Noilly Prattle: interlude

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

interlude

     Sometimes, when you wake up at 3 in the morning and your mind is like a tumble dryer in a laundromat the best thing to do is to just watch it and let the pictures and thoughts flow wherever they want to go. Maybe you've got a problem and are trying to control the thoughts in a channel you think would be helpful only to come back to square one. The restlessness and tossing and turning only get worse and the solution to the problem seems farther away than ever.


     The other night I was having one of those “nuits blanches”, a French euphemism for sleepless nights, and, in exasperation, stopped trying to shut down my feverish brain and let it wander when, unbidden, the lyrics of a favorite Dylan song started going through my mind. The song took on new meaning and seemed to be talking to me directly and I smiled to myself there in the dawn light. "Just let it go," I thought to myself.

Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.



Can you guess the song?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry for your sleepless nights. That has never been my problem.

Love the photo, really, Mr. Tambourine Man.
-R

Noilly Prattle said...

Yup, you got it. Hope Dylan won't sue me for copyright infringement.