earth" you mention is possible, at least in a metaphorical way.

and anna, it's true we keep forgetting and "everything is burning so quickly", but i don't believe at all it is "beyond recall". even if we don't realize it, our memory 'records' every "inch" and "step" of that "march over millions of years". and our "mute mouth", our "broken tongue", our "dark life", our forgetfulness, will be "shot through with light" some day. this song is filled with that kind of hope, a hope beyond all burning.

with affection,
fatima

Not beyond recall indeed, but it's swept up on a pile in the big space. Lots of interconnectivity in Days of Open Hand here. I also think of Pilgrimage as a poem about the future which is always ahead of us. "Travel" to the future, "arrival" in the future with a future ahead of us. It's like Book of Dreams.

yes, spikey, i agree, most of it falls into the 'big space' and seems lost within its "avenues of angles". but keep in mind that this space, being an interior one and the same "somewhere deep within" place referred to in "rusted pipe", it can be reached and it can reveal itself ("hear the creak that lets the tale begin").

to me, "pilgrimage" is both about the future and the past (viewed from a present, filled with a need for movement, but that is indecisive and,
to some degree, frozen). you need to look into the past, be willing to search for the "source", in order for the future to open itself to you. the movement of "travel" and "arrival" encompasses both the past and the future. the same happens in the album "songs in red and gray": you need to come to terms, understand or accept the past (and in the cover suzanne is looking *back*) to be able to begin to move forward into the future. in their spirit and in this need of movement, "days of open hand" and "songs in red and gray" are very similar, to me anyway.

with affection,
fatima

Yeah, but to me in SiRaG everything seems more...episodical, momentary and lineair. DoOH seems like if it's about the bigger picture of everything, especially Pilgrimage. Some kind of endless treadmill of events, a circular movement that starts over and over again, a certain pattern that is repeated throughout life, history and the bigger whole.

i'd say that in all of suzanne's albums that circular movement exists, spreading from a center in several wider rings, giving you the feeling of
interconnection between all things in life and exposing its endless cycle. i agree that in "days of open hand", and in "pilgrimage" especially, it is more vivid, perhaps because of the omnipresence of dreams, which add a very complex layer to it. "days" feels like someone's diary of an endless journey through the realms of reality and dreams, trying to belong and find her way in the world. "songs", to me, has a similar quality, but where passion and reason find a balance in a journey within the self. "days" is more cosmic, whereas "songs" is more self-contained, but both have this movement at their root, a desire to grasp the essence of repetition, because there's memory in it.

"i smash my head against this world until i understand it."

love,
fatima

I can't believe I've never posted on "Pilgrimage" before, and I can't believe I just NOW noticed this thread. Now I can say:

PILGRIMAGE IS SUZANNE'S VERY BEST SONG BAR NONE NONE NONE, EVEN BETTER THAN ROSEMARY, SONG OF SAND, AND WOODEN HORSE!!! (She does tend to end her albums with her very best songs.)

As a sorta "fluff" assignment in college, I had to do a paper on my favorite song, PERIOD, and I chose "Pilgrimage". When I get that paper back (for the last 8.5 months, almost everything I own has been in my impounded cars b/c of this horrible accident I had last September but I'll be getting them back in the next couple of weeks) I will post it here.

-Milo/Will

"PILGRIMAGE IS SUZANNE'S VERY BEST SONG BAR NONE NONE NONE, EVEN BETTER THAN ROSEMARY, SONG OF SAND, AND WOODEN HORSE!!! (She does tend to end her albums with her very best songs.)"

Very constructive.
No serious. I think that both Rosemary and Pilgrimage score very high under all the fans.

"Very constructive.
No serious. I think that both Rosemary and Pilgrimage score very high under all the fans."

My comments rock, don't they Rutger W? But as I said before, when I get the paper back, I will type it up for the Tow!

Yours in insanity and vitriol,

Milo/Will

Myeah. Can't wait!

Admin - any chance of you editing the typo - Pigrimage - in this thread title please? I'm trying to get rid of the image of flying pigs on their way to Canterbury. Thanks in advance.

I second that! It's annoying to see this misspelling repeated in my email box...

And while we're at it, could you please also change "Widow's Walk" to its original title: "Windows Walk"???

Ok, I'm with a strange kind of humour nowadays,
José Carlos

---

http://www.vega.net
http://setlists.vega.net
http://rustedpipe.vega.net