1. |
The Garden
05:24
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i awoke into dusk
twisted in bed sheets
clawed my way
from these misshapen memories
i looked out the window pane
she’s there in the garden
just after the rain
uprooting green from each cast spade
for hidden beneath the weeds await
and she calls up to me
says my darling don’t worry
but the lamplight casts specters
that dance through the yard
a solemn boy waits
along the edge of the river
searching his image
amongst the murk and the mire
and there on the surface a lady’s figure
with the soft features of his late sister
he tongues the reflection
like a lily on water
as they sink into one
and extinguish each other
so i wait until the night falls
to come out and see her
and she kisses my forehead
and coddles my hands
she says you mustn’t hold on dear
to these scalding embers
because the body remembers
until they bury you dead
a magpie stakes watch
along the stillborn horizon
mourning the day and gnawing the flesh
an old oak holds so tight to its acorns
while the scavengers sleep in fields aglow
so quiet they sleep
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2. |
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we'll hopscotch
around shadows
striated light falls on sidewalks
and we'll play in parks
while the sentry sleeps
so quiet these city streets
and the sun speeds through highway signs
like film, our faces, flickering in the light
and so we ride on a horse
steady through zoetropes
but do my prints glow
like the stars
from telescopes?
oh, i don't know....
now we're chasing white rabbits
through tarot card labyrinths
as the horizon fades
into a perfect gray
birds find their bread
and fly away
now you're going home
but you never left
so close your eyes shake the etch-e-sketch
and there, we'll walk, past the dead
as children, we'll awake, in our beds
and like tangents, we'll touch, and alight
fumbling and feeling in the night
you slept there oh so still under the old oak
and my hands let go
and my secrets spilled
and now they're buried beneath me
so we'll play in the mud
and dream of the northwest
where someday we'll meet
and exhume this hope chest
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3. |
A Faint Light
03:19
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a faint light projects beyond its warmth
not weighed down by the storm's existence
leaving nothing for the morning sun
for proof of its existence
how it flickers like a firefly
or a white cloud
to a pilot's eye
but the way the light fell on you
two wandering souls
step in from the cold
and stumble towards a dim candle
the hand's grasp for the flame
the finger's, regain feeling
and begin to burn with frostbite
and so the body withdraws into the cold night
she said I know you say you see,
but i don't feel it anymore
i say its there in your eyes,
but not not as bright as before
but the way the light fell on you
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4. |
The Mariner's Rime
04:16
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you wake up and find that your heart
has left you alone to your thoughts
without a compass you search the sky
as opaque as the mariner's rime
the sirens, those misfit toys
the bodies, capsized on the shores
where the ocean gets craggy and bare
she asks you to wait for her there
linger yet a while
thou art so fair
and be with me tonight
my love don't despair
these whirl pools and watery graves
where you'll drown as you wait
until the moment that you decide
to paddle against the tide
for the swell and its decay
will exist til the end of days
like clouds hung dry
or the star soaked sky
linger yet a while
thou art so fair
and be with me tonight
my love don't despair
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5. |
Sunrise Cafe
03:55
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i left you in a song i wrote today
you were waiting for someone new, not me
that's how the story goes, its better this way
the comforts of tried and true cliches
these miscarried dreams we keep inside
buried under sheets, clinching flashlights
but what of them remain and what dies?
and what is born again, not yet realized?
but i was checked out long before
i found her at my door
from diving bells and wishing wells
our satellites traverse
debris and space
expand, retrace
ellipses through time
on ottomans we sang in summer tongues
the lampshades hung and swayed in trees above
the illumine bugs did blink, not synchronized
lighting one way roads through the dark night
now in resin you remain, shellacked and stained
from a painting hung in a quaint sunrise cafe
our coffee presses steeped in bitter dregs
on the brink of something new, something unmade
but she was checked out long before
she found me at her door
from diving bells and wishing wells
our satellites traverses
debris and space
expand, retrace
ellipses through time
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6. |
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all this mind, has got me lonely
never quiet, always hungry
oh Sylvia, won’t you hold me?
don’t spill the blood and wait for the angels
when you close your eyes to dream
do all of the neighborhoods
in the city sing?
in a hum that sustains you?
for each desire, steals a moment
til I am empty, I am homeless
oh Alejandro
can you see me?
i need your eyes...
to walk through buildings
when you close your eyes to dream
do all of the neighborhoods
in the city sing?
in a scream that sustains you?
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7. |
The Wind-Up Bird
02:49
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a child came up to me
said "strangers, they know themselves"
but i don't know anything
just what i read and feel
she waits for me patiently
for the waters to calm themselves
once the wake of the others gone
the bottom is still and clear
and when the bass drum kicks
steady in my heart
like a stalled out car
surging to jumpstart
as the long lost child
makes his way home
the wind-up bird
keeps time like a metronome
and there in the open field
oh how the winds did howl
a shimmering ocean of grain
for one moment, i lost myself
but the ink well is drying up
the quill has become blunt and worn
but the flame has not yet burned out
so i must continue on
and when the bass drum kicks
steady in my heart
like a stalled out car
surging to jumpstart
as the long lost child
makes his way home
the wind-up bird
keeps time like a metronome
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8. |
Naomi's Song
02:58
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she bellows through lock
as dark as the night
while the willows swallow her cries
alchemy and breath turn sangre to sap
as they weep for this maiden in flight
a boy appears with a candle so bright
blanching forest through scratched spectacles
he tramples the plots
of graves he has sown
searching shadow to tranfix the light
the void and the spaces
existence in stasis
he looks towards the north star
that the darkness encases
gilded by silhouettes of willows wept dry
alight from a taper held high
the forest a flame, turned ashen terrain
they are all that remains
and like a biblical verse,
earth's creation reversed,
they sink through the hour glass sand
shadow and light erased by the night
they awake to a new day at hand
the void and the spaces
existence in stasis
she looks towards the light house
that the darkness encases
with the skeletons swept up
they walk side by side
painting contours with blossoming lore
the songs they sing imbue everything
a new day the past falls away
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9. |
The Unknown & Feral
04:01
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oh i know you’ve grown tired
still the ghosts follow you
for you heart is not quiet
not its virtues bleed
though you feel his affection
his manners bold but aloof
for he’s the one who ensnares you
to the low hanging fruit
so wait for it
to rise
and sleep on it
tonight
so you leave for the mountains
and pitch a tent near a den
for you mistook its desertion
not know how close you’ve been
to the unknown and the feral
towards an eminent death
waking every few moments
to the sound of your breath
for you arms they are not tired of digging
and your body’s not yet tired of living
so we’ll wait for it
to rise
and sleep on it
tonight
seeds are striving and seeking
though dormant they thrive
on the suinlight and the soil
oh an abundant supply
and one day when we’ve budded
branches climb towards the sky
though they reach they grasp nothing
my lover and i
though we reach we grasp something
my love, you and i
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10. |
Walt's Flute
03:52
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she found herself in day dreams
and was witness to her death
she’s breathing underwater
whilst watching overhead
now beneath the story’s surface
of past lives and past fates
fatherboy is writing
a song we’ve longed to play
and it goes oh
oh, he’s so far away
we’ll find the pig of paraguay
and ask him about his book
you will coo at me through green blue eyes
like a twinkling brook
now we’ll sing to remember
the imaginings of youth
before walt’s flute called us
and our stories did dilute
and they go oh
oh, he’s so far away
listen to the rain fall
its pit and patter in the drain
from a spring sky so stark now
as our wakefulness wanes
hold on to that thread, love
between consciousness and dream
its where you’ll find your breadcrumbs
that will lead you home again
and we’ll go oh
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11. |
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12. |
The Camphor Laurel
04:21
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on a camphor scented pillow
is where she lay her head
as the seasons did undress her
in a silent burlesque
this fermenting desire
each night she closed her eyes
as she dreamt of distant cities and the
parting of the skies
to take her away
oh why had she stayed?
and like the body of a candle
his trunk was long forlorn
its limbs once cranes and dozers
now atrophied and numb
and at the mercy of existence
he ignored its fatal cries
as he kept in constant motion
in this body he despised
so constant the pain
oh why had he remained?
the fate of all things
embraced by gravity
so please, child, don't wait
don't prolong your levity
outspoken as a cynic
with a frail stricken heart
a self analyzing solvent
all his pieces come apart
as he climbs the tallest branch there
as the demons circle round
taking shots at this pinata
finally silenced to the ground
return into the earth
for death, oh splendid mirth
as flesh it turns to flower
for this perennial rebirth
the fate of all things
embraced by gravity
so please, child, don't wait
don't prolong your levity
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13. |
If & When
04:02
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if and when
we had the end in mind
were we betrayed
by our own foresight?
a vacant sky
with no stars in sight
your eyes like sand
in oysters closed tight
you cast your net so far
that you’ll never bring it in
and if you did you’d wish
you’d thrown it off the other end
and all these pieces
but nothing whole
and its dying in our hands
but did you hear?
the crippled church in prayer
its rattling sign
oh, sweet soliloquy
i take your hand
as shadows sidle by
return to where?
erased by streetlights
you cast your net so far
that you’ll never bring it in
and if you did you’d wish
you’d thrown it off the other end
and all these pieces
but nothing whole
and its dying in our hands
i stand between two thieves
stealing moment and memory
but where do you stand?
do you stand with me?
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