The Milk-Eyed Mender

*** Thanx a lot to the Unofficial Joanna Site by Lina ***

Bridges and Balloons

We sailed away on a winter's day
With fate as malleable as clay
But ships are fallible, I say
And the nautical, like all things, fades

And I can recall our caravel
A little wicker beetle-shell
With four fine masts and lateen sails
Its bearings on cair paravel

Oh my love
Oh it was a funny little thing
To be the ones to've seen

The sight of bridges and balloons
Makes calm canaries irritable
And they caw and claw all afternoon
Catenaries and dirigibles

Brace and buoy the livingroom
A loom of metal, warp - woof - wimble
And a thimble's worth of milky moon
Can touch hearts larger than a thimble

Oh my love
Oh it was a funny little thing
To be the ones to've seen

Oh my love
Oh it was a funny little thing
It was a funny, funny little thing
To be the ones to've seen

*** Thanx a lot to feanese who corrected some mistakes ***

Sprout and the Bean

I slept all day
I woke with distaste
And I railed
And I raved

That the difference between
The sprout and the bean
It is a golden ring
It is a twisted string

And you can ask the counsellor
You can ask the king
And they'll say the same thing
And it's a funny thing

Should we go outside
Should we go outside
Should we break some bread
Are y'interested

And as I said
I slept as though dead
Dreaming seamless dreams
Of lead

When you go away
I am big-boned and fey
In the dust of the day
And in the dirt of the day

And the danger, danger drawing near them was a white coat
And the danger, danger drawing near them was a broad boat
And the water, water running clear beneath a white throat
And the hollow chatter of the talking of the tadpoles
Who know th'outside
Should we go outside
Should we break some bread
Are y'interested

The book of Right-on

We should shine a light on, a light on
And the book of right-on's right-on, it was right-on

We should shine a light on, a light-on
And the book of right-on's right-on, it was right-on

I killed my dinner with karate
Kick 'em in the face, taste the body
Shallow work is the work that I do

Do you want to sit at my table
My fighting fame is fabled
And fortune finds me fit and able

And you do say - oh oh
That you do pray - oh oh
And you say that you're okay

And do you want to run with my pack?
Do you want to ride on my back?
Pray that what you lack does not distract

And even when you run through my mind
Something else is in front, oh, you're behind
And I don't have to remind you to stick with your kind

And you do say - oh oh
That you do pray - oh oh
And you say that you're okay

And even when you touch my face
You know your place
And even when you touch my face
You know your place

And we should shine a light on
A light on
And the book of right-on's right-on
It was right-on

And we should shine a light on, a light on
And the book of right-on's right-on, it was right-on

Sadie

Sadie, white coat
You carry me home
And bury this bone
And take this pine cone

Bury this bone
To gnaw on it later, gnawing on the telephone
And 'til then we pray and suspend
The notion that these lives do never end

And all day long we talk about mercy
Lead me to water, lord, I sure am thirsty
Down in the ditch where I nearly served you
Up in the clouds where he almost heard you

And all that we built
And all that we breathed
And all that we spilt
Or pulled up like weeds
Is piled up in back
And it burns irrevocably
And we spoke up in turns
'Til the silence crept over me

And bless you
And I deeply do
No longer resolute
Oh when I call to you

But the water
Got so cold
And you do lose
What you don't hold

This is an old song
These are old blues
And this is not my tune
But it's mine to use

And the seabirds
Where the fear once grew
Will flock with a fury
And they will bury
What'd come for you

And down where I darn with the milk-eyed mender
You and I and a love so tender
Stretched on a hoop where I stitch this adage
Bless our house and its heart so savage

And all that I want
And all that I need
And all that I've got
Is scattered like seed
And all that I knew
Is moving away from me
And all that I know
Is blowing like tumbleweed

And the mealy worms
In the brine will burn
In a salty pyre
Among the fauns and ferns

And the love we hold
And the love we spurn
Will never grow cold
Only taciturn

And i'll tell you tomorrow
Oh sadie, go on home, now
And bless those who've sickened below
And bless us who have chosen so

And all that I've got
And all that I need
I tie in a knot
And I lay at your feet
And I have not forgot
But a silence crept over me

So dig up your bone
Exhume your pinecone, sadie

Inflammatory Writ

Oh, where is your inflammatory writ?
Your text that would incite a light; 'be lit'

Our music deserving
Devotion unswerving
Cried; 'do I deserve her?'
With unflagging fervor
Well, no we do not, if we cannot get over it

But what's it mean when suddenly we're spent? - tell me true
Ambition came and reared its head and went - far from you

Even mollusks have weddings
Though solemn and leaden
But you dirge for the dead
And take no jam on your bread
Just a supper of salt and a waltz through your empty bed

And all at once
It came to me
And I wrote in hunch 'til four-thirty
But that vestal light
It burns out with the night

In spite of all the time that we spend on it
Om one bedraggled ghost of a sonnet
While outside the wild boars root
Without bending a bough underfoot
Oh, it breaks my heart - I don't know how they do it

So don't ask me!

And as for my inflammatory writ?
Well I wrote it and I was not inflamed one bit

Advice from the master
Derailed that disaster
Said; 'hand that pen over to me, poetaster!'
While across the great plains
Keening lovely & awful
Ululate the last great american novels
An unlawful lot left, to stutter and freeze floodlit
But at least they didn't run, to their undying credit

This Side of the Blue

Svetlana sucks lemons across from me
And I am progressing abominably
And I do not know my own way to the sea
But the saltiest sea knows its own way to me

And the city that turns, turns protracted and slow
And I find myself toeing the embarcadero
And I find myself knowing the things that I knew
Which is all that you can know on this side of the blue

And jaime has eyes black and shiny as boots
And they march at you two-by-two(-re-loo-re-loo)
When she looks at you, you know that she's nowhere near through
It's the kindest heart beating this side of the blue

And the signifieds butt heads with the signifiers
And we all fall down slack-jawed to marvel at words
When across the sky sheet the impossible birds
In a steady illiterate movement homewards

And gabriel stands beneath forest and moon
See them rattle and boo, and see them shake, and see them loom
See him fashion a cap from a page of camus
And see him navigate deftly this side of the blue

And the rest of our lives will the moments accrue
When the shape of their goneness will flare up anew
Then we do what we have to do(-re-loo-re-loo)
Which is all that you can do on this side of the blue

Ot it's all that you can do on this side of the blue
Oh it's all that you can do on this side of the blue

En Gallop

This place is damp and ghostly, I am already gone
And the halls were lined with the disembodied
And dustly wings which fell from flesh
Gasplessly

And I go where the trees go
And I walk from a higher education
For now, and for hire

It beats me but I do not know
And it beats me but I do not know
It beats me but I do not know
I do not know

Palaces and stormclouds
The rought straggly sage and the smoke
And the way it will all come together
In quietness, and in time

And you laws of property
Oh, you free economy
And you unending afterthoughts;
You could've told me before

Never get so attached to a poem, you
Forget truth that lacks lyricism, and
Never draw so close to the heat, that
You will forget that you must eat, oh

Cassiopeia

Feel the mattress tense beneath me
Like the muscle of non-sleepy
Feathers flexing will defeat me
And it vexes me complet-e-ly

And the hexes heat covertly
Like a slow low-flying turkey
Like a texan drying jerky
But his meaty mitts can't hurt me

With my steely will compounded
In a mighty mound that's hounded
By the snap your steel string sounded
Just before your snores unwound it

And in store are dreams so daring
That the night can't stop from staring
And i'll swim sweetly as a herring
Through the ether not despairing

Go to sleep
You stunning sky

Gently creep
Cunning by

Quiet hum
Is amplified

By your thumb
That you suck dry

Hundred raging waters snare the lonely sigh
Oh, you hold your breath and clasp at cassiopeia

Hundred raging waters snare the lonely sigh
Oh, and you hold your breath and clasp at cassiopeia

Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia
Oh
Cassiopeia

Peach, Plum, Pear

We speak in the store
I'm a sensitive bore
And you're markedly more
And I'm oozing suprise

But it's late in the day
And you're well on your way
What was golden went gray
And I'm suddenly shy

And the gathering floozies
Afford to be choosy
And all sneezing darkly
In the dimming divide

And I have read the right books
To interpret your looks
You were knocking me down
With the palm of your eye

Go; na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na

This was unlike the story
It was written to be
I was riding its back
When it used to ride me

And we were galloping manic
To the mouth of the source
We were swallowing panic
In the face of its force

And I was blue
I am blue
And unwell
Made me bolt like a horse
[made me bold like a whore]

And; na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na

Now it's done
Watch it go
And you've changed so

Water run from the snow

Am I so dear?
Do I run rare?
And you've changed
So

Peach, plum, pear
Peach, plum

Swamsea

If you wanna come on down
Down with your bones so white
And watch the freight trains pound
Into the wild wild night

How I would love to gnaw
Gnaw on your bones so white
And watch as the freight trains paw
Paw at the wild wild night

All these ghost towns
Wreathed in old loam
Assateague knee-
Deep in seafoam
Ho, swansea!
Buttonwillow!
Lagunitas!
Ho, calico!

And all these beastly bungalows
Stare distend like endless toads
Endlessly hop down the road
Borne by wind we southward blow

And yonder, wild and blue
The wild blue yonder looms
'Til we are wracked with rheum
By roads, by songs entombed

And all we wanna do
Is chew and chew and chew

Dear one
Drive on

When all we wanna do
Is chew and chew and chew

And if you wanna come on down
Down with your bones so white
And watch the freight trains pound
Into the wild wild night

How I would love to gnaw
To gnaw on your bones so-o white
And watch while the freight trains paw
Paw at the wild wild night

Paw at the wild wild night
Paw at the wild wild night

Three Little Babies

( Traditional )

There was a knight and a lady bright
And three little babes had she
She sent them away to a far country
To learn their grammary

They hadn't been gone but a very short time
About three months and a day
When the lark spread over this whole wide world
And taken those babes away

It was on a cold cold christmas night
When everything was still
And she saw her three little babes come running
Come running down the hill

She set them a table of bread and wine
That they might drink and eat
She spread them a bed of a winding sheet
That they might sleep so sweet

'Take it off, take it off!', cried the eldest one
'Take it off, take it off!', cried she
'For I shan't stay here in this wicked world
When there's a better one for me'

'Cold clods, cold clods inside my bed
Cold clods, down at my feet
The tears my dear mother shed for me
Would wet my winding sheet'

'The tears my dear mother shed for me
Would wet my winding sheet
Would wet my winding sheet'

Clam, Crab, cockle, Cowrie

That means no
Where I come from
I am cold, out waiting for the day to come

I chew my lips
And I scratch my nose
Feels so good to be a rose

Oh don't
Don't you lift me up
Like I'm that shy no-no-no-no-no, just give it up

See, there are bats all dissolving in a row
Into the wishy-washy dark that can't let go

I cannot let go
So I thank the lord
And I thank his sword
Though it be mincing up the morning, slightly bored

Oh oh oh, morning
Without warning
Like a hole
Oh, and I watch you go

There are some mornings when the sky looks like a road
There are some dragons who were built to have and hold
And some machines are dropped from great heights lovingly
And some great bellies ache with many bumblebees
And they sting so terribly

I do as I please
Now I'm on my knees
Your skin is something that I stir into my tea
And I am watching you
And you are starry, starry, starry

(and you will never
Ever know how
Very sorry you will be
... I am)

And I'm tumbling down
And I check a frown
Well just look around
That's why I love this town
To see me;
Serenaded hourly
Celebrated sourly
Dedicated dourly

Waltzing with the open sea
Clam, crab, cockle, cowrie
Will you just look at me!

Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh

Ys

Emily

The meadowlark and the chim-choo-ree and the sparrow
Set to the sky in a flying spree, for the sport of the pharaoh.
A little while later, the Pharisees dragged a comb through the meadow.
Do you remember what they called up to you and me, in our window?

There is a rusty light on the pines tonight;
Sun pouring wine, lord, or marrow, down into the
Bones of the birches, and the spires of the churches, jutting out from the shadows;
The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks, and the bale, and the barrow
And everything sloped, like it was dragged from a rope, in the mouth of the south below.

We’ve seen those mountains kneeling, felten and grey.
We thought our very hearts would up and melt away,

From that snow in the nighttime,
Just going and going

And the stirring of wind chimes
In the morning
In the morning

Helps me find my way back in
From the place where I have been

And, Emily, I saw you last night by the river.
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever,
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky’d been breathing on a mirror.

Anyhow, I sat by your side, by the water.
You taught me the names of the stars overhead, that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades, loosed in December,
I promised you I’d set them to verse, so I’d always remember

That the meteorite is the source of the light,
And the meteor’s just what we see;
And the meteoroid is a stone that’s devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee.
And the meteorite’s just what causes the light,
And the meteor’s how it’s perceived;
And the meteoroid’s a bone thrown from the void, that lies quiet in offering to thee.

*

You came and lay a cold compress upon the mess I’m in;
Threw the window wide, and cried amen amen amen.
The whole world stopped to hear you hollering.
And you looked down, and saw, now, what was happening:

The lines are fading in my kingdom
(though I have never known the way to border them in);
So the muddy mouths of baboons and sows, and the grouse, and the horse, and the hen
Grope at the gate of the looming lake that was once a tiny pen.
And the mail is late, and the great estates are not lit from within.
The talk in town’s becoming downright sickening.

In due time we will see the far butte lit by a flare.
I’ve seen your bravery, and I will follow you there

And row through the nighttime,
Gone healthy,
Gone healthy all of a sudden,

In search of the midwife
Who could help me
Who could help me,

Help me find my way back in.
There are worries where i’ve been.

Say, say, say, in the lee of the bay
Don’t be bothered.
Leave your troubles here,
Where the tugboats shear the water from the water
(flanked by furrows, curling back, like a match held up to a newspaper).

Emily, they’ll follow your lead by the letter.
And I make this claim, and I’m not ashamed to say I knew you better.
What they’ve seen is just a beam of your sun that banishes winter.

Let us go! Though we know it’s a hopeless endeavor.
The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined, and hold us close forever.

Though there is nothing would help me come to grips with
A sky that is gaping and yawning,
There is a song I woke with on my lips,
As you sailed your great ship towards the morning.

Come on home. The poppies are all grown knee-deep by now.
Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow.
Peonies nod in the breeze,
And as they wetly bow
With hydrocephalitic listlessness,
Ants mop up their brow.

And everything with wings is restless, aimless, drunk and dour;
Butterflies and birds collide at hot, ungodly hours.
My clay-colored motherlessness rangily reclines
Come on home, now! All my bones are dolorous with vines.

Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight,
The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light.

Squint skyward and listen
Loving him, we move within his borders:
Just asterisms in the stars’ set order.

We could stand for a century,
Staring,
With our heads cocked,
In the broad daylight, at this thing:

Joy,
Landlocked in bodies that don’t keep
Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being,
Till we don’t be.
Told: take this.
Eat this.

Told: the meteorite is the source of the light,
And the meteor’s just what we see;
And the meteoroid is a stone that’s devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee.

And the meteorite is just what causes the light,
And the meteor’s how it’s perceived;
And the meteoroid’s a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee.

Monkey & Bear

Down in the green hay,
Where monkey and bear usually lay,
They woke from a stable-boy’s cry.
He said: “someone come quick
The horses got loose, got grass-sick
They’ll founder! Fain, they’ll die.”

What is now known by the sorrel and the roan?
By the chestnut, and the bay, and the gelding grey?
It is: stay by the gate you are given.
Remain in your place, for your season.
O, had the overfed dead but listened
To that high-fence, horse-sense, wisdom…

But,
“Did you hear that, bear?” Said
Monkey, “we’ll get out of here, fair and square
They’ve left the gate open wide!

“So, my bride.

“Here is my hand. Where is your paw?
Try and understand my plan, ursala.
My heart is a furnace
Full of love that is just, and earnest.
Now.
We know that we must unlearn this
Allegiance to a life of service,
And no longer answer to that heartless
Hay-monger, nor be his accomplice
(That charlatan, with artless hustling!)
But ursala, we’ve got to eat something,
And earn our keep, while still within
The borders of the land that man has girded,
(All double-bolted and tightfisted!),
Until we reach the open country,
A-steeped in milk and honey.
Will you keep your fancy clothes on, for me?
Can you bear a little longer to wear that leash?

“My love, i swear by the air i breathe:
Sooner or later, you’ll bare your teeth.

“But for now, just dance, darling.
C’mon, will you dance, my darling?
Darling, there’s a place for us;
Can we go, before i turn to dust?
Darling there’s a place for us.

“Darling. C’mon will you dance,
My darling?
The hills are groaning with excess,
Like a table ceaselessly being set.
C’mon, will you dance, my darling?
And we’ll get there yet.”

They trooped past the guards,
Past the coops, and the fields, and the
Farmyards, all night, till finally,

The space they gained
Grew much farther than
The stone that bear threw,
To mark where they’d stop for tea.

But,
“walk a little faster,
Don’t look backwards

“Your feast is to the east, which lies a little past the pasture.

“When the blackbirds hear tea whistling they rise and clap.
Their applause caws the kettle black.
And we can’t have none of that!
Move along, bear; there, there; that’s that.”

(Though cast in plaster,
Our ursala’s heart beat faster
Than monkey’s ever will.)

But still,
They have got to pay the bills.
Hadn’t they?
That is what the monkey would say.
So, with the courage of a clown, or a cur,
Or a kite, jerking tight at its tether,
In her dun-brown gown of fur,
And her jerkin of
Swansdown and leather,
Bear would sway on her hind legs;
The organ would grind dregs of song,
For the pleasure
Of the children who’d shriek,
Throwing coins at her feet,
Then recoiling in terror.

Sing, “dance, darling.
C’mon, will you dance, my darling?
Carling, there’s a place for us;
Can we go, before i turn to dust?
Darling there’s a place for us.

“Darling.
C’mon, will you dance, my darling?
Keep your eyes fixed on the highest hill,
Where you’ll ever-after eat your fill.
O darling…dear…mine…if you dance,
Darling: i will love you still.”

*

Deep in the night
Shone a weak and miserly light,
Where the monkey shouldered his lamp.
Someone had told him the
Bear’d been wandering a fair piece away
From where they were camped.
Someone had told him
The bear had been sneaking away,
To the seaside caverns, to bathe;
And the thought troubled the monkey,
For he was afraid of spelunking
Down in those caves.
And also afraid what the
Village people would say,
If they saw the bear in that state
Lolling and splashing obscenely
Well, it seemed irrational, really,
Washing that face;
Washing that matted and flea-bit pelt
In some sea-spit-shine
Old kelp dripping with brine.
But monkey just laughed, and he muttered,
“when she comes back, ursala will be bursting with pride
Till i jump up!
Saying, ‘you’ve been rolling in muck!
Saying, ‘you smell of garbage and grime!’”

But far out,
Far out,
By now,
By now
Far out, by now, bear ploughed,
Because she would
Not drown:

First the outside-legs of the bear
Up and fell down, in the water, like knobby garters,
Then the outside-arms of the bear
Fell off, as easy as if sloughed
From boiled potatoes.
Low’red in a genteel curtsy,
Bear shed the mantle of her
Diluvian shoulders;
And, with a sigh,
She allowed the burden of belly to drop,
Like an apronfull of boulders.

if you could hold up her
Threadbare coat to the light,
Where it’s worn translucent in places,
You’d see spots where,
Almost every night of the year,
Bear had been mending,
Suspending that baseness.

Now her coat drags through the water,
Bagging, with a life’s-worth of hunger,
Limitless minnows;

In the magnetic embrace,
Balletic and glacial,
Of bear’s insatiable shadow—

Left there!
Left there!
When bear
Left bear;

Left there,
Left there,
When bear
Stepped clear of bear.

(sooner or later you’ll bury your teeth)

Sawdust and diamonds

From the top of the flight
Of the wide, white stairs,
Through the rest of my life,
Do you wait for me there?

There’s a bell in my ears.
There’s the wide, white roar.
Drop a bell down the stairs.
Hear it fall forevermore.

Drop a bell off of the dock.
Blot it out in the sea.
Drowning mute as a rock;
Sounding mutiny.

There’s a light in the wings, hits the system of strings,
From the side, where they swing—
See the wires, the wires, the wires.
And the articulation in our elbows and knees
Makes us buckle;
We couple in endless increase
As the audience admires.

And the little white dove,
Made with love, made with love;
Made with glue, and a glove, and some pliers

Swings a low sickle arc, from its perch in the dark:
Settle down, settle down, my desire.

And the moment I slept, I was swept up in a terrible tremor.
Tough no longer bereft, how I shook! And I couldn’t remember.
Then the furthermost shake drove a murthering stake in,
And cleft me right down through my centre.
And I shouldn’t say so, but I knew that it was then, or never.

Push me back into a tree.
Bind my buttons with salt.
Fill my long ears with bees
Praying please please please love
You ought not
No you ought not

Then the system of strings tugs at the tip of my wings
(cut from cardboard and old magazines):
Makes me warble and rise, like a sparrow.
And in the place where I stood, there is a circle of wood—
A cord or two—which you chop, and you stack in your barrow.
It is terribly good to carry water and chop wood,
Streaked with soot, heavy-booted and wild-eyed;
As I crash through the rafters,
And the ropes and the pulleys trail after
And the holiest belfry burns sky-high.

Then the slow lip of fire moves across the prairie with precision,
While, somewhere, with your pliers and glue, you make your first incision.
And in a moment of almost-unbearable vision,
Doubled over with the hunger of lions,
Hold me close, cooed the dove,
Who was stuffed, now, with sawdust and diamonds.

I wanted to say: Why the long face.
Sparrow, perch and play songs of long face.
Burro, buck and bray songs of long face!
Sing, I will swallow your sadness, and eat your cold clay,
Just to lift your long face;
And though it may be madness, I will take to the grave
Your precious longface.
And though our bones they may break, and our souls separate—
Why the long face?
And though our bodies recoil from the grip of the soil—
Why the long face?

In the trough of the waves,
Which are pawing like dogs,
Pitch we, pale-faced and grave,
As I write in my log.

Then I hear a noise from the hull,
Seven days out to sea.
It is that damnable bell!
And it tolls—well, I believe that it tolls—for me.
It tolls for me.

Though my wrists and my waist seemed so easy to break,
Still, my dear, I’d have walked you to the very edge of the water.
And they will recognise all the lines of your face
In the face of the daughter of the daughter of my daughter.

Darling, we will be fine; but what was yours and mine
Appears to me a sandcastle
That the gibbering wave takes.
But if it’s all just the same, then will you say my same;
Say my name in the morning, so I know when the wave breaks.

I wasn’t born of a whistle, or milked from a thistle at twilight.
No; I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright.

So: enough of this terror.
We deserve to know light,
And grow evermore lighter and lighter.
You would have seen me through,
But I could not undo that desire.

From the top of the flight
Of the wide, white stairs
Through the rest of my life
Do you wait for me there?

Only skin

And there was a booming above you,
That night black airplanes flew over the sea.
And they were lowing and shifting like
Beached whales,
Shelled snails,
As you strained and you squinted to see
The retreat of their hairless and blind cavalry.

You froze in your sand shoal,
Prayed for you poor soul;
Sky seemed a bread roll, soaking in a milk-bowl.

And when the bread broke
Fell in bricks of wet smoke
My sleeping heart woke, and my waking heart spoke.

Then there was a silence you took to mean something:
Mean, run, sing,
For alive you will evermore be.
And the plague of the greasy black engines a-skulking
Has gone east,
While you’re left to explain them to me
Released
From their hairless and blind cavalry.

With your hands in your pockets,
Stubbily running
To where i’m unfresh,
Undressed and yawning

Well, what is this craziness?
This crazy talking?
You caught some small death
When you were sleepwalking.

It was a dark dream, darlin;
It’s over.
The firebreather is beneath the clover.
Beneath his breathing there is cold clay, forever:
A toothless hound-dog chocking on a feather.

But i took my fishing pole (fearing your fever),
Down to the swimming hole, where there grows a bitter herb
That blooms but one day a year, by the riverside
I’d bring it here:

Apply it gently
To the love you’ve lent me.

While the river was twisting and braiding, the bait bobbed
And the string sobbed,
As it cut through the hustling breeze.

And i watched how the water was kneading so neatly,
Gone treacly,
Nearly slowed to a stop in this heat;
Frenzy coiling flush along the muscles beneath.

Press on me,
We are restless things.
Webs of seaweed are swaddling.
You call upon the dusk of the
Musk of a squid:
Shot full of ink, until you sink into your crib.

Rowing along, among the reeds, among the rushes,
I heard your song, before my heart had time to hush it!
Smell of a stonefruit being cut and being opened.
Smell of a low and of a lazy cinder smoking

And when the fire moves away,
Fire moves away, son.
Why would you say
I was the last one?

Scrape your knee: it is only skin.
Makes the sound of violins.

When i cut your hair, and leave the birds all the trimmings,
I am the happiest woman among all women.

And the shallow water stretches as far as i can see.
Knee deep, trudging along—
The seagull weeps ‘so long’—
I’m humming a threshing song—

Until the night is over, hold on,
Hold on;
Hold your horses back from the fickle dawn.

I have got some business out at the edge of town,
Candy weighing both of my pockets down
Till i can hardly stay afloat, from the weight of them
(and knowing how the commonfolk condemn
What it is i do, to you, to keep you warm:
Being a woman. Being a woman.)

But always up the mountainside you’re clambering,
Groping blindly, hungry for anything;
Picking through your pocket linings—
Well, what is this?
Scrap of sassafras, eh sisyphus?

I see the blossoms broke and wet after the rain.
Little sister, he will be back again.
I have washed a thousand spiders down the drain.
Spiders’ ghosts hang, soaked and
Dangling silently, from all the blooming cherry trees,
In tiny nooses, safe from everyone
Nothing but a nuisance; gone now, dead and done
Be a woman. Be a woman.

Though we felt the spray of the waves,
We decided to stay, ‘till the tide rose too far.
We weren’t afraid, cause we know what you are;
And you know that we know what you are.

Awful atoll
O, incalculable indiscreetness and sorrow!
Bawl bellow:
Sibyl sea-cow, all done up in a bow.
Toddle and roll;
Teethe an impalpable bit of leather,
While yarrow, heather and hollyhock
Awkwardly molt along the shore.

Are you mine?
My heart?
Mine anymore?

Stay with me for awhile.
That’s an awfully real gun.
I know life will lay you down,
As the lightning has lately done.

Failing this, failing this,
Follow me, my sweetest friend,
To see what you anointed,
In pointing your gun there.
Lay it down! Nice and slow!
There is nowhere to go,

Save up;
Up where the light, undiluted, is
Weaving, in a drunk dream,
At the sight of my baby, out back:

Back on the patio,
Watching the bats bring night in

While, elsewhere,
Estuaries of wax-white
Wend, endlessly, towards seashores unmapped.

*

Last week, our picture window
Produced a half-word,
Heavy and hollow,
Hit by a brown bird.

We stood and watched her gape like a rattlesnake
And pant and labor over every intake.

I said a sort of prayer for some rare grace,
Then thought i ought to take her to a higher place.
Said, “dog nor vulture nor cat shall toy with you,
And though you die, bird, you will have a fine view.”

Then in my hot hand, she slumped her sick weight.
We tramped through the poison oak, heartbroke and inchoate.
The dogs were snapping, so you cuffed their collars
While i climbed the tree-house. Then how i hollered!

Cause she’d lain, as still as a stone, in my palm, for a lifetime or two;
Then saw the treetops, cocked her head, and up and flew.
(while back in the world that moves, often, according to
The hoarding of these clues,
Dogs still run roughly around
Little tufts of finch-down.)

The cities we passed were a flickering wasteland,
But his hand, in my hand, made them hale and harmless.

While down in the lowlands, the crops are all coming;
We have everything.

Life is thundering blissful towards death

In a stampede
Of his fumbling green gentleness.

You stopped by;
I was all alive.
In my doorway, we shucked and jived.
And when you wept, i was gone;
See, i got gone when i got wise.
But i can’t with certainty say we survived.

Then down and down
And down and down
And down and deeper,
Stoke, without sound,
The blameless flames,
You endless sleeper.

Through fire below,
And fire above,
And fire within,

Sleep through the things that couldn’t have been,
If you hadn’t have been.

And when the fire moves away,
Fire moves away, son.
Why would you say
I was the last one?

All my bones, they are gone, gone, gone.
Take my bones, i don’t need none.
Cold, cold cupboard, lord, nothing to chew on!
Suck all day on a cherry stone.
Dig a little hole not three inches round
Spit your pit in a hole in the ground.
Weep upon the spot for the starving of me!
Till up grows a fine young cherry tree.
When the bough breaks, what’ll you make for me?
A little willow cabin to rest on your knee.
What’ll i do with a trinket such as this?
Think of your woman, who’s gone to the west.
But i’m starving and freezing in my measly old bed!
Then i’ll crawl across the salt flats, to stroke your sweet head.
Come across the desert with no shoes on!
I love you truly,
Or i love no-one.

Fire moves away. Fire moves away, son.
Why would you say i was the last one?

Clear the room! There’s a fire, a fire, a fire.
Get going,
And i’m going to be right behind you.

And if the love of a woman or two, dear,
Could move you to such heights,
Then all i can do
Is do, my darling, right by you.

Cosmia

When you ate,
I saw your eyelashes.
Saw them shake like
Wind on rushes.

In the cornfield,
When she called me

Moths surround me.
Thought they’d drown me.

And i miss your precious heart.

Dried rose petals
Redbrown circles
Framed your eyes and
Stained your knuckles.

And all those lonely nights
Down by the river,
You brought me bread and water
(water, in.);

But though i tried so hard,
My little darlin,
I couldn’t keep the night from coming in.

And all those lonely nights
Down by the river,
I was brought my bread and water
By the kith and the kin;

Now in the quiet hour,
When i am sleeping,
I cannot keep the night from coming in.

Why’ve you gone away?
Gone away again?
I’ll sleep through the rest of my days,
If you’ve gone away again.
Sleep through the rest of my days.

Why’ve you gone away.
Seven suns away.

Can you hear me? Will you listen?
Don’t come near me. Don’t go missing.
In the lissome light of evening:
Help me, cosmia; i’m grieving.

And all those lonely nights
Down by the river,
You brought me bread and water
(water, in.);

But though i tried so hard,
My little darlin,
I couldn’t keep the night from coming in.

And all those lonely nights
Down by the river
I was brought my bread and water
By the kith and the kin;

Now in the quiet hour,
When i am sleeping,
I cannot keep the night from coming in.

*

Beneath the porch-light
We’ve all been circling.
Beat our dust hearts;
Singe our flour wings.
But in the corner,
Something is happening!
Wild cosmia, what have you seen?

Water were your limbs,
And the fire was your hair
And then the moonlight caught your eye,
And you rose through the air
Well, if you’ve seen true light,
Then this is my prayer:

Will you call me, when you get there?

And i miss your precious heart;
And miss, and miss, and miss,
& miss, & miss, &
Miss, & miss, & miss your heart.

But release your precious heart,
To its feast, for precious hearts.

Non Album Tracks

Angel

(Jimi Hendrix cover / Live at the Royal Festival Hall 26-06-2005)

Angel came down from heaven yesterday
Stayed with me just long enough to rescue me
And she told me a story yesterday
About the love between the moon and the deep blue sea

Then she spread her wings high over me,
Said she'll come back to see me tomorrow
And I said:

Fly on, my sweet angel
Fly on through the sky
Fly on, my sweet angel
Tomorrow I'm gonna be by your side

Sure enough, that woman came to me
Silver wings silhouetted against a child's sunrise
And my angel, she said unto me:

Today is the day for you to rise
Take my hand, you're gonna be my mind, you're gonna rise
Then she took me high over yonder
And I said

Fly on, my sweet angel
Fly on through the sky
Fly on, my sweet angel
Tomorrow I'm gonna be by your side

*** Thanx a lot to Jose for this one ***

Be a woman

( Live at the "quiet quiet window lights" at bolinas in california, 22-01-05 )

When I saw the blossoms broke after the rain
Limp and sodden - when you wrote me again
Made me think of spiders I washed down the drain
Spiders ghosts - thrown back up again

Blessing all the birds that died so I could live
Be a woman - be a woman

Blessing all the birds that died so I could live
Be a woman - be a woman

Blessing all the birds that died so I could live
Be a woman - be a woman

Blessing all the birds that died so I could live
Be a woman - be a woman

When I see the blossoms broke after the rain
Limp and gray - when you wrote me again

Made me think of spiders I washed down the drain
Be a woman - be a woman

Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes

( Traditional / Robert Burns - Live 2006 )

Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes
Call them where the heather grows
Call them where the burnie rowes
My bonnie dearie

When I went down the water-side
To see the fishes sweetly plaid
Beneath the hazel spreading wide
And the moon that shines so clearly

When I went down the water-side
'Twas there I met my shepherd lad
He row'd me sweetly in his plaid
And called me, I his dearie

If you'll but stand to what you've said
I'll come with you, my bonnie lad
And you may row me in your plaid
And i will be your dearie

You will get gowns and ribbons meet
And leather shoes upon your feet
And in my arms you'll lie and sleep
My bonnie dearie

As waters wimple to the sea
While day breaks in the sky so high
Till' clay-cold death shall blind my eye
I shall be thy dearie

Till' clay-cold death shall blind my eye
I shall be thy dearie.

*** Thanx a lot to Zach for this one ***

Colleen

( The YS Street Band EP )

I'll tell it as I best know how
And that's the way it was told to me
I must have been a thief or a whore
Then surely was thrown overboard,
Where, they say
I came this way from the deep blue sea

It picked me up and tossed me round
I lost my shoes and tore my gown
I forgot my name and drowned
Then woke up with the surf a pounding
It seemed I had been run aground

Well they took me in and shod my feet
And taught me prayers for chastity
And said my name would be Colleen
And I was blessed among all women
To have forgotten everything

And as the weeks and months ensued
I tried to make myself of use
I tilled and planted, but could not produce
Not root, nor leaf, nor flower, nor bean
Lord! It seemed I over-watered everything.

And I hate the sight of that empty air
Like stepping for a missing stair
And falling forth forever blindly:
Cannot grab hold of anything!
No, not I, most blessed among Colleens

I dream some nights of a funny sea
As soft as a newly born baby
It cries for me so pitifully!
And I dive for my child with a wildness in me
And am so sweetly there received.

But last night came a different dream
A grey and sloping-shouldered thing
Said "what's cinched 'round your waist, Colleen
Is that my very own baleen
No! Have you forgotten everything?"

This morning, 'round the cape at dawn
Some travellers sailed into town
With scraps for sale and the saddest songs
And a book of pictures, leather-bound
That showed a whale with a tusk a meter long

I asked the man who showed it me
"What is the name of that strange beast?"
He said its name translated roughly to
He-Who-Easily-Can-Curve-Himself-Against-The-Sky.

And I am without words
He said "My lady looks perturbed
the light is in your eyes, Colleen."
I said, "Whatever can you mean?"
He leaned in and said
"you ain’t forgotten everything."

"You dare to speak a lady's name?"
He said, "My lady is mistaken.
I would not speak your name in this place
For if I were to try then the wind
I swear, would rise, to tear you clean from me without a trace."

"Have you come, then, to rescue me?"
He laughed and said, "from what, 'colleen'?"
You dried and dressed most willingly.
You corseted, and caught the dread disease
By which one comes to know such peace."

Well it's true that I came to know such things
As the laws which govern property
And herbs to feed the babes that wean,
And the welting weight for every season
But still I don't know any goddamned "Colleen".

Then dive down there with the lights to lead
That seem to shine from everything
Down to the bottom of the deep blue sea
Down where your heart beats so slow
And you never in your life have felt so free
Will you come down there with me
Down were our bodies start to seem
Like artefacts of some strange dream
Which afterwards you can't decipher
And so, soon, have forgotten everything.

En Gallop

( Walnut whales EP - 2002 )

This place is damp and ghostly
I'm already gone
And the halls were lined with the disembodied
And dustly wings
Which fell from flesh
Gasplessly

And I go where the trees are
And I walk from a higher education
For now, and for hire

It beats me, but I do not know
It beats me, but I do not know
It beats me, but I do not know
I do not know

Palaces and stormclouds
The rough straggly sage and the smoke
And the way it will all come together
In quietness, and in time

Bitch! You laws of property
Bitch! You free economy
Bitch! You unending afterthoughts;
You could've told me before

Never get so attached to a poem, you
Forget truth that lacks lyricism, and
Never draw so close to the heat, that
You forget that you must eat
Oh woe.

In order to make
The music
Seems I must break so many things
Turn over
Like bracken
And sea shrapnel
Graced by the tongue of the beetle
Green sea

Let each note be
A full bodied song
Enough fingers
Enough toes
Skin to cover
The wreckage, bloody beat
Enough belly
Enough feet

*** Thanx a lot to Mark for this one ***

Erin

( Walnut Whales EP )

Erin, Erin, Erin
Erin across america

Do now cheer me on
Can't you hear the song for you

Quick, now, caramel dip
Give it up to the runaway ship

Hail, now - hail to the bitch
The hairy literary with the nervous, nervous twitch

Shy, your light pops out
And we stand there astounded
And we pound our heads and shout

We shout halleluja
Look what it did to ya

Oh, a horrible mess
And we're eating by the river in the sunday dress

Oh, serenade me
Eatin' my biscuits and gravy

You are missing from me
As you chug with your uncle in the red red sea

I will wait, or will
Knock my knees and talk to you, oh so still

Oh shanandoah
We just a-cross the wide missouri
You are so bonny - shhhh do not worry

Quick, now - caramel dip
Give it up to the runaway ship

Life's so sweet and so low
Buried in the water, yeah, buried in the snow

So dear, deep and so dark
Sleeping on the pavement in the central park

Twentieth floor balcony house is what is home to me
Twentieth floor balcony house is what is home to me
Twenty-up floor balcony house is what is home to me

Flying a kite

( Walnut Whales EP )

Dear charming kite,
Do litely bite
The foggy fields, the lowing lanes
The rickety roads and the kneeling plains

Oh lazy light
With massive might
You dare my dream of snowy cloth
Felt snapping white as albatross
Is bitten by the wind and rocks
Is hushed into the clary moss
Is ushered here to count his loss
My kite; pale cotton, willow cross

You take my tattered fist
It's like a catalyst
It's like a roiling writhing wall of 'has it come to this?'

If this is medicine woah-oh
It tastes like medicine
Just help me get it in

Flying a kite,
Flying a
Kite, flying
A kite, flying
A kite, flying
A kite, flying
A kite, flying
A kite, flying
Flying a kite
Oh-woah-oh

Oh gnarly night
It's like a dog fight
It's like a cat fight
And if I could just hold you close to me, woah-oh
I guess I hold you close to me
It's like a bull fight

And I see I give you a piece of my mind
But I'm giving you a piece of my mouth
You blushing boy,s how could you be so blind?

Flying a kite
Flying a
Kite, flying
A kite, flying
A kite, flying
A kite, flying
A kite, flying
A kite, flying
Flying a kite
Oh-woah-oh

La, da-da, dee, di
Look at my kite fly
Over foggy fields
The pungent pines
The verdant veils
The vapid vines
And the thousand purple cups of wine
The tearing teeth and the four full tines
The crumpling feast and the dawdling dine

And you do

Get me off the floor
Stand there staring for a minute
Like you never saw a girl before
There is the door

And like the streets are like an open mouth
I head south
And you stand fair and square and I stand there
Until the fall blots me out

There is no more
The cat and mouse to block the door
There is no more

Little Wing

(Jimi Hendrix cover / Live at the Royal Festival Hall 26-06-2005)

Well, she's walking through the clouds
With a circus mind that's running 'round
Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams and fairytales
That's all she ever really thinks about - running with the wind

When I'm sad she comes to me with a thousand smiles, she gives to me free
It's alright, she said, it's alright
Take anything you want from me, anything.

Fly on little wing
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, little wing

*** Thanx a lot to Jose for this one ***


Man's Road

( Jimmy Webb Cover / Live )

Horizon rising up to meet the purple dawn
Dust demon screaming bring an eagle to lead me home
For in my heart I carry such a heavy load
Here I am on Man's road

Walking Man's road, ho
Walking Man's road
Walking Man's road, ho

I'm hungry, and I’m weary, but I cannot lay me down
And the rain falls, dreary, and there's no comfort that I have found
It will be such a long time till I find my abode
Here I am on Man's road

Walking Man's road, ho
Walking Man's road
Walking Man's road, ho

Horizon disguising lonely streets in gay displays
The stars fade and the night shade closes and makes the day afraid
It waits in silence for the night to explode
Here I am on Man's road

Walking Man's road, ho
Walking Man's road
Walking Man's road, ho

Ring The Living Bell

(Melanie Safka cover / Joanna Newsom with Smog and Weird War at the Bowery Ballroom Christmas Party 19-12-2004)

I've been celebrating way too long
And I've been drinking, I'm ashamed to say
Still feel thirsty and, God, I wanna drink the water from the well
Still feel thirsty, and God, I wanna drink and ring the living bell
Ring the bell, lah
Ring the living bell
Still feel thirsty but, God, I want to drink and ring the living bell

I'm not a magic lady but I wanna sing to help the light
Descend upon the earth today because it's gonna get dark tonight
Sing for light, oh
Sing for living light
Still feel weak but, God, I want to give and shine the living light
Still feel weak but, God, I want to give and shine the living light

Been walking... walking down the street all night
And I been feeling kind of cold
Still feel naked but, God, I want to feel warm before I get old
Feeling cold, lah
And I'm feeling cold
Still feel hungry but, God, I want to give and shine the living light
Still feel hungry but, God, I want to give and shine the living light

Been... been celebrating way too long
And I have eaten much too well
Still feel hungry, God, I want to give and ring the living bell
Still feel hungry, ring the living bell

Still feel hungry but, God, I wanna give and ring the living bell
Still feel hungry but, God, I wanna give and ring the living bell
Oh, still feel hungry but, God, I wanna give and ring the living bell
Still feel hungry but, God, I wanna give and ring the living bell

Ring the living bell
Ring the living bell
Shine the living light
Shine the living light

*** Thanx a lot to Jose for this one ***

The Fray

( Walnut Whales EP )

Bottom of the ninth inning
Out which I stray through the crowd
First it was what I call quiet
Then it was biblically loud

You should have seen how they tumbled
You should have seen how they danced
You should have seen them all luscious and lean
As they flew by the seat of their pants

It was not the boiling' frustration
It was not they cannot care less
It was not the face of that reverend place
In the horrible state of undress

I moved in a way I call mindless
I flatter myself a move true
I carved out a "j" in the spectators fray
Because that's just the thing that we do

Yes, I carved out my name in the ninth of the game
Because that's just a thing that we do

What we have known

( Yarn and Glue EP )

The tadpole buoyant as basalt
The seahorse horsing in assault
The owlet in his greenery
The narwhal in his cup of sea
They all believe
They all believe

But collusion bleeds through back allies
From parapets that end on feet
When one is weak they discretely meet
They throw the bones into the street
And they progress
And we retreat

And all the books our fathers wrote
Are in the middle of the road
Little by little we implode
History brittle, brown and broke
We can't remember what was spoke
So we stare in wonder at the smoke
What it begets is born alone
We know not now what we have known

Ladies; breathe deep against your whalebones
For your children come home made of stone

The terror seething sees a way
Or like the wheezing of the bay
In miniature agonies
They travel westward on the breeze
Bring us all to our knees

The dappled horse, the sorrowed mare
With eyes that do not see but stare
Beneath boots as black as Malachi
He drives a nag into the nigh
Into the nigh

And all the baby boys we've born
With eyes averted from the storm
Sent off to die in perfect form
We know now what we have known

Satellite photos rhetoric
See how the euphemism stick
And when they come back broke and burned
Those who return have no return

Yarn and glue

( Yarn and Glue EP )

Do you know what this is son?
This is the panoptic on
And all around us blink the brash
And shifty eyes of common cash

So do we die or do we travel?
Down the path by which one dabbles
In the arts of antediluvian crafts
With yarn and glue

So gather twilight to your breast
And couch the rabble-rouser's nest
And we will take a day of rest
And we will all be heaven-blessed

And we will gather round to dine
And pass the time with wicked rhymes
And toast in dandelion wines
To hear their mellifluous chimes

We toast the fallow furrows that we sow,
We toast the monies that we owe, oh, oh
We toast the creditors we daily face
Who topple down with gruesome grace

And we toast the aristocrats with blood of blue
Because we know our collars are that colour too
And we toast the artisans of antediluvian crafts
With yarn and glue

We do, we do!