Phoenix rising in Arizona

When you travel as much as I do across the ebb and flow of  time zones then the body learns to adjust.  The body clock tunes in to the international biorhythms  that the earth
lives by.. Jet lag does not affect experienced international travellers such as myself.  If you are going to survive in this world you must be hip to its flow.  

It’s 3.43am and I’m sat by my computer wide awake like a freakin’ Duracell bunny tapping away on this computer like a loon. My body thinks its I-don’t-know-what–o’clock  and time to be awake?  My brain is saying  “slleeep seeeeep.”  But my body  is shouting back “I ain’t going to sleep” and running around like beetlejuice. And the voice of the German off-duty hostess whom I met on the flight here is swirls and echoes in my head “I jest vurk vis zee jetlog so eef I vake then I vake and no problem I vake”. 

I can’t turn my head off so I think I’ll describe things.  My hotel looks out onto the student dominated town on the edge of the city of Phoenix called Tempe. We are ringed by mountains.  It seems most of the business here are run by ex students that stayed.The average daily temperature this week is 1001 degrees. I am here until October 8th. And I’m filling my spare time with book-reading for the Rhys competition and preparation for my programme here and back in England..

Today I am going to hire a bike and on the weekend I am going to hire a car to drive out to the desert.    I’ve just downloaded The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett. It is an entirely improvised concert on piano – no other musical instruments and no other musicians. I have bought the CD twice and worn it down over the years and here it is online – one of the most beautiful pieces of music created in my world – I am listening. Music is mood altering. One of the most futuristic things on earth. Art.

It is now 5.45am and the sun starting to levitate into the  sky over Tempe, Phoenix Arizona.
If you match this with the melancholy of The Köln Concert and the light headedness of jet lag what you have is an unplanned unrehearsed and undeniably beautiful moment. Phoenix rising.


2 thoughts on “Phoenix rising in Arizona

  1. Cheers Lemn-It's was raining in Rochdale and it's raining in Middleton!!
    Keep us posted on life in the fast lane-need a little 'blue sky' to think on'!
    Fran
    :0)

  2. Love the contrast between the Duracell bunny and the serene mountains and music, life feels like that in my head too sometimes. More poignant than funny I think.

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