1. |
Across the Caldera
03:42
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2. |
Beloved Bones
03:43
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When the man walked into the world
He said, “Surely The God does not dwell here”
He hunted for meat, and chewed the pelts
He tied a rope for his waistbelt
He took for water, the snowmelt
At dawn and dusk, penitent, he knelt
But nowhere The God he felt
He stacked stone to make his home
And a roof he thatched for weather to catch
He grew seed for mouths to feed
He matched a labor against each need
Never did The God he see
He took a wife and children after
Gave discipline, love, and laughter
For a time, his hearth was warm
If The God did live, was this its form?
His youngest and his wife took ill
He watched them as their breaths went still
The others grew and left him alone
With his stacked stones and beloved bones
When the man walked from the world
He said, “Surely The God does not dwell here”
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3. |
Always Only Ever
04:10
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Tidy wit over drinks
With the attention you’ve caught
Looking at all the world
In smug afterthought
If I could, I would expose
The urgency somehow
If you would, I would implore you
Be here now
Hurry up and wait
Curse the time it takes to get there
Always early, always late
Running to nowhere, nowhere
Nowhere
Take my drinks elsewhere
They don’t play my music in the bars
Send my wishes elsewhere
I don’t have time to wait for stars
If I could, I would compose
Your spirit somehow
If you would, I would beg you
Be here now
Hurry up and wait
Curse the time it takes to get there
Always early, always late
Running to nowhere
Hurry up and wait
That’s the way it’s been
Always only ever
Forming time into fate
Chasing grace into never, never
Never
If I could, I would disclose
This wisdom somehow
If you would see it, I would show you
I’m here now
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4. |
Crawl the Blade
04:56
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Saving my iron rations when fate is an enemy
The sound of rushing water in my head
Outpaced by racing fashions when facing brevity
Weighing what to say and what was said
Dreams forced to settle for humbler consequence
Stifled by miles I’ll never tread
And I’m only extraordinary in my profound commonness
The crumbling that comes before the dead
On this heaving ground
Will we hold our connection
When the winds change
And the fires shift direction
Curtain draws aside the stage I built
The light is absent, the hall is empty
This silence is furious, this stillness is rage
Is this what is left me?
An existence defined by consistent confinement
Every natural command to wither obeyed
Endless repetition wears motivation thin
And inspires desire to be unmade
I don’t remember when it came to be
Am I getting used to it
Or is it getting used to me
To chain the wind
To cage the tide
The untethered din
I cannot abide
Crawl the blade
With soul and marrow slyly preserved
Before the never-watchful eye
Pass unobserved
It’s okay to learn to breathe
In the struggle not to drown
Your shadow can’t grow tall
Until your sun is going down
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5. |
The Council of Vultures
05:29
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On a dreary December Tuesday morning
The Council of Vultures attended the wake
They dined with fervor on cold remains
And buried their beaks in coffee and cake
They brought their unsavory appetites
Hunched and leering, they scratched and hissed
And between swallows of mellowed gore
Muttered to one another,
“He will be missed, he will be missed”
They regarded each other in resentment and fear
With sepulchre eyes and gravestone gaze
They knew the Council would come for them too
In the terror and agony of their last days
Once he’d dipped his head a bit,
The Master of Ceremonies called all to heel
A eulogy had to be delivered
Otherwise, it was just a meal
With glossy black feathers and thin belly skin
An ordered assemblage formed at the wake
The speaker ascended the rotting corpse
And to the gaggle of bloody sneers, he spake:
“He was a strong one, this one
His hunger for carrion was deep
There wasn’t a carcass fetid enough
It could wither his urge to eat
”Whenever he was seen, it was at a feast
No stranger was he to ordeal
It was as though he was drawn to pain
And ever was death at his heels
Ever was death at his heels
“Never did he fail to find fault in life
And ever did he dwell in grey
You could always count on him to declare
‘There are no shadows on a cloudy day’”
Bellies full, and hearts empty
They stretched their wings and departed the wake
They went separate ways
For the Council of Vultures does not good company make
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6. |
Heartshake
06:04
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I saw you on the road between country and dust
Like any other time, you were well on your way
Strung between what you want, and what you must
You
You haven’t changed
I think about your hair when you’re gone
Because I can’t think about your eyes
I think about your hair and the way it frames
Your goodbyes
So now I’m writing this song
And it’s as useless as any other thing
But I am full of love, it hurts my chest
And I have to do something
I’m down on
The ground
When tremors quake
Your hand tremble
My heart shake
Head still ringing from where you came
Setting your sights well out of range
Thinking more of your heart than where you aim
You
You haven’t changed
I wish I had known I wouldn’t be safe
In the embrace of your arms
Your single, placid inch of water
Was all I needed to drown
When I could not raise the stakes
I could only raise the alarm
If we had nowhere to go but up
How did I keep finding my way further down
What the sight of you does to me
It’s shameful to look at
You’re leaving me with this dying fire
I ask you to think on that
Think on that
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7. |
Essential Tremor
05:07
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Serpents emerge from the sand
Shake grain from scaly hide
In the bustle to breathe, their bodies collide
Spectres rise from the placid surface of the creek
Within the wreckage of these lakes
Are the secrets you seek
Something stirs beneath the surface
In shadows and shrouds, obscures its purpose
Too complex to be lifeless
Too beguiling to look at
Imminently emergent, the rabbit asleep in the hat
Where the long street roars
And matter bends to meaning
Terra firma flows
Do you see your towers leaning
Something stirs beneath the surface
In fallow earth, finds purchase
Do you hear the gentle susurrus
A whispered murmuration
Do you feel your essential tremor
A life of aches in culmination
In time you will unmake yourself as each injury combines
Embrace a dread encroach
Gather your gradual decline
But something stirs beneath the surface
In shadows and shrouds, remains wordless
It writhes and sleeps, escapes attention
In the solace of the soulless, obscures its purpose
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8. |
Seven For The Devil
05:26
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There was a simple man, and he walked a simple path
He was too simple for love, for hate, for craft
He fathered simple children, who simply could not learn
And he counted all his blessings, each in turn
One for sorrow
Two for mirth
Three for a funeral
Four for birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven for the Devil
His own self
There was a fearful woman, and she feared most to see
She begged the fearful priest, “Show your fears to me”
She mothered fearful children who feared the most to learn
And she counted all her blessings, each in turn
One for sorrow
Two for mirth
Three for a funeral
Four for birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven for the Devil
His own self
There was a crooked man, and he cried crooked tears
He found a crooked pulpit to teach simplicity and fear
His crooked words taught that most crooked is to learn
And he counted all his blessings, each in turn
One for sorrow
Two for mirth
Three for a funeral
Four for birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven for the Devil
His own self
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9. |
Snowman
08:33
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You were there
Where the sunflowers grow taller than a man
And the wooden signs point to home
Where storms fell trees when they can
And the sun peeks through them
To bake the loam
You were there
When I came up for air
You were there when I turned to see
The place I would not look
Smiling back at me with summer in your eyes
When I was finally ready to start
The next chapter of the book
And say goodbye to goodbyes
You were there
When I came up for air
I could never tell you how I
U n r a v e l e d
The farther away you were
And how still I grew the farther you traveled
I could not be suffered to stir
But as far as you were
I was further still
Consumed in an abyss
It became second nature to crawl into pain
But it didn't have to be like this
It didn't have to be
You were there at the chilly ocean
With the dog who hates the surf
We gathered shells at dusk
And you hiked out beside me on winter mountain turf
To a place just for us
You were there and you were beautiful
And so filled with always
No matter what was going on inside
And it ripped the life from my bones on the dark days
When you receded like the tide
Carefully
I rebuilt me
Around an idealized you
With two hands I made my snowman
But summer was coming soon
When the trouble began
I was certain
It was a war I was willing to wage
But now you've built me a foe so strong
It's all I can do to disengage
I make the same mistakes over and over
Like verse, chorus, verse
I danced around the pain night after night
Until worse became worst
You were there when I waded in the shallows
Testing the water
If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have had to try
But the earth burned my feet
And it kept getting hotter
For a time I thought I might die
You try again to make amends
But it's always at my expense
You acknowledge your misstep
But only in past tense
I try again to reconnect
But it's always at my expense
Distance is your attack
And I have no defense
Carefully I rebuilt me
Around an uncertain you
You were there when I looked back
Hoping for signs in your eyes
In mine there was only death
But you were not there when I slipped
Beneath the surface
And took a breath
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10. |
The Perfect Sunrise
05:56
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Asleep in your summer dress
Dirty hair still gathered
In a clip
Today’s worries slowly floating off your chest
Tonight’s dreams whispering off your lips
Here am I
Where I fell
Too exhausted to run
Eyes fixed on the horizon
Waiting for the sun
Your day shone perfect and markless
Warm, brilliant, bright
It fell away too soon to darkness
Replaced by night
I’m the one who remembers what once was
And now is gone
The only one who sees bitter dusk
And remembers hopeful dawn
What was beautiful was mutable
And rare as hen’s teeth
Though it ran deep, it could not keep
When faced with what’s beneath
I can’t see Thermopylae
I know you’re sleeping there
I ran my ship aground
When the sails began to tear
Of actors, words, and stage
Our labyrinth is made
And now I cannot find my way
Out of this masquerade
With all my strength,
I tried to hold on
To the fire in the perfect sunrise
But I cannot hold on to my burning heart
When your hair drifts
In front of your eyes
The ground gets colder every minute
I sit and wait for your return
But I made this stand, and I’ll die in it
Remembering the burn
I could feel you once
But now your light is too far
It has grown so very cold
Since you became a distant star
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11. |
Unspeakable
06:52
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Slip the chain
Deny the yoke
With casual blatancy
Your unceasing preoccupation
Is their agency
The end of days is not delayed
Every night when you lay your head down to sleep
The loudest scorn will not go quiet
If you don’t make a peep
They say the empty barrel makes the loudest noise
And a failure will not be outdone
I am not looking to place blame
But the Devil you know
Is the only one
I’m not the man you decided to hate
But I have as many bones
I’m not inclined to speak with you
In his ungraceful tones
In your careful dates
Among the heavyweights
Do you bring your boundless impatience
When you see corruption
Do you mild your mind
With constant complacence
Do you see
The profits riding on the war
The prophets writing on the wall
When you witness the unspeakable
Do you speak at all
Did I see you spray paint “Revolution”
On City Hall’s wall
Was it you sitting on shoulders
But standing tall
Did I hear you say you’d stand with your country
No matter what it chose to do
One way or another
This too shall pass
And so will you
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12. |
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Orphic Elegy Albany, New York
An ethereal addition to the folk/worldmusic realm. Orphic Elegy tugs at the strings that tie us to our dreams, and weaves a potent spell in the space between.
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