Polly Paulusma Complete Lyrics Archive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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