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Grown Up Soul (These Dark Valleys)
Hui Tzu said to Chuang:
I have a big tree,
The kind they call a “stinktree.”
The trunk is so distorted,
So full of knots,
No one can get a straight plank
Out of it. The branches are so crooked
You cannot cut them up
In any way that makes sense.
There it stands beside the road.
No carpenter will even look at it.
Such is your teaching–
big and useless.
Chuang Tzu replied:
Have you ever watched the wildcat
Crouching, watching his prey–
This way it leaps, and that way,
Hight and low, and at last
Lands in the trap.
But have you seen the yak?
Great as a thundercloud
He stands in his might.
Big? Sure.
He can’t catch mice!
So for your big tree. No use?
Then plant it in the wasteland
In emptiness.
Walk idly around,
Rest under the shadow;
No axe or bill prepares its end.
No one will ever cut it down.
Useless? You should worry!

-Chuang Tzu, translated by Thomas Merton


******************************************************************
I've been walking these dark valleys
trying to find a place called home
And everywhere I laid my head
I felt so cold and all alone

Never had a word to say
but i kept talking on and on
Never had a verse to sing
until I lost it in your song

And I've been walking these dark valleys
trying to find a place called home
And everywhere I laid my head
I felt so cold and all alone

Looking for a grown-up soul
to teach me how to be a child
Like the boulder-breaking flowers
small and worthless meek and mild

The wisest tree in all the land
too gnarled for saws or human hands
And in her ugliness a wisdom
beauty never understands
oh I want to understand

Been looking for a grown-up soul
show me how to be a child
Like the boulder-breaking dandelions
small and worthless meek and mild
wild and joyful like a child

And when I reached the mountain top
I was amazed at what I found
Each side as far as I could see
well, there were mountains all around
there were mountains all around!

Been looking for a grown-up soul
to teach me how to be a child
Like the boulder-breaking weeds
small and worthless meek and mild
wild and joyful like a child

credits

from THROUGH DARK VALLEYS / 이산 II, released January 1, 2021

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Seth Mountain 이산 South Korea

Seth Martin (aka Seth Mountain or 이산), is a roots musician originally from the Pacific Northwest (US).

Continuing in the radical tradition of artists like Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Utah Phillips, Martin has been living in Seoul since 2015. He regularly performs with Korean and foreign folk, indie and rock acts.

"Quite possibly the closest thing we have to Woody Guthrie."
--Bill Mallonee ... more

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