Timm working on a dude ranch in 1985 in his early 20s.
Last month’ slideshow of Timm’s work accompanied by his
music seemed to be a nice new way to sum his work and make his presence better
felt, so I thought I’d try it again with another of the three songs he had
recorded and sent to Mom on a cassette tape she found in a drawer some months
after his death.
This song isn’t as polished as the other two, but it’s the
only one he sings on and gives the strongest sense of his love of adventure in
the great outdoors. Accordingly, I’ve put together a slideshow that suggests
some of the roots of that love in Timm from early on and then travels out with
him on foot and bike and canoe into a wilderness he was more intimate with than
the rest of us. It is his witness – borne in this music and these images – that
is one of the most enduring presence of Timm in this brother’s heart. Maybe it
is for you, too.
I’ve printed it before on this blog, but the following poem
by Timm drafted in a 2003 journal put the call to adventure in Timm’s own
words. I use it again here to preface the slideshow.
We miss you, Timm.
GO OUT
Timm O'Cobhthaigh
Go out and gaze upon the night sky:
Let the awe fill your soul.
Spend a few days in the Utah desert sitting on a mesa
and allow the vastness to invade your thoughts.
Stand upon the Pacific shore when a storm is raging hard:
let it tousle your hair and sting your face.
Let the rawness sink deep into your brain
blowing off the stagnant cobwebs
that have accumulated from the mundane days of your life.
Find a forest glen early in summer;
walk slowly among the nodding flowers.
Let the warm sun seduce you like a lover.
Let the beautiful transform your heart.
And when you’re done, walk through the woods
ever so slowly. Feel its rhythm
and listen for the music.
You’ll hear it in the wind that grazes the treetops,
from the sound of the winged ones sharing their story.
It’s in the heady scents and musty undercarriage,
the roughness of the bark like a Braille text
waiting to be read
and the sunshine filtering through the boughs
energizes as it dances.
It is time to be reborn from the mindless monotony
that we have accepted as life.
To allow all the awe and wonder
and joy and beauty
that so overwhelmed us when we were small.
To cast its spell once again
and return the joy that can be found
in each and every way,
each and every day.
