You Judge Your Progress By The Phases Of The Moon

John Gorka: The Gypsy Life (w/ Kathy Mattea & Mark O'Connor)

Give me priests.
Give me men with
feathers in their hair,
or tall domed hats,
female oracles in caves,
servants of the python,
smoking weed
and reading palms.
A gypsy fortuneteller
with a foot-peddle
ouija board and
a goldfish bowl
for a crystal ball
knows more
about the world
than many of
the great thinkers
of the West.
Mumbling priests
swinging stink cans

on their chains
and even witch doctors
conjuring up curses
with a well-buried
elephant tooth
have a better sense
of their places
in the world.
They know this universe
is brimming with magic,
with life and riddles
and ironies.
They know that
the world might eat them,
and no encyclopedia
could stop it.

--N.D. Wilson
Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl