Brilliant Trees

Pulling Punches

If heaven watches over me
Sowing seeds back in the soil
With eyes that see, hands that feel
Why am I the last to know ?

Sheltered lives spent partially breathing
Are gathered together under new religion

Pulling punches. Sleeping on our feet
Pulling punches. I needed someone to comfort me
Raised in summer days of splendour
Who would’ve dreamed of love never ending ?

A better world lies in front of me
A sketch of life in the books I read
Then as I walk where heaven leads
Why am I the last to know ?

Simple lives spent partially breathing
Are gathered together under new religion

Pulling punches. Sleeping on our feet
Pulling punches. I needed someone to comfort me
Raised in summer days of splendour
Who would’ve dreamed of love never ending ?

Nature feeds this nausea
Deep inside the heart of me

Sheltered lives spent partially breathing
Are gathered together under new religion

Pulling punches. Sleeping on our feet
Pulling punches. I needed someone to comfort me
Raised in summer days of splendour
Who would’ve dreamed of love never ending ?

The Ink in the Well

The lights of the ashes
Smoulder through hills and vales
Nostalgia burns in the heart of the strongest
Picasso is painting the ships in the harbour
The wind and sails
These are years with a genius for living

The rope is cut, the rabbit is loose
Fire at will in this open season
The blood of a poet, the ink in the well
It’s all written down in the age of reason

The animals run through harvested fields of fire
The bitterness shown on face of the homeless
Picasso is painting the flames from the houses
This sudden rain
These are years with a genius for living

The rope has been cut, the rabbit is loose
Fire at will in this open season
The blood of a poet, the ink in the well
It’s all written down in this age of reason

Fire at will

Nostalgia

Voices heard in fields of green
Their joy, their calm and luxury
Are lost within the wanderings of my mind
I’m cutting branches from the trees
Shaped by years of memories
To exorcise their ghosts from inside of me

The sound of waves in a pool of water
I’m drowning in my nostalgia

Red Guitar

I recognise no method of living that I know
I see only the basic materials I may use

If you ask me, I may tell you
It’s been this way for years

I play my red guitar
It’s the devil in the flesh
It’s the iron in my soul

I understand you’re facing problems inside you
A certain difficulty of being that I know too

You may ask me why do I fail
Just when I’m needed

I play my red guitar
It’s the devil in the flesh
It’s the iron in my soul

If you ask me, I may tell you
It’s been that way for years

Weathered Wall

You were someone to believe in
A place for hope in a changing world
Feeling every moment
Every one of the years spent in your arms

After a lifetime of living
These soiled hands show no life at all
Working at all hours
Never facing the fears here in my heart

Grieving for the loss of heaven
Weeping for the loss of heaven
By the wailing wall

You were someone to believe in
Giving life where there was a will to learn
But it’s the nature of living
To count only the years left in your heart

Grieving for the loss of heaven
Weeping for the loss of heaven
By the wailing wall

Backwaters

Once again I’m hiding in backwaters
Running this way and that
Trying so very hard to please
(Beware of hidden snares)
Rushing to bite the hand that feeds me
Running this way and that
(There are always other possibilities)
This way and that

Brilliant Trees

When you come to me
I’ll question myself again
Is this grip on life still my own ?
When every step I take
Leads me so far away
Every thought should bring me closer home

And there you stand
Making my life possible
Raise my hands up to heaven
But only you could know

My whole world stands in front of me
By the look in your eyes
By the look in your eyes
My whole life stretches in front of me
Reaching up like a flower
Leading my life back to the soil

Every plan I’ve made ’s
Lost in the scheme of things
Within each lesson lies the price to learn
A reason to believe
Divorces itself from me
Every hope I hold lies in my arms

And there you stand
Making my life possible
Raise my hands up to heaven
But only you could know

My whole world stands in front of me
By the look in your eyes
By the look in your eyes
My whole life stretches in front of me
Reaching up like a flower
Leading my life back to the soil

Gone to Earth 

Taking the Veil

In dresses white, all set for sail
A little girl dreams of taking the veil

In dresses white, all set for sail
A little girl dreams of taking the veil

On beaches clean of sand and shell
A little girl dreams of taking the veil

All lightning bright and thunder loud
A little girl dreams safe and sound 

Laughter and Forgetting

Running like a horse between the trees
The ground beneath my feet
Gives me something to hold on to
With the reins around my heart
Guided by hands
That spread life before my very eyes

Well every hope falls down on its knees in time
But I’m no longer lost
Every day, every second, every hour inside
Love’s my only guide

Are these the years of laughter and forgetting ?

Before the Bullfight

I hear your voice way down inside
A whispering sea of towering trees
But no reply

A silence so rare and more than I can stand
Sweeps like a flood
Through life’s flesh and blood
And steals away with its heart

If I’m losing you
Then there’s nothing more than I can say
The fighting is on and battles are won
Or thrown away

But if I could live safe and sound
In God given fields or mountains of steel
Then here I’d stay ‘til you’re gone

Guilty of stealing every thought I own
I will take my turn to fight the bullfight
Every word’s sunk in deep
Like the blades of a knife through my heart
But my strenght will return to fight the bullfight

As time’s come to show
I’m told nothing more than I should know
A ship on the sea that threatens to leave
But never goes

This island of blue
Where life clings to your hands
Like water and sand will lose its way
When you’re gone

When all’s forgiven still every fault’s my own
I will take my turn to fight the bullfight
Say a prayer for my release
When every hope in the world is asleep
And my strenght will return to fight the bullfight

Gone to Earth

With a burning candle
A book of holy things
They’ll throw you up against the wall
Bind your hands with string
Caught in this sudden shower
Our host of heavenly Kings
They’re all victims of circumstance
Of ancient bells that brings
All the fear in the world, naked and shy
Down upon our heads, with no reason why

(the soul goes beyond being and enters this divine world)

And though voices may holler
For all they’re worth
The rabbits have fled their burrows
Gone to earth

Wave

It’s seems that I remember
I dreamed a thousand dreams
We’d face the days together no matter what they’d bring
A strenght inside like I’d never known
Opened the door to life and let it go

This sun may shine forever
Upon the back of love
A kingdome raised from ashes and held within your arms
And should the rain break through the trees
We’ll find a shelter there and never leave

I’ll run to you, nothing stands between us now
Nothing I can lose
This light inside can never die
Another world just made for two
I’ll swim the seas inside with you
And like the waves, without a sound
I’ll never let you down

Upon a wave of summer
A hilltop paved with gold
We shut our eyes and made the promises we hold
A will to guide and see us through
I’d do it all again because of you

I’ll run to you, nothing stands between us now
Nothing I can lose
This light inside can never die
Another world just made for two
I’ll swim the seas inside with you
And like the waves, without a sound
I’ll never let you down

I’d tear my very soul to make you mine

Riverman

I see your eyes light up like fire
It’s medicine to me
But as the hunted live their lives
You’re keeping out of reach

So I keep running, falling
‘Til I reach the water
Run with me Holyman
But when I reach out
I find I’m standing right beside her
Now we’re living blessed with all the thunder in the world

Should you ask me to come home
To wake up from the sleep
Like a boat inside a storm
Is there no hope for me ?

So I keep running, falling
Wade into the water
Run with me river man
But when I reach out
I find I’m standing right beside her
Now we’re living blessed with all the thunder in the world

So I keep running, falling
‘Til I reach the water
Run with me Holyman
But when I reach out
I find I’m standing right beside her
Now we’re living blessed with all the thunder in the world

Silver Moon

Out upon the open fields
The rain is pouring down
We’re puling up the sheets again
Against the passing tides of love
Every doubt that holds you here
Will find their own way out

I will build a shelter if you call
Just take my hand and walk
Over mountains high and wide
Bridging rivers deep inside
With a will to guide you on
Your heart will need no one
Those days are gone

Baby, I can tell you there’s no easy way out
Lost inside of dreams that guide you on
Baby, I can tell you there’s no easy way out
Soon the guiding moonlight will be gone

Out upon the ocean waves subside
From the weakness of the tide
That punishes in kind
When the heavens open wide
Every shore the moon shines on
Every word her siren’s song: “Believe in no one”

Baby, I can tell you there’s no easy way out
Lost inside of dreams that guide you on
Baby, I can tell you there’s no easy way out
Soon the guiding moonlight will be gone

The Healing Place
(Voice of Joseph Beuys)

That has to be the age of overcome
The systems which are on the ceiling
Which are on the run to destroy
Human kind's nation
Human kind's inwardness
Human kind's ability
What for me is a true capital
And which is a side effect
Last not least destroys the nature and us

Upon This Earth
(Voice of J. G. Bennet)

Looking by chance in at the open window
I saw my own self seated in his chair
With gaze abstracted, furrowed forehead,
Unkempt hair.

I thought that I had suddenly come to die,
That to a cold corpse this was my farewell,
Until the pen moved slowly upon paper
And tears fell.

He had written a name, yours, in printed letters:
One word on which bemusedly to pore
No protest, no desire, your naked name,
Nothing more.

Would it be tomorrow, would it be next year?
But the vision was not false, this much I knew;
And I turned angrily from the open window
| Agahst at you.

Why never a warning, either by speech or look,
That the love you cruelly gave me could not last?
Already it was too late: the bait swallowed,
The hook fast 

Secrets of the Beehive

September

The sun shines high above
The sounds of laughter
The birds swoop down upon
The crosses of old grey churches
We say that we’re in love
While secretly wishing for rain
Sipping coke and playing games

September’s here again
September’s here again

The Boy with the Gun

He knows well his wicked ways
A course of bitterness
A grudge held from his childhood days
As if life had loved him less
Reading down his list of names
He ticks them one by one
He points the barrel at the sky
Firing shots off at the sun

”I’m the law and I am the king
I am the wisdom, listen to me sing”

He carves out the victim’s names
In the wooden butt of the gun
He leans well back against the tree
He knows his kingdome’s come
He’ll breathe a sigh self satisfied
The work is in good hands
He shoots the coins into the air
And follows where the money lands

”I’m the law and I am the king
I am the wisdom, listen to me sing”

He pauses at the city’s edge
Of hellfire and of stone
He summons up the devil there
To give him courage of his own
He’ll free the sinners of deceit
They’ll hear his name and run
His justice is his own reward
Measured out beneath the sun

”I’m the law and I am the king
I am the wisdom, listen to me sing”

And my name’s on the gun

The work is just began
By the boy with the gun

Maria

“Climb the stairs
And step into my dreamhouse”

These words are yours, Maria

The waters warm
(hold me)
The table bare
(‘til the worst is past)
Until the summer nights return
Until we close our eyes

Maria, your every thought’s my heartbeat
Maria, save a thought for me

Orpheus

Standing firm on this stoney ground
The wind blows hard
Pulls these clothes around
I harbour all the same worries as most
The temptations to leave or to give up the ghost
I wrestle with an outlook on life
That shifts between darkness and shadowy light
I struggle with words for fear that they’ll hear
But Orpheus sleeps on his back still dead to the world

Sunlight falls, my wings open wide
There’s a beauty here I cannot deny
And bottles that tumble and crash on the stairs
Are just so many people I knew never cared
Down below on the wreck on the ship
Are a stronghold of pleasures I couldn’t regret
But the baggage is swallowed up by the tide
As Orpheus keeps to his promise and stays by my side

Tell me, I’ve still a lot to learn
Understand, these fires never stop
Believe me, when this joke is tired of laughing
I will hear the promise of my Orpheus sing

Sleepers sleep as we row the boat
Just you the weather and I gave up hope
But all of the hurdles that fell in our laps
Were fuel for the fire and straw for our backs
Still the voices have stories to tell
Of the power struggles in heaven and hell
But we feel secure against such mighty dreams
As Orpheus sings of the promise tomorrow may bring

Tell me, I’ve still a lot to learn
Understand, these fires never stop
Please believe me, when this joke is tired of laughing
I will hear the promise of my Orpheus sing

The Devil's Own

The night is dark and cold
The strong winds and the rain
Crack the branches upon my window
The devil beats his drum
Casting out his spell
Dragging all his own down into hell

The ticking of the clock
Inexorably goes on
The howling of the stray souls of heaven
The treasures of the cove
Where the traders stored their gold
Echo voices still dead to the world

Underneath the vine
Shaded by the leaves
I still hold you close to me
Beneath the open stars
Beneath the pillows and the sheets
I still hold you dear to me

The ticking of the clock
Surely sunrise won’t be long
When darkness hides inside it’s own shadow
The devil beats his drum
Casting out his name
Dragging all his own down into shame

When Poets Dreamed of Angels

She rises early from bed
Runs to the mirror
The bruises inflicted in moments of fury

He kneels beside her once more
Whispers a promise
“Next time I’ll break every bone in your body”

And the well-wishers let the devil in
And if the river ran dry they’d deny it happening

As the cardplayers deal their hands
From the bottom of the deck
Row upon row of feudal houses blow away
Medicine for the popular complaint

When the poets dreamed of angels
What did they see
History lined up in a flash at their backs

When the poets dreamed of angels
What did they see
The bishops and knights well placed to attack

Mother and Child 

Shadows form knights and pawns
Upon the squares
Blood is drawn up from the well
Secret signs brought the crime
Right to your door
An innocent guilty as hell

Oh, the cot is open wide
Damp with milk and honey
Gone the mother and the child
In Jesus name

Oh, the cot is open wide
Damp with milk and honey
Gone the mother and the child
In Jesus name

Should they be waiting there
On my return
I may run into their arms
Walking on a razor’s edge
Unconcerned
Game is lost again
I’ll never learn

Let the Happiness In

I’m waiting on the empty docks
Watching the ships come in
I’m waiting for the agony to stop
Oh, let the happiness in

I’m watching as the gulls all settle down
Upon the empty vessels
The faded whites of their wedding gowns
The songs of hopeless selflessness

The cold december sun
A cold that blisters
The hands of a working man
Wasted

I’m waiting on the empty docks
Watching the ships roll in
I’m longing for the agony to stop
Oh, let the happiness in

Oh, let the happiness in

Listen to the waves against the rocks
I don’t know where they’ve been
I’m waiting for the skies to open up
And let the happiness in

Oh, let the happiness in

'Cause it's coming
Coming on
Let the happiness in

Oh, let the happiness in

'Cause it's coming
Coming on

Waterfront 

On the banks of a sunset beach
Messages scratched in sand
Beneath a roaming home of stars
Young boys try their hand
A spanish harbouring of sorts
In Catalonian bars
They were pulled from a sinking ship
And saved for last

On the waterfront the rain
Is pouring in my heart
Here the memories come in waves
Raking in the lost and found of years
And though I’d like to laugh
At all the things that led me on
Somehow the stigma still remains

Watch the train steam full ahead
As it takes the bend
Empty carriages lose their tracks
And tumble to their end
So the world shrinks drop by drop
As the wine goes to your head
Swollen angels point and laugh
“This time your god is dead”

On the waterfront the rain
Is pouring in my heart
Here the memories come in waves
Raking in the lost and found of years
And though I’d like to laugh
At all the things that led me on
Somehow the stigma still remains

Is our love strong enough ?

Promise (The Cult of Eurydice)

The silence of the park
The moonshine after dark
Came to keep her company

The tiny golden cross lay upon her throat
Hands clutching tight her rosary

The rain upon her lips
Eyes opened with a kiss
Just too late for us to see

She sits upon the ground
Face covered by a shroud of midnight canopy

And when the lightning starts
The secrets in her heart
Merge within the rain patterns

And when the shadows fall
The promise of it all
Is lost inside the tears that linger on

A1l the things we'd hoped
Would always keep us close
Stand between us now, as fences

The letters that we wrote
Have all gone up in smoke
And now you're just too far to listen in

When all but hope is lost
You believe at any cost
In things that make the living lighter

And when the shadows fall
The promise of it all
Is lying in the bed beside her

Forbidden colours 

The wounds on your hand never seem to heal
I thought all I needed was to believe

Here am I, a lifetime away from you ?
The blood of Christ or the beat of my heart
My love wears forbidden colours
My life believes

Senseless years thunder by
Millions are willing to give their lives for you
Does nothing live on ?

Learning to cope with feelings aroused in me
My hands in the soil, buried inside myself
My love wears forbidden colours
My life believes in you once again

I’ll go walking in circles
While doubting the very ground beneath me
Trying to show unquestioning faith in everything
Here am I, a lifetime away from you ?
The blood of Christ, or a change of heart

My love wears forbidden colours
My life believes
My love wears forbidden colours
My life believes in you once again

The First Day

God's Monkey

One push
You fall in
Born in darkness
Built on shame
And hurting
Filled with silence
Filled with silence
And stars
Stars
Stars
Find the ladder
Climb the ladder
To God's monkey
No songs
To sing
That I believe in
That I believe in
Can't breathe the air
It's too thin
This far from heaven
This far from heaven
And stars
Stars
Find the ladder
Climb the ladder
To God's monkey

Jean The Birdman

He gambles on the saddle
He's pulling on the mane
He thrashes on the horse's back
Ambition is a bloody game

Horse doesn't want to jump
The river looks too wide
Well he faces every hurdle
With a nervous state of mind

"Stay with me, breathe deeply
take three passes back
turn and make a full attack"

The gods are laughing
And they're tugging at the reins
But he's taken to his wings
And they hit the bank

Heaven may stone him
But Jean the birdman pulls it off

His finger's on the trigger
His eye is on the clock
He doesn't give the game away
And quickly fires the bullets off

Six hearts cut short
Still dreaming they're alive
Blown 'round in dusty circles
Like an absent state of mind

Who hunter? Who victim?
God love America
He surely doesn't love him

Hitching out of nowhere
Lines of traffic knee deep
A chance to stave the morning off
And get some sleep

Heaven may stone him
But Jean the birdman pulls it off

He wears a crucifix
His mother left to him
It's wrapped in chains around his heart
Rusted and wafer thin

"Don't count on luck son"
All the angels sing
"Don't need to check a weathervane
We all know what tomorrow brings"

Life is a cattle farm
Coyotes with the mules
Life is a bullring
For taking risks and flouting rules

Who needs a safety net
The world is open wide
Just look out for card sharks
And the danger signs

Heaven may stone him
But Jean the birdman pulls it off

Firepower

He beats the door and breaks his watch
Raids the fridge and eats the lot
No room for silence, pause of thought
To ease the hurt inside him

They placed a barrel at his head
Raging blind and rising
Cursed by saints and all the rest
He can't stand up for trying

Shot through with anger and desire
A mouth to feed, a room for hire
He drinks 'goodbyes', the bottle dry
Brutalised but smiling

Causing casualties by the hour
Outweighed by stars
And Firepower

Causing casualties by the hour
Waylayed by stars
And Firepower

He beats the door and breaks the lock
Afraid to sleep he won't let up
No room for silence, pause or thought
To ease the hurt inside him

Brightness Falls

Baby, baby
I hate to go
Don't leave me alone with this sorrow
The body's heavy
The getting's slow
Lost in moments
Caught in moments
The night is starless
And stands below
And I need you by my side

Baby, baby
I love you so
Don't leave me alone in this hollow
When brightness falls
Who'll come running?
When brightness falls
Who'll come running in?
Saved by silence
Save by noise
Save by lightning
Saved by joy
Building on emptiness
And all you broken hearted people

Baby, Baby
The hurt heals slow
And who can believe in tomorrow?
When brightness falls
Who'll come running?
When brightness falls
Who'll come running in?
The ticket's exploded
Only one way out
Live in lightness
Lost in lightness
There's nothing left to write about
And time's no longer
The greatest injustice of all
On this new day

20th Century Dreaming

Cold morning
Start of another day
Sleeping through the epilogue
Waking to the sound of rain
Driven to the crossroads
Where value's meaningless
What did you do to my faith
In justice, hope and happiness

Social, economical, spiritual
I'm moving to the house of love

Take my fire
Take my food and water
Forget about those promises
Of social good and social order
Lassoed by the cowboys
Tied down and it shows
Well I'm roping in those bad dreams
And selling off my work clothes

Social, economical, spiritual
I'm moving to the house of love

Gonna take a course of action
To restore my sight
'til the heart of motivation
Is filled with a golden light
They're hiding in the treetops
Tugging at my coat
But the power lines are falling down
And burning in the undergrowth

Social, economical, spiritual
I'm moving to the house of love

As the river runs
Tumbles and turns
You know you shouldn't stay
Or play the game again
But it could be different this time
You may win

Dreaming, dreaming
Dreaming, dreaming lying down

Dreaming,dreaming
Dreaming, dreaming lying down

I'm moving to the house of love

Here comes the dreaming

Darshan

Darshan

Two birds
One stone
One chance
Is thrown
Don't make
Mistakes

Two thieves
Strung up
One knife
One cut
Two doors
One shut

One light
One way
One road
To take
We stand
And wait

From cool
To warm

Dead bees on a cake

I Surrender

I opened up the pathway of the heart
The flowers died embittered from the start
That night I crossed the bridge of sighs
And I surrender

I looked back and glimpsed the outline of a boy
His life of sorrows now collapsing into joy
And tonight the stars are all aligned
And I surrender
My mother cries beneath a southern sky
And I surrender

Recording angels and the poets of the night
Bring back the trophies of the battles that we fight
Searchlights fill the open skies
And I surrender

Outrageous cries of love have called you back
Derailed the trains of thought
Demolished wayward tracks
You tell me I’ve no need to wonder
Why I just surrender

I stand too close to see the sleight of hand
How she found this child
Inside the frightened man
Tonight I’m learning how to fly
And I surrender

I’ve travelled all this way for your embrace
Enraptured by the recognition on your face
Hold me now while my old life dies tonight
And I surrender
My mother cries beneath the open skies
And I surrender

An ancient evening just before the fall
The light in your eyes, the meaning of it all
Birds fly and fill the summer skies
And I surrender

She throws the burning books into the sea
“Come find the meaning of the word inside of me”
It’s alright the stars are all aligned
And I surrender
My mother cries beneath the moonlit skies
And I surrender

My body turns to ashes in her hands
The disappearing world of footprints in the sand
Tell me now that this love will never die
And I’ll surrender
My mother cries beneath the open skies
And I surrender

Dobro #1

I stole a life
With braids of fire
And it rained on my house all summer

There never was any freedom here
All I feared the most
Came back around
And it rained on my house
And it rained on my house all summer

Midnight Sun

They’ve stolen the moon
The magic is gone
And there in it’s place
A black midnight sun
The darkness is frightening
And love is denied

They’ve stolen the moon
God only knows why

The stars have lost their daughter
The devil’s thieves have won
And there in her place
A black midnight sun

Thalheim

Couldn’t leave you if I tried
Couldn’t weather this alone
And through the darkness you still provide
The sweetest love I’ve ever known

Take the shadow from the road I walk upon
Be my sunshine, sunshine
And in the emptiness
You look and find someone
The damage is undone
And love has made you strong
Heaven gave me mine

Thalheim

The saddest words have come undone
Changing the very air I breathe
And miracles have just begun
In which only you and I believe

Take the shadow from the road I walk upon
Be my sunshine, sunshine
And in the weightlessness
You look and find someone
The damage is undone
And love has made you strong
Heaven gave me mine

Thalheim

When I’m all the sea
You never let me down
I’ll just keep coming back to you
‘Til I walk on solid ground

From the foothills to the mountains
On the waters of the Rhine
Face to face in Shahbagh gardens
In communion, out of time

Thalheim

From the lilies of the valley
To the grapes upon the vine
The well of speculation
Is it his or hers or mine ?

Thalheim

In the everything and nothing
In disharmony and rhyme
In the sound of shot and echo
Who’s the victim, what’s crime ?
What’s the crime ?

Be my, be my sunshine

In the keening cries of evening
Unforgotten, underlined
We slipped into the water
Out of focus, out of time

God Man

Welcome to Sun State
The language of light
The energies impulse
The loud, dark, iron
The purpose of history
In Eurasian Steppes
From threshold to threshold
Astonishment

You’ve misunderstood the place where you stand
God Man

You’ve misunderstood the place where you stand
God Man

From different maps
Dead bees on a cake
You’re sweeping the forest
Man, it’s getting late
The milkweed is growing
Through cotton grass
You borrowed the car
But you didn’t ask

You’ve misunderstood the place where you stand
God Man

You’ve misunderstood the place where you stand
God Man

You’ve misunderstood the place where you stand
God Man

And everything’s dark
Then you’re wrapped up
Born into brightness

You’ve misunderstood the place where you stand
You’ve misunderstood the place where you stand
You’ve misunderstood the place where you stand

Alphabet Angel

It’s later than I thought it was
The shadows long and lost
Circle through the room
I swear as I met your mother there
In New Orleans
The sun was slipping into blue

The longest day is over
The longest day

My alphabet angel’s come out to play

Krishna Blue

She’s here in the snowfall
At dead of night
The mood is of courtship
The final fight
She’s all that I need
All that I am
The voice of compassion inside of man

If you open the gates
The madness begins
I’ll follow you down
I’ll follow you back in
She’s here in the lifelines
In every curve
Suspended in silence
Between each word

It’s all in the way that she moves
The grace and the light that will see me through
It’s coming true
She’s prizing the rope from my hands
The fear and the hopes that I held onto
It’s coming true
Colour the river I swim back to you
Krishna blue

Waist deep in water
She starts to sing
The voice is familiar
And draws me in
She’s lighting the fires
I dowsed by hand
Erasing the figure drawn in sand

You open the gates
The madness begins
I follow you down
I follow you back in
And here in the darkness
The boundary gone
The flame is alive
And burning strong
It’s all in the way that she moves
The grace and the light that will see me through
It’s coming true
Colour the river I swim back to you
Krishna blue

In the softest belly
And the warmest heart
In your open hands
I lay my head
In the never-ending
I fall apart
In the silent forest
And the brilliant red
And through the stream of words
There comes a sound
And I listen
Child-like
To her voice
Spellbound

It’s all in the way that she moves
The grace and the light that will see me through
It’s coming true
She’s prizing the rope from my hands
The fear and the hopes that I held onto
It’s coming true
Colour the river I swim back to you
Krishna blue

The shining of things

Take my word for it this never should’ve happened
What in the world do you think got into me ?
We fire at will and as we watch the pieces shatter
We find we’re closer than we’ve ever been

She calls my name and I come running
I have lost the voice I listened to
And in the blindness as my world stops turning
There’s a sadness like I never knew
But I still see the shining of things

As the morning breaks it hardly seems to matter
I hear a shallowness in everything I say
We’ve played the night out in all too familiar fashion
To wear the heartache through another day

She calls my name and I come running
I have lost the voice I listened to
And there’s a stillness now the rains stopped falling
And there’s a sadness like I never knew
But I see the shining of things

Cafe Europa 

They fired off the first shot
So we’re on our feet and running
We’re re-writing all the text books
In the process of becoming
We’ve so much to live for
If we stop putting up a fight
There’s a place for every story
And this one starts with us tonight

Let me take you down
To Café Europa
There’s so much to be found
So much to discover
Let me take you down
To Café Europa
There’s so much to be found

I won’t let you down

We’re travelling by moonlight
From London to the Highlands
We lose ourselves in inner cities
In the hope of re-defining
The space that surrounds us
Or the emptiness within
It’s all in the papers
The boy’s in love again

Always arriving
Headlights lit up from coast to coast
Empty days, full bursting
With the names of the people and places
We miss the most

I’m taking the last train
Flying the last flight
Calling on the angels
They’re letting in the sunlight

Let me take you down
To Café Europa
There’s so much to be found
So much to discover
Let me take you down
To Café Europa
There’s so much to be found

I won’t let you down

Let me take you down to Café Europa
Let me take you down to Café Europa

It’s the heart that has been broken
Finds the truth in what is spoken

Pollen Path

Welcome me father
On the north shores of Lapland
Welcome me father
Who knows no name
Welcome me mother
The earth here is yawning
My body is shaking
For want of a flame

Down here
Got to laugh
The kick back is lightening
Drowning
Got to laugh
This whole thing is frightening

I follow the pollen path
The pollen path

Welcome me father
The lava is rising
Welcome me mother
And give me your name

We’ve drunk from this wellspring
Too long, too long
Dividing the hours
To measure the time

We’ve lived with this heartache
Too long, too long
Numbering
What’s yours, what’s mine

We’ve harboured this sadness
So long
Nursing a voice
To sing us our songs

Raising a voice
To sing our songs

Wanderlust

Help me
I feel like I’m weightless
Floating right out of your hands

And there’s only so much I aspire to
Taking one day at a time
And deliverance has many faces
But grace is an acquaintance of mine
Tell me how could it have happened ?
You know that we’re not the marrying kind
Travel light, don’t think twice
We’re leaving the shadows behind

It’s given us this wonderful wanderlust
It’s given us this wonderful wanderlust
It’s given us this wonderful wanderlust
I don’t doubt it, I feel it

Wonderful wanderlust

Help me
This waterboy’s wasted
Falling right out of your sky

And there’s nothing I could do without here
Loving the state that I’m in
Between no longer and not yet
On the treshold of some brighter thing
The match was struck and I was fire
The embers of a drowning man
Tell me why won’t I listen
Or acknowledge that I don’t understand ?
Losing light, the selfish kind
And we’re out on the road again

It’s given us this wonderful wanderlust
It’s given us this wonderful wanderlust
It’s given us this wonderful wanderlust
I don’t doubt it, I feel it

Turn the headlights on full
I want to take in it all
Let it wash over me

The bridge looked so high
From the banks that we climbed
But we climbed them so that we could be free

Give me no dreams of what the future brings
I need to know when I have gone too far

Repeated lightning strikes
Up and down the spine
They search us out wherever we are

In a world full of lies
That tug at the truth
I’m taking no sides
Now I recognise you

It’s given us this wonderful wanderlust

Darkest Dreaming

Stay tonight
We’ll watch the full moon rising
Hold on tight
The sky is breaking

I don’t ever want to be alone
With all my darkest dreaming
Hold me close
The sky is breaking

I don’t ever want to be alone
With all my darkest dreaming
Hold me close
The sky is breaking

Blemish

Blemish

I fall outside of her
She doesn't notice
I fall outside of her
She doesn't notice at all

And mine is an empty bed
I think she's forgotten
And mine is an empty bed
She's forgotten I know

Put the brakes on
Put the brakes on
'Cos I'm fading fast
Can't find the link
Between me and her

He who was first's coming in last

I fall outside of her

And the trouble is there's no telling
Just who's right or who's wrong

Don't tell me that love is all there is
I know don't I ?

Don't crowd me pappy
Got too much to think about
The game's not lost
If I say it's not
And it's not
Give me one more chance to do things right
Don't crowd me pappy
Got too much to think about

There's no talking to her
Talking to her
I'll keep my thoughts to myself
Unless I'm asked

Like blemishes upon the skin
Truth sets in

Life's for the taking so they say
Take it away

I fall outside of her
She doesn't notice
She doesn't notice at all
And mine is an empty bed
I think she's forgotten

All is bloated and far from truth
Let's secure that reputation
Place the dummy upon the roof
Stitch him a tongue
Give him proof

Don't tell him love is all there is
I know, I know
Just pull the wool down over his eyes
One more time

Her heart's a foreign place
I visited for a while
And although I try to please her
She came at night and stole my visa

Come away now, run away now little man
You'll not make sense of it
Try as you might to understand

Like blemishes upon the skin
Truth sets in

The good son

You know he'll take you
But not too far
Always first in line
But second to none
The good son

The good son

He loves a good tune so whistle one he knows
He looks to you to see things right

So take this ring and pass it on
There's always stories riddled with lies
You know the questions are best put aside
Listen to him
Listen closely now here he comes

It's a shameful way to behave
It'll hurt if he gets his own way

You know he'll take you
But not too far
Always first in line
Second to none
Listen closely now
Listen closely now
Here he comes
The good son

He tells himself
It's too far to come
To redefine his aspirations to be
The good son
The good son
The good son

"Don't try to make sense of it" she said
"It's all that you can do to balance up the books
For him and you"

And though he's nothing in particular
But he's game for a fight
He muscles his way in and stays for life

And all the world has come undone
And every family should have one
A good son

The only daughter

She was, she was
A friend of mine
Do us a favour, your one and only warning
Please be gone by morning

She was, she was
A friend of mine

Inconsistencies
Words on paper
The track still warm
I came to hate her

Smitten no longer
Me, the only daughter
Render the vow
It's my home now

This, your one and only warning
Please be gone by morning

And if the ending is clean
The quirk, the fuss, the vaseline
She won't even see it coming
Roll them over, roll them over, roll them over
Me, the only daughter

She was, she was a friend of mine

Smitten no longer
Me, the only daughter
Render the vow
It's my home now

The penny's dropped
The room's in order
I masked the spot
Me, the only daughter

Do us a favour, your one and only warning
Please be gone by morning

The Heart Knows Better

I don't know how long
She's been here with me
But it's been a long time coming

Make it last forever
Make it last forever
Yes, it's been a long time coming

There's a name for this one
There's a name for that
Call me by my true name
I'll call you back
But I've no intention of seeking you out

And the mind's divisive
But the heart knows better-ha
Better-ha

And every night is wedding night in my bed
My eyes are closed but I can see
The sky stretched overhead
The mattress on the floor
A sea of faces at my door
And every night is wedding night and I'm set

And the mind's divisive
But the heart knows better-ha
Better-ha

When she whispered in my ear
What did she say?
She put her hand hard on my chest
What did she say?
Oh, but nothing really matters in the end
And if everything still matters what then?

And the air is humid and my face is wet
And the driver's much too drunk too see
But she's sitting in my place
Devastating beauty in my place
And I'm absent from the place I ought to be

And the mind's divisive
But the heart knows better-ha
Ha-ha-ha

She Is Not

There she is among her children
Full of paintings
Going round and round the houses
Full of paintings, full of pictures
There she is not

Late Night Shopping

Ask me I might go
Why not take me with you?
Ask me I might go
Late night shopping

We can take the car
No one will be watching
We can lose ourselves
Late night shopping

Tell me what we need
Write a list or something
We don't need to need a thing
Late night shopping

How Little We Need To Be Happy

She fell
No jewels for the hurt
When she fell
Where is the mother?

Draw back the sheets
Shake off the sleep and complete me
As I complete you
There's a universe of disappointment to be lost

How little we need to be happy
How little we need to be really happy

And you my girl
Did I forget to sing?
You, brimming with life and with joy
And curiousity

And the lights won't go out
The stars refuse to dim
And everything goes on but not as before

"They removed his voice
And the silence overwhelmed him"
How little it takes

Some of us are undecided
We might come to you
To find a new way out of this one
She should pull us through

What have they done to you?
Come here let me hold you
Cry all your tears
The sorrows that threaten to overwhelm you

Let's rise up again

A Fire In The Forest

There is always sunshine
Above the grey sky
I will try to find it
Yes, I will try

My mind has been wandering
I hardly noticed
It's running on its own steam
I let it go
Oh here comes my childhood
A penny for your secrets
It's standing in the window
Not out here where it belongs

There's a fire in the forest
It's taking down some trees
When things are overwhelming
I let them be
I would like to see you
It's lovely to see you
Come and take me somewhere
Come take me out

There is always sunshine
Far above the grey sky
I know that I will find it
Yes, I will try

Manafon

Small Metal Gods

It’s the farthest place I’ve ever been
It’s a new frontier for me
And you balance things
Like you wouldn’t believe
When you should just let things be

Yes, you juggle things
‘Cause you can’t lose sight
Of the wretched storyline
It’s the narrative that must go on
Until the end of time

And you’re guilty of some self-neglect
And the mind unravels for days
I’ve told you once
Yes, a thousand times
I’m better off this way

I’m better off… this way

Where’s my queen of hearts
My royal flush
I have cleaned and scrubbed her decks
My suicide, my better days
There’s nothing I regret

I’ve placed the Gods
In a Ziploc bag
I’ve put them in a drawer
They’ve refused my prayers for the umpteenth time
So I’m evening up the score

Small metal gods
From a casting line
From a factory in Mumbai
Some manual labourer’s bread and butter
And a single-minded life

Small metal gods
Cheap souvenirs
You’ve abandoned me for sure
I’m dumping you, my childish things
I’m evening up the score

The Rabbit Skinner

Who’ll do for him
Child of the fifties
With no common sense
No easy resting place

Only lichen on beaches
Oil on gun barrel
And the hard taste of pennies

A God in his folly
Stands as proud as you please
The lungs won’t full, the heart won’t start
Bad luck child of the seas

And he alone, is a man without qualities

Combed his body for disorders
But the disease lived on in far-off quarters

As a God everything was filled to excess
As a man he settled for less
Here lies the rabbit skinner
God love the rabbit skinner

A life without purchase, no story to tell
And three little bitches fight where he fell
Foxes, foxes, give her a sign
And tell the little girl, and show her what’s mine

Play hard and fast with the rules if you please
Here lies a man, without qualities

Random Acts of Senseless Violence

Under yellow light
Comes the face of tomorrow
Lights the fuse
Gives meaning to
All that was previously hollow

To a soundtrack of sirens
And mute aspiration
The express train to Heathrow
First of the morning
Is leaving the station

Our reckless sun rises
On the tip of the iceberg
Hidden in plain sight
Still alive and full of surprises
A generation gone soft
Over new acquisitions, that can’t take the edge off

I’ve put away my childish things
Abandoned my silence too
For the future will contain
Random acts of senseless violence

The target’s hit will be non-specific
We’ll roll the numbers play with chance
All suitable locations unplanned in advance

Someone’s back kitchen, stacked like a factory
With improvised devices, there’s bound to injuries
With improvised devices…

No phone-ins, no courtesy, no kindness
And the future will contain
Random acts of senseless violence

And it’s not just the boredom
It’s something endemic
It’s the fear of disorder
Stretched to its limits

And the safety of numbers is just a contrivance
For the future will contain
Random acts of senseless violence

Democracy is very…
Democracy is very, very…

The Greatest Living Englishman

Here we are then, here we are
Notes from a suicide
And he will never ever be
The Greatest Living Englishman

It’s such a melancholy blue
Or a grey of no significance
Plastic coated surfaces
A space to place his suitcase
As it’s passed from A to B

But it’s such a melancholy blue
The curtains round the bed are drawn
Broadcast voices from the ward
The humming of machines hurt
But there are distances between

Yes there are distances between

His aspirations visited him nightly
And amounted to so little
Too much self in his writing
Now he will never, ever be
The Greatest Living Englishman

The engine shifts into second gear
They’re all aboard, accounted for
It’s a journey he must make alone
The black sheep boy is leaving home

It’s been rehearsed a thousand times or more
He’s well prepared of that he’s sure
But still it’s such a melancholy blue
As he erased a page of history
Much as he’d intended to

He wouldn’t speak or show you he was happy
Though you’d meet him with your eyes
There was a wall that always stood between you
He’d shut himself outside

And the love that he engendered
Would never be enough
For him to feel alive
Warm and tender
He’d shut himself outside

Not a fake or a sham
But dug in deep and fighting
The world could not embrace a man
With so much self in his writing

And he was never gonna be
The Greatest Living Englishman
He had ideas above his station
Minor virtues go unmentioned

Little England you fit like a straightjacket
Hemmed by the genius of others
He said
“To conquer the world is not to the trace
Remove even the shadow of the memory of your face”

A grey of no significance

125 Spheres

And when it appeared
It was a flaming book of matches
A hundred and twenty-five spheres
On a parquet floor

Snow White in Appalachia

Half-life
She moves in a half-life
Imperfect

From a place on the stairs
Or sat in the backseat
Sometimes you’re only a passenger
In the time of your life
And there’s snow on the mattress
Blown in from the doorway
It would take pack-mules and provisions
To get out alive

There were concerts and car-crashes
There were kids she attended
And repeat indiscretions
For which she’d once made amends
Then there’s ice on the windshield
And the wipers are wasted
And the metal is flying
Between her and her friends

She’d abandoned them there
In the hills of Appalachia
She threw off the sandbags
To lighten the load
As soon as the sun rose
The keys were in the ignition
Following the tire tracks
Of the truck sanding the road

There had to be drugs
Running through the girl’s body
There had to be drugs
And they too had a name
And the adrenalin rush
Had left her exhausted
When under the blue sky
Nothing need be explained

And there is no maker
Just an exhaustible indifference
And there’s comfort in that
So you feel unafraid

And the radio falls silent
But for short bursts of static
And she sleeps in her house
That once too had a name

Emily Dickinson

She was no longer a user
Don’t think she realized we knew that
Not one to make a fuss
Why this and not something else
Wasn’t it obvious?

She made such a hash of it
You can’t help but notice
And a absence of tenderness
And who wants to live like that?

And friends turn their backs on her
She no longer a user
And she wanted to stay home
With a box full of postcards
And no place to send them
Live like Emily Dickinson
Without so much as a kiss
Or the comfort of strangers
Withdrawing into herself

But why this…
And not something else

Manafon

There’s a man down in the valley
Who doesn’t speak in his own tongue
He bears a grudge against the English
The tune to which his songs are sung

There’s a man down in the valley
Who is moving back in time
It’s a physical ascension
You can watch him as he climbs

The farmer’s wives are at their windows
They’ve seen him wind his way for hours
They tell the kids to lower their voices
And pretend that they are out

There’s a man down in the valley
Trying to stop time in its tracks
His boots lie heavy on the grasses
But it keeps on pushing back

And his wife, she was a painter
But now she stains the altar black
He’s out bird watching on the islands
And she wishes he’d come back

There’s a man down in the valley
And he dreams of moving west
Of battles raged against the furies
That might see him at his best

There’s a man down in the valley
Don’t know his right foot from his left
Don’t know his right foot from his left

Sleepwalkers

Sleepwalkers

Your poetry describing me
It doesn't come close
You work the handle
You smear and turn
But you come no closer to meaning

It's your vanity
That's obvious
It embarrasses
Those that adore you
But who's gonna talk
Oh how it'll hurt
You were always unstable
But you've gotten worse

You looked into mirrors
Where death was at work
Of that you were certain
But it was all surface
And surface is numb

Something to wake us
From cultural slumbers
You fucking sleepwalkers
Go on and sleep

Go on and sleep

This is tomorrow

Money For All

Wanna step on through
Can I check that bag
Is there something inside here
That could help you relax

Did you find something
You were looking for
Freedom has its price now
Wanna buy some more

I'll take that coat
Remove them shoes
Should a guy like me
Be afraid of a man like you

All change
All change
Wipe your nation's shame from you
It's not where you're born
It's the things that you do

Money for all
Money for all
Revolution, socialism
Read it in the rag
There's a gun at your head
Put the money in the bag
Money for all

Have you tried this game
When you're feeling tired
Keeps you entertained
'Till your card expires

So you missed the broadcast
Or do you feel the same
Only someone said this city's gone
Down in flames in our name

All change
All change
Let gasoline fumes fill the air
Let's show that 'mother how much you care

All change
All change
Wipe your nation's shame from you
It's not where you're born,
It's the things that you do

Money for all
Money for all
Hey there soldier
Who's your concubine?
With a trigger-happy finger and a nicotine flame
She's a diamond mine

All change
All change
Let revolution fill the air
Let's show that monkey how much you care

Money for all
There's a mean-looking elephant pounding at your door
It's dining at your table,
Sleeping on your floor

Money for all
Money for all
Revolution, socialism
Read it in the rag

There's a gun at your head
Put the money in the bag

Ballad Of A Deadman

Oh honey take me out I’m a deadman
Oh baby bake me something sweet
Oh honey take me out I’m a deadman
Oh baby give me bread to eat

There are places in the damp Northwest where
The bodies lie down head to feet
There were losses in the California sunshine
Tell you stories that you can’t repeat

In the winter when the valley’s flooded
Those were times where the rooms were cheap
The summer dirt lines the corner’s of your pockets
I’m still buried there ten feet deep

Papa don’t place this curse on me
Heaven knows I can’t use it
Papa don’t place this stone on me
Mama there’s no future in it

We travel on the back roads lightly
Through Castle City and through the hills beyond
Me and Joan on the Sacramento
Me and Joan this is where we’re from

Oh honey take me out I’m a deadman
Oh baby bake me something sweet
Oh honey take me out I’m a deadman
Oh baby give me bread to eat

Papa don’t place this curse on me
Heaven knows I can’t use it
Papa don’t place this curse on me
Mama there’s no future in it

Oh honey take me out I’m a deadman
Oh baby bake me something sweet
Oh honey take me out I’m a deadman
Oh baby give me bread to eat

Oh honey where’s the colours of the springtime
The pale green of an organdy dress
Her shadow grows in the California sunshine
But nothing else in the south south-west

Angels

High in the architecture
Something’s moving
Unrecognisable spirit
Dislocated

It’s the wrong climate
No humidity
Humming humidity

It’s fate belongs to another time
Another place

Projections on fallen masonry
Ghosts of a once pagan place
Standing empty
I stand empty

Dead echoes don’t come back
His stopped cut out
Fuck you

Nothing ever happens
Unbelieving no one’s receiving
A vessel filled
Held and spilled
Nothing

A trace from another time
Another place

It’s simple
You don’t exist
You can’t possess me
You lose on a technicality

High in the architecture
Something’s moving

Nothing

World Citizen (I Won't Be Disappointed)

What happened here
The butterfly has lost its wings
The air's too thick to breathe
And there's something in the drinking water

The sun comes up
The sun comes up and you're alone
Your sense of purpose come undone
The traffic tails back to the maze on 101

And the news from the sky
Is looking better for today
In every single way
But not for you

World Citizen
World Citizen

It's not safe
All the yellow birds are sleeping
‘Cause the air's not fit for breathing
It's not safe
Why can't we be
Without beginning, without end
Why can't we be

World Citizen
World Citizen

And if I stop
And talk with you awhile
I'm overwhelmed by the scale
Of everything you feel
The lonely inner state emergency

I want to feel
Until my heart can take no more
And there's nothing in this world I wouldn't give

I want to break
The indifference of the days
I want a conscience that will keep me wide awake

I won't be disappointed
I won't be disappointed
I won't be

I saw a face
It was a face I didn't know
Her sadness told me everything about my own

Can't let it be
When least expected there she is
Gone the time and space that separates us

And I'm not safe
I think I need a second skin
No I'm not safe

World Citizen
World Citizen

I want to travel by night
Across the steppes and over seas
I want to understand the cost
Of everything that’s lost
I want to pronounce all their names correctly

World Citizen
World Citizen

I won't be disappointed
I won't be

She doesn't laugh
We've gone from comedy to commerce
And she doesn't feel the ground she walks upon

I turn away
And I'm not sleeping well at night
And while I know this isn't right
What can you do

I won't be disappointed
I won't be disappointed
I won't be

Five lines

Five lines
Five lines
With which he marked time
Five lines flared from the ovens
He pulled the ribbons from their hair
With melodies beaten from the sheets of his mother
Songs for the end of time

Five lines
Return the birds to their singing
The sun fell, should we leave it to the foxes?
The sun fell from the sky
Leave it to its wits and its devices
The sun fell from the sky in the form of a stag
Buried deep in the forest

And that’s where he felled it
A blow to the head
That left it unconscious
Nothing further was said

We’ll set a place for him
We’ll set a place then

For he had tried
Blood, bone, feathers to the sky
Even in flight
Nothing could have spared him
Five lines
Five lines flared from the oven
Five lines with which he marked out time

Leave him for the foxes
Leave him for the foxes

The Day The Earth Stole Heaven

( Originally by Nine Horses )

Let me tell you about a friend
She contends she will always love me

It’s this ability to lie and deceive
That has lost me completely

I could remind her of the facts
Make her calm down and relax
But why bother

It’s the shallowest defence
To my utter astonishment it is over

That little girl she wants to leave me
That little girl wants something more.

I’m optimistically inclined
Given time she’ll change her mind
It’s unlikely

Let me tell you about a friend
She contends she will always love me

If you look at her sideways
She will let you know

Today’s the day the earth stole heaven

If you look at her sideways
She will curse you out

Today’s the day the earth stole heaven

If you look at her sideways
There can be no doubt
It’s over

Playground Martyrs

You run to the gate
But you'll be marked late
It's for your own good
It's for your own good

You're likely to make
The grandest mistakes
You suffer alone
In the skin and the bones

Let's sharpen those
New sets of arrows
For the next generation
Of playground martyrs

And joining the game
Of intolerable shame
'Cause everyone shares
Innocence of their fathers

School bell rings
Single file in
Trade you my
Unhappily ever after

So bring out those things
To hammer the wings
Of the next generation

Exit/Delete

Feels like an ending
She's winding her way towards a conclusion
That never comes
Caroline feels uncomfortably numb

She's in deep
Surrendering to the promise of sleep
Almost done
Caroline plays an audience of one

And it isn't polite
She won't even try
A problem to no one
A problem to none

How can it be as quiet as this
This close to the edge
Caroline says she's nobody's friend

How can you breathe
Embarrassed to be this far left of alone?
Caroline knows there's nobody home

It's ending
Winding it's way to a conclusion
Nearly done
Caroline knows there's nothing to come

When in doubt
She wanted it get it all down in writing
Didn't count
Better if someone else works it out

The files are deleted
No resisting at all
Already defeated

Pure Genius

Oh, the lights are blinking
Here’s the great deceiver
Bling, bling all bets are off
It goes unnoticed
If not for me it goes unnoticed
It goes unnoticed

Find another record
Play another record
It could be anything
I play the jukebox
I play the DJ
I could be vice, FBI
I played the imbecile
And no one noticed
And no one noticed

Oh boy, come see the plans
They’re pure genius
Pure genius
Pure genius
So boy, come see the plans

Oh, you wouldn’t notice
Here they come
See them tumble
My lucky numbers
Here they come
I’ve got lots of secrets
Man, I’ve lots of secrets
And you’re my number one
And you’re my number one

So I fill the notebooks, yeah
They build a rumour
I've got the meaning
I think I've worked it out
Yes, it's all in neon
It's in the details
Click the flash
I think it's coming back
I think the wheels are turning

Oh boy, come see the plans
They’re pure genius
They’re pure genius
Oh boy, get with the program, man
Come see the plans
They’re pure genius
You understand, you understand

Oh, the lights are blinking
Turn off the stereo
It wears the batteries
They’re double A’s
Turn off the stereo

Come morning
I’ll sleep like a dog
And dream of numbers
My lucky numbers

Here they come

Wonderful World

It’s a wonderful world
And you take and you give
And the sun fills the sky
In the space where you live

It’s a day full of dreams
It’s a dream of a day
And the joy that it brings
Nearly sweeps her away

It’s a wonderful world
As the buildings fall down
And you quicken your step
‘til your feet leave the ground
And you’re soaring above
All the sorrow below
And you’re falling in love
With those you don’t know

And your heart feels so wide
And your heart fills so strong
It was never a place
That you felt you belonged

It’s a wonderful world
Full of wonderful things
And the people fall down
And abandon their dreams

(I hear him, he’s talking out loud
Sometimes he whistles while walking
How could he know any better?
I weep for him, I weep for him now)

It’s a wonderful world
It’s a real crying shame
‘Cause she’s hurting herself
In a violent way
And there’s people she knows
That won’t even try
And they’re trapped in their lives
Feeling terrified
And it’s in times like these
That she promised to call
But the scale of our love
Is diminished and small

It’s a wonderful world
And she doesn’t know why
She wakes up each day
And continues to cry

(He’s sleeping his troubles away
He’s finding it too hard to bear
I’m with him every step of the way
I weep for him, I weep for him now)

It’s a wonderful world
And you take and you give
And the sun fills the sky
In the space where you live

Transit

I have listened repeatedly
I have listened very well
No one interrupts the harmful
When they're speaking

To wonder why of Europe
Say your goodbyes to Europe
Swallow the lie of Europe
Our shared history dies with Europe

(follow me, won't you follow me?)

A future's hinting at itself
Do you fear what I fear
All those names of ancestry
Too gentle for the stones they bear

Someone somewhere wants to see you
Someone's travelling towards us all

To wonder why of Europe
To live, love, and cry in Europe
Say your goodbyes to Europe
Our history dies with Europe

(Follow me, won't you follow me)

The lights are dimming
The lounge is dark
The best cigarette is saved for last
We drink alone
We drink alone

The World Is Everything

The world is everything
The world is everything
And I move close
But you move closer
And out of the spring
And into the summer
And out of the dark
Into the blessing of others
The table of goods
The bright bolt of lightning
And she loves him there once
But she's still not through fighting

And you can't swallow it
But you can't spit it out
It's there in her hair
It's coming out of her eyes
To taste her is bitter
But the world is alive
And the world is everything
The world is everything
The world is everything

Thermal

Morning, you lay sleeping
Your small body clinging tightly to mine
With frightening dependency
Life defining, impossible to betray

And with that…
The mattress rose
Set adrift on the burgeoning emotional tide
Colliding with the once stationary objects
Of an uninhabited life

What had been concealed
Was exhaled from god knows where
Colour-drained, unsalvageable
Shape shifting
And, with function relinquished
Resigned from service

Two blue sleeping bags
Nudged against one another
Bearing the once warm imprint of our bodies

The sun-baked stone garden
Retracted its promise
It was cold in that place of perpetual summer

If you were afraid you didn’t show it
You who were born bearing the face
Of irrepressible grief

So as not to disappoint you
I lay motionless
Rapt by the rise and stall of your breathing
Your fingertips and thighs
Quietly affirming my place at your side

Sugarfuel

There are many rooms and many faces
When you're on the run, you run out of places
I'm on your side
I am your sugar fuel

I'll find where it hurts
I'll be the wound in you
I'm on your side

When the drugs take hold
I will touch you
I will touch you
When the words fall short
I will kiss you
I will kiss

I'm on your side
So let me punish you
I'm on your side
I'll be your sugar fuel
When all your thoughts are dark
And all your dreams are blue

I'm with you
You're on your stomach
You can't speak
You're suffocating in this heat
Well if we suffer is that wrong
What doesn't kill us makes us strong

Were you pushed or did you slip
I'm tasting blood upon your lips
The door is locked
The floor is greased
And if your screams should break the peace
I'm on your side
So let me finish you

I'm on your side
So let me punish you
I'm on your side
I'll be your sugar fuel
When all your thoughts are dark
And all your dreams are blue

I'm with you
I'm with you
Sugar
When all your thoughts are dark
And all your dreams are blue

I'm with you