Songs of the Sea & Focastle

Rolling down to Old Maui

The American Folk Experience

Rolling down to Old Maui

by John Fitzsimmons | The American Folk Experience

~Traditional 
Once more we sail with a favoring gale
A-bounding o’er the main
And soon the hills of the tropic clime
Will be in view again
Six sluggish months have passed away
Since from your shores sailed we
But now we’re bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to old Maui

Rolling down to old Maui, my boys
Rolling down to old Maui
But now we’re bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to old Maui

We will heave our lead where old Diamond Head
Looms up on old Oahu
Our masts and rigging are covered with ice
Our decks are filled with snow
The hoary head of the Sea Gull Isles
That decks the Arctic Sea
Are many and many leagues astern
Since we steered for old Maui

Oh welcome the seas and the fragrant breeze
Laden with odors rare
And the pretty maids in the sunny glades
Who are gentle, kind and fair
And their pretty eyes even now look out
Hoping some day to see
Our snow-white sails before the gales
Rolling down to old Maui

Once more we sail with a favoring gale
Toward our distant home
Our mainmast sprung, we’re almost done
Still we ride the ocean’s foam
Our stun’s’ls booms are carried away
What care we for that sound
A living gale is after us
Hurrah, we’re homeward bound

If you have any more information to share about this song or helpful links, please post as a comment. Thanks for stopping by the site! ~John Fitz

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I am indebted to the many friends who share my love of traditional songs and to the many scholars whose works are too many to include here. I am also incredibly grateful to the collector’s curators and collators of Wikipedia, Mudcat.org, MainlyNorfolk.info, and TheContemplator.com for their wise, thorough and informative contributions to the study of folk music. 

I share this scholarly research on my site with humility, thanks, and gratitude. Please cite sources accordingly with your own research. If you have any research or sites you would like to share on this site, please post in the comment box.  

Thanks!

 

Source: Wikipedia

Edit links

"Rolling Down to Old Maui" (or Mohee) (Roud 2005) is a traditional sea song. It expresses the anticipation of the crew of a whaling vessel of its return to Maui after a season of whaling in the Kamchatka Sea.[1]

Origin

Although the words have been found in records going back to the mid 19th century, there is some dispute about the accuracy and provenance of the melody. The words of "Rolling Down to Old Mohee" have been found in a copybook of a sailor called George Piper, who was on a whaling ship between 1866 and 1872.[2] Similar lyrics were recorded by Joanna Colcord in her collection Roll and Go, Songs of American Sailormen in 1924, where she stated that the melody had been forgotten.[3] She included additional details in the 1938 edition of her book, titled simply Songs of American Sailormen.[4]

Other references point to a version recorded in the journal of the whaling ship Atkins Adams from 1855.[5]

The tune strongly resembles that of the popular 18th-century song "Miller of Dee" and could be derived from it.[citation needed]

Lyrics

It's a damn tough life full of toil and strife
We whalermen undergo.
And we don't give a damn when the day is done/gale has stopped
How hard the winds did blow.
'cause we're homeward bound from the Arctic ground/tis a grand ol' sound
With a good ship, taut and free
And we won't give a damn when we drink our rum
With the girls of Old Maui.

(Chorus)
Rolling down to Old Maui, me boys
Rolling down to Old Maui
We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to Old Maui.

Once more we sail with a northerly gale
Towards our island home.
Our mainmast sprung, our whaling done,
And we ain't got far to roam.
Six hellish months have passed away
On the cold Kamchatka Sea,
But now we're bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to Old Maui.

Chorus

Once more we sail with a northerly gale
Through the ice and wind and rain.
Them coconut fronds, them tropical lands
We soon shall see again.
Our stu'n's'l bones/booms is carried away
What care we for that sound?
A living gale is after us,
Thank God we're homeward bound.

Chorus

How soft the breeze through the island trees,
Now the ice is far astern.
Them native maids, them tropical glades
Is a-waiting our return.
Even now their big brown eyes look out
Hoping some fine day to see
Our baggy sails runnin' 'fore the gales
Rolling down to old Maui.

Chorus

We'll heave the lead where old Diamond Head
Looms up on old Wahu.
Our masts and yards are sheathed with ice
And our decks are hid from view.
The horrid ice of the sea-caked isles
That deck the Arctic sea
Are miles behind in the frozen wind
Since we steered for Old Maui.

Chorus

(The following verse is seen in some collections and performances of the song, but is not universal:)
And now we're anchored in the bay
With the Kanakas all around
With chants and soft aloha oes
They greet us homeward bound.
And now ashore we'll have good fun
We'll paint them beaches red
Awaking in the arms of a wahine
With a big fat aching head.

Chorus

Versions

As it is a folk song, it has been performed and recorded by several singers and bands including The Dreadnoughts, David Coffin, Kimber's Men, Todd Rundgren, Don Sineti, Stan Rogers, The Longest Johns, and Jon Boden. Its melody has also been used, in its entirety as well as in part, as the basis for many other folk songs and song parodies, such as "The Light-Ship" by Leslie Fish and "Falling Down on New Jersey" by Mitchell Burnside-Clapp.

Californian folk singer Brian Robertson has recorded an alternate version entitled "Old Maui (from the Whales' Point of View)" on his album Saltchuck Serenade.[6]

"Rolling Down to Old Maui" was recorded by the American quintet Bounding Main and release on their 2005 album Maiden Voyage.[7]

References

  1. ^ Whales, Ice, and Men (Bockstoce, 1995, p. 45).
  2. ^ James Revell Carr (2014). Hawaiian Music in Motion: Mariners, Missionaries, and Minstrels. Music in American Life. Urbana, Ill.; Chicago: University of Illinois Press. pp. 81–. ISBN 978-0-252-09652-5. OCLC 894511210.
  3. ^ Colcord, Joanna C. (1924). Roll and Go, Songs of American Sailormen. Indianapolis, IN: The Bobbs-Merrill Company. pp. 106–108. OCLC 19934915.
  4. ^ Colcord, Joanna C. (1938). Songs of American Sailormen (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. pp. 197–200. OCLC 946498851.
  5. ^ Huntington, Gale (1970). Songs the Whalemen Sang (2nd ed.). New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 9780486221694.
  6. ^ "Maui Whales". 21 June 2016 – via www.youtube.com.
  7. ^ Rolling Down to Old Maui (28 September 2019). "Bounding Main". Bounding Main. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Down_to_Old_Maui

    Rolling Down to Old Maui

    [ Roud 2005 ; Ballad Index SWMS027 ; trad.]

    This is a song about the ca. 1850 Kamchatka bowhead whale and Pacific sperm whale fishing. Gale Huntington in his book Songs the Whalemen Sang gives a version called Rolling Down to Old Mohee from a journal made aboard the Atkins Adams in 1858.

    A.L. Lloyd, Trevor Lucas and Martyn Wyndham-Read sang two verses of Rolling Down to Old Maui on their album Leviathan! Ballads and Songs of the Whaling Trade. Lloyd commented in the album’s sleeve notes:

    Maui is one of the Hawaiian islands. In the fifties and sixties, the Pacific whalers used to meet there, or in nearby Oahu, twice a year. In March they fitted out for the summer season in the Arctic, when they fished the bowhead grounds off Kamchatka and the Gulf on Anadyr. In November, when they were back again, to fit out for sperm-whaling in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Southern Seas. Hence this song, bidding farewell to the bitter North, and looking forward with a smile to the languors of the South.

    Jeff Warner sang Rolling Down to Old Maui in 1976 on the Collector LP Steady As She Goes: Songs and Chanteys from the Days of Commercial Sail. The liner notes commented:

    Stan Hugill of Liverpool says that as early as 1820 Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands (then the Sandwich Islands), was considered “home” by the Yankee sailors who hunted the northern grounds or the Bering Straits for right and bowhead whales. This is an off-watch song, as distinct from a working song, of whalemen longing for the women and weather of better latitudes.

    Stan Rogers sang Rolling Down to Old Maui in April 1979 live at The Groaning Board, Toronto. This concert was released in the same year on his albumBetween the Breaks… Live!. He commented in the liner notes:

    Emily Friedman introduced this song to me in her hotel room at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1978, and I’ve loved it ever since. It may very well be my favourite chorus song.

    Jolly Jack recorded Rolling Down to Old Maui in 1983 as title track for their eponymous Fellside album. This was also included in 1999 on the same-named Fellside anthology CD Rolling Down to Old Maui. Paul Adams commented in the liner notes:

    Our title track comes from Songs The Whalemen Sang by New Englander, Gale Huntington. Many young men working on the American whaling ships kept personal journals in which the recorded the voyage, made sketches, notes and copied their favourite songs. The words of this song were taken from such a journal made aboard the Atkins Adams in 1858. The noble tune is from Chantying Aboard American Ships by F.P. Harlow. Maui is one of the Hawaiian Islands and was a meeting place for whalers… something to look forward to between trips. A “homeward bound” feeling prevails after the arctic hunting season but it was likely that they were merely calling at Maui for “fitting out” for the further half year in the southern oceans.

    Roy Harris sang Rolling Down to Old Maui in 1985 on his Fellside album Utter Simplicity.

    John Spiers and Jon Boden recorded Old Maui in 2005 for their album Songs and again in 2010/11 for their CD The Works. Jon Boden also sang it as the August 23, 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. They commented in their former CD’s liner notes:

    A well known rowdy sea-song. This version comes from Songs the Whalemen Sang by Gale Huntington and is taken from the log-book of the American ship Atkins Adams from the year 1858. This is a rather sentimental and self-consciously literary version of the song, presumably collected before the aural tradition had had time to work its rough magic. Normally this would be “A Bad Thing” but we rather like it this way.

    This video shows them at the Gosport and Fareham Festival on the Easter weekend in 2008:

    Lyrics

    Rolling Down to Old Mohee from the journal of the Atkins Adams, 1858

    Once more we are waft by the northern gales bounding over the main
    And now the hills of the tropic isles we soon shall see again
    Five sluggish moons have waxed and waned since from the shore sailed we
    𝄆 Now we are bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Mohee 𝄇

    Through many a blow of frost and snow and bitter squalls of hail
    Our spars were bent and our canvas rent as we braved the northern gale
    The horrid isles of ice cut tiles that deck the Arctic sea
    𝄆 Are many, many leagues astern as we sail to old Mohee 𝄇

    Through many a gale of snow and hail our good ship bore away
    And in the midst of the moonbeam’s kiss we slept in St. Lawrence Bay
    And many a day we whiled away in the bold Kamchatka Sea
    𝄆 And we’ll think of that as we laugh and chat with the girls of old Mohee 𝄇

    An ample share of toil and care we whalemen undergo
    But when it’s over what care we how the bitter blast may blow
    We are homeward bound that joyful sound and yet it may not be
    𝄆 But we’ll think of that as we laugh and chat with the girls of old Mohee 𝄇

    A.L. Lloyd, Trevor Lucas and Martyn Wyndham-Read sing Rolling Down to Old Maui

    It’s an ample share of toil and care we whaleman undergo,
    Through many a blow of frost and hail and bitter squalls of snow,
    The horrid isles of ice cut tiles that deck the Polar sea.
    But now we’re bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Maui.

    Once more we’re blown by the northern gales, and bounding o’er the main;
    And the green hills of them tropical isles we soon shall see again.
    Oh, it’s many a day we toiled away in that cold Kamchatka Sea,
    And we’ll think of that as we laugh and chat with the girls of old Maui.

    Jeff Warner sings Rolling Down to Old Maui

    It’s a damn tough life full of toil and strife we whalemen undergo,
    We don’t give a damn when the gale is done how hard the winds did blow.
    We’re homeward bound, ’tis a grand ol’ sound with a good ship taut and free,
    We don’t give a damn when we drink our rum with the girls of old Maui.

    Chorus (after each verse):
    Rolling down to old Maui, me boys
    Rolling down to old Maui
    We’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground
    Rolling down to old Maui

    Once more we sail with a Northerly gale through the ice, and wind, and rain,
    And them coconut fronds and them tropical lands we soon shall see again.
    Six hellish months have passed away in the cold Kamchatka sea
    But now we’re bound from the Arctic ground rolling down to old Maui.

    Once more we sail with the Northerly gale towards our Island home,
    Our mainmast sprung and our whaling done and we ain’t got far to roam.
    Our stans’l booms is carried away, what care we for that sound,
    A living gale is after us, thank God we’re homeward bound

    How soft the breeze from the island trees now the ice is far astern,
    And them native maids and them island glades is awaiting our return.
    Even now their big, black eyes look out hoping some fine day to see,
    Our baggy sails running ‘fore the gales rolling down to old Maui.

    Spiers & Boden sing Rolling Down to Old Maui

    Once more we are waft by the northern gales a-bounding over the main
    And soon the hills of the tropic isles we all shall see again;
    Five sluggish moons have waxed and waned since from the shore sailed we
    And now we are bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Maui.

    Through many a gale of frost and hail our big ship bore away
    And in the midst of a moonbeam’s kiss we slept at St. Lawrence Bay;
    And many is the day we whiled away on the bold Kamchatka Sea
    But now we are bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Maui.

    Chorus (after each verse):
    Rolling down to old Maui, me boys
    Rolling down to old Maui
    We’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground
    Rolling down to old Maui

    Through many a blow of frost and snow and bitter squalls of hail
    Our spars were bent and our canvas rent as we braved the northern gale.
    The cruel isles of ice-capped tiles that deck the Arctic sea
    Are many, many leagues astern as we sail to old Maui.

    An ample share of toil and care we whalemen undergo,
    But when it’s over, what care we how the bitter the blast may blow?
    We’re homeward bound, that joyful sound across the Arctic sea,
    We’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Maui.

    Acknowledgements and Links

    A.L. Lloyd’s lyrics were taken from the Leviathan! sleeve notes.

    See also the Mudcat Café track Lyr Req: Rollin’ Down to Old Maui.

    One of the best versions by Stan Rogers and crew…

     

    Another great version by Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag…

     

    https://youtu.be/cAWRwdeonR0

    The American Folk Experience is dedicated to collecting and curating the most enduring songs from our musical heritage.  Every performance and workshop is a celebration and exploration of the timeless songs and stories that have shaped and formed the musical history of America. John Fitzsimmons has been singing and performing these gems of the past for the past forty years, and he brings a folksy warmth, humor and massive repertoire of songs to any occasion. 

    Festivals & Celebrations

    Coffeehouses

    School Assemblies

    Library Presentations

    Songwriting Workshops

    Artist in Residence

    House Concerts

    Pub Singing

    Irish & Celtic Performances

    Poetry Readings

    Campfires

    Music Lessons

    Senior Centers

    Voiceovers & Recording

    ““Beneath the friendly charisma is the heart of a purist gently leading us from the songs of our lives to the timeless traditional songs he knows so well…”

     

    Globe Magazine

    Join Fitz at The Colonial Inn

    “The Nobel Laureate of New England Pub Music…”

    Scott Alaric

    Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground

    On the Green, in Concord, MA Every Thursday Night for over thirty years…

    “A Song Singing, Word Slinging, Story Swapping, Ballad Mongering, Folksinger, Teacher, & Poet…”

    Theo Rogue

    Songcatcher Rag

    Fitz’s Recordings

    & Writings

    Songs, poems, essays, reflections and ramblings of a folksinger, traveler, teacher, poet and thinker…

    Download for free from the iTunes Bookstore

    Now Available on iTunes!

    “A Master of Folk…”

    The Boston Globe

    Fitz’s now classic recording of original songs and poetry…

    Download from the iTunes Music Store

    Now Available on iTunes!

    “A Masterful weaver of song whose deep, resonant voice rivals the best of his genre…”

    Spirit of Change Magazine

    “2003: Best Children’s Music Recording of the Year…”

    Boston Parent's Paper

    Fitz & The Salty Dawgs Amazing music, good times and good friends…

    Listen here

    TheCraftedWord.org

    Writing help

    when you need it…

    “When the eyes rest on the soul…that’s Fitzy…”

    Lenny Megliola

    WEEI Radio

    The Night Music

    by | November 26, 2013 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

    The house is quiet earlier than usual. I can hear Margaret playing her guitar and singing in her bedroom—door closed as she would have it, but still beautiful to hear. It reminds me of Kaleigh when she was younger singing her heart out, as if the world didn't really...
    Read More

    The Tide

    by | August 31, 2014 | Poetry | 0 Comments

    They are building a world and the plastic is fading: Margaret and Eddie's buckets are split, pouring out the warm Atlantic as they race along the tidal flat, filling pools connected by frantically dug canals. Tommy squats naked and screams in guttural joy at the...
    Read More

    Many Miles To Go

    by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

    I see it in your eyes
    and in the ways you try to smile;
    in the ways you whisper—I don’t know—
    and put it all off for a while;
    then you keep on keeping on
    in the only way you know:
    you’re scared of where you’re going
    and who’ll catch you down below.

    Read More

    The Gift Unclaimed

    by | February 27, 2018 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

    I have an old lobster buoy Hanging dully from A wrought-iron basket hook— A rough cutaway Filled with suet, Clabbered in wire mesh. . I had imagined chickadees Squabbling with angry jays And occasional sparrows, finches— Maybe even cedar waxwings tired of scrounging...
    Read More

    Shane

    by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

    It’s been too long feeling sorry for myself.
    It’s been too long with my life up on the shelf.
    Sometimes wish that I was Shane—
    shoot Jack Palance, and disappear again;
    don’t have no one
    don’t want no one
    don’t miss no one:
    living lonely with a saddle and a gun.

    Read More

    The Value of a Classic

    by | November 24, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

    “Classic' - a book which people praise and don't read.” ~Mark Twain A note to my 8th grade class:      All of you are supposedly reading a classic book, but what Twain says is true: few of us go thirsty to the well and willingly read the greatest works of literature...
    Read More

    China Journal: Part Three

    by | July 30, 2015 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

    III My teachers could have ridden with Jesse James For all the time they stole from me... ~Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America      Today it was a temple built into the mountainside west of West Lake. Mr. Toe drove us out there. In most ways I just follow Rob...
    Read More

    Life Outside the Curriculum

    by | July 25, 2019 | Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

    “My teachers could have written with Jesse James for all time they stole from us...” ~Richard Brautigan, “Trout Fishing in America”        My classroom is often a bit of a mess—a mass of sprawled bodies scattered around like casualties of battle, ensconced in various...
    Read More

    Garden Woman

    by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

    I woke today and had my tea
    and at the window spent the morning:
    the same scene I’ve seen so many times
    is each day freshly born;
    from the ground I turn each spring and fall
    come the flowers sweetly blooming;
    you disappear among the weeds—
    you are the garden woman.

    Read More

    Once Burned. Twice Shy.

    by | April 6, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

    Just because no one understands you,  it doesn’t mean you are an artist ~Bumper Sticker        I sometimes wonder why when you give a group of teenagers a video camera, the first impulse is to shoot something stupid. It’s as if there is some jackass switch...
    Read More

    All You Need is Love

    by | November 16, 2013 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

        The day grew warm today, as did my mood. I did a couple of shows at my school’s diversity day. It was good to see girls there and the obvious racial differences. It was comforting to see a sea of color with a smattering of white instead of the other way around. My...
    Read More

    Grandma’s Words

    by | April 24, 2018 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

    In the beginning was the word... ~Genesis       We do not live in Grandma’s world of words, and neither did grandma live in her grandma’s world of words and on and on and so on in a downwards devolution through untold millennia. From primal grunts, whistles and...
    Read More

    Paris: 11/13/15

    by | November 14, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

    It is a sad day for humanity. Another sad day on top of many others happening every day--many in places we hear about only obliquley and sometimes not at all. Paris is that much closer to home for most of us here and in Europe, but freedom and tolerance has to...
    Read More

    Another Day…

    by | July 7, 2016 | Journal | 0 Comments

    I've been somewhat lax about posting in here of late, but I have been giving myself a bit of a break from writing. In fact, I spent the last month or so just living--and that has been just fine with me. I set a simple goal for myself this summer to get in shape. PJ...
    Read More

    When the same thing happens again

    by | October 7, 2017 | Crows and Swallows, Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

    I wonder if God is testing me, giving Me some affable warning Or, perhaps, a more Stern rebuke, replaying A foolish mistake, Rehashing and reminding me Of a harsher possibility. It is only a small 10 mm wrench tightening A loose bolt on the throttle body, slipping...
    Read More

    The Mystery Within

    by | August 15, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

    EJ wanted a banana tree for Christmas so that early morning brought a plastic bag, a few meager roots and no directions. I bought some potting soil and a square cedar box EJ placed deliberately by a westward window. He gently splayed the roots, pressed the soil, and...
    Read More

    Waiting for a Poem

    by | August 8, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

      It’s not like a poem to come curl by my feet on this morning too beautiful to describe, though I am looking and listening and waiting: A rooster crows above the low hum of morning traffic; the trash truck spills air from brakes and rattles empties into bins; my...
    Read More

    Reflecting on Literature

    by | March 27, 2017 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

    I am constantly asking my students (and myself) to reflect on the literature they, and I, read. As I have grown older—and not necessarily wiser—I find myself only reading literature that I am sure will prod me out of my intellectual and emotional torpor, like a lizard...
    Read More

    The Inn

    by | November 21, 2013 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

    Every Thursday, for some thirty years, I have been spending this same time each week wrapping up the loose ends of the day before heading down to the inn to play to whomever and whatever shows up. Tonight looks like a fun night: Maroghini will be with me for his last...
    Read More

    Why Trump Is Not Flipping Me Out

    by | March 18, 2016 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

    I wonder why Trump is not flipping me out? I wonder if there is some bigoted, ignorant and right-wing element that lurks inside this folk-singing, poem writing, neo-socialist shell of mine. Maybe it is not that hard for me to make the empathetic reach to feel at least...
    Read More

    Yesterday did not become a poem

    by | July 9, 2017 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

    Nothing became something else; No thoughts filled my head With wonder or wisdom. Listless sky. Jumbled frames. Fleeting images: Chattering squirrels, Distant rumbling Of rush hour traffic. Today I am more determined, But all that is left Is the promise Of...
    Read More

    Don’t Let Go of Your Soul

    by | August 11, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

    Sometimes yeah.
    Sometimes no.
    Sometimes it’s somehow somewhere in between.
    Sometimes it’s somewhere that no one has been–
    no, nobody, nowhere, no nothing can end.
    So don’t you let go and hope you’ll find it again.
    Don’t you ever let go–

    Read More

    Evolution

    by | August 19, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

    The coyotes and fisher cats seem intent on striking some new deal with each other to toy with our fears in this gentleman's wilderness— patches of dense woods dotted with overgrown fields, riven and intersected by highways, powerlines and quiet, suburban...
    Read More

    Busy…

    by | September 17, 2014 | Journal | 0 Comments

    The start of the school year, and I have literally spent every free moment working on what is ostensibly pretty cool stuff, methinks...but it is work in every sense of the word, so I do miss those long summer mornings when  could literally write to my heart and heads...
    Read More

    Thanksgiving

    by | November 28, 2013 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

    I am surprised sometimes by the suddenness of November: beauty abruptly shed to a common nakedness— grasses deadened by hoarfrost, persistent memories of people I’ve lost. It is left to those of us dressed in the hard barky skin of experience to insist on a decorum...
    Read More

    How To Be Human

    by | July 24, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

    Mark Twain once wrote that it is good to be a good person, but it is better to tell people how to be good--"and a damn sight easier!" So much of my life is lived in response to the moment and not in a practiced and cultivated wisdom. I sat here this morning looking...
    Read More

    Going Google?

    by | July 1, 2014 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

    When you find yourself in the majority, it's time to join the minority ~Mark Twain I have to admit, Google is pretty impressive. The whole set of features that are offered to the public and to educators for free is pretty astounding: email, document creation and...
    Read More

    The Philanthropy of Maynard

    by | December 13, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

     I woke up today with chores on my mind. My buddy Josh LoPresti lent me his woodsplitter, and I had dreams of a mindless day splitting wood and heaving it into a pile for my kids to stack along the fence. But the dryer was broken, and it needed to be fixed. Margret's...
    Read More

    Denise

    by | August 14, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

    There is something about coming hometo this empty house, yesterday'sheavy downpours scouringclean the alreadyweathered deckwhere I sitwishing for,wanting,you.
    Read More

    The Fallacy of Philanthropy

    by | November 11, 2013 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

    There are thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one striking at the root. ~Henry David Thoreau     I just spent a long day deconstructing our backyard. EJ sold his alpacas, and so our fenced in pasture and barn can now return to its suburban origins as a shed...
    Read More

    A New Hearth

    by | December 7, 2013 | Journal | 0 Comments

    It has been a long time since I wrote a simple old "this is what I am going to do today" post. So this is what I am going to do today: [and trust me, it will have nothing--absolutely nothing--to do with school work:)] Before the true winter settles in, I am going to...
    Read More

    What Christmas Is

    by | December 25, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

      I am not sure what Christmas really is anymore. I am almost afraid to think of what Christians are going through in the lands of the original Christian faith. By dint of place and time, I grew up in the Catholic faith, and try as I might, I can’t ever escape the...
    Read More

    The Blathering of Teachers

    by | March 4, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

    To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities  as you do at conclusions. ~Benjamin Franklin             Maybe we are born more to ignore than to listen. I understand too well how easy it is to ignore the blatherings of teachers. I was a master of it once myself, so why...
    Read More

    The Threshing

    by | July 11, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

    I trace her charging through the cornfield shaking the timbers of the ready crop startling up the blackbirds, and surprisingly, a jay. It’s the jay who startles me—
who with two quick pulls wrests itself from the transient green, screaming back from its familiar scrub...
    Read More

    The End Is the Beginning

    by | September 2, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

    For the past twenty years this night has always been a bittersweet moment. I have never been hobbled by boredom or a lack of "things I love to do," so whatever supposed free time I have is rewarding in whatever I choose to do. The flip side is that I am teacher, and I...
    Read More

    Diesel Lullaby

    by | July 5, 2019 | Journal | 0 Comments

    I've been spending a lot of time lately writing sketches of songs—some more complete than others. I have found that it takes time for a song to evolve into its final form, so what I have posted here is more the end of the beginning, not the end. Denise gave me the...
    Read More

    The Fisher

    by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

    To cast far is to cast well. I’ve always believed that the biggest fish are just beyond my range and lie in dark water I could never swim to. But experience is the wisdom that has me now casting closer to shore, nearest the reeds and overgrowth — a subtleness geared...
    Read More

    Quit Your Whining

    by | January 31, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

    Anything worth succeeding in is worth failing in~Ben Franklin     "Quit your whining and complaining" is probably a clause that can easily be translated into every language in every culture on earth, for, from what I know and have seen in the world, bitching about...
    Read More

    Life Ain’t Hard; Its Just a Waterfall

    by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

    You say, hey,
    who are you to say that you’re the one
    to go telling me just where I’m coming from.
    You can have your cake
    but don’t frost me ‘til I’m done.
    I can’t be fixed and I can’t afford to stall;
    because life ain’t hard it’s just a waterfall.

    Read More

    The Late and Lazy Teacher

    by | May 1, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

    I guess this is a good thing. I showed up five minutes late for class, and my classroom was empty. I walked the hallways of the school and could not find any of them. I sheepishly asked the assistant headmaster if he "happened to see a class of wandering boys?"No, he...
    Read More

    Contact John Fitzsimmons...and thanks!