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The Perfect High
    #1672241 -

by Shel Silverstein

There once was a boy named Gimme-Some-Roy... He was nothin' like me or you. 'Cause laying back and getting high was all he cared to do.

As a kid, he sat in the cellar, sniffing airplane glue. And then he smoked banana peels, when that was the thing to do. He tried aspirin in Coca-Cola, he breathed helium on the sly, and his life became an endless search to find the perfect high.

But grass just made him wanna lay back and eat chocolate-chip pizza all night, and the great things he wrote when he was stoned looked like shit in the morning light. Speed made him wanna rap all day, reds laid him too far back, Cocaine-Rose was sweet to his nose, but the price nearly broke his back.

He tried PCP, he tried THC, but they never quite did the trick. Poppers nearly blew his heart, mushrooms made him sick. Acid made him see the light, but he couldn't remember it long. Hash was a little too weak, and smack was a lot too strong. Quaaludes made him stumble, booze just made him cry. Then he heard of a cat named Baba Fats who knew of the perfect high.

Now, Baba Fats was a hermit cat, lived high up in Nepal... High on a craggy mountain top, up a sheer and icy wall. "Well, hell!" says Roy, "I'm a healthy boy, and I'll crawl or climb or fly, till I find that guru who'll give me the clue as to what's the perfect high."

So out and off goes Gimme-Some-Roy, to the land that knows no time... Up a trail no man could conquer, to a cliff no man could climb. For fourteen years he climbed that cliff... back down again he'd slide... He'd sit and cry, then climb some more, pursuing the perfect high.

Grinding his teeth, coughing blood, aching and shaking and weak... Starving and sore, bleeding and tore, he reaches the mountain peak. And his eyes blink red like a snow-blind wolf, and he snarls the snarl of a rat... As there in repose, and wearing no clothes, sits the god-like Baba Fats.

"What's happenin', Fats?" says Roy with joy, "I've come to state my biz... I hear you're hip to the perfect trip... Please tell me what it is. "For you can see," says Roy to he, "I'm about to die, So for my last ride, tell me, how can I achieve the perfect high?"

"Well, dog my cats!" says Baba Fats. "Another burned out soul, Who's lookin' for an alchemist to turn his trip to gold. It isn't in a dealer's stash, or on a druggist's shelf... Son, if you would find the perfect high, find it in yourself."

"Why, you jive mother-fucker!" says Roy, "I climbed through rain and sleet, I froze three fingers off my hands, and four toes off my feet! I braved the lair of the polar bear, I've tasted the maggot's kiss. Now, you tell me the high is in myself? What kinda shit is this?

"My ears, before they froze off," says Roy, "had heard all kindsa crap; But I didn't climb for fourteen years to hear your sophomore rap. And I didn't climb up here to hear that the high is on the natch, So you tell me where the real stuff is, or I'll kill your guru ass!"

"Okay...okay," says Baba Fats, "You're forcin' it outta me... There is a land beyond the sun that's known as Zabolee. A wretched land of stone and sand, where snakes and buzzards scream, And in this devil's garden blooms the mystic Tzutzu tree.

Now, once every ten years it blooms one flower, as white as the Key West sky... And he who eats of the Tzutzu flower shall know the perfect high. For the rush comes on like a tidal wave... hits like the blazin' sun. And the high? It lasts forever, and the down don't never come.

But, Zabolee Land is ruled by a giant, who stands twelve cubits high, And with eyes of red in his hundred heads, he awaits the passer-by. And you must slay the red-eyed giant, and swim the river of slime, Where the mucous beasts await to feast on those who journey by. And if you slay the giant and beasts, and swim the slimy sea, There's a blood-drinking witch who sharpens her teeth as she guards the Tzutzu tree."

"Well, to hell with your witches and giants," says Roy, "To hell with the beasts of the sea--Why, as long as the Tzutzu flower still blooms, hope still blooms for me."

And with tears of joy in his sun-blind eyes, he slips the guru a five, And crawls back down the mountainside, pursuing the perfect high.

"Well, that is that," says Baba Fats, sitting back down on his stone, Facing another thousand years of talking to God, alone. "Yes, Lord, it's always the same...old men or bright-eyed youth... It's always easier to sell 'em some shit than it is to tell them the truth."

An awesome poem with an awesome message, IMHO.

If you took the time to read this, and you enjoyed it, please reply with a comment so this doesn't get buried and others can read it! :smile:

Peace,

RebelSteve



 


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Namaste.

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1672262 -

"Why, you jive mother-fucker!"

LOL, great poem Steve, thanks for posting it. Shel Silverstein is a good guy.


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Re: The Perfect High [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1672278 -

thank you. that was a great poem. I love Shel Silverstein.



it?s a "children?s" book with a similar message.


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Re: The Perfect High [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1672298 -

It's funny how these posts always seem to come at the perfect time.

Striving for the unspeakable. Nirvana exists within us all as an ideal, and that's what keeps us going. It seems like that's what a large part of being human is. The ongoing "mission" to shape reality into our own conception of this as of yet unattainable vision of perfection. Maybe it will always be slightly out of reach.


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Re: The Perfect High [Re: Revelation]
    #1672339 -

Quote:
"Why, you jive mother-fucker!"




yeah that really made me lol. :laugh:  shel silverstein was an amazing writer. cool post!!

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1672712 -

I just have to try one of them Tzutzu flowers!!!


j/k :smile:

Edit: correction of typo

Edited by Rhizoid (06/30/03 01:19 PM)

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1672851 -

man I used to read Shel's children's books and lol this was awesome reading some more "mature" material from him :smile: and I dug the idea behind it heh the measures people will go to for a "lift" when it may be right inside

And Rhizoid man,

I just happen to have a giant-shrinking ray that we can use on that giant.. I think I might be able to borrow my friend's slime-skimmer with built-in mucus-beast-eliminators... I hear you've killed numerous witches in the past so that shouldn't be a problem either :P let's DO IT DUDE!!


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Insert an "I think" mentally in front of eveything I say that seems sketchy, because I certainly don't KNOW much. Also; feel free to yell at me.
In addition: SHPONGLE

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1672866 -

man that was awsome! i thought shel only did lil kiddy stuff..... where do ya find somethin like that? i need more....more, i need another poem, a better poem, the perfect poem.....


--------------------
how's your WOW?





  Edited by yageman (04/20/06 4:20 PM) 

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: wrestler_az]
    #1672877 -

LOL!

I'm glad you guys like this poem too!  The first time I heard it was a couple years back during a poetry night at this coffeeshop I used to go to, and I was amazed by it!  It was really cool to hear it read aloud... The guy reading it did a really good job, especially on that "jive motherfucker" part! :smile:

Anyway... I guess this poem was actually published in Playboy a while back.  I was really surprised when I first heard it and heard that Shel Silverstein did it, too.  I remember reading him back in my elementary school days!

I'm not sure where you can find more poems of his like this... He's probably got a book or two of them that just aren't as popular as his ones for younger kids or something.  I'm sure you could find stuff by doin' a search on the Internet.  I would help ya out but I'm feeling too lazy to search right now! :wink:

Peace,

RebelSteve 


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Namaste.

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1672920 -



--------------------
Insert an "I think" mentally in front of eveything I say that seems sketchy, because I certainly don't KNOW much. Also; feel free to yell at me.
In addition: SHPONGLE

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: Strumpling]
    #1673635 -

Wow,

That was a very awesome poem with a great meaning. I too believe that finding yourself in drugs is not the best way. It may be an easier way to help open up a person up alot more, but the true high is found in oneself.

Haha never new Shel Silverstein wrote such a book. I HAVE GOT to get me that book!

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1674010 -

Such a silly poem but its deep w/ meaning and truth :wink:

I think it was really pretty :heart:

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1674144 -

nice, this is one of my FAVORITE poems.


--------------------

Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience.
It isn't more complicated than that.
It is opening to or recieving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is,
without either clinging to it or rejecting it.

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: Jenny]
    #1674858 -

Why thank you for that, it was just what I needed to read :smile:


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I'd like to quit thinking of the present, like right now, as some minor, insignificant preamble to somethin' else.

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1675792 -

That was such an awesome poem!!
Thanks for posting that


--------------------
:shocked: *Divine Moments of Truth* :shocked:


"Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns - it calls me on and on across the universe" ~ John Lennon

"Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right" ~The Grateful Dead

"Religionists, with their guaranteed eventual paradise, of which they know nothing, taking it all on 'faith,' can't be expected to understand or sympathize with those with a yen to storm the Gate of Heaven and see for themselves what all the praying's about!" ~Robert Hunter

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: Help on the Way]
    #1677217 -

Beautiful poem, great message, I might be the only one to say I've never heard of Shel Silverstein before. I don't remember any of his books back in school. But that was great, I'm going to send it to all my friends, especially one particular friend who is a lot like Gimme-Some-Roy :smile:


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Here we are, in these bodies, on this planet in an endless universe. This is not the extent of who we are... merely an extension of who we really are.

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: Amnesiac]
    #1677289 -

Excellent :smile:


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As the life of a candle,
my wick will burn out.
But, the fire of my mind
shall beam into infinite.


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Re: The Perfect High [Re: psyka]
    #1678522 -

What book did this come from? Ive only read his childrens books, I had no idea he wrote more adult type poetry.

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: lateralus]
    #1679510 -

nice. as a fellow poet, eye give him PROPZ!
slick.


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fine. do what you want, but i'm drinking the water.

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Re: The Perfect High [Re: trippinlizard]
    #1696215 -

Great poem. Here is more Shel. http://www.banned-width.com/shel/misc/lyrics.html

Edited by Ganja (07/08/03 11:39 AM)

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