What James Joyce Was Getting At

This is what Joyce was getting at
Streams of consciousness
Associations rich with texture from a variety of places
Renaissance romantic
Good wine great books intriguing music funny combinations
Afternoon seminar around a huge old wooden conference table
Carved initials
Discussions about Lowell and Baudelaire and Chaucer and Dickenson
Washington Square Park on a crisp January sunny Saturday afternoon,
Breaths from conversations and laughter appearing pre-frozen in mid air
Like conversation balloons for a sketch cartoonist
"On what a beautiful morning/
Everything's going my way"
Courtesy of Robert Goulet booming mellow like fine aged scotch
Robert Goulet knew what James Joyce was getting at

Continuing into the late afternoon in a large old mansion
With ceiling to floor windows
Looking out on topiaries laden with food for birds and beasts
With the sun making a reflective statement on the water
Before darkening into the later day with huge fireplaces on all four walls blazing
And a table set for tea as the chamber music quartet begins
To play Mozart and The Beatles,
And the Shakespearean readers take their place on a rise near the table
For readings more discussions 
Dinner is cooking in the kitchen,
Roast chicken, baked apples, potaoes, carrots, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Mozart The Beatles Simon and Garfunkel knew what James Joyce was getting at

 Eleanor Rigby and Father Mackenzie and Mother Nature's Son
And the Sisters of the Sun are gonna rock me on the water/
Rock me on the water/ Sister, won't you soothe my fevered brow/
On so the sampling goes thank you so much Jackson Browne
Ah Jacksone Brown you know
You know what James Joyce was getting at

After tea, alone time in the topiary gardens
Beside the ponds
Grateful for the warm sun
A special gift on a November day
Geese, ducks, gulls, squirrels, little birds,
Breezes rustling the drying hydrangeas,
And making tiny ripples in the ponds that make a lovely little splashing sound
Voices music the smell of drying flowers and sweet herbs
And the roasting dinner in the great kitchen
Intoxication of being warm in the sun
Resting and journaling in a quiet room before dinner
Contentment found in solitude
Vintage gowns in the wardrobe too
Choose one for dinner
Choose a high-necked  ong-sleeved  purple satin
With a fitted bodice and straight skirt and slight train.
Also a purple shawl and small purple hat
Dinner partner approaches down the Oak lined path
Riding the stallion right up to the door
Buckskins leathers for the road and the hunt
Dust and caked mud dried from deep in the woods
Bearing a fresh catch for tomorrow's meal
Ah but for today a fresh poem for this day's dinner
A poem for dinner yes
Two words yes
My love
Another word
Thanksgiving
Thank you for makers of Thanksgiving dinner tables laden with all the fixins
Mounds of textures colors aromas tending to mix together
They knew yes
The makers of Thanksgiving dinners knew
They knew they know what James Joyce was getting at

So much texture
Incredible
So many colors shades smells
All the senses all sensibilities all the means of expression
Nourishing nurturing
Warren Beatty, himself, quoting someone
Delivering a line
"Give me character I'll give you plot"
We say here's the corollary
"Give me stream of consciousness it'll give you character"
Or some such thing
It's story-telling the gift of the Gods to we mere mortals
Who act as conduits to explore
What the heck we are doing in this thing called life, time, and space
Warren Beatty knew what James Joyce was getting at

Yes and don't forget
Warm luscious incredible banana bread right out of the oven
And the parsley and rosemary cut fresh from the garden so fragrant
For the carriage ride back home
To remember to savor to fold into feelings
Given by one to another
Generosity enriched by textures colors in hearts minds and senses
Streams of consciousness
Becoming manifest washed down by tea laughter smiles
Thanks and thanks and more thanks
For days after

Ah what James Joyce was getting at


For Conversations With Walt
Denis J. Kelly
Nov. 6, 2011