1. |
Gemini
03:04
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Mist like a mask on the frown of the mountain,
I take to my furnace to play with the flame
and the milky world reels as I scatter across it
shadows to sever its senses again.
Dumbfounded faith in the light as it limps on
and, derelict, fades to a lump at the dusk.
Garrulous grace in the reach of my strong arm
and ritual sleaze where I'm rough with my rust.
Brother, dear
lay down your spear
Ribbons of rhyme in a line to the red sun
where, gaseous, goes the hot root of my song.
The moon, like a mime, keeps her silence til night comes
then grins like a queen and comes singing along.
Ash-faced, forbidden, I walk like a widower,
always forgetting the hour I'm in.
Fate has a prison and I am her prisoner,
pinned to her wheel til she hazards a spin.
Brother, dear
lay down your spear.
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2. |
Mirror, Tower and Chain
03:11
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I finally found out I'm a liar
though I didn't believe it at first.
I was told by a boy in the mirror
who's been following me round since my birth.
And though with many measured words I pleaded,
defined my innocence in every way,
he told me once again I was deceivèd
for that's exactly what a true liar would say.
My love is busy building me a bower
where we may lay together as we please.
But me, I pace the boards of my sad tower
as lonely as could any lover be.
And I, ungrateful wretch, get round to thinking
that, though of course I like my luxury,
I'd rather lie beneath the full moon sinking
if it would mean she'd sooner speak with me.
Oh this life is many leaps with few good landings
where we must trust the frail flesh as it bends.
And when at least I'm sure of where I'm standing
it seems that, surely, I must leap again.
Oh that there were some anchor I could cling to
made of stronger stuff than skin and bone!
What dark I, on its iron chain, would swing through
without the fear of falling like a stone!
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3. |
Threes
02:56
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Undue approach: hey there, no!
A stumble out, a turn to go.
Undue approach and all is blown.
Finite ends. The gyro spins,
a drunken top in sober hands.
Finite and expiring ends.
Guilty ghost: the miser's mien
lights the mirror inbetween.
The guilty ghost goes grovelling.
Working eye, a sleeping head
lays in the reeds and makes it wet.
The working eye is drowned and dead.
Cooling wind that cannot breathe
makes no ruffles in my sea.
A cooling wind that cools no heat.
Misty mind, it cannot mend
when all within is mist and sand.
Misty mind that cannot bend.
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4. |
Cupio Dissolvi
04:32
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O to be a burning auburn log in belly of the swan!
All decked about with feathered snow, the fast enfolding storm.
The trees in ferment thrusting up as if to be newborn
and me dissolving in it all, all golden red and warm.
O to be the cloud in breakage through the sun's fierce rage to die,
all bruisèd blue and green above the smothered winter sky.
O to be that silvered smear of light! to greet the growing night!
I'd change my words for thunder and I never more would cry.
O to be the icy helmet on the soft head of a hill
when rears the sun to rend the white, the land's deep thirst to fill.
O to be the first point of the thaw, to seep - perchance, to spill
and, out of my hard body then, to trickle at my will.
O to be the moon eclipsed in joy as she goes eager by,
all gibbous in her going, in her glowing lust to hide.
O to be so sure of being, when so hidden from the eye!
O sister moon, that you could make your dissolution mine!
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5. |
Aidan's Prize Song
03:14
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To split the gristle - you cannot reach.
I'll be the thistle underneath your feet.
You play your green spring until the fall
I'll be blue heaven underneath it all.
You won't be lonely - don't think too much.
I'll keep you company, I'll offer you a crutch,
and when you're walking you'll walk for me
while I'm the thistle underneath your tender feet.
To find the fat truth you only crawl
while I'm the wise tooth in your rattling skull.
You play the viper, but miss the vein.
I'll be the boa, bring you close again.
You won't be silent - your voice will reach
distant climes from the west unto the east.
But what you're saying - I've said it all
while I'm the wise tooth in your hard and rattling skull.
I am the fair wind on your approach
and when the storm's in, I use the thunder's throat.
I am the smuggler that brings your grain
as I'm the burglar who lays you siege again.
I am the singer who sings you home.
With golden fingers, I turn you into stone.
I am the poet who pushes most
and so you know it I use the storm and the thunder's throat.
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6. |
Moonflower
05:02
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Hot in the ending of eras
O! our bloody love!
where the round of a sound in an ear
is aroused to a rub.
It is midnight and all of your mannequins mope at the fallow moon, making me fall.
From the first to the last of the line,
you are all - and you are mine.
Sunk in the snarl of one wounded
I milk the mad rose
to steal me a scent that's ungrounded
enough for your nose.
In syrup of flowers I suck at the stamen for glucose and glut to the full.
From the first to the last of the line,
you are all - and you are mine.
Lifted on wings of your velvet
and vinegar sea,
then dropped to your gulleys and shelves
it all open for me.
All of the parrot fish titter and talk of the moist paradise of your skull.
From the first to the last of the line,
you are all - and you are mine.
I see you in horoscopes, limping
along with the stars,
pursued by a bear, a dog simpering
between your bare arms.
Fleet footed through null you go, ravenous, wearing the riches of night as your shawl.
From the first to the last of the line,
you are all - and you are mine.
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7. |
Hawthorn
03:28
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All these hard ways I wander through
with fire at my feet
cool their crimson all to blue
whenever our minds meet.
And where you bend in sleep I stand
with my love between my teeth
hoping you'll creep up on out of your dreams
and step to the music with me.
All these ash skies that swim inside
the thickness of your eye
seem so deep a mystery
they make me want to cry.
But when you look into my nook
and notice where I lie
I could riddle the jinxs of a million sphinxs,
rise up from the desert and fly.
Old as the hawthorn,
new born as its blossom in spring,
our love lights everything.
Old as the hawthorn,
new born as its blossom in spring,
our love lights everything.
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8. |
Night Is On Fire
03:22
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Night is on fire,
fat gibbous moon.
Woman of wire
works through the room,
my dust the pyre;
my pride the doom;
night is on fire,
my head the flume.
Hard loving lady,
won't you be kind?
Come, look upon me,
speak swift your mind.
Here is my body,
bitterly dry.
Hard loving lady,
are you still mine?
Night is on fire.
I'm glad you came.
Schoolboys conspire
to taste your flame.
My lips are burning.
Kiss me again.
Night is on fire,
ash falls like rain.
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9. |
Oh Friend!
04:29
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Oh friend,
take your tears from your golden head no longer.
On a thread I am coming to lay with you again.
See I swing slow to bring you the swaying of the ocean and the wind.
Though I left in some twilight with the rust of life about me,
though I tried to surrender to the storm and to the sun,
I was told by the ravens in the bloody flowers of midnight
to return.
Oh friend,
stand and sigh at my empty bed no longer.
Be it said - I am coming to make it up again.
See I bring for to soothe you the whispers of the glade and of the glen.
Though I left in some half light with the weight of stars upon me,
though on hard peaks I stumbled, in wild fires I did burn,
I was washed in the waters of a million merry fountains
to return.
Oh friend,
read your prayers to your anxious dead no longer.
In your dread, I am coming to quiet them again.
See I sing for to teach you the wisdom of the robin and the wren.
Though I leapt at some false light in my coat of smooth vermillion,
though three voices I swallowed, seven secrets I did learn,
I have found always sweeter the one at home who bids me
to return.
Oh friend!
Oh friend!
Oh friend!
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10. |
The Prize Regard
01:22
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Taken by the prize regard,
run rugged to the real,
I lean upon my hammer hard
and forage what I feel.
A tunnel, deep and very dark,
has made a hole in me
and left a very holy mark
that is dappled like the sea.
So I, like any only child,
chide others for my wrongs
and I make all of my siblings smile
with the sorrow in my songs.
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