B i o g r a p h y (by Official Site)
Polly Paulusma's debut album Scissors In My Pocket announces the arrival of one of the most exciting new British talents in years, a singer-songwriter whose craft belongs to a classic lineage that stretches back to the likes of Joni Mitchell and Carole King and yet brings an entirely contemporary edge and vitality to a timeless art form. Characterised by hook-laden melodies, insightful lyrics and Polly's distinctive vocals, Scissors In My Pocket is a record that has led many to describe her as a young Joni Mitchell. Anybody would be flattered by the comparison. Yet Polly is also a unique voice. Her songs demand to be heard and it's a record she had to make. “I had this moment of epiphany when I woke up one day and realised I couldn't wait for somebody to come along with a cheque book,” she recalls. “I knew I had to do this, with or without a record label.” With no budget and no record company, she went into a studio for one day in May 2003 and recorded a dozen basic tracks, which she then took home and worked on during one of the hottest summers in recent history in the makeshift studio of her garden shed. As chance would have it, while she was making the record, One Little Indian heard an earlier demo and approached her. “It was ironic, really,” she says. “It was only once I'd decided to make the album on my own that a record label came along.” By the time the deal was done, the album had already been finished, entirely on Polly's own terms and without a rope. The determination and resolve that drove the making of Scissors In My Pocket is reflected in the album's title. “When I was eight, I built a raft at the bottom of the garden from a bit of old fence,” Polly recalls. “I nagged my mum to take it down to the river. She eventually gave in but she insisted it had to be attached to a rope and she would hold on to it. So I hid a pair of scissors in my pocket. I was planning to cut the rope and sail off to London. I didn't get very far. But I had the same feeling towards making this record. It was about defiance and taking your life in your own hands. I was a real handful, I can tell you.”
Which perhaps explains why soon after the raft incident, Polly was packed off to an all-girl's convent school. But if the sisters entertained hopes of taming her maverick spirit, their ministrations had a different effect. "They taught me how to be self-contained, how to stand on my own two feet. I also had a pretty wild time," she recalls. She also began to find her musical voice. Polly had rebelled against formal piano lessons at an early age and written her first song at ten (actually a re-write of a Paul McCartney track - “I liked the tune but I decided he'd written the wrong words, so I wrote my own. Something about swans. Much better than his”). The onset of her teens coincided with the rise of 'baggy'. She loved everything about it, learned guitar and was soon "entertaining everyone at school and showing off," as she puts it. Baggy didn't last long. But it was the starting point of a musical journey. "I began to work my way back through the annals and I came upon people like Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake. That moment of discovery is amazing. It's something you can never recapture," she recalls. It inspired her own songwriting, although when she left school and went up to Cambridge she joined a ten-piece soul-funk covers band, “a bit like the Commitments,” and suffered regular bouts of laryngitis shouting herself hoarse doing Janis Joplin impressions. After graduating, she moved to London and formed a new band doing original material. But music was still only a hobby. “I convinced myself I had to have a proper grown-up respectable career,” she remembers. She might have become an academic and began a PhD, only to abandon it after a term. She could have been a journalist, and briefly took a job at the BBC World Service as a researcher. She considered a career as a novelist, and even got as far as placing her manuscript with a literary agent. By the time she was asked to sing backing vocals on Ben & Jason's 2001 album ‘Ten Songs About You', she had quit the band. “It was meant to be one last hurrah in my musical career before I got a proper job,” she recalls. “Instead singing with them it became blindingly obvious I had to do music,” she recalls. “Everything else felt wrong. I realised I wasn't facing up to the truth. I was like a moth going round a flame and I had to plunge in.”
The novel was cast aside and she began playing solo gigs at acoustic venues such as the late-lamented Kashmir Klub. Two years of gigging and selling hand-made recordings from the stage (with sleeves made with those scissors in the pocket again), meant that when she came to record her first album, she had 40 songs to draw upon. Oli Hayhurst on double bass and Rastko Rasic on drums came in “to colour in all the black and white parts”. And thanks to some tolerant neighbours, organ, dulcimer, trumpet and a variety of other textures were added in the garden shed during the summer of 2003. The basic philosophy was no click tracks, as few edits as possible and as much playing live as was feasible. On several tracks, Polly, who produced the album herself, went back to her original demos. Dark Side, the album's captivating opener, is the original recording of the song from her first demo three years ago, produced by Ben Parker (Ben & Jason). One Day and Over The Hill are also the original demos. “There was such a vibe to them that it seemed ridiculous to try and redo them,” she explains. Together with such newer songs as the lyrical She Moves In Secret Ways, Mea Culpa and the intoxicating Anywhere From Here, the result is a debut album of extraordinary craft and imagination from a naturally gifted storyteller. It's a record that wears its influences proudly on its melodic sleeve, from Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake to Dylan and Lennon and McCartney. And yet there's an entirely contemporary resonance, too, that aligns Polly with the best in the current music scene, from Starsailor and Coldplay to David Gray and Beth Orton. Where do these enchanting, insightful, beautiful songs come from? She really isn't sure. “I'm mystified by it. I've no idea how it works. You have to make a window of time every day and hope something comes and not allow life to get in the way.” But mystery or not, you surely won't hear a better new singer-songwriter in the whole of 2004.
Scissors In My Pocket - 2004-06-15 - Dark Side I Was Made To Love You One Day She Moves In Secret Ways Over The Hill Carry Me Home Mea Culpa Give It Back Anywhere From Here Perfect 4/4 Something To Remember Me By
Scissors In My Pocket Dark Side Come and ask me if I wanna dance with you I think you will It gets cold and lonely on my dark side of the moon The air thin and cill Come and show me what the grey looks like when it's blue I think you can You've got golden lips and I have got a silver spoon We don't need romance 'Cause I've danced with romeos and gigolos Philosophers and slackers Vagabonds and cambridge dons The king of cool's heir apparent Infidels and jezebels And poets with no talent But they've never shone on the dark side of my moon I was thinking love was just a complicated game You play in the dark No-one told me strategy was only for defence And winners thank luck Oh take my hand and show me how to spin around this floor I don't know how Come unlearn me everything I've ever learned before I'm ready now 'Cause I've danced with romeos and gigolos Philosophers and slackers Vagabonds and cambridge dons The king of cool's heir apparent Infidels and jezebels And poets with no talent But they've never shone on the dark side of my moon Now that you've warmed me I never, never want to be that cold again Cold may be easy but nothing Nothing comes of nothing in the end In the end Take my hand and lead me where the music is alive I think you can You've got golden lips and a whole lifetime in your eyes We don't need no plan Oh come and ask me if I want to dance with you I think you will And when a thousand moons have spun around this earth of ours We'll be dancing still 'Cause I've danced with romeos and gigolos Philosophers and slackers Vagabonds and cambridge dons The king of cool's heir apparent Infidels and jezebels And poets with no talent But they've never shone on the dark side of my moon No they've never shone on the dark side of my moon I Was Made To Love You In the sky I see angels Flying all over town they've got names in their pockets Of lovers lost and found If I send you my angel Would you send yours to me If our angels collide in the sky You'll say it was meant to be And days blank like they bleached them And nights outline air like static on the phone And you say that you feel them But the words you picked so carefully keep coming out all wrong So I'll write them in light And I'll carve them in stone I was made for loving you I was put on this sweet earth too I was made to love you In the air I hear gunfire, going off in the hills Clocks are ticking, the battle is nearing I'm fending them off with these pills If you're stuck in the front line Would you charm your way out You might like the idea of the kill But you don't know what dying's about When days blank like they bleached them And nights outline air like static on the phone When you say that you feel them But the words you picked so carefully keep coming out all wrong Then I'll write them in light And I'll carve them in stone I was made for loving you I was put on this sweet earth too I was made to love you In the sky I see angels Flying all over town They've got drugs in their pockets To keep us all on the ground I won't send you my angel Angels only deceive Spit the pills out Feed fuel to your fear And fly away with me When days blank like they bleached them And nights outline air like static on the phone When you say that you feel them But the words you picked so carefully keep coming out all wrong Then I'll write them in light And I'll carve them in stone I was made for loving you I was put on this sweet earth too I was made to love you Yeah I was made to love you One day One day I'll take a bottle with a good strong base And a cork that fits it No label, no marker's mark And I'll shout the bile and anger and plain disappointment in until I've almost filled it And then I'll squeeze the cork down hard I'll need a boat with a good strong sail To weather all the storms and the gales I'll grab the bottle, grip the rail and say my prayers And then I'll throw that bottle out Into the deep blue sea And then I'll sail away Yeah I'll throw that bottle out So far it can't hurt me One day, one day, one day One day, one day, one day One day I'll take some canvas with a good strong seam And a hot air burner A basket, some sandbags and rope And I'll float above the earth in my balloon of steam Drifting further and further Over plains and mountain slopes I'll fly 'til I find the deepest lake A volcano about to awake I'll grab that bottle by the neck and say my prayers And then I'll hurt that bottle down Into the deep ravine I'll never hear it hit the ground Yeah I'll hurt that bottle down, so far it can't hurt me One day, one day, one day One day, one day, one day One day, one day, one day One day I'll build a rocket with a thick blunt nose And a megatonne engine A window to look at the moon And I'll burn through the stratosphere with fire in my tail A comet ascending 'Til I float in weightless gloom I won't turn back 'til I see the lunar plains The detail of the rugged terrain I'll grab that bottle full of pain and say my prayers And then I'll hurt that bottle down onto the arid sea And then I'll fly away Yeah I'll hurt that bottle down So far it can't hurt me One day, one day, one day She Moves in Secret Ways On a river of sighs A boat came towards me A flimsy disguise Covered the devil Who sang from a songsheet Of how modern life's a bore In his choirboys' attire He sang me the life to which Good girls aspire Where men in white coats Give us pills to tame the horses that stamp on our floors And pills for when the horses have bolted out the door It's hard to explain I don't like hanging on to reins in my hands all the time I'm running out of trails Worn paths don't lead to where I need to get to every time She moves in secret ways And there is grace and poised perfection when she takes the helm She moves in secret ways Now the house is on fire The rats are all screaming The horses are tired They think they're still dreaming ‘Cause the barn doors are open The crossbar is hanging in the wind So the devils sings higher “Oh just look at what you're doing!” Yeah, he's joined by a choir Of doctors and statesmen Who plan their sorry lives To the last day's end But look at all the happy things that happen by accident. It's hard to explain I don't like hanging on to reins in my hands all the time I'm running out of trails Worn paths don't lead to where I need to get to every time She moves in secret ways And there is grace and poised perfection when she takes the helm She moves in secret Days gone by I thought I had it all Filed in little boxes. Now I find I never had control I just took little chances and won Now the devil's downstream He's singing to someone My horses are free. They answer to no-one Unbridled, untethered They roam on the unmarked land In my house there's a calm A peace has descended No need for alarm It's as she intended I'm through with trying to fight the things I don't understand Accept my sweet surrender to the greater, better plan It's hard to explain I don't like hanging on to reins in my hands all the time I'm running out of trails Worn paths don't lead to where I need to get to every time She moves in secret ways And there is grace and poised perfection when she takes the helm She moves in secret ways She moves in secret ways She moves in secret ways Over the hill Take me back to the evening that it all began There was you and me and some drunkards in a black London taxi cab And we said, driver, over the hill There's a place where time stands still I quicken your pace there Put your foot down, driver, get us over the hill Though I built up a wall around me, you just blew it down And my mother always told me that you'd come and dig me out of here somehow She told me somewhere, over the hill There's a place where time stands still Follow your fate there, but don't rush it You've got time to get over the hill Climbing higher, got no place to rest I'm just climbing higher, aaiming for the mountain crest It's up there, the panacea, come and see for yourself I've got nothing for you but kisses and a pocketful of rye But I see our unborn children in the apple of your eye And I say darling, over the hill There's a place where time stands still Let's have a race there, come on boy I'll chase you up over the hill Let's have a race there I'll chase you up over the hill Carry me home Spin me round, I'm blindfold Once upon a time somebody told me I was going to be someone I was supposed to be someone Now one half likes to carry, wants to share I want to hold the candle Load the gun for you Only load the gun for you But the other half yearns to be living that hard life When I'm making breaking rules that are all my own, so Blow winds and come rainclouds Gather over my head Blow winds and come rainclouds Gather over my head Cracks keep gaping down me Opening great halls of tug-of-war Where no-one is the champion Where no-one is the champion So slice me down the middle Keep the half that wants to be Your eyes, your arms to fight for you Oh baby so hard for you 'Cause this other half Needs to be living that hard life Can you let me squeeze the trigger Can you give me the gun Give me the gun, oh Blow winds and come you rainclouds Gather over my head Won't you come in Blow winds and come you rainclouds Gather over my head If I win, are you man enough to claim me If I fail, will you carry me home Blow winds and come you rainclouds Gather over my head Blow winds and come rainclouds Gather over my head Over my head, over my head Mea Culpa Was he with you at the railway Did he cradle all your pain Did he show to you the best way To make it all right again Now there was reason in your madness You weighed your loss against my gain If he was with you at the railway Would you do it all again Mea culpa I can't stay here no longer Mea, mea culpa My time here is up So goodbye, goodbye and good luck Was he with you on that journey When you could have still turned back Did he reason with you sternly Did he try to make your resolve crack Did he hold the only candle When your whole bright sky turned black Was he with you at the railway As you climbed onto the track Mea culpa I can't stay here no longer Mea, mea culpa My time here is up So goodbye, goodbye and good luck Did he guide you across the threshold? Did he cup you in his hands? Did he drink you down like water? Or blow you into air like sand? Is he standing right beside you? Did it work out how you planned? Is the sunlight shining on you? Are we saved or are we damned? Mea culpa I can't stay here no longer Mea, mea culpa My time here is up So goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye and good luck Give it back Can I keep my head when all around me are losing theirs Can I keep my secrets close Can I hold my course in this tiny vessel steady Will I reach the farthest coast It's rolling away from me As far as the eye can see But While this journey's long it's joyful 'Cause you are here with me I've been living for tomorrow Forgot to live today This sweet life is only borrowed Got to give it back some day Can I feed this beast with everything I've got and more Who will suffer if I don't Who's the puppetmaster pulling me towards the shore Do I want to cut the ropes It's rolling away from me As far as the eye can see But while this journey's long it's joyful 'Cause you are here with me I've been living for tomorrow Forgot to live today This sweet life is only borrowed Got to give it back some day It's rolling away from me I'm sailing so fast it's hard to see the light that shines from you Is all I really need, it's all I need I've been living for tomorrow Forgot to live today This sweet life is only borrowed Got to give it back some day Anywhere from here She left this morning She left no forwarding card I watched her pack And without looking back She drove out of the yard "Friends are only ghosts" she said "They fade and fall apart" They never stick around When the going gets hard-nosed, strong-boned Stick-impervious, diamond stoned And it's only names that really hurt Take me anywhere from here, i'm not asking I'll do anything to disappear from here I don't like thinking that maybe something I did was wrong I didn't understand her, and suddenly she didn't belong People come and go, one day they're here, the next they're gone Paranoia isn't pretty, but it sure makes you strong-bones Hard-nosed, unimpressible, indisposed So call me the names that really hurt Take me anywhere from here, i'm not asking I'll do anything to disappear from here Your life is just a movie in which you wish we never had starred But right back at the start I bet there's scene that makes you hard-nosed Strong-boned, stick-impervious, diamond-stoned And it's only names that really hurt Take me anywhere from here, i'm not asking I'll do anything to disappear So take me anywhere from here Perfect 4/4 Wires fan before you, they draw you In deep troughs and sharp peaks of green Each cough rips through you, it wounds you And flatlines cry wolf on the screen If I could change the shapes of the waves They'd all be a perfect 4/4 If I could exchange the sky for this cage You'd walk with me straight out the door You'd walk with me straight Needles slip in you, they pin you To whimpering, limping machines Night air surrounds you, it drowns you In billows and pillows and sheets If I could change the shapes of the waves They'd all be a perfect 4/4 If I could exchange the sky for this cage You'd walk with me straight out the door You'de walk with me straight Wires fan before you They draw you In deep troughs and sharp peaks of green Something To Remember Me By I'll carve a song out of notes of stone My tune-cut will last generations long And it will be one to remember me by When I am dead and gone Empires may fall, and the maps might change The oceans may boil in a fit of rage But folks will be whistling a tune of mine When I am dead and gone Let me plant my pillars in the sand I won't be here when they crumble out of the sky Trunkless legs, that sneer of cold command Don't you need something to remember me by Darkness creeps quickly and strikes too hard These songs tumble from me with their swords drawn fast And fuelled by love, round the world they'll fly When I am dead and gone Let me build my castles in the sand I won't be here when they crumble into the tide Flag and fortress, moulded by my hands Don't you need something to remember me by I'll carve a song out of notes of stone My tune-cut will last generations long And it will be one to remember me by When I am dead and gone
Fingers And Thumbs
Godgrudge Lead me out of the mountains across the plain I can't multiply again Oh, release me And I will build you two towers with bricks baked in fire And the Godgrudge they'll inspire Oh, believe me Tear me to pieces, cut me down Raze my two towers to the ground Scatter me north, east, west, and south If my mouth lets out a Godgrudge If my mouth lets out a Godgrudge Between the Tigris and Pishon, Euphrates mighty giant Where the Gihon gurgles quiet My four streams bleed for me My towers glint in the sunlight, they tie me to the plain I won't lose my way again Oh, believe me Tear me to pieces, cut me down Raze my two towers to the ground Scatter me north, east, west, and south If my mouth lets out a Godgrudge If my mouth lets out a Godgrudge If my mouth lets out a Godgrudge Blood flows out of the mountain and seeps across the plain Many people died in vain Oh, believe me So I will build two more towers like sundials in the west I won't let these war dogs rest Oh, believe me Tear me to pieces, cut me down Raze my two towers to the ground Scatter me north, east, west, and south If my mouth lets out a Godgrudge If my mouth lets out a Godgrudge If my mouth lets out a Godgrudge If my mouth lets out a Godgrudge
Where I'm Coming From We shouldn't be alone in this place It's a big mistake, what the hell we doing together Don't tell me it's a risk we take My body's shaking like a leaf in stormy weather Look up the clouds are rolling in, Waves of soldiers marching to the broken beat of my drum Look down, the waves are crashing in And the water's rising, gonna cover up this thing we've done Right here, right now I don't know how We kept it down for so long Right here, right now I don't know how To tell what's right from what is wrong And I don't know how I got here And I don't know where I'm coming from Where I'm coming from Your fingertips are laced with gold There's a honey magic to the way we stick together One ripple from your mouth can hold up The traffic, make a measly second last forever Right here, right now I don't know how We kept it down for so long Right here, right now I don't know how To tell what's right from what is wrong I don't know how I got here And I don't know where I'm coming from Where I'm coming from Where I'm going, where Right here, right now I don't care how Just let these shackles come undone Right here, right now I don't know how To act like nothing's going on And I don't know where we're going I don't know where I'm coming from Where I'm coming from We shouldn't be alone in this place It's a big mistake, what the hell we doing together You'll never know how close we came As I packed my case and said, 'Hey, I'll see you later'
All the Time I was walking for hours, didn't seem to be getting anywhere Then I was pacing 'round my room like a caged-up circus bear Then I was walking down the road with a thousand-yard stare in my head Now I'm sitting in line with the paupers and the millionaires My begging bowl ready to get my share And I can't quite work out if I'm alive or if I'm dead And all the posts kept moving as we got older And all the cash I saved so hard got spent And all the days I pissed away are over And I can't remember where they went Now the young ones move forward 'cause you didn't do anything And the old at the back are getting folding chairs And the ones in the middle with me spread out blankets and sit on the ground And their words played out before us like pieces of a jigsaw I see people down there acting like there's nothing to fear As loud as I shout to them, I can't seem to get myself heard And all the lust that burned so hot got colder And all the rules that didn't break got bent And all the days I pissed away are over And I can't remember where they went Won't somebody tell me Where did all the time go Won't somebody tell me Where did all the time go Now the line's moving slowly so I take a little wander The lady from the car crash can keep my place So I'm walking down the road with a thousand-yard stare in my head Well, it wasn't hard to find you, your routine changes rarely You plod with good intentions through time and space But I've seen the line dividing, one left, one right, in peculiar paths And all the things I ever held important Are now the things I hold most in contempt But all the time I could call mine is over And I can't remember where it went Won't somebody tell me Where did all the time go Won't somebody tell me Where did all the time go
Day One There's a dust bowl in here at the center of things And the tumbleweed tumbles right through it All the seeds that I sow, though I try they won't grow Although God only knows how I want it I'll keep planting away every fourteenth day 'Til there's no more seeds left in the packet But this is day one and my old seed is gone So today I'm right back where I started from Yeah, today I'm right back where I started from Today I'm face down in the dust Day one, day one With nothing Day one, day one And life leaps and springs from all manner of things It can grow on the side of a building Like a flower that sprouts out of cracked chimney spouts And the crannies that nobody filled in While the plants and the bricks make my dust bowl feel sick In a fortnight a new seed will be planted But this is day one and my old seed is gone So today I'm right back where I started from Yeah, today I'm right back where I started from Today I'm face down in the dust Day one, day one With nothing Day one, day one I've been plowing the ground, but all these stones that I've found Make me wonder if dust bowls are proper But this acre of flesh where no tributaries stretch Is the only place I have to offer So I hope and I pray every night, every day That God shines on the seed that I planted But this is day one and my old seed is gone So today I'm right back where I started from Yeah, today I'm right back where I started from Today I'm face down in the dust Day one, day one With nothing Day one, day one
This one I made for you Tiny heart flutters Between my fingers and my thumbs You're already in trouble Before you've begun I see your tiny heart whirring A turning of wheels Just grab onto something And dig in your heels This place is made of blood and bones Expect you've seen some better homes But this one I made for you I've seen your heart, I know your name So don't go bailing out again No, this one I made for you I made for you Now everyone's forgotten What they came here for They were once in a garden Now they're going to war And while your tiny heart flutters Between my fingers and my thumbs There's some sporting old soldier Laughing and joking and poking her gum This place is made of blood and bones Expect you've seen some better homes This place is made of blood and bones Expect you've seen some better homes But this one I made for you I've seen your heart, I know your name So don't go bailing out again No, this one I made for you This place is made of hearts and souls Of broken crowns and little holes But this one I made for you I've seen your heart, I know your name So don't go bailing out again No, this one I made for you I made for you
*** Thanx a lot to Maud for this one ***
Back to the Start You've got something to hide You can run all you like 'Cross plains and over mountains The chains you drag behind you leave track marks in the air You're asleep on your feet And all the people you meet 'Cross plains and over mountains Fooled by mirrors, think the light is shining bright in there Come on, come on We're going back to the beginning I took a wrong turn And you take it to heart so easy When you come home I will be waiting by the fire And we'll take it all back to the start What you trying to prove If you love it then let it fly 'Cross plains and over mountains When you left her you kept a little feather in your hands She's your rose-fingered dawn So why are you gone 'Cross plains and over mountains Peering out into the dark to see what light remains Come on, come on We're going back to the beginning I took a wrong turn And you take it to heart so easy When you come home I will be waiting by the fire And we'll take it all back to the start Yeah, we'll take it all back to the start Come on, come on We're going back to the beginning I took a wrong turn And you take it to heart so easy When you come home I will be waiting by the fire And we'll take it all back to the start Yeah, we'll take it all back to the start Yeah, we'll take it all back to the start
Fingers & thumbs After I kissed you A sweet darkness came down Fingers were searchlights Leading the way down We talk in fingers and thumbs In an ancient braille of daily ache and overflow Fingers and thumbs can never lie We talk in fingers and thumbs With my hands outstretched I read your scars from head to toe No need to fake it anymore That's what our tongues were made for I see you feelingly And my fingers have eyes They search for you constantly In furrows and smile lines We talk in fingers and thumbs In an ancient braille of daily ache and overflow Fingers and thumbs can never lie We talk in fingers and thumbs With my hands outstretched I read your scars from head to toe No need to fake it anymore That's what our tongues were made for Be my translator 'Til there's no more to tell 'Til our skin turns to water And our bones turn to seashells We talk in fingers and thumbs In an ancient braille of daily ache and overflow Fingers and thumbs can never lie We talk in fingers and thumbs With my hands outstretched I read your scars from head to toe No need to fake it anymore That's what our tongues were made for
*** Thanx a lot to Andrew for this one ***
Ready or Not I hear you thrashing 'round the bathroom It won't be long now 'til you're done While I lie paralyzed in the half-gloom And dread the death-row chord of I'm coming, coming Ready or not Don't make out like you're sleeping, sleeping 'Cause I know you're not Yeah, I'm coming, coming I lock the moon behind the curtain Don't want it watching what goes on 'Cause if I told you where it's hurting You'd beat me deaf and dumb with I'm coming, coming Ready or not Don't make out like you're sleeping, sleeping 'Cause I know you're not Coming Ready or not You act like such a sweet thing, sweet thing But I know you're not So I'm coming, coming Am I the one thing you have chosen, The only selfish thing you've done? The bedroom door comes flying open But I'm already gone 'Cause I'm running, running Fast as I can This feels just like I'm dreaming, dreaming Please don't say I am Coming Ready or not Don't make out like you're sleeping, sleeping 'Cause I know you're not Coming Ready or not You act like such a sweet thing, sweet thing But I know you're not So I'm coming, coming Yeah I'm coming The Woods The summer sun plays on the ground I feel it in my leaves The sap is rising up my veins There's pollen on the breeze I saw it all crystal clear I know who brought those children here The badgers tried to keep them warm The foxes gave them milk Woodpeckers tried to hammer a home The spiders spun them silk I saw it all crystal clear I know who brought those children here No path out marked with brown wide stones No guardian angel to lead them home Find them quick, research before they disappear The bracken folds down into mush The mushrooms sprout and spore The berries swell and, ripe, now burst To carpet my forest floor I saw it all crystal clear I know who brought those children here Nothing moving here, all is still If you don't take them the earth sure will Find them quick, research before they disappear The winter wind howls through my arms My brooks begin to freeze My secrets now lie blanketed Beneath the moldering leaves I saw it all crystal clear I know who left those children here
Matilda It started slowly First a finger, then a thumb Matilda started disappearing In front of everyone No one noticed how translucent she becomes As one by one It started softly First a fumble, then a kiss In all his dreams he'd never seen Perfection like this No one noticed her hand tug at his As one by one The walkers left the park, and One by one The electric lights went dark, and One by one He buried her Down in this hole I've got nothing to fear Somebody knows That I'm hiding down here If I wiggle my toes They're gonna come find me If I wiggle my toes I'm gonna get free It started slowly Like a joining-up of dots A doily on a doorstep and an Empty cardboard box That cry out your name as the final penny drops As one by one We called her name out loud, and One by one We strained to hear the sound, and One by one Our torch beams shone Down in this hole I've got nothing to fear Somebody knows That I'm hiding down here If I wiggle my toes They're gonna come find me Somebody knows That I'm under these stones Gonna come find me
Leaves From The Family Tree
Last Week Me If I were a time traveller I'd climb inside my travelling ship And take a trip to find myself A week ago And if myself could see me And hear what now-me had to say I wonder how I'd phrase it all To make me understand Because last week me Was a blissful bumbling idiot Bang-crash-landing through my days With nothing special on my mind Yeah, last week me Was that carefree caring safe guy I was happy as a little mayfly Wasn't noticing the time Slipping by, by, by Slipping by, by, by And if I were a time traveller I'd tell myself to spend some time with you To stroke your hair and smell you for remembrance While I still could But then I'd have to tell me The horror of the days to come That happy me just living in the moment And lying in the sun And last week me Was cocooned from doom-dread-brooding Bang-crash-landing through my days Assuming everything's fine Yeah, last week me Was that carefree caring safe guy I was happy as a little mayfly Swooping skyward in the sunshine Oh, last week me Didn't have a code to live by Thought you'd always be by my side Wasn't noticing the time Slipping by, by, by Slipping by, by, by Slipping by, by, by If I were a time traveller I'd write myself a cryptic song And play it on the radio One morning And in that song I'd tell me To hold you tight and never let you go To grab my gun and climb up on my rooftop And fire out a warning And last week me Might have stopped washing the dishes Might have covered you in kisses Before I'd wiped my hands dry Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin Yeah, last week me Might have said, Come sit beside me Might have emptied out the diary Sunny day, let's go outside Oh, but last week me Was a blissful bumbling idiot Bang-crash-landing through my days With life's detritus on my mind Yeah, last week me Didn't know your hours were counted Took your warm fresh face for granted Didn't stop to say goodbye Say good-bye, bye, bye Say good-bye, bye, bye Say good-bye, bye, bye Say good-bye
Blood-Red Coat When the earth has turned to stone And the flowers have been sleeping forever I put on my blood-red coat As a protest against this foul weather And I can't keep it out (Forever) And I can't keep it in here much longer Because any day now it's gonna be spring When my heart has turned to stone And my voice is the sound in a seashell I put on my blood-red coat To remind me that God's in the detail Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin And I can't keep him out (Forever) And I can't keep him in here much longer 'Cause my bones are growing stronger And any day now my life's gonna begin Like a butterfly Shed the skin Of this other life It's a sin to waste a minute I've been given so begin it Just as soon as I feel warmth upon my skin When my eyes have turned to stone And my memories are darkly receding I'll take off my blood-red coat So that no one will notice me leaving And I won't wait it out (Forever) And I won't keep it at bay much longer 'Cause that bright light's growing stronger And any day now I'll be stretching my wings ‘Cause any day now it's gonna be spring
*** Thanx a lot to Peterican for this one ***
Hallelujah There's an angel that roosts up on our roof Can you see him cooing down His comfort on our heads at night Above his canopied wings I hear him singing Can you hear him ringing out In echo 'cross the fire-flashed night Our house is a womb, a warm cocoon Cradling us like jewels Right at the heart of it cupping us Like holy water in a silver spoon And all the half-baked beauty and truth That's scattered round its rooms Throb in perfect unison radiate An undulating "Hallelujah" I can't say if our angel's gonna stay up there forever Who he prays to ruminating on our shiny rooftop But I know some who would shoo away Their feather-fettered guardian, rip the rafters Torch the table, tear the tiles off Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin This house is a womb, a warm cocoon Cradling us like jewels Right at the heart of it cupping us Like water in a silver spoon And all the beauty and truth that's scattered round its rooms Throb in perfect unison, radiate an escalating "Hallelujah!" A halle-hallelujah
Story of my Life I know you of old You're the eye at the door of my dreaming And every failure, each tumble in time You've observed me unblinking Every night you're there Just like the one before One before, one before Why don't you come on in And make yourself at home My door is open wide And if you sit me down And run it back again The story of my life Tthen I might just see where I went wrong Black box recorder You've got it all locked in your memory Every misguided side-swipe When I was just trying to be friendly Press yourself against the crack It's always been ajar Why don't you come on in And fix yourself a drink I've nothing left to hide And if you sit me down And tell me what you think The story of my life Then I might see where I crashed and burned Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin How could I get it so wrong How could I Yeah, for so long How could I Never knowing what was true This time, I'm gonna listen to you Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah You're with me again Oh that calm-centred eye of my maelstrom You're a ribbon of stitch-sky To lift me through turbulent rainstorms You've seen my all And still you choose to tag along Tag along, tag along Why don't you come on in And make yourself at home I've nothing left to hide And if you sit me down And run it back again The story of my life Then I might just see where I went wrong
Most of It I don't know How long we've got So I want to make the most of it Right here, right Now's all that we've got So I want to make the most of it And every second Every time we meet It's like a little rosebud Or a sprouting seed I'm trying to bank it in my memory Yeah, I want to make the most of it I don't have I don't have a crystal ball So I want to make the most of now The facts I have Are incomprehensible So I want to make the most of now And every second's like dynamite It's like a diamond sparkling in the morning light So put your book down, come on, let's go outside Yeah come on, let's make the most of it Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin I don't care if I miss out on plenty I wanna know I made the most of you 'Cause when your chair's stone cold and empty I wanna know I made the most of you And every second's like a little pill Keeps us moving forward though we're standing still So while we think we've got this time to kill Yeah come on, let's make the most of it Come on, let's make the most of it
Two Houses High on my hill The weather is changeable Tricky winds make forecasting Mostly wrong But I stand stock still Constant, whitewashed, amiable These four thick walls have stood here For quite some time Are you still awake Can you send me a sign Make my timbers shake And tell the world you're mine And high on your hill You stand tall and well-preserved And your days are corseted and functional Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin I wish I could fill All your empty rooms with flowers And light a candle on each windowsill Are you still awake Can you give me a sign Don't make the big mistake Of thinking my light's dying 'Cause I'm only on this hill And I'm biding my time I'm waiting for you still To let me know you're mine
Don't Ask Me Are you saying I've got to sit here And watch all your lights turn cold Pack my bag of good intentions In the boot of growing old Are you saying my hand can't hold back This tsunami rolling in The only power at my disposal Is choose which way to swim I'm sure I knew it on the day I was born But time has misted up my memory All I know is that I know nothing So don't ask me, no don't ask me I've been late to learn a lesson Some things are best left unsaid But love has polished the connection Between my big mouth and my head Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin I'm sure I knew it on the day I was born But time has misted up my memory, yeah All I know is that I know nothing So don't ask me I've got trouble enough Keeping my own nose clean Each day's a twisting path With dangers I can't foresee I'd better mind my own affairs Trust those I love to mind theirs I'm going to shut my eyes and count To one-two-three So I'll watch the wave approaching Rising deadly up the sands And I'll smile in all the right places And sit upon my hands I'm sure I knew it on the day I was born But time has misted up my memory, yeah All I know is that I know nothing All I know is that I know nothing All I know is that I know nothing So don't ask me Ocean Swim out Not waving but drowning I can feel you crying Though they tell me you're fine Swim out Just keep treading water If I could only see you I could throw you a line. And I say oh, bobbing on this ocean You rise and fall with every ebb and flow And I say oh, quiet in the commotion I'll be your rock and that's all you need to know Swim out Out, through all my faults And all the stupid things That I have said and done Swim out Find a place to shelter From the grilled confessional The gilted gun And I say oh, bobbing on this ocean You rise and fall with every ebb and flow And I say oh, quiet in the commotion I'll be your rock, just hang on and don't let go Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin Oh, see it in slow motion Warm skies above and a firm footing down below Oh, you can be my ocean I'll be your rock and that's all you need to know Swim out Not waving but drowning I can feel you crying Though they tell me you're fine Swim out Just keep treading water If I could only see you If I could only see you If I could only see you
Lynch Pin In the morning when I wake up And remember where I've landed I can close my eyes and visualise Exactly what I'll see Sheets bundled round you The creases criss-cross your face Like a map of your dreams Just for a moment or two And in the morning As I fumble for the radio alarm clock To form a barricade to stop the world From flooding in our room We reach out our feet Legs all in a tangle The bedclothes all mangled and strewn Just for a moment or two Let me love you always Hold your hand on the warm days Light a fire on winter evenings When it's cool You're my lynch pin My soulmate What began on that first date It took me years to realise It was the story of our lives And in the evening When I'm up the stairs bathing our children Their tiny night-clothes lie in piles Of pink and purple on the stairs A hello from you Well it's enough to make them scream and shout And find they're caught unawares Just for a moment or two Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin And in the night-time When I'm lying right beside you and you're breathing Well it reminds me of the boy you were And what you have become No more "if only", no more "if I could" But only "look what I've done" It's making a man out of you Let me love you always Hold your hand on the warm days Light a fire on winter evenings When it's cool You're my lynch pin My soulmate What began on that first date It took me years to realise It was the story of our lives
All Is Well Softly Your new bed sinks into the ground And softly The raindrops come pattering down And softly The tears roll down your son's downy cheeks As he cries for the days and the weeks And the months and the years that you'll miss And blindly we stagger towards the church It pains me to leave you here and love you so much Between the yew trees, your daughter plays hide and seek Not counting the days and the weeks And the months and the years that you'll miss 'Cause you're only in the next room Drifting in a dream where we can't find you You're only in the next room All is well And all manner of thing shall be, shall be Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin And silently, the snow falls on Christmas Day She tries to be a rock but she's giving way But faithfully you're there, though you cannot speak You'll watch over the days and the weeks And the years, not missing a thing 'Cause you're only in the next room Drifting in a dream where we can't find you You're only in the next room All is well, yeah And all manner of thing shall be, shall be, yeah All is well And all manner of thing shall be, shall be well Wedding Day This time tomorrow You'll be married to your man Something blue, something borrowed A glass of Moet in one hand And under the table You hold on as your heart begins to thumb Like you're going to jump And in the flash of a camera Your wedding day has come, come It feels like yesterday That we were seventeen Posing in your soft-top Like a pair of beauty queens The plans that we made Sipping lemonade and sitting in the sun They popped like bubbles of gum And in the flash of a camera Your wedding day has come, come And nothing lasts forever It changes for the better So grow yourselves together Grow yourselves together Starting from now Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin This time tomorrow How your dancing eyes will shine And your taxi will be waiting As you squeeze this hand of mine A new life awaits you So come on now and show us how it's done Careful, or your makeup will run And in the puff of a candle Your wedding day is done, done, done
Take Me Home Mornings wake up with nothing to shout about No-one to make a fuss of, no-one to care about Days wander by with no-one to share them with Even though I hardly know you, I want to give them to you Will you take me home, take me home Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin I'm not the kind to give my love easily It just comes naturally Flows from my fingers and my toes (Toast) to the bride and groom What a lovely couple When this big party's over I'll wear your jacket for you Won't you take me home, take me home Take me home, take me home No pressure, no questions Maybe I can leave my loneliness outside Come here and pretend that We could learn to love each other if we tried (Maybe if I close my eyes then I won't cry) Morning wake up with head like a rotor-blade You never made it here Lost you in all the crowds Next time I won't wait I'll say it straight out loud Time waits for no-one proud I'll make you shout it out If you'll just take me home, take me home Take me home, take me home
The Small Feat of My Reverie
Fairylights Where are you coming from A dark pool in the sky Thick clouds of albumen A twinkle in my eye Where are you taken from Is someone else left sad And what if you never come Is it because I've been a bad girl A bad girl, a bad girl Hurry home Come on and tell me what more I can be doing to send up my flare in the night Oh, hurry home Come on and find me When you come, I'll crown your head With a thousand red kisses and fairylights Why do you take so long Is it hard to leave your home Will you clamber in silently Or make your presence known Now my front door is open wide The window's on the latch I'll keep watch for your parachute And when you fall to earth I'll catch you I'll catch you, I'll catch you Oh, hurry home Come on and tell me what more I can be doing to send up my flare in the night Oh, hurry home Come on and find me When you come, I'll crown your head With a thousand red kisses and fairylights Are you following whichever way the wind blows Are you dawdling at the corner Getting sidetracked by some pretty shop windows Everybody knows it The ribbons and the bows make the ruffled robes look nice Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin But ribbons don't last long And lightning won't strike twice So just move yourself along You've got lovelight in your pockets And hazy dreams for shoes It'll all come up roses There's no way you're gonna lose Where are you coming from A dark pool in the sky I'll wait here 'cause I'm the one Who'll make everything just right Just right, just right, just right Oh, hurry home Come on and tell me what more I can be doing to send up my flare in the night Oh, hurry home Come on and find me When you come, I'll crown your head With a thousand red kisses and fairylights
Rainbow Eye It's just a little dream I have I keep it in my pocket Like a marble with a rainbow eye And every now and then I check to make sure I've still got it This little dream that's like a marble with a rainbow eye It's not the kind of dream you'd flash about You'd never wear it It's more the kind you'd bury deep inside I never thought I'd meet someone With whom I'd want to share it But you've got something there That's twinkling in your rainbow eye And sometimes I feel it burning And sometimes it's cold as snow I'll keep my fingers on it, turning And when the time is right, I'll know Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin Until that day arrives This little dream is mine for keeping Some might lose theirs, but I'm gonna try And every now and then I'll check to make sure it's not sleeping This little dream that's like a marble with a rainbow eye And sometimes it's like a burden But I'll never let it go I'll keep my fingers on it, turning And when the time is right, I'll know And sometimes I feel it burning And sometimes it's cold as snow I'll keep my fingers on it, turning And when the time is right, I'll know It's just a little dream I have I keep it in my pocket Like a marble with a rainbow eye
Call of the Wild When I wake by the Wandle, I dream in my bed That today is the day I will get ahead And each night I can see my red Porsche with gold wheels And someday I will know how she feels Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin How else can I prove I'm no longer a child Here I come, it's the call of the wild Bang, bang My dad is a memory, a smell and a song And he's the reason Mum tells me I'm going so wrong But then she's a red ribbon that blows in the breeze Each new boyfriend, she's weak at the knees So there's no one to notice that I'm not a child Here I come, it's the call of the wild Bang, bang Bang, bang Bang, bang Bang, bang My hood is a force field that shuts out the sun And it'll shield me from bullet, from knife and from gun And I'll take what I can because all life is cheap Like my Porsche, I'm stripped out underneath And the men I admire show me this is the way There ain't nothing of value if it don't pay And I will glitter with greed as I empty the aisles Blood's up, it's the call of the wild Bang, bang Bang, bang Bang, bang Bang, bang I can't work my way out like your honest man would So I've got to think lateral; ain't no prize for good And when I'm dumped in the Wandle, there'll be nothing to grieve All the best things got stripped out of me If I don't have stuff, I don't know who I am My dad's never shown me how to be a man So tonight I will prove I'm no longer a child Here I come, it's the call of the wild Blood's up, it's the call of the wild Hood's up, it's the call of the wild Seize the Day And I don't ever think I saw you in your own right Until we arrived at this party here tonight You've got the one thing I've been searching for Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin And you shine across the room like a light show So as midnight strikes I say "Grab your coat, come on, let's go" They're singing "Auld Lang Syne" And I wonder what's the time we're waiting for This is our chance so come Let's seize the days are far too short to waste away On playing safe, she won't wait forever Fortune loves the brave So come on and seize the day And as we huddle in the light of this doorway And have a New Year's kiss on this new day The fireworks 'round the town bloom just for us And in the screaming siren of a police car You've decided that it's now or never I'm fumbling for the keys When you drop down on bended knee This is our chance so come Let's seize the days are far too short to waste away On playing safe, she won't wait forever Fortune loves the brave This is the moment, when we're gray and old Our story started to unfold and life began She won't wait forever When you took my hand And said, "Make me a happy man" State of Mind Sometimes I feel like an Eve in a garden All of a sudden I've got clothes on Aware of the trees and the turn of the seasons Now I find I need reasons where there are none All of my life I've been lied to I always thought that I would find you but How come I don't recognize you You took years to fabricate Now you evaporate You're just a state of mind Sometimes I feel like I'm nobody's daughter Like I died in the water with Ophelia And it's gonna hurt when the last breath disperses And the air fills with curses from believers All my life I've been lied to I always thought that I would find you but How come I don't recognize you You took years to fabricate Now you evaporate You're just a state of mind Outside there's a wild rugged country Where no one's gonna tell me which big mountain I can't climb And outside there are deserts and forests And the more I explore it Yeah, the more there is to find, to find Rob from always on the run dot net is so bad and copy paste is a sin Now I see what this whole place is made of It's a ramshackle trade-off for the real thing The trees that I climbed I see now were made of paper And the foil rivers taper to the ceiling All of my life I've been praying That there'd be something here worth saving But this garden was only some playpen Now we've set the record straight Open up the gate You're just a state of mind A creator to create Nothing there to love or hate You're just a state of mind
Invisible Music - Folk Songs That Influenced Angela Carter Extract from 'Several Perceptions' (Read By Polly Paulusma) From the Novel Several Perceptions Joseph went up and stood beside him but the old man only able to see invisible music, never noticed the young one. The veins on his hand stood out in whorled ropes as it flourished an imaginary bow. His other hand performed the fingering, his knotted fingers quivered like the wings of a humming bird, which flutter four thousand times a minute. He hummed a tune and beat out time with his left foot.It was hard to believe no fiddle existed. Old Sunny. The Maid and The Palmer A gentleman was passing by He asked for a drink as he got dry At the Well below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes “Me cup is full up to the brim If I were to stoop I might fall in At the Well below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes If your true-love was passing by You'd fill him a drink if he got dry At the Well below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes She swore by grass, she swore by corn Her true-love had never been born At the Well below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes He said to her ” Vou're swearing wrong For nine children you've had born At the Well below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes If you be a man of noble fame You'll tell to me the father of them At the Well below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes There's four of them by your Father Dear Four more of them by your uncle The other one by your brother John At the Well Below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes If you be a man of noble esteem You'll tell to me what did happen to them At the Well Below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes There's four buried beneath the stable door And four near the kitchen door The last one lying beneath the wall At the Well Below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes If you be a man of noble fame You'll tell to me what happens then At the Well Below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes You'll be seven long years a-ringing that bell You'll be seven more a-porting in hell At the Well Below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes I'll be seven years a-ringing that bell But ??? from porting in hell At the Well Below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes At the Well Below the Valley-O Green grows the lily-o Right among the rushes... Extract from 'The Executioner's Beautiful Daughter' (Read By Kirsty Logan) From the short story "The Executioner's Beautiful Daughter" Gretchen, the only flower of the mountains, tucks up her white apron and waltzing gingham skirts so they will not crease or soil but even in the last extremity of the act, her father does not remove his mask for who would recognize him without it. The price he pays for his position is always to be locked in the solitary confinement of his power. He perpetrates his inalienable right in the reeking courtyard upon the block where he struck off the head of his only son. That night, Gretchen discovered a snake in her sewing machine and, though she did not know what a bicycle was, upon a bicycle her brother wheeled and circled through her troubled dreams until the cock crowed and out she went for eggs. Jack Munro Way out in the country, there lived a wealthy man, And he had an only daughter, the loveliest in the land And all the boys that knew her said ‘She's the greatest find'” But none but John the soldier could win this lady's mind. And when her father learned of him, so angrily he swore: “I'll give the gang a hundred pounds to press young John to war.” So she's robbed her wicked father, his money in her hands, And she's signed up to the army, dressed up just like a man! ‘Your waist is long and slender, your fingers fine and small, Your cheeks too red and rosy for to face the cannon-ball.' ‘It's true my waist is slender, my fingers they are small, But it wouldn't change my countenance to see ten thousand fall…' ‘Before you join our regiment, your name I wish to know.' A smile it spread across her face — they call me Jack Munro! So she sailed across the ocean, she sailed across the sea, Til she got her safely landed in the wars of Germany Where all upon the battlefield, she fought it up and down, 'Til among the dead and wounded, her darling John she found. They've given me promotion, John, they have promoted me, Now I am a colonel, John, and married we can be! Up then spoke the general, ‘Now it's a travesty! It's 'gainst the laws of England for two men to married be! And up then spoke the chaplain, ‘Of man-love I'm afraid!' So she drew her pistol, swearing, ‘Don't you argue with this maid!' So now they all are married, as you may plainly know, And John the wounded soldier got his Colonel Jack Munro! Extract From 'The Bloody Chamber (Angela Carter, read By Kathryn Williams) From the short story "The Bloody Chamber" You never saw such a wild thing as my mother, her hat seized by the wind and blown out to sea so that her hair was her white mane, her black lisle legs exposed to the thigh, her skirts tucked around her waist, one hand on the reins of the rearing horse while the other clasped my father's service revolver, and, behind her, the breakers of the savage, indifferent sea, like the witnesses of a furious justice. And my husband stood stock-still, as if she had been Medusa, the sword still raised over his head as in those clockwork tableaux of Bluebeard that you see in glass cases at fairs. And then it was as though a curious child pushed his centime into the slot and set all in motion. The heavy, bearded figure roared out aloud, braying with fury, and, wielding the honourable sword as if it were a matter of death or glory, charged us, all three. On her eighteenth birthday, my mother had disposed of a man-eating tiger that had ravaged the villages in the hills north of Hanoi. Now, without a moment's hesitation, she raised my father's gun, took aim and put a single, irreproachable bullet through my husband's head. Lucy Wan And by there come her brother dear, "What ails thee, Lucy Wan?" "Oh I ail and I ail, dear brother," she cries, "And I'll tell you the reason why: For there is a child between my two sides That's from you, dear brother, and I." And he's drawn out his good broadsword That hung low down by his knee, And he has cutted off poor Lucy Wan's head And her fair body in three. And outen then come her thick heart's blood And outen then come the thin, And he is away to his mother's house, "What ails thee, Geordie Wan?" "Oh what is that blood on the point of your sword? My son come tell to me." "Oh that is the blood of my greyhound, He would not run for me." "But your greyhound's blood it was never so red, My son come tell to me." "Oh that is the blood of my grey mare, She would not ride with me." "But your grey mare's blood it was ne'er so clear, My son come tell to me." "Oh that not the blood of my grey mare But 'tis the blood of my sister, Lucy." "Oh what will you do when you father comes to know? Son come tell on to me." "Oh I will set forth in the bottomless boat And I will sail the sea." "And when will you come back again? My son come tell to me." "When the sun and the moon dance on yonder hill And that may never be." Extract From 'John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore' (Read By Kirsty Logan) From the short story "John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore" It is the boy, or young man, rather who is the most mysterious to me. The eagerness with which he embraces his fate. I imagine him mute or well-nigh mute; he is the silent type, his voice creaks with disuse. He turns the soil, he breaks the wills of the beautiful horses, he milks the cows, he works the land, he toils and sweats. His work consists of the vague, undistinguished "work" of such folks in the movies. No cowboy, he, roaming the plains. Where the father took root, so has the son, in the soil that was never before broken until now. And I imagine him with an intelligence nourished only by the black book of the father, and hence cruelly circumscribed, yet dense with allusion, seeing himself as a kind of Adam and she his unavoidable and irreplaceable Eve, the unique companion of the wilderness, although by their toil he knows they do not live in Eden and of the precise nature of the forbidden thing he remains in doubt. For surely it cannot be this? This bliss? Who could forbid such bliss! Was it bliss for her, too? Or was there more of love than pleasure in it? "Look after your sister." But it was she who looked after him as soon as she knew how and pleasured him in the same spirit as she fed him. Giovanni: I am lost forever. Lost in the green wastes, where the pioneers were lost. Death with his high cheek- bones and his braided hair helped Annie-Belle take off her clothes. She closed her eyes so that she could not see her own nakedness. Death showed her how to touch him and him her. There is more to it than farmyard ways. Lady Isabel And The Elf-Knight Isabel sits by her window a-sewing Aye as the gowans grow gay, grow gay And hears a young elf-knight his bright horn a-blowing On that first morning in May, in May On that first morning, first morning in May If only I had that sweet horn that's a-blowing Aye as the gowans grow gay, grow gay And that elf-knight lying in my bed until the morning On that first morning in May, in May On that first morning, first morning in May This maiden had scarcely these strange words a-spoken, Aye as the gowans grow gay, grow gay Till tap! at her window the elf-knight is a-knocking On that first morning in May, in May On that first morning, first morning in May There's a very strange matter I'm telling it to ya If I blowon my horn You come on all peculiar Will you come with me To yon greenwood side If you say no I'll persuade you to ride He leapt on a home and she leapt on another Aye as the gowans grow gay, grow gay And they rode side by side to the greenwood together On that first morning in May, in May On that first morning, first morning in May Light down, light down in the greenwood we're arrived Aye as the gowans grow gay, grow gay For we are come to the place that you will die On that first morning in May, in May On that first morning, first morning in May Have mercy, have mercy on me kind sir Aye as the gowans grow gay, grow gay I'd like to see my dear father and mother On that first morning in May, in May On that first morning, first morning in May Seven young girls have I lured here and slain Aye as the gowans grow gay, grow gay And ye shall be the eighth one of them On that first morning in May, in May On that first morning, first morning in May O sit down a while Lay your head on my knee That we may rested before that I die She stroked him so softly His breathing grew deep With charms in her fingers She lulled him to sleep Then she wrapped his dark belt Round his wrists to restrain him Aye as the gowans grow gay, grow gay Then she wrapped his dark hair Round his throat so to slay him On that first morning in May, in May On that first morning, first morning in May If seven young girls on this spot you have murdered Aye as the gowans grow gay, grow gay You better lie still here and harm nobody further On that first morning in May, in May On that first morning, first morning in May On that first morning, first morning in May On that first morning, first morning in May On that first morning, first morning in May On that first morning, first morning in May Extract from The Erl-King (Read By Polly Paulusma) From the short story "The Erl-King" Sometimes he lays his head on my lap and lets me comb his lovely hair for him; his combings are leaves of every tree in the wood and dryly susurrate around my feet. His hair falls down over my knees. Silence like a dream in front of the spitting fire while he lies at my feet and I comb the dead leaves out of his languorous hair. The robin has built his nest in the thatch again, this year; he perches on an unburnt log, cleans his beak, ruffles his plumage. There is a plaintive sweetness in his song and a certain melancholy, because the year is over - the robin, the friend of man, in spite of the wound in his breast from which Erl-King tore out his heart. Lay your head on my knee so that I can't see the greenish inward-turning suns of your eyes any more. My hands shake. I shall take two huge handfuls of his rustling hair as he lies half dreaming, half waking, and wind them into ropes, very softly, so he will not wake up, and, softly, with hands as gentle as rain, I shall strangle him with them. The Banks Of Red Roses Oh, when I was a young girl I heard me mother say That I was a foolish lass and easy led astray. And before I would work, I would rather sport and play With my Johnny on the Banks of Red Roses Well he took her to his lodge and he treated her to tea Saying, "Drink my dearest Mary and come along with me" Saying, "Drink my dearest Mary and come along with me" To the bonny bonny banks of Red Roses On the banks of red roses, my love and I sat down And he pulled out his charm flute and play his love a tune In the middle of the tune, well the bonny lassie cry ‘Arrah Johnny, lovely Johnny, would you leave me Well they walked and they talked till they came unto a cave Where Johnny all the day had been digging up a grave Where Johnny all the day had been digging up a grave For to leave his lassie low among the roses Then he took out a pen knife, it was both long and sharp And he plunged it right into his own dear Mary's heart And he plunged it right into his own dear Mary's heart And he left her lying low among the roses Extract from The Erl-King (Read By Polly Paulusma) From the short story "The Erl-King" I found the Erl-King sitting on an ivy-covered stump winding all the birds in the wood to him on a diatonic spool of sound, one rising note, one falling note; such a sweet piercing call that down there came a soft, chirruping jostle of birds. The white moon above the clearing coldly illuminate the still tableaux of our embracements. How sweet I roamed, or, rather, used to roam; once I was the perfect child of the meadows of summer, but then the year turned, the light clarified and I saw the gaunt Erl-King, tall as a tree with birds in its branches, and he drew me towards him on his magic lasso of inhuman music. Barbary Allen Twas in the merry month of May When all the flowers were blooming Sweet William on his death-bed lay For the love of Barbary Allen He sent his best friend to the town To the place where she was living Saying, you must come to William side If your name be Barbary Allen So slowly, slowly she gets up, And to his bedside going She drew the curtains to one side And says, "Young man, you're dying. "I know, I'm sick and very low, And sorrow lives within me No better I never will be Til I have Barbary Allen" "Don't you remember Saturday night When we were all a-drinking You ??? for ladies there But you slighted Barbary Allen?" He reached up his pale white hands He wanted so to touch her She turned away, she turned her back And says, "Young man I won't have you." He turned his pale cheek unto the wall And float of tears comes falling "What I do to you I do to all And I do to Barbary Allen." She had not walked and reached the home When she heard the death bells ringing And as they rolled (?) they seemed to say, "Hard-hearted Barbara Allen" "Oh Mother, mother make my bed Oh make it long and narrow William died for me today So I'll die for him tomorrow" William lay cold in the old church yard And Barbara there beside him And from his grave they grew a rose And out of hers, a briar They grew and they grew in the old churchyard Where they couldn't grow no higher And there they tied in a true love's knot The rose wrapped around the briar Extract From 'The Lady Of The House Of Love' (Read By Kirsty Logan) From the short story 'The Lady Of The House Of Love' The heavy curtains are pulled back, to let in brilliant fusillades of early morning light; in the desolation of the boudoir, she sits at her round table in her white dress, with the cards laid out before her. She has dropped off to sleep over the cards of destiny that are so fingered, so soiled, so worn by constant shuffling that you can no longer make the image out on any single one of them. She is not sleeping. In death, she looked far older, less beautiful and so, for the first time, fully human. I will vanish in the morning light; I was only an invention of darkness. And I leave you as a souvenir the dark, fanged rose I plucked from between my thighs, like a flower laid on a grave. On a grave. The Streams Of Lovely Nancy Oh, the streams of lovely Nancy are divided in three parts Where the young men and the maidens they do meet their sweethearts It is drinking of good liquor caused my heart for to sing And the noise in yonder village made the rocks for to ring At the top of this mountain, there my love's castle stands It's all overbuilt with ivory on yonder black sand Fine arches, fine porches, and diamonds so bright It's a pilot for a sailor on a dark winter's night On yonder high mountain where the wild fowl do fly There is one amongst them that flies very high If I had her in my arms, love, near the diamond's black land How soon I would secure her by the sleight of my hand At the bottom of this mountain there runs a river clear A ship from the Indies did once anchor there With her red flags a-flying and the beating of her drum Sweet instruments of music and the firing of her gun So come all you little streamers that walk the meadows gay I'll write to my own true love wherever she may be For her rosy lips entice me, with her tongue she tells me "No" And an angel might direct us, right, and where shall we go Extract From "The Bloody Chamber" (Read By Kathryn Williams) From the short story "The Bloody Chamber" And, ah! his castle. The faery solitude of the place, with its turrets of mistly blue, its courtyard, its spiked gate, his castle that lay on the very bosom of the sea with seabirds mewing about its attics, the casements opening onto the green and purple, evanescent departures of the ocean, cut off by the tide from land for half a day. That castle, at home neither on the land nor on the water, a mysterious, amphibious place, contravening the materiality of both earth and the waves, with the melancholy of a mermaiden who perches on her rocks and waits, endlessly, for a lover who had drowned far away, long ago. That lovely, sad, sea-siren of a place. Reynaldine One evening as I rambled Amongst the springing thyme I overheard a young woman Conversing with Reynardine Her hair was black, her eyes were blue Her mouth as red as wine, And he smiled as he looked upon her Did this sly bold Reynardine She says, "Young man, be civil And my company forsake, For to my good opinion I fear you are a rake" He said, "My dear, well I am no rake Brought up in Venus' train But I'm searching for concealment All from the judge's men" Her cherry cheeks and her ruby lips They lost their former dye And she's fell into his arms there All on the mountain high They hadn't kissed but once or twice When she came to again And modestly she asked him "Pray tell to me your name." "He says, if by chance you ask for me Perhaps you'll not me find, But I'll be in my castle Enquire for Reynardine" Day and night she followed him His teeth so bright did shine And he led her over the mountain Did the sly bold Reynardine Extract From 'Shadow Dance' (Read By Kirsty Logan) From the novel "Shadow Dance" He had a pair of perfectly pointed ears, such as fauns have and, curiously, these were also covered with down; his pointed ears poked whimsically through his golden lovelocks, under the shadow of the extraordinary cap. And then, disquieting, strange, at odds with the cherubface, there was the mouth. It was impossible to look at the full, rich lines of his dark red mouth without thinking: 'This man eats meat.' It was an inexpressibly carniverous mouth; a mouth that suggested snapping, tearing, biting, a mouth that was always halfsmiling in a pretty, feline curve; and showing in the smile, hints of feline, tearing teeth, small, brilliantly white, sharp, like wounding little chips of milk glass. How beautiful he was and how indefinably sinister. The Flower Of Sweet Strabane If I were king of Erin And had all things at my will I'd seek for recreation And comforts I'd seek still And the comforts I would seek for As you all may understand Would be togain the heart of Martha The flower of sweet Strabane Oh, I wish I had you Martha Away down by Innishowen Or in some lonely valley In the wild woods of Tyrone I would do mybest endeavour And try to make a plan Oh, to gain the heart of Martha The flower of sweet Strabane Oh, her cheeks they were a rosy red Her hair a lovely brown And her lily-white shoulders In ringlets they hang down And she's one of the fairest creatures In the whole Milesian clan And my heart is captivated By the flower of sweet Strabane Extract From 'Reflections' (Read By Polly Paulusma) From the short story "Reflections" I was walking in a wood one late spring day of skimming cloud and shower tarnished sunshine, the sky a lucid if intermittent blue. Cool, bright, tremulous weather. A coloratura blackbird perched on a bough curded with a greenish mayblossom let fall a flawed chain of audible pearl; I was alone in the spring-enchanted wood. I slashed the taller grasses with my stick and now and then surprised some woodland creature, rat or rabbit, that fled away from me through long grass where Uttle daisies and spindly branches of buttercups were secreted among gleaming stems still moist at the roots from last night's rain that had washed and refreshed the entire wood, had dowered it the poignant transparency, the unique, inconsolable quality of rainy countries, as if all was glimpsed through tears. The crisp air was perfumed with wet grass and fresh earth. The year was swinging on the numinous hinges of the solstice but I was ingenuous and sensed no imminence in the magic silence of the rusthng wood. Then I heard a young girl singing. Her voice performed a trajectory of sound far more ornate than that of the blackbird, who ceased at once to sing when he heard it for he could not compete with the richly crimson sinuosity of a voice that pierced the senses of the listener Uke an arrow in a dream. She sang: and her words thrilled through me, for they seemed filled with a meaning that had no relation to meaning as I understood it.
Snakeskin Snakeskin Like the shape of the shadow That used to be him Left behind Snakeskin Turn you inside and outside And nothing remains Just an outline. Your centre slithered off, it floated off A space balloon up to the ether Beat away on a wingtip And here's my bent finger Holding on to the string Snakeskin All I have, all I hold Is this cold leather hand Left in mine But it's snakeskin Desiccated and blown Like a husk in the wind Of my mind I'll put it in a box and drop it down Into a hole that's six feet under But you've escaped, you've floated off A silver space balloon up to the ether Beat away on a wingtip And here's my bent finger Holding on to the string Holding on to the string
Back of Your Hand You know I nearly stayed home tonight I've been burning the candle both ends I've been a-trailing my paws in the sticky dark ponds Of some special old friends Water and wine Casting my line back, forth, Out there again. And so I scraped on my face With the hair of a dog from the night before And I'm amazed at the grace of the barman The poise of his steady free pour Vodka and gin That's when my rovin' eye Bumps into yours… I'm gonna write down my number On the back of your hand And in the morning you'll remember Just how lovely I am You've got a face like a story And a smile I could steal And pretend that I've borrowed So come on and call me tomorrow So I've been biding my time in this booth By the ever-revolving back door I've seen enough fishes jump here To know something good when it slithers on shore Lemon and lime Barman calls time So I'm heading for home I'm gonna write down my number On the back of your hand And in the morning you'll remember Just how lovely I am You've got a face like a story And a smile I could steal And pretend that I've borrowed So come on and call me tomorrow The good ones get away so easy And the bad ones tug the line to tease me So come on, make it hard for me to run I'm gonna write down my number On the back of your hand And in the morning you'll remember Just how lovely I am You've got a face like a story And a smile I could steal And pretend that I've borrowed So come on and call me tomorrow Steal and pretend that I've borrowed So come on and call me tomorrow
Dirty Circus If it's a matter of time, I'm already late On every stick on my stage, there's a spinning plate But in this dirty circus, if I can concentrate I can feel a slow motion A slow motion That tells me I'm alive The meals keep coming at me on conveyor belt blues I've barely cleared up the plates when the next one's due But in this dirty circus, if I can think of you I can feel a slow motion A slow motion That tells me I'm alive There are days when it seems everyone else Is free and having fun It's been a week now since I looked in the mirror See what I become The descant fury of mornings, the tenor afternoons Relentless jumble of noises, devoid of tunes But in this dirty circus, if I can crawl through the ruins I can feel a slow motion A slow motion That tells me I'm alive That tells me I'm alive That tells me I'm alive Luminary Come on, come on, let's burn a bit brighter We've got years of growing old to dwindle into twilight Come on, come on, I know you're a fighter I can see it in your eyes, they shine in the firelight Come on, come on, let's work our very hardest Nothing worth its weight in gold came to us that easy Come on, come on, we're tiny motes of stardust All just floating in the sky Deciding what we want to be And we can be luminary We could be luminary Come on, let's take a walk around the city The sky's the colour of a sheet stretched out over a patient Listen to all the wild birds singing They're remembering a world returning to creation Come on, come on, let's sing a little louder We've got everyone to lose, and everyone to play for Come on, 'cause every time we take a detour We trip over the forgotten people we're supposed to be And we can be luminary We can be luminary We can be luminary Come on, come on, come on... We could be luminary We could be luminary We could be luminary We could be luminary
Bracklesham Bay I know the channel so well It feels all smooth and worn to the touch When I feel it in my mind Like an old pebble in my pocket Like that fossil from Bracklesham Bay I found in my pocket a year later All smooth and familiar, recovered Once treasured and found once again Old friend, like a stone in my pocket Unlock it The memories that rocket right out when I touch it So smooth to the fingers So smooth like a bone This small stone, turn it round and around Still some sand from the beach Where we found it, that summer When we were alone You found it, you couldn't believe it Just lying there crying to be found And your little white fingers reached out just to feel it You picked it up, said to me, "Mummy, let's take it home" So smooth like a bone This little grey stone With the fins of a fossil stamped into its skin An echo, a memory, a cry to go home And you cried, you cried to go home Out on the sand Holding hands and warm from the sun At the edge of the land Where the waves dissolve into ground Come and look at what I've found Nearly missed it in the glimmer of the sea A pebble on the beach as smooth and worn by memory As the waves that carve the shape of you and me When I think of that day I can feel the warmth from the sun And my hand in your hand Even though that day is long gone Here's that pebble that we found I thought it lost but in the twinkle of an eye Time goes flying by and in that well-worn memory I feel the waves that carve the shape of you and me Out on the sand With your tiny hand held in mine The widest horizon's in your eyes Come and show me what you found You nearly missed it in the glimmer of the sea Little pebble on the beach As smooth and worn as memory Like that pebble on the beach We all are carried out to sea On the waves that carve the shape of you and me
Any Other Way There's a thousand lives that I could now be leading And a thousand different ways that I could find to feel the same I could be a cloistered nun, a cosmic yoga teacher Or a shrink who only helps because it helps to be insane But it's hard to sing a tender tune That you are half-remembering When the radio is blaring out The big hit of the day That's life, that's life And I wouldn't have it any other way I wouldn't have it any other way Maybe I could be a moonwalk-talking astronaut Umbilicalled to oxygen, in case I float away But then I don't suppose I ever would have met you Would have travelled up the escalator facing the wrong way And it's hard to think about a face That you have half-forgotten When this great big smile is grinning And I clear the plates away That's life, that's life And I wouldn't have it any other way I wouldn't have it any other way And it scares me to think how close I came To never having met you Now you know you won't fall so very far 'Cause I'm never gonna let you down There's a thousand things that I could now be buying And a thousand different ways to soothe this existential pain There's a thousand destinations I'd be flying to All I have to do is hop on board that ever-waiting plane But all these empty promises That dress up like solutions And all the substitutions I choose you and you again That's life, that's life And I wouldn't have it any other way I wouldn't have it any other way I wouldn't have it any other way
Brambles and Briars Where do you stop, where do I begin The muddle and merge is a sinking of skin And the boundary's cursory, papery thin We breach it wherever we are Oh I am your fabric, and you are my thread And who can unravel, the knots in the head Or the cavernous avenues where you have led me I'll follow your voice like a star Grown together, brambles and briars Sown to weather sunshine and showers We're brambles and briars Mountains and rivers, and deserts within The maps of our bodies are contours of skin And the years take their toll but your eyes never dim They shine like the bright morning star Grown together, brambles and briars Sown to weather sunshine and showers We're brambles and briars Tangled together, it's funny to think Can't tell the diamonds from the ice in my drink Dandelion clocks throw their hours to the wind Where do you stop, where do I begin Grown together, brambles and briars Sown to weather sunshine and showers Grown together, brambles and briars Sown to weather sunshine and showers We're brambles and briars
The Big Sky (Feat. Kathryn Williams) She says she sings to let it all go She gives it to us to hold Gliding down like a swooping white bird To light upon the ground Coming to land on a square piece of grass When the sky is up for grabs The whole damn blue of it The sky is up for grabs Oh, the big sky Oh, the big sky She says she writes to catch it before It runs all over town Flickering wings of a butterfly It's hard to pin it down Coming to land on a square piece of paper When the sky is up for grabs The whole damn blue of it The sky is up for grabs Oh, the big sky Oh, the big sky Coming to land on a square piece of grass When the sky is up for grabs The whole damn blue of it The sky is up for grabs Oh, the big sky Oh, the big sky Oh, the big sky Oh, the big sky
Tired Old Eyes Little curly head, sleepy head, curled in your bed With your head slipping off of your pillow Changing face, what you will, grown-up-face peeps Out of childhood's slow-closing window I could watch you sleep for hours, for hours If my tired old eyes would let me When I was your size, when the fires of surprise Burned a mile high so everyone saw them I was given a message in a bottle of gold That love is the answer to boredom I could watch you sleep for hours, for hours if my tired old eyes would let me For years, I've been basting my fears In the juices of blame and recrimination All the hours that I lost simply counting the cost Of relentlessly smashing, rebuilding But I could watch you sleep for hours, for hours If my tired old eyes would let me So I'm down at the bottom, past glories forgotten The posters have crumpled and faded Here's another blank page I can harness my rage to And no-one will know that I made it But I could watch you sleep for hours, for hours If my tired old eyes would let me You are the beginning, the days flow before you You're the head and the source of the river As you slip and you run, my sweet beautiful one Take this bottle of gold to deliver I could watch you sleep for hours, for hours If my tired old eyes would let me
Sullen Volcano No, there's not enough time To contain all this life All this bursting star bloom cascade ruin That oozes in slo-mo explosions Flows hot like a sullen volcano No, there's not enough time To untangle the lines To unravel the horror the turning of tables turn ogres, turn over, take mantles Bad apples I brought home And I love and love and I love And I don't want to be the reason And I love and love and I love And I don't want to be the disease And I burn all the same for you You touch me you burn And I love and love and I love And I don't want to blacken your pennies And I love and love and I love And I don't want to corrode your bright skin Can I heal what i hurt Can I fix what i broke Did I break you, did I break, did I break Did I break, did I break you No, there's not enough time To contain all this love All this bursting star bloom cascade ruin That oozes in slo-mo explosions Flows hot like a sullen volcano
Robin A robin perches on my spade her breast stained red for sorrow Her song pours out like lemonade She sings, "love like there's no tomorrow" Love, love Love like there's no tomorrow Love, love Love like there's no tomorrow This bird is free to come and go Her own rhythms does she follow But every day she lets me know I should love like there's no tomorrow Love, love Love like there's no tomorrow Love, love Love like there's no tomorrow The earth she gives me sun and air No there's nothing loaned or borrowed And all I have is yours, my dear For I love you like there's no tomorrow Love, love Love like there's no tomorrow Love, love Love like there's no tomorrow The world is warm and free and true And it's had enough bravado It's calling me, it's calling you To love like there's no tomorrow Love, love Love like there's no tomorrow Oh, love, love Love like there's no tomorrow Oh, love, love Love like there's no tomorrow Oh, love, love Love like there's no tomorrow
Wildfires
Prologue to Paper Cathedral And there exists between us an invisible, unspeakable place hanging in the air And I can walk into it And I feel my footsteps And I feel your footsteps Flimsy yet monumental Flimsy yet Like the medieval little castle that is church is That we make at Christmastime when I was a child Feels like one of those paper cathedrals Feels like one of those paper cathedrals At any moment it might balloon into flames Paper Cathedral Pass me the matches, help me set it on fire This paper cathedral made of words and of wire I am your congregation, you are my lesson to learn So pass me the matches, let's watch it all burn We wrote this cathedral like the peal of a bell From the songs that I sing you, from the stories you tell And all of the pretty stained windows cry me their colours in turn So pass me the matches and watch it all burn And oh When I'm in our cathedral, I feel it all, I'm floating up in space And oh It's a ceiling of drеams and I never want to wake So pass mе the matches, help me set it on fire Maybe I don't deserve you, maybe you're just a liar But I have been praying for months now for these loaded tables to turn So pass me the matches and watch it all burn And oh When I'm in our cathedral, I feel it all, I'm floating up in space And oh When we burn our cathedral, a new one takes its place So pass me the matches, help me set it on fire This great altar to silence, never spoken desire And I am your rapt congregation, you're my hard lesson to learn So pass me the matches, watch it all burn Pass me the matches, watch it all burn Pass me the matches, let's watch it all burn Prologue to Mary Louise Sing me a song while we're falling forever Stop the swings Where's that thing I promised you I wouldn't lose A ring on the ground A feeling I get when my feet find the floor My stomach spinning The horizon rising Why am I still falling Did I forget my wings Stop the swings I lost my balance I don't need it anymore Where's the thing I promised you I wouldn't lose A ring on the ground, did we find it The horizon rising Am I still falling Did I forget my wings Sing me a song while we're falling forever Mary Louise Mary Louise always so sensitive Sixteen, naive, certainly set to live So far from home, so out of place Plenty of room at the castle of grace Mary Louise, shy as a butterfly Peaches and cream, life's gonna pass you by Strawberry blonde, freckly face Plenty of room at the castle of grace Looking up at the stars Can you hear their sound With your arms full of flowers And your crumpled crown Won't you come down now, Mary Louise Won't you come down now, Mary Louise Mary Louise walks to the windowsill Were you awake or were you sleeping still Fingers so fine, the wind in your face Taking your time at the castle of grace Mary Louise, white coat and dressing gown Slips through my fingers, blown like a dandelion Clock on the breeze, falling through space Taking your time at the castle of grace Looking up at the stars Can you hear their sound With your arms full of flowers And your crumpled crown Won't you come down now, Mary Louise Won't you come down now, Mary Louise Won't you come down now, Mary Louise And please don't desert me I got these questions on my mind I know that you'll never hurt me You're just a spirit trippin' up and falling over out of time Mary Louise wanders the walls for me Cartwheels the chapel, climbs up the apple tree You're gonna have the run of the place Plenty of room at the castle of grace Looking up at the stars Can you hear their sound With your arms full of flowers And your crumpled crown Won't you come down now, Mary Louise Won't you come down now, Mary Louise Won't you come down now, Mary Louise Won't you come down now, Mary Louise Prologue to Red Flags Love is the thing with feathers That ruffles and puffs when it hears words like, "What are you wearing?" "You get the bill" "Take off that lipstick" "Why this is my ?? nor am I out of it" What am I doing here Run for the hills Whiskey and pills, come on, girl You're so much wiser and wilder than this Love is the thing with feathers that nests in your hair Beware of the beasts that would feed on your meaty awareness Love is the thing that stravages under duress When it's pushed into well-meaning cagеs And a work-a-day dress Love is the thing with fеathers Red Flags When I was young I would go out with the hunters In the woodlands and forests Where the pheasants make their homes And we would carry our flags and our whistles And drive those poor birds Straight into the guns I saw the red flags rising Rising over the fields Little birds gonna fly, fly away There were feathers in the ditches And the hunters hot at their heels Little birds gonna fly, fly away Oh, I wish I could fly away Oh, I wish I could fly away When I was grown up I would play out with the hunters In the bars and the clubs and the dives all ovеr town And they'd buy me red winе in return for special favors Roll down the window I'd let my guard down I saw the red flags rising Rising over the fields Little birds gonna fly, fly away There were feathers in the ditches And blisters on my heels Little birds gonna fly, fly away Oh, I wish I could fly away Oh, I wish I could fly away Oh, I wish I could fly away Now I am older, I can feel the hunters Waving their flags, blowing their whistles in my head Now I can tell that they're only trying to scare me It's only a whistle, it's only a flag of red But I feel those red flags rising Rising over the fields Little birds gonna fly, fly away There are feathers in the ditches And I know just how that feels Little birds gonna fly, fly away Oh, I wish I could fly away Oh, I wish I could fly away Oh, I wish I could fly away Oh, I wish I could fly away Prologue to Dunstable Downs If trauma is a breach in the mind's experience of time Then I am back there with you The kitchen stock wooden panelling cupping us like old hands The life-raft of the agar to which we all clung The corner cupboard stuffed with medicines and pencil sharpening The cobwebs and the dead flies The tapestries, the ashtrays The suit of armour, the grand piano and the musty gloom of the stairwell The portraits up the stairs mock grandeur The wood fires popping and chatting in cavernous fireplaces The cellar that on demand disgorged a steady flow of wine The radio babbling to itself softly in the bedroom The dogs and the plates and the guests that littered your life Most of all, with your faltering beauty Warmth of an apple in your face Your fingers dry from raising so many sons Your knuckles red from so much thankless service Dependable, susceptible, disposable How could I lose all daughter now? (Dependable, susceptible, disposable) (How could I lose all daughter now?) Dunstable Downs I could lose myself Step out of a glider Collide with her up there on Dunstable Downs Where she floats on the breeze If I lose my way Drifting through the weather, as light as a feather She'll not make a sound As she trips through the trees Going once, going twice Put my heart under the hammer Spin the wheel, roll the dice Put it all on up for sale Fool me once, fool me twice Always knew you were a gambler Now it's going for a song And I'vе gone and made my getaway Now shе's found a way Stepped out of the skin he's been keeping her in Like an old dressing gown And she's free as the clouds And her necklaces In a white cotton shirt Now the thermals They're lifting her up over town On their way from the house Going once, going twice Put my heart under the hammer Spin the wheel, roll the dice Put it all on up for sale Fool me once, fool me twice Always knew you were a gambler Now it's going for a song And I've gone and made my getaway She is young again Oh, the wait and strain, washed away with the rain Up on Dunstable Downs Now she floats on the breeze Prologue to Over and Over Comfort comes on a cassette tape The well-worn, fragile black spool Magnetic hands that wrap themselves around you and press play They caress all the suffering, but carry miraculous healing Relief on a tiny clear box Moving parts like a hypnotist Working to break you apart Let me love you like this Over and Over I can love you over and over I will never change my mind I can love you over and over Fast-forward and rewind Here I am, you don't have to be alone In this dark and cold unknown When the world has grown so strange and unaccommodating Here I am, I'm the voice of love you crave I have power beyond the grave I will save you from the fate that you are contemplating I can love you over and over I will never change my mind I can love you over and over Fast-forward and rewind Here I am, we've been over this before I won't leave you 'til I'm sure That you've banished all those morbid thoughts you're entertaining Here I am, I will always be your friend When this song comes to an end Hit the button, take us back to the beginning I can love you over and over I will never change my mind I can love you over and over Fast-forward and rewind (Fast-forward and rewind) Fast-forward and rewind (Fast-forward and rewind) Fast-forward and rewind (Fast-forward and rewind) Fast-forward and rewind (Fast-forward and rewind) Prologue to O! My America You stand on the edge of a beautiful country As do I Though each of us filled with difficult mountain ranges Persistent rivers ??? forests And weathered planes And these ever-shifting interior landscapes of bright vistas And dark gorges Are flanked by seas that heave us each night Into a milky cataract I stand on the edge of you, gazing in O! My America My heart is a hillside Where the warm breezes blow And the grasses make shapes like pretty clouds Chasing across the meadow And you're nearly at the top now Only one more ridge to go My heart is a hillside Where the breezes blow My hands are a river Where the deep waters run Where the silvery persuasion Glittering under the sun And I wash you 'til the buttons and the lacеs come undone 'Cause my hands arе a river Where deep waters run Be my cartographer And make of me maps in your hand Oh, my America My newfound land My head is an ocean Where the tides ebb and flow And the water moves before, behind, between, above, below I can see you in the distance And your flags are all on the shore My head is an ocean Always ebb and flowing Be my cartographer And make of me maps in your hand Oh, my America My newfound land Oh, my America My newfound My newfound land Prologue to Eyes on the Road What I did not say What I can never say Is what I long to say the most That I sense and imagine life A parallel life running alongside this one Like a brightly lit train carriage at dusk on a summer's evening That momentarily adjusts its speed to travel alongside you In which you witness arguments being lost and won Phones being answered, crosswords being puzzled Music being heard, gum being chewed, books being read Promises being made and kept and broken A kaleidoscope of vibrant lives throbbing in all their infinite glorious variety In that brief moment, I see a vision of my parallel life My life to be lived, not even to be entertained And I grieve for it The train not taken As our tracks diverge and all the possibilities dissolve Into the inky richness of a summer's night Eyes on the Road The last time we met I was, motorway driving Hands on the wheel and eyes on the road We were, talking about one thing and meaning quite another It was after you left when I, figured out the code And the more you deny it The more I surrender The more we pretend that it's fine But the more you inquire And the more I defend it Now God only know that I'm trying To keep my eyes, on the road Mile after mile Keep my eyes On the road On the road We find little ways to pick up the conversation Digital thought trails and messages in rhyme And I'm, thinking about one thing But doing quite another Like cracks in the pavement I'm watching all the time And the more that I hide it The more you discern 'Cause I've never been that good at lying And the more you lean in, yeah, the hotter I burn And God only knows that I'm trying To keep my eyes On the road Mile after mile Keep my eyes On the road Mile after mile Keep my eyes On the road On the road The next time we meet, will you shuffle like a stranger Hands on the dashboard and eyes to the floor And I'll offer to make us some light conversation The mind may be strong, but the body knows the score And the more that I sidestep The more that you follow We can't seem to fall out of time And the more you concoct Yeah, the more that I swallow And God only knows that I'm trying To keep my eyes On the road Mile after mile Keep my eyes On the road Mile after mile Keep my eyes On the road Mile after mile Keep my eyes On the road On the road Wild Swimming Wild swimming, colder than space Up to my shoulder and over my face And the cold stars are fizzing, they know me by name The moon's in the first house, she's waxing to wane Wild swimming, I'll fall through the cracks Where Earth kisses heaven and covers the tracks And the waves are all crying, they're weeping in vain The moon's in the fourth house, she's waxing to wane Yeah, waxing to wane And if we'd come here any sooner I'd not have seen you in this moonlight In this moonlight And the sky tonight, so honest Is gonna make me cry on the inside Cry on the inside Wild swimming, up the bends Now the river knows everything bad I intend And she'll ripple away all the heartache and shame Yeah, the moon's in the sixth house, she's waxing to wane Yeah, wild swimming, and no one will see If I slip into you and you slip into me You can soak up my fury, I'll swallow your pain And the moon's in the eighth house, she's waxing to wane Yeah, waxing to wane And if we'd come here any sooner I'd not have seen you in this moonlight This gorgeous moonlight And the sky tonight, so honest Is gonna make me cry on the inside Cry on the inside We'll go wild swimming, colder than space Up to my shoulder and over my face And the cold stars remember the struggle, the strain The moon's in the last house, she's waxing to wane Yeah, waxing to wane Yeah, waxing to wane Prologue to Cabin in the Woods Cold star, hot star, pass on in the darkness Feet to feet, toes to toes, your heart pounding in skin Fingertips You pump out your truth And I hear you in the silences And love means wishing you well And love means wishing you keep up So blood be quiet, and fires die down For cold star, hot star, cold star A comet tail of ice and fire and dirt And I feel you pulsing down the darkness of this primal night I felt you coming towards me from afar Cabin in the Woods Imagine a cabin In some far away forest Sitting outside this moment In a wrinkle in time Where we can share all our secrets The ones we carry like bruises We win and nobody loses The battered leading the blind Just imagine the music That could flow from our fingers Just imagine the colors And the keys we might find It's this cabin I go to In some far away forest And no one knows 'cause it's not true Yeah, it's all in my mind And I wanna show you I know for sure you've understood I wanna go to Thе cabin in the wood I imagine your lighthouse Stands so strong by thе harbor Its light spins 'round like a buzzsaw It's shining down like a sun And here I am in my castle Its labyrinthine extensions Its Palisades built in decades In seconds all is undone But I wanna show you I know for sure you've understood I wanna go to The cabin in the wood And don't follow me down No, don't follow me down I shutter and I shake to be near you Oh, follow me in Yeah, don't follow me in 'Cause soon I will wake up and you'll be gone Imagine a cabin In some far away forest Where I slip rubies inside you And you emboss me with gold And all our jewels in the forest Yeah, there's no one can find them It's only us who will hide them A secret fire we can hold 'Cause I wanna show you I know for sure you've understood I wanna go to The cabin in the wood And I wanna know you From fingertip to head to foot I wanna go to The cabin in the wood Imagine a cabin In some far away forest Sitting outside this moment In a wrinkle in time Where we can share all our secrets The ones we suffer like bruises We win and nobody loses 'Cause it's all in my mind Prologue to Scars I remember you with my hands The slope of your shoulders The comportment of a whipped dog I feel so alive with you in my hands As if my mouth, my real mouth will finally open As if finally I have permission to speak in my mother tongue A portal blows open and out fly the bones And the birds and the butterflies that jostling inside me Out into the morass of cables that snake at my feet I am translated into that organic matter, that golden thread That weaves together prayers and waiting and longings That stitches us, that sutures our wounds I remember you with my hands (I remember you with my hands) Scars Show me your scars And tell me each story Don't skimp on the detail I want the guts and the gore Give me a tour Take me all round your body The places they hurt you And left you Bleeding a sore You make it so damn hard Not to love you But it's far too late To show you the door So show me your scars From all the battles before me I'll remember them all In the morning In the morning In the morning In the morning Show me the ways You tried to ignore me You failed from thе moment I walked through the door Havе you felt this before? This need to explore me At the kitchen table Or on the bathroom floor You make it so damn hard Not to love you But it's far too late To show you the door So show me your scars From all the lovers before me I'll remember it all In the morning In the morning In the morning In the morning In the morning In the morning In the morning In the morning Prologue to Last Night I Had a Dream Sound out the howl in me Bastion breach and moat mount Unwanted, unneeded battalion Raiding these inarticulate darknesses And clambering clammers And unheeded surges There is nothing here worth besieging So why do you come for me in dreaming Wave after wave Night after night For in dreaming I see it feelingly I see all of what is to come And I see none of it at all Whatever will be seeps into the darkness recesses of sleep Last Night I Had a Dream Last night I had a dream That we were still together In a house of paper mache by the sea And their streams like an Escher full of mirrors It went on and on forever When I woke it fell apart like filigree Is it the future Can you tell me What's it gonna be Last night I had a dream That you and I were strangers And we passed each other walking down the street And I cried for all the memories we had lost Like books with torn out pages When I woke up you were lying next to me Is it the future Can you tell me What's it gonna be What's it gonna be And every night I go to sleep It happens all again Last night I had a dream That you and I were lovers So beautiful that I could hardly breathe And our love was like an Escher full of mirrors It went on and forever When I woke up you were just about to leave Is it the future Can you tell me What's it gonna be What's it gonna be Prologue to Mad Girl’s Love Song #2 Dirt tracked in Ring ancient and sacred These woods have felt us all Held us all so many times And as I pace the soft path littered with leaves And flanked the exposed roots of the trees Snaking and tangling like arms in the earth The arms of all the dead who have felt this before I sense that I'm not alone here Even though I came here to be alone In the lеaves, in the branches, in thе roots It crackles And if I could see it, it would be static Like sparks in my hair Like fireflies Footfall in the woods Stark beauty of dark earth And roots like bones, like snakes, like hands Fresh smell of rain and darkening leaf mulch Pigeons and crows sailing the breeze As the sun sets mid-afternoon A strange light in the sky like a promise I am not alone here Even though I came to be alone Mad Girl’s Love Song #2 Lord knows I'm trying so hard to be good So I take myself off to wander Breewood But you are all around me You are all around me The branches keep time, they follow the score A tune for old souls who've been here before And you are all around me I don't know how you found me here Just come I've nowhere else to run I feel you in the sunlight on my skin Oh, come And climb inside my head There's nothing to be said That can't be sung, to you But you're a hundred miles away So I must bе going crazy Lord knows I'm trying so hard to be well Therе's nothing to show here, and no one to tell But you are all around me I don't know how you found me here Just come I've nowhere else to run I feel you in the sunlight on my skin Oh, come And climb inside my head There's nothing to be said That can't be sung, to you But you're a hundred miles away So I must be going crazy Maybe its all in the late lines Maybe this isn't our first time Maybe I knew you on sight Or maybe, I should be taking my medicine And this is all part of the problem Mechanical trick of the light Oh, come There's nowhere I can run I feel you in the sunlight on my skin Oh, come And climb inside my head There's nothing to be said That can't be sung, to you But you're a hundred miles away So I must be going crazy You're a hundred miles away So I must be going crazy Prologue to Throw Me To The Dogs Some nights I find I am deconstructed Devastated Like a scattering of far-fetched stars from far out across the common You have rooted on me your ring world And attacked me with a pernicious solitude When you return, I will be gone Burned into a million suns Hurling through the cosmos to return to the star nursery Watch for me Throw Me To The Dogs Here I am, Lord, here I am Lying in the dirt of my condition Here I am, Lord, here I am Trying to figure out which new position you have put me in So crooked and so slow And how the hell I'm supposed to move between them I don't know You've ripped a wrecked hole in me And my guts are all on show Yeah, you've thrown me to the dogs Again Yeah, you've thrown me to the dogs Here I am, Lord, here I am Asking you the never-еnding question Here I am, Lord, hеre I am Wondering why you pushed me in the nettles in this garden Where the weeds are overgrown Why you're making me bend down To reap the seeds I haven't sown? Or reading me the litany Of chances I have blown Yeah, you've thrown me to the dogs Again Yeah, you've thrown me to the dogs Again On nights like these I watch for you in the ancient and patient sky On nights like these I know I was born to figure out how to die On nights like these I might wait for your voice and only hear mine in the thrum Is that why you never come Here I am, Lord, here I am Lying in this dirt gets me frustrated Here I am, Lord, here I am Why'd you have to make it complicated when it's simple It is what I've always known That all the things I thought I needed I already own In this hot and clouded room Where I feel most alone Yeah, you've thrown me to the dogs Again Yeah, you've thrown me to the dogs Again Yeah, you've thrown me to the dogs Again Yeah, you've thrown me to the dogs Prologue to What You Waiting For On the outside, I am not waiting I am fulfilled and at peace I am lucky, I am blessed But if you listen very closely in the darkest moments of the night You will hear a distant sound that seems to come from the sky It is the sound of a breaking string What You Waiting For Wake me when it's time to go My bag is packed and waiting on a chair by the door You seem to be taking your sweet, sweet time And every night it's just the same You rise like tiny bubbles up the wall of my brain But I should be patient All I've got to give is time My darling, what you waiting for I know you're out there somewhere You take a hundred years or more And I will be here waiting What do I know 'Cause this heart's gotten used to sleeping on the floor My darling, what you waiting for I don't know why you're running late I'll wash up my one fork, onе knife, one spoon, and one platе But dinner on your own grows less appealing with time And I'm quite alright with who I am I figure you're just held up in some motorway jam But you don't know what you're missing Come on in, the water here is fine My darling, what you waiting for I know you're out there somewhere You take a hundred years or more And I will be here waiting What do I know 'Cause this heart's gotten used to sleeping on the floor My darling, what you waiting for Prologue to Tip of My Tongue Shiver of recognition quivers like silverfish inside me Like they're strips of tinfoil linking in a field You say we have never met, but I'm sure it's you And I shudder with a body memory that negates manners It lets creep essential mice Which is connected to forgetfulness To levy, to oblivion Unease freezes me from the inside It's time to leave Tip of My Tongue Like a bank note on the pavement Like an apple going rotten Like the tape spool in the branches that's all spent out Like your name I've forgotten It's on the tip of my tongue On the tip of my tongue I'm sure I knew you from somewhere But now it's gone Like an oil slick on the surface Like a coin down at the bottom Like that dog howling mad in the distance Like your name I've forgotten It's on the tip of my tongue On thе tip of my tongue I'm sure I knew you from somеwhere I'm sure I knew you from somewhere But now it's gone But I could swear we got to know each other Shook our worries off But there's a red light winking in the darkest corner Can we shut it off Like a cat fight in the shadows Like a bloodstain on the cotton Like a deer lying dead in the hedge rows Like your name I've forgotten It's on the tip of my tongue It's on the tip of my tongue I'm sure I knew you from somewhere I'm sure I knew you from somewhere I'm sure I knew you from somewhere But now it's gone Prologue to Long Goodbye It's a disappearing Like watching someone you love slip down underwater and sink, sink, sink And it's as if you slipped from my finger that last time Like a ring from my finger And you glinted and winked in the light as you drifted down, down, down Yes, my sweet beloved Like a ring sinking slowly to the bottom of the ocean Slipping further and further away from me All the days of our lives fall away from the light at the bottom And the time, oh, the time that emerges between us as you slip down, down, down Out of my grasp And I can't see you any longer The darkness, my sweetness I'vе cried and cried, cried an ocеan for you But no tide will bring you back to me No tide will wash you back, my sweet beloved My nameless one The light dies, the light dies And you are gone Long Goodbye Unprepared mother slips into this pinafore Hair curly soaking wet Law school summer, the world is your oyster But one little minnow slipped right through the net And you send me signs of what it's like To swim on the other side And I'll know you from your crooked smile 'Til then, it's a long goodbye 'Til then, it's a long goodbye Here, here, now mother, damn this helter skelter I'm not sure who pushed me yet But now I am thirty-three, so many holes in me Four little minnows slipped right through thе net And they send mе signs of what it's like To swim on the other side And I'll know them from their crooked smiles 'Til then, it's a long goodbye 'Til then, it's a long goodbye I-I-I I-I-I-I-I I-I-I Prologue to May Day Cluster of crumple, this clutter Disrupting white noise Turned up like a fuzz in the head Now the May blossoms swell on the branches like snow And it's time to heave all the junk up from below Lay it out in the sun Find the quiet Clear a path for the brave empty summer to come May Day I work through all these corners of chaos One at a time Unraveling their hold on my lethargy On my sanity, on my mind And I'm probably losing fortune And these butterflies have lost receipts And my wardrobe that heaves with unworn clothes Or the bank cards that I've lost down the sofa seats Like the memories of what I could have been Fast receding Oh, May day May day Swinging on the green hinge of the year Oh, May day May day The best day to clear out the cupboards Clear out my head Put you in storage Forgеt that I ever said anything Ever said anything Clеar it out Start again One might say, you're a corner of chaos In the attic of my mind And you run like a silent old movie I've been trying my whole life to rewind And I feel stuck in this film about someone And this someone, it isn't me It's a life, riddled with deceit And when I try to escape from the screen I get shoved in the back row Eating someone else's popcorn far too slowly Oh, May day May day Swinging on the green hinge of the year Oh, May day May day The best day to clear out the cupboards Clear out my head Put you in storage Forget that I ever said anything Ever said anything Ever said anything Ever said anything Clear it out And start again Prologue to You Are Everything Sometimes, I discover an old email from you And it shocks me momentarily Stops me in my tracks To hear your voice as if you were reading it to me As if you could still speak As if you hadn't slipped out of view As if I forgot And then I'm overcome with the anguish of thinking that you are out there somewhere Unable to tell me what happened to you after I held your hand Unable to tell me where you went But maybe there are ways of communicating that we haven't imagined You Are Everything I wasn't scared of dying Just of the cruel pain of separation What it would be like to be apart When there's no turning back No reverse, no negotiation I told you it scared me, and it scared me More than anything More than anything More than anything Now I'm through the gate And it's not the pain I anticipated I never knew I'd already arrived Now it's harder to tell you No phone, no communication So feel your plans are right That it's more than More than anything More than anything More than anything More than anything And stepping over you, bathed in all the lovelight That you ever were, and you ever could become And there's no longer any to throw up pretty pictures You'll remember what you've known all along You'll remember what you've known all along I'm telling you to write That there's no pain of separation We've always already arrived We are always together There's always this inspiration Always inside you, to remind you That you are everything You are everything You are everything You are everything Prologue to Tiny Little Things We spin this stuff from our fingers like gold thread, you and I An energy between us formed from twenty years of kindness The picking up of shoes, the toasting of bread The morning mugs of coffee The late-night baths and the walkings of the dog to corner lampposts We spin this stuff from our fingers, a gold thread To fasten all the parts of us that might fall off as we spin through space Buttons, cables, passports, ribbons, keys We can't see it, how much of it we've spun since we began It coils at our feet like hair, crackles with static With all the days of care and bright attention Passing back and forth between us like a shuttle on a loop We spin this stuff from our fingers like gold thread, you and I Tiny Little Things Every day Coffee in the morning Taking it in turns To boil the kettle, pour the cup And everyday Some might call it boring If our tongues tell angry, little lies Our loving hands own up to the truth And taking time to scrap away the glamory The pennies in my eyes, now I see That nothing else matters to me It's the tiny little things we do for love The tiny little things we do for love It's the tiny little things we do for love It's the tiny little things And every day, my love is in thе kitchen In the stirring, and the sipping, and thе licking of the spoon And every day, my love is in the tiny little chores that fill a morning And spill into an afternoon Just so you know Taking time to scrape away the glamory The pennies in my eyes, now I see That nothing else matters to me It's the tiny little things we do for love The tiny little things we do for love It's the tiny little things we do for love It's the tiny little things And it's never in the roses Although I know that's what it seems And it's not when he proposes So not in the crushes and the dreams It's in the drudge and the routines That's what love, love really means So every day I'll notice when you Measure the wood out for the cupboard And you cut a little piece And every day, I'll make a bit more effort Try to shut off the computer, fluff the pillows Fold the sheets 'Cause it's true I've had to scrape away this crazy glamory The pennies in my eyes, now I see That nothing else matters to me It's the tiny little things we do for love It's the tiny little things we do for love It's the tiny little things we do for love It's the tiny little things