The Wall

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“What a dear old wall that is that runs along by the river there! I never pass it without feeling better for the sight of it. Such a mellow, bright, sweet old wall; what a charming picture it would make, with the lichen creeping here, and the moss growing there, a shy young vine peeping over the top at this spot, to see what is going on upon the busy river, and the sober old ivy clustering a little farther down! There are fifty shades and tints and hues in every ten yards of that old wall. . . . It looks so peaceful and so quiet, and it is such a dear old place to ramble round in the early morning before many people are about.” Jerome K. Jerome, “Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)” Ch. 6 (1889)

Ode To Big Blue

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 Feeling “Lightfoot” lately


The oceans of the world were the home of Big BlueHe was the greatest monster that the world ever knewAnd the place that he loved bestWas the waters to the westAround the blue Pacific he did roam
Big Blue moved alone for a mighty blue was heAnd the battles of the whales was an awesome sight to seeAnd he took them one by one and he drove them all awayIn the mating of the day he was the king
Big Blue had fifty wives and he sired forty sonsThough most of them fell victim to the cruel harpoon gunsAh but he was too much wise to get caught by the gunners' eyesAnd so he lived at sea a hundred years
His mouth was as large as a tunnel so they sayHis hide was thick as leather and his eyes quick and smallAnd his back was all scarred by the times he got awayAnd he knew the smell of whalers did Big Blue
Big Blue passed away to his natural decayBeside the Arctic Circle as he travelled up that wayAnd there never was a man who was born with a gunner's handWhoever took a pan to Big Blue
Now the gray whale has run and the sperm is almost doneThe finbacks and the Greenland rights have all passed and goneThey've been taken by the men for the money they could spendAnd the killing never ends, it just goes on
The oceans of the earth were the home of Big BlueHe was the greatest monster that the world ever knewAnd the place that he loved best was the waters to the westAround the blue Pacific he did roam

—Gordon Lightfoot 

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