25th May 2005

Dervala’s Intention

posted in Arts and Literature, Cat Pictures, Food, and Travel |

Dervala Hanley has a new one up called Sal’s Paradise.  Ranger Tim has settled into the Santa Cruz mountains scene.  When I was a kid it was all Big Basin and psychedelics. Before that, Bret Harte:

Winter passed, and the summer came
The trunks of madrono, all aflame,

Here and there through the underwood
Like pillars of fire starkly stood.
All of the breezy solitude
  Was filled with the spicing of pine and bay
And resinous odors mixed and blended;
  And dim and ghostlike, far away,
The smoke of the burning woods ascended.
Then of a sudden the mountains swam,
The rivers piled their floods in a dam,
The ridge above Los Gatos Creek
  Arched its spine in a feline fashion;
The forests waltzed till they grew sick,
  And Nature shook in a speechless passion;
And, swallowed up in the earthquake’s spleen,
The wonderful Spring of San Joaquin
Vanished, and never more was seen!

Meanwhile, around the time Sal’s Jimmy was rolling off the assembly line, Neal and Carolyn Cassady settled down there and Neal worked a brakeman’s job on the Southern Pacific.  "Sal’s Paradise," that Derv - she’s a literate one and that’s for sure.  Here’s a link for the Golby in yer, and here’s a link to add texture for anyone who didn’t get the Sal Paradise allusion.



				
    

					
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There are currently 5 responses to “Dervala’s Intention”
 
        
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			On May 27th, 2024, Mike Golby said:
			
			
    Some leprechaun that Dervala, eh? But really Frank, you know I’m no beatnik. I am, when all is said and done, just a good Catholic boy…:)
    

    

		
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			On May 27th, 2024, fp said:
			
			
    Sure Mike, and the weeks go by - ten now - and you add nothing to the tapestry at YBLOGZA and you know your readers are getting a bit anxious about that.
    

    

		
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			On May 27th, 2024, Dervala Hanley said:
			
			
    The ridge in the Bret Harte poem is just opposite Sal’s ranch. The road looks melted right about there–it’s just at the San Andreas Fault.
    

    

		
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			On May 27th, 2024, fp said:
			
			
    How about that!  Who would have guessed.
    

    I’ve seen film of the faultline from the air.  It’s really dramatic.  And on the ground, where it crosses an east-west road you can actually see the discontinuity in the pavement where the west side of the road is moving north away from the east side.  (I think I have those directions right…).
    

    I loved the picture of the dinosaur crossing that you posted by the way.
    

    

		
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			On May 31st, 2024, Dervala Hanley said:
			
			
    Frank, thanks to your post Tim tracked down Neal Cassady’s old place, about ten minute’s drive from Sal’s ranch. We stopped by it on Friday evening. Neat, modest little place in Los Gatos–probably worth a couple of million. ;-)
    

    

		
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