BOC: Imaginos, part 4 - Del Rio's

[Johnny Firic]

4. DEL RIO'S SONG
-----------------

In this period of Imaginos' life, the significance of his songs to himself
culminated, which is why this song was named this way.

"I've lived upon the edge of chance" - this is the clue for the FAQ
statement that Imaginos deemed himself 'an adventurer' at this time.

"When time gets slow, and rivers freeze" is very reminiscent of the WoTT
part about the closed ridge, as both lines seem to have a 'wintery'
connotation. Note that it is not said at which time of the year his "boat
left New Orleans". We can be fairly certain it was in winter. "I think you'd
know enough / to call in touch that outer frame" - probably spoken to
himself, to reassure himself in a moment of doubt (or "quandry") along the
journey. "To call in touch that outer frame": to step outside the normal
flow of time, to get in touch with another dimension (another plane of
reality). He was fascinated with this, but the experience also somewhat
frightened him ("the sight whose imagery is sometimes that of fear"),
probably because he didn't understand much of what was going on. "A sullen
gulch / which opens up on the way to Blindman's Bluff" - probably meaning
that, along the journey, he noticed a piece of landscape reminding him,
metaphorically, of his mental effort in "calling in touch that outer frame"
- i.e., an actual gulch corresponding to his mental 'gulch', which he tries
to describe as best he can in his song. The "river roads" are probably
somehow connected with the actual city called Del Rio, in Texas. We know
he's been in Texas ("I'm Buzzardo in Texas"), and this is probably not a
coincidence. Britannica has the following on Del Rio (the city):

"... Remnants of an old canal system, which carried water from the prolific
San Felipe Springs, survive."

So, I don't know, maybe he went sailing in these canals, maybe he would just
go for walks there, to "call in touch that outer frame"

"To shut the gates of walled town walls . . . " - he may have seen a scene
such as this (town walls) at a fort in Texas. Now he's thinking that it also
reminds him, again metaphorically, of his recovery from the (mentally
exhausting) other -dimensional efforts - the 'recovery' is referred to in
the line "forget the way to Blindman's Bluff", implying that now that the
'session' is over, he wants to get his mind off all other - worldly matters;
he's in for some r'n'r with "some good rum punch". By the way, New Orleans
was in 1829, and is now, a good place to enjoy rum punch . . .

The spoken section. "My destination is a secret" - a mystery, most likely,
to himself as well, as he's probably learned "in 20 years or more" to trust
rather to his intuition (his Imaginos, his "perfect sight") than to planning
ahead, common sense etc. The "true ghost dance / rehearsal ground" is
obviously that same place where he, years later, found the Magna of
Illusion. The "ant-track" reference clearly points to its location,
somewhere in the jungles of the Lowlands of Yucatan, in the ancient Maya
land. The Maya never discovered the wheel, so they transported cargo in
carts with skis and similar devices, which would leave trails in the ground
similar to (of course larger than) ant-tracks.

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