Josephine's mandalas: #3 of 21

... Flowers on the hilside bloomin' crazy...

Bob.....Dylan

(Click on image to see additional details.  I couldn't fit all of this mandala on my scanner.)

This mandala was made on a Tuesday -- exactly one week after the previous one.  I checked to find the day of the week on a perennial calendar.  Here's the song my mother was thinking about or maybe even listening to as she made this mandala:



Ever since Miley Cyrus recorded her version of that song, YouTube is full of covers in the style of Miley Cyrus.  It took me a while to find a cover that wasn't inspired by Miley Cyrus.  Miley Cyrus made the song her own (singing to herself on her cell phone!), just as Arnoldusk did in the video above, and just as so many others have done in the past and will do in the years to come. That's the beauty of songs written by Bob Dylan.

My mother made that song her own with this mandala.

My mother took great pride in her correct grammar and in her ability to spell.  Just noticed that she left the second "l" out of "hillside."  By the time she moved from the center of the mandala to the outer edge she must have been deep into her right brain with all those little flowers bloomin' crazy.

When she died, my mother still had long red hair (crimson hair?) with only a few grey hairs.  Was she thinking specifically about the image of the flowers or did she hear Bob Dylan or someone else singing this love song to her?  That's how I heard it.  I had long red hair when I was young.  I felt loved when I heard this song.  I felt that I would be missed when I was gone.  I thought about people I loved and would miss when they were gone.

In the last years of her life, my mother thanked me for introducing her to the music of Bob Dylan many years before that.  I'm not sure, but I think that her favorite Bob Dylan songs were on "Oh Mercy."  She loved "Ring Them Bells."

Here are the lyrics to "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go":

I’ve seen love go by my door
It’s never been this close before
Never been so easy or so slow
Been shooting in the dark too long
When somethin’s not right it’s wrong
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Dragon clouds so high above
I’ve only known careless love
It’s always hit me from below
This time around it’s more correct
Right on target, so direct
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Purple clover, Queen Anne’s Lace
Crimson hair across your face
You could make me cry if you don’t know
Can’t remember what I was thinkin’ of
You might be spoilin’ me too much, love
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Flowers on the hillside, bloomin’ crazy
Crickets talkin’ back and forth in rhyme
Blue river runnin’ slow and lazy
I could stay with you forever and never realize the time

Situations have ended sad
Relationships have all been bad
Mine’ve been like Verlaine’s and Rimbaud
But there’s no way I can compare
All those scenes to this affair
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Yer gonna make me wonder what I’m doin’
Stayin’ far behind without you
Yer gonna make me wonder what I’m sayin’
Yer gonna make me give myself a good talkin’ to

I’ll look for you in old Honolulu
San Francisco, Ashtabula
Yer gonna have to leave me now, I know
But I’ll see you in the sky above
In the tall grass, in the ones I love
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Copyright © 1974 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2002 by Ram’s Horn Music

(The original version was recorded in 1974 in New York City.  The song will be 40 years old on September 17, 2014.  I distinctly remember the first time I heard it.  The entire album was played for the first time on the radio before it went on sale.  I listened to it in my kitchen after doing the dishes.  My boyfriend at the time was not interested and occupied himself in the living room.  As soon as the album was available, I went down to the record store and bought my copy.  I was 25 years old and had been following the music of Bob Dylan since I was 14 years old.That would have been when my mother first heard Bob Dylan, too.  I played my Bob Dylan albums over and over again in my bedroom.  My father said that I was such a nice girl until I started listening to Bob Dylan.  I'm not sure when my mother bought her copy of "Blood on the Tracks."  I have a vague memory of her asking for a Bob Dylan album for her birthday or for Christmas.  Maybe I gave that copy of "Blood on the Tracks" to her.

Just yesterday I was out walking in Whatcom Falls Park with a friend, and as we walked through a group of young men and women, I noticed a young man wearing a white t-shirt with a black and white image of Bob Dylan on it.  I caught his eye and said, "Yay!!! Bob Dylan."  He smiled broadly and said, "Yeah!!")