brianbrock.com lyrics to various songs Ah the Ancient Way Annika the anchorite Annika the anchorite spoke atop the stump to a conference of forest creatures. "I am not of the wild, oh ye dank and heaving. Bound to my culture, a cripple sucked to many teats, I live in metaphor." She wavered as the circling treetops let stars come pouring in. An elegant doe trod lightly in to dance with her. "Comprehensive understanding of medicine is my flesh, a delicate soft vision my family." She pleaded til morning rose when no more a pious simpleton sang throatily into the noise of beak and fang over foot and wing, no. In her place, with eyes quick but cloudy, a squirrel shook its body twice before carried away by force of assembled spirits. The woods are empty now except for me, slow to grasp the absence of the place, settled on a stump in flickering sunrise through the trees again. mud man two tender children unattended walk in sunshine after rain the puddle-mud is thick as silver upon your face a second skin I'm a mud man you're a mud man, too let the mud man see himself one reflective skin between us all see yourself in myself seeing you I'm a mud man you're a mud man, too let the mud man see himself What is this road? You walk into the soles of your shoes through tree tunnels touching unwanted, clearing to find the old stone circle cracking in frozen rain, druids long since wandered into mental burdens. Drop pack heavy outside the ring, sky smeared the ancient way, now get the cup and dagger. Weakly when the night ends wander home, path brightly under cloud of fireflies, slip into the silence of your heart, stumbling in the unrhythming of love sonnets forgottening. in Yellowstone Park in Yellowstone Park a dog saw a hot spring thought it a pool to play in the woman he was with leapt in after him into the deep blue boiling pool and as their motor-functioning began to break down he must have faded to an image looking back up to her through the clear and the darkening blue, the Question in his eyes I have found something here Shall we look at it together? The Hummingbirds and the Honeybees The Hummingbirds and the Honeybees The Honeybirds and the Hummingbees and the sand swirls all round An entire day passes What reason, within, judges me against my will? Trap of wonder tightly drawn around the world Skymachines bony-finger Cupid’s cuddle clouds This unpopulated tract of unkempt scrub makes a maltreated hideout for many a loosed miscontent I’m sure Invasion of Flowers Sit in the burnt remnant smoldering Flamethirsty crumbling unencumbered The days and ashes shuffle in the wind What's that hanging from a limb across the way? The patterns of the people last In colors through the char The way they used to laugh Rushes waving in the yard Gaze fondly at the weapon in your hand A piece of steel bent to an ungainly shape by the fire The wreck of lives etching its inscription Now, see flower-vine tendrils spiral forth Petals reckoning through the rubble Twine the person in this pedestal Endless flower fascination Let color be unsteadfast Shine past imagination Garden Path It was raining up above the trees and ghost-making mist moved in clumps over shivering hollows of us lost but never wanting to go home where all the colors are unvariegated and all the wood unmossed. There was a cave down below the trees and rocks for tables rested easily on a dirt floor we pawed lightly in the unmistakable moment of friendship as the night drew in around the stars. ice floe in these times we are lost like rabbits on an ice floe we are lost in this time like rabbits on an ice floe and we don't know that it is cold and the water does flow we are lost like rabbits swimming in the gulf of mexico looking for that line of the shore where they might live again love- and logicsongs rare birds ice cracks cross the window into your home turned pale orange flickering the eyes on the wall birdsong stuck in summer put things away touch each one warm in the drawer love is not a common thing rare birds set down on a branch one day sing quiet with one voice coals drift into themselves let them settle down settle down settle down santa clara clarita she lives in this house over there with dogs and wildflowers drags her wagon down the grocery street she knows noone but herself, and she's not telling he sits on the bench with his pencil scratch scratch scratch words like irons' hot steam watch the world wheeling by watch the world rattle by today is her birthday, she's got her apple dress on there's a lilt in her step, and no wagon it's his birthday too, he's got his apple dress on leaning back with eyes shut home from fantastic voyage home from fantastic voyage same old rats same old cupboards just dusty gillespie dam washed out, gillespie dam stands hulking arching concrete scrawled with charred branches i'll protect this place, fight dogs and desperadoes since my friends, it seems, all fear me why is the origin of light so dark? i consider a tree lightning too run tree run i love you here comes the sun grow tree grow you soon will die i soon will know why do we try to live alone? oh hollow tree make you my home it's like darkness it's like darkness in the windows hanging on the wall of your childhood home darkness in blinking eyes darkness in a sky that was light just an hour ago words hanging in air hanging in space hanging in time i feel out there when i reach my hands out i feel it's like cotton and thunder and wavering eyes it's like darkness in the rut of a wagon wheel on an old old trail going where no no wheel's rolling on it's like darkness i'll speak to you someday - restless dirt I'll speak to you someday in mountain air with morning-gilded snow-tipt overseers you are the home of my heart that beaten unbeaten beating thing I carry like a lantern whose beam I followed there whose dark I must ignore these trees the golden fading into green swaying wind-whisped cracking count the years when the words come, will they say the weak and whining plaintive pleading loneliness of leaves left crackling into dust on the fading forest floor? the golden sun carressing crags returns wistful roots of stone let go their fears your silence is the silence of the dead the never-born the deep and undisturbed unhearing hidden hot and heaving earth of person in its core thunder cut my night-time reverie bewet my fire with lightning cold and tears - the restless dirt and ache of matted fur entanglements with life's past forest floors sedimented choices taken when unsure dark and vanishing hallway of unopened doors living in desert time color-faded cactus flowers scatter, creek-water rock-ripples shine earth armor ridges beckon, make a heart-weak cripple climb jumping cholla touches dog-paw, hear her aching miserable crying hackberry sunset, limping home in shaky triple time freeway brake lights blinding, just another vehicle fire downtown people dress up, fess up, just another tricky liar I trust my true love that she loves me, the rest are fickle mimes edge of asphalt edge of gravel, walk the dark dark miracle mile I'll believe into the superstitions, an honest friend was never mine the stars don't twinkle with my eyes shut, they strike a pleasant chime I held a piece of wind once, and within a feather flying I can't count the hours for years, I'm living in desert time half-dead junipers hold the hillside, nighttime dies that day survives up scree scrambling stay in place, kick up dust in paradise I found a flower in an empty puddle, a sad face with caring eyes across the holler 'yotees howl, the all-consumed-with-daring die mother nature doesn't hear me, caught up in mumbled nursery rhymes too young to notice a cool stare, too old to watch for worsening times the dead or dying quicken prayerful, hope to be the first in line the roads are flooded, drown the engine, walk back rainstorm blurring eyes blood of Christ electric pain, the heart can't lift a heavy mind sky collapses into dust, God almighty weather fine the wind can't wait for the weak, oh well it's just when heaven sighs preachers stay up wakeful, fearful, I'm living in desert time death-holy desert holly wavers, sharp and dry and bleak and white Eureka dunes drone aching tunes, singing sinking ankle high Joshua knows the joke's on him, still waits as winter takes its time feetprint 'roo rats prowl the lowlands, ogres roam the Racetrack Playa Badwater road as straight as hell, killer turn every eighty miles hot dog spinach wonderbread, Do Say Think and Make me try a taste can end a week of fasting, a life of love in a day denied epiphanies are disasters, all sacred revelations die what if the wilderness never leaves? what if heartbreak never hides? what of old wives lost wandering in grief? what if evil men survive? what of the searching eyes which without trying mesmerize? what if I'm not of this world? what if I'm living in desert time? Raised By Robots I was raised by robots I didn't know I could think by myself I heard a little fuzz in my brain and my pain began and if I wouldn't ever light up I'd feel better What can I do? You turn me on Why must I be stuck in this little chassis by myself? Electronic switching is my friend I'll send a signal to the end As my light emitting diodes flicker I'll snicker Static on my mind I'll send my soul Through that hole in the wall Raised by robots I didn't know I could think of myself There's One Airplane in the Sky Live in the ground with batteries and cans grow bitter vegetables in cactuses and sand A rabbit and a dog a carrot or a bone throw a stick into the dark or lose yourself in stone There's three airplanes in the sky There's three airplanes in the sky They fly so very high You can see them if you try Asphalt and cement stretched across the line The magic marker man in black in his yellow sign Kick the pebble down Watch it to the floor "Rumours" on the radio Driving to the store There's two airplanes in the sky There's two airplanes in the sky They fly so very high You can see them if you try There's someone up there up in the air I'm waiting for her in my rocking chair Sitting on the porch There's one airplane in the sky There's one airplane in the sky It flies so very high You can see it if you try (instrumental) Sweep the dirt Listen to the Clash Smoke just one last cigarette and hide your head in the trash There's no airplanes in the sky There's no airplanes in the sky They fly so very high You can see them if you try Waiting for the Dust to Settle Prometheus was tarred and feathered for teaching us the ways of heaven and though we never learn he still has to burn forever Tied to a rock, alone Thinking of home He's waiting for the dust to settle for someone else to test his mettle and take a human form Kid was on the road to ruin til someone taught her how to do it and now she's lying there trying to feel scared or foolish Tied to a rock, alone She's waiting for the dust to settle a flower wasting paper petals that the wind has torn My tablecloth is cracked and brittle from checkerboarded paradiddles I'd rather hit a drum and then instead of hum you'd fiddle Waiting for the dust to settle a piece of rusting metal sitting through a storm Gone I'm losing my mind again It's already gone, gone gone gone I want to know what step to take in a rustle of leaves drip so slow I'm losing my friends again They're already gone, gone gone gone I want to be right next to you in a bus in the park drive so slow I'm losing my hope again It's already gone, gone gone gone I want to find a can of dimes unrusted and clean It's Rusty It's rusty but it'll still go it's springs popping, cranks creaking, oil leaking, lamps all burnt out It's rusty but it'll still go It's rusty but it still flows it's factory dumped, chemical spill, marshes dead, dry fish don't swim anymore It's rusty but it still flows It's rusty but it's still that song you used to know it's chords inverted, words misinterpreted, chorus melody sung in the verse It's rusty but it's still that song you know People live together People live together People live together People live together Hedge Maze Hedge maze Crunch gravel Laces untied Smooth cement Fingers in the holes She smacked her boy His lips curled open Apple-pattern pleats White socks, black shoes But where am I? My mother gone Run, stop, turn, run The sobbing boy His mother's face Frowns, looks, smiles, Sends me home Reverse-Binoculars A truck in a meadow Scoops dirt, wheels clack to the mound Fingers bleed sometimes Mother has some stuff "No, I don't know where he is – I think he went to town" "I like mustard" Rug on the stairs, squish toes Reverse-binoculars the magnolia tree Cesar Chavez Park (Good Flavors) A crust of Wonder wheat crumbles off its slice Ducks cross from lawn to pond The heat waves Choking pits can't reach But stretch their smearing eyes The rope that helps to understand Enslaves Scattered sons and daughters Playing "Off to War" Tell each other when to die Or be saved Drumbeats dim the water With trumpets four and four The bajo-sexto singer tries To think of things to crave ... Picnic table dwellers Wait until the dark To wash or fight or start to dream Or misbehave Ice-cream fortune-tellers Push their glowing carts Mumble nonsense in-between Good flavors This bench is getting cold And it's hard and my bones are old I Watched a Grey Doggie I watched a grey doggie on the rockslide out back of the cabin yesterday when you wanted to pack It was still as the sculptures you make when we're home It whistled and whimpered like it was left alone Oh Father the wind sounded like someone sighing Why oh why why-o was that coyote crying That grey doggie turned its nose to the dust coming over the ridge, where you taught me to trust It followed the path that you told me you made It paced and it pawed like it felt afraid Oh Father the shadows stretched out like people falling Who oh who who-o was that coyote calling Booo-yip! Booo-yip! Booo... That doggie layed down sillouhetted in blue on the spot where you told me what little you knew It faded to darkness scattered with stars It sparkled and sputtered like it came from afar Oh Father the moon rose up like people hoping Where oh where where-o is that coyote loping And why oh why why-o is that coyote crying Booo-yip. Booo-yip. I watched a grey doggie on the rockslide out back. Freedom (Woody's Song) Freedom Freedom Freedom I'm so sick of this cage I can't stand the smell And if one more dog barks Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom I'm so sick of these walks I know it all too well And if they pull my chain once more Something is bound to snap before We get back to that cage I'm going to run And if I have to starve to death It wasn't living anyway Change my name And if no one can call me I'll never have to come again No one to call me I'm out here alone No one who knows to call that one-time name Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom Death Valley Stumble down rocks and block The sun from your eyes like I do White spiny plants slow-dance A rain-dance but can't call the dew Gravel, burnt tracks, and paint cracks Borax, beryllium and lead The needle which inches toward H Eyelids, dry tongue, and slow head Don't know where the road goes and I'm out of gas Overheating, engine leaking and lost in the past I've got a new place to be Under what was once the sea I'll set my bones to dry and settle in the stones and sky ... Lake turns to puddle and pond Leaf goes brittle and black Rabbits all run from the sun A grasshopper stranded on salt-flats A Nut on a River A nut on a river Floating downstream Somehow can still plant its seed I believe you believe in me A fish on dry land Making that sound they make Still tries to swim to the sea I have hope you have hope in me Chop it down Burn it up Burn it down Chop it up Sit Down Sit down in my arm chair I sink thinking of when we stayed up all night long It was grey as the rocks where we hid from the wind Dreaming of you dreaming of me and the wind whines like a dog at the door but we won't let it in Close your eyes and we'll be back home Make a fire you and I alone but I wake up to the phone wake up to the phone your voice is sweet and warm but it's a cold clear dial tone I thought I heard the phone standing dry blankly the floor feeling the phone fall down i've got to down down i've got to sit down Lost inside your head I wander lost in the clear would you care Lost you found me just sitting there sit and stare Close your eyes close close Close your eyes I wake up to the phone I wake up to the phone Difficult Run Farm Wrinkle your nose, your eyes stay closed, eat anyway Hold your tongue and cry Grass and grains and gasoline A one-lane bridge on a two-way road Difficult run Difficult Run Farm Your best friend Fred whose dad is dead came yesterday Hide and watch him cry Trash and trains and trampolines A burnt-out car makes a kick and a snare Difficult run Difficult Run Farm Daddy set our things on fire Momma watched the flames grow higher Daddy set our things on fire Standing in the stinging nettles with bare feet No one hears you cry Blessed and blamed and in-between Attack the trees with a broken branch Difficult run Difficult Run Farm You're So Sure You're so sure where to go now I love to follow when you tug on my collar I know you won't leave me because you want to teach me but you're gone So I wait by the window and I whine hoping you'll know You're so sure where to go now I love to follow when you tug on my collar I know you won't leave me because you want to teach me but you're gone You come back and I'm sure you're my girl say my name tell me I'm your puppy now Too Old for the Oldies They used to drive with the radio on listening to their youth That fat man in the big belt buckle singing the white man's rhythm and blues They tried to place his name while they sang the tune but they're too old for the oldies anymore It happened just last Christmas Day driving home from church She reached out to turn the knob, but his hand was first They turned it on together, and had to learn the worst that they're too old for the oldies anymore The station identification still said W - O - L - D But what fun is a disco drum when you like Buddy Holly? It was at that very moment that they felt elderly They're too old for the oldies anymore They still remember when they stole her momma's fresh baked buns Took his poppa's pickup truck and drove around for fun The Times They Are A Changin' had just hit number one and they're too old for the oldies anymore They pull into their driveway, she says "tell you what we'll do Just you go and get your guitar, and we'll sing the rhythm and blues I'll remember the words, and you keep track of the tune We're not too old for the oldies anymore Too old for the oldies any more We're not too old for the oldies anymore." Emily 35 Emily, you'll be fine You'll be fine You'll be fine Carry on, in this life Things are made And unmade You'll be fine If you want anything It's all right It's all right If you need anything Just ask It's all right You'll be fine Emily Bodies are broken While hearts are reborn If you love anyone You'll be fine You'll be fine I love you Emily Actually it's easy You'll be fine Emily Happy Birthday Time is a monster Who lets us go on If we wait long enough We'll be fine We'll be fine If we stay calm enough Actually it's easy We'll be fine Emily What comes next? No one knows yet Once in a while We make sense of each other If we think hard enough We'll be fine We'll be fine If we think hard enough We'll be fine We'll be fine We'll be fine We'll be fine Why Why don't you tell someone about it? Why do you hide your special knowledge? You know the budding flower You know the broad daylight When it's only morning What is a step for one? How many days will do? With or without a warning? (Everything starts to get so fucked up, everything (rpt)) (or nothing, nothing, nothing, everything (4 lines)) Why don't you tell someone about it? Why do you hide your special knowledge? You gave a blanking stare You gave a little smile Came back with a question How many eyes are you? Look up. What is a step For one, the one you just stepped on? (Everything starts to get so fucked up, everything (rpt)) Why do you hide your special knowledge? Why don't you tell someone about it? Water begins to whine Faith is a question's line And turns wine into water and everything. Stay Stay Just a little bit longer Why don't you stay Til your will's a bit stronger Stay here and dream Future good will arrive soon Everything's gonna be all right Now Now that you're back We'll forget your failed flight This time This time This time you're back Stay here today Cos it's only one more day Stay here today Cos tomorrow is your day Stay here and dream Future good will arrive soon Everything's gonna be all right Now Now that you're back We'll forget your failed flight This time This time This time you're back Stay here today Every day is a new one Stay here today Watch the weeks roll into one Stay here and stay Buffalo Commons Burnt stone shell of a store on Carson Street Arms stretched out, elbows hold against the wind and sun Rain pools Tattered paper cartons float with rusted cans Carved wood crossed on the broken windowsill Bright sharp shards reflecting something stopping up the door A buffalo with shoulders wedged Eyes wide Watching the wind and weeds and telephone wires in the street Stuck like a funny postcard from a bad place Will concentrated in work Splinters and pebbles and dust and an illegible sign That building falls down Fire rises Catches on a pile of papers on a faded desk The prairies will burn The prairies will burn The buffalo burn The prairies will burn After Practice She Turns the Page After practice she turns the page It doesn't look too hard Nina picks the two parts out Slow and an old soul opens Sees her face in mirror black finish With bones and arms and hands A draft of harmonizing thoughts Hammers hit, strings sparkle Deerhoof-beaten meadow beds Laid simple in the dark The old grey hart lulls trembling fawn To the drawn-on dawn unbroken A still-in-winter willow-spray Crackles in the wind Sunstruck frozen catkins flare Hammers hit, strings sparkle Teacher tries to look away But still the charm abides The contrapuntal screws have set Like stars bolt sky to ocean We stand outside the shaking house Watch for it to fall While Nina picks the two parts out Hammers hit, strings sparkle Birds (for Smuckers) I love birds. Yes, they can fly, have hollow bones and there's birdsong. Yes, they flock and migrate, come to feeders, Penguins waddle. I love birds I know some doves. They live with us in roof angles, in three families: East, they hide black, blinking eyes; the middle ones watch, leap and play hurt when we get near, to screen the nest; West, it's just sticks in a heap, and we watch their fallen babies die, and we sweep up the debris. (I love birds) Turn Of The World "Do not disturb my circles" the sand-reckoner says sternly (or "commands") as the sword comes down, who was cutting up grains to watch rearrange into a square. Oh I feel the turn of the world "The great god Pan is dead" a sea-spray voice shouts out as the ship sails on. Yet the oracle trusts in her travertine crusted three-legged chair. Oh I feel the turn of the world "The paradox is the passion of faith" (or "of thought") the leaflet-man cries out through the murmuring crowd. If we could just read him we'd see back to Eden in his apple-seed stare. Oh I feel the turn of the world Easter Egg Hunting Easter Egg Hunting In the half-melt snow with boots on In the green, brown, and blue, the colors peek through The white snow makes them glow And I know it's no rabbit Last year I found one in May Speckled and resting on a leaf pile Left unhid and undyed That egg never hatched, no no I put it in your garden But I saw a speckled bird today And I guess that speckled birds lay speckled eggs in May Easter Egg Hunting One Fine Morning One Fine Morning Does' eyes glint wet It's yours It's handed down Whether your sore soles feel like walking Sticks and mud This house will fall one day The sky's alive with dragons They're lost Looking for home Dragging old bodies through the marshes Their scales and bones are everywhere Rest for a while Grass in driveway cracks Hills burning in the evening light No talk now, the table clatters Like fireflies echo stars It's time Creak creaking stairs No she's not here No she's not here Just close your eyes and open them VCR 4-Square VCR 4-Square on the blacktop Fielded teams chant we won We won, at the bell mobbing Uphill victory marches Conflict ebbed into one "We Won" offered to the future Still on pause, marching The big team chanting Winning into itself Captain Chugger lied Head hollowing, "he lied" Yet mothers acquainting Canvas stink pitched backyards Chugger frowned, pretended sickness The dark lonely quiet A stretched moment with Mrs. Hardtke School, summer, swim meets The "he lied" still echoing It's Dark It's dark pondlets slip and lap what's this cricket chorus singing in my sleep? what's that starlight leaping from the lake? wet fingers lappy liminal skinlicks muck-foot weed-floor float-sink under-drift turning toward the sky who's that old one hiding in the heavens? peering out from the empty circle I Fuck Your Heart Regina Don’t touch me Don’t have touched me I am a flower I fuck your heart Petals, nape, and knee I stir your pretty blossom pollen Regina I fuck your flower heart Don’t touch me Endless fields of white snow cotton Dandelion down hover, sleepy daymoths Pups and chicks at play upon the prairie The babybells ring the evening light Regina Don’t touch me Don’t have touched me I am a flower I fuck your heart Something Nice something nice would be to go for a drive roll along the old highway talking just being glad to be being alive get out now and then and take the dogs walking we could find out where the canyon narrows set up camp somewhere not too windy let behind oh all our care-os that would be something nice for you and me just like when we were still friends in those days that were never going to end something nice would've been to go for a drive just being glad to be being alive I Wish I Left When We Were Happy I wish I left when we were happy Let the love shed off like rain Seen a light in thunder clapping A heat in forests up in flames When your soft lilt and mine rejoiced I could have cut the cord and fled To listen to the nightingale's voice Singing in a cottonflower bed But if I left when grass was greener You'd be the one who's feeling blue And I would never make you miserable Though I hoped the same from you We fit our fleeting souls together for a while Like two parting lips of a bittersweet smile A tender feeling like a song from up above I wish I left when we were in love I wish I left when we were happy Then I'd be out there in the cold As it is I'm sitting sadly No particular place to go I wish I left when we were happy Bewildered ((listen) A feather floating erratically in an eddy Catches quill on pebble Now the feathers of the feather lift A wave a wave a wave away I feel bewildered This paradise is inequipmental Water rises from the well A berry branch bobbing laden in the wind Hover up and down in time A berrybird bobs the bobbing berries A wave a wave a wave away I feel bewildered This paradise is inequipmental Water rises then it fell Starlight sky wound up unspringing High desert savanna pines below Epicyclic slipping circle of the sun A day a day a day away I feel bewildered This paradise is inequipmental Why it rises, who can tell? I'm a Donkey-Donkey-Donk-Donk I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk Why don't you try to You know that you want to Try to ride on me I'm a Donkey! I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk I got my teeth and I got my buck 2 rabbit ears to bring us luck I'm a Donkey! I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk I'm a donkey I'm a slack-jawed hee-haw I yodel yokel jokes while I waddle down the road A load of lard saddled I see salad, stop, sally sideways Eat green treats til the mean seat beats Buck my rear, rear my buck-teeth Bite a knee Feel the whip and it's skip along To a new grassy patch I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk I'm a Donkey-donkey-donk-donk IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY From a bug on a beach, Toad, frog, and leech, Pigs, ponies, and Alligators to you! Laying eggs in the sun Little chickens to come Eukaryotes and prokaryotes 10,000,000,000 years IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY Mother and Dad Had a baby so glad Generations All leading up to you Make an axe out of stone Cut a notch in a bone Australopithecus, Neanderthal 10,000,000,000 years IT IS YOUR BIRHTDAY Geometry Gives us a line AB Make a circle Make a candle To wish you a happy day IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY It's my birthday too I'm going to do just what I want to Just like you Blown Over a bastard with classless plastic a has-been with massive taxes eating tripe on a snail-mail trail with asthma attackers fortune-500 allergy plasters amoxicillin warehouse trackers short them by funding bank-teller hackers look for a box of atticked beanie-babies spread the jury's jelly and give them all rabies jailhouse stoogeless rocking-chair races tin-can drip-dry sleep-at-night places BLOWN OVER fun while it lasted ask a do-over little red rover told goldilocks to go home princess penelope sits in the whisky forested frisky fauna won't whisper yelling at night til cover your ears hearing your fellows might confirm your fears BLOWN OVER What's that Blue Light? What's that blue light, and the black lines on the wing? It's the ocean and the sky, and the birds trying to sing. What's that purple light, and the big grey circle? It's the ocean and sky, and I guess that thing's a turtle. What's that black light, and the little white dots? It's the ocean and sky, and the stars. What's that purple light, and the big ball of fire? Rockall Sitting in the sea of North Atlantic Fishers and fishees all feel so frantic United Nations law of the sea Clang clang clang for the land of the free It's a super scary skerry full of shriek and skirl Phantom island rising at the end of the world Volcanic neck of Helen bringing sorrow Crash the waves singing Rockabarra Rockall! Fulmars, gannets, and kittiwakes Rest in summertime for the brave Hydrocarbonic cold seep For sea-snails, clams, and worms to sleep Spanish, French, both were killed there In Martin Martin's voyage to Kilda Rocks which cannot sustain a life Shall have no continental shelf Rockall! Woollies When the woolly the woolly the woolly ones went home (repeat) The ground stopped its rattle The trees their fall Tigers slept til afternoon And we heard the call To follow, to follow The woollies to their home Lest the darkness settle on The woollies all alone When the woolly the woolly the woolly ones went home Mother Word the Generous time is very long and very short the stick-man sits on his whispered cloud eaglets nested softly peep their pudding mama hears stick-man sends strikes of lightning we pretty babies sit and contemplate the pain of life’s bright fire mother word the generous hovers beaky-speaking through our hearts in time Smoke Catch Sparks (listen) Sister says that there's a fallout shelter Grass and weeds over a bolted door A broken hearted angel built it Dug a hole but there's no floor Smoke catch sparks Peeling peppers in the coals Untied hearts Running in and out of home Jungle gym rusting in the brambles Edges crumbling where the welds failed Pulleys in the trees with tangled cables Father fought the forest while we waited (chorus) Chickens talk like lazy love letters Can't catch Carla she's the queen They quit laying when the coop collapsed On an icy Halloween (chorus) Drink Water from Cupped Hands Step through the rashes and the reeds Oh dimlit marshes in the pines The tick and talking fields Bending creekbed beetle-shine Oakleaves patterning the pool Oh drink the darkness in the sand No fool upon no hill Go down into the green and holy land A kiss of silver air flush moonrise Oh the glassy leaves of tender frost Woollibears and spider flies Watch the wingless birds dancing in the dust Ocotillos (Ghosts in the Real World) Ocotillos on the hillside Red bells hold sunset Lost in the Superstitions In each others' fictions Ghosts in the real world Ocotillos on my mind Deep green under spines Lost in the lost memories Carried in the lost cameras Ghosts in the real world Nothing is real But the fire in the wires No one can feel But the fool in the fire And the prairies will burn Oo-oo-ooh And the shriek and the skirl Oo-oo-ooh And the switches will turn (Oo-oo-ooh) And the message untold (Oo-oo-ooh) Oo-oo-ooh, ghosts in the real world Ocotillos on a canvas Forever in the wires Lost in the file structure Figmented rupture Ghosts in the real world Long Way Swimming You stay over there and I'll stay over here I've been swimming swimming I've been swimming long way through the ocean I've been swimming swimming I'm very tired and I'm very wet Long way swimming but not home yet I tried to visit and you were not at home I spent some time on your island alone It's just like mine, small and far away You stay over there and I'll stay over here I've been swimming swimming I've been swimming Long way through the ocean Growing Potatoes Growing potatoes on a desert homestead A dog, the stars, and little garden Each night they fade in Just waiting until they come for me Growing potatoes on a desert homestead A dog, the stars, and little garden ["Mozambique" ; Death and Goblin Valleys] Mozambique, with its aqua blue skies, as you describe it, in love and dancing cheek to cheek for a week, certainly sounds nice. I do enjoy a romantic and pleasantly social getaway. But, I must admit that from your description, I would not know it from Madagascar. Is there something in particular about Mozambique which you like? The thing is, we can go anywhere together, anywhere you like. I like to go to Death and Goblin Valleys, which seem to hold my heart's mystery. Someday you'll go there with me, but as long as we're together, we'll be fine. Let's just meet up at a coffee shop and then step outside the door together. Citronel, the celebrated Citronel, the celebrated student of satellites and constellations, peered deep into a smouldering pool. Bluest depths to dark hollows, shallows shimmering in the wind, soil soft crackling and shifting, the spring spoke, "O scholar -- Within this throat a star burns true, a flame of the real, a mirror of fire. Within this eye a light witnesses itself. Cast within, for the limitless perforation is much too far away." Confounding mists encircled the scientist, glowing red and black, saying, "I am a moth within your fire, writhing the dance of incineration. Settled into your depths, from the still point I gaze out into heaven. I look through your eye, speak through your voice." Night lay heavy on the shoulders of the valley. The thoughtful astronomer felt the pause in her work while the sky slid through the thickets. At moonrise the vapors thinned to whispers. "Stay with me," pled the water, "search within until until-until -" "The lines," she writhed, "the points and lines. O the vastness, the multitude." The pool is empty now, a space opening into dawn, into the disappearing stars. People in the Sky I'm not looking for love Just a moment of kindness Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft People in the Sky Lights hovering over the horizon People in the sky Calling occupants of interplanetary craft People in the sky "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" I'm not looking for love Just a moment of kindness Woodfire (listen) old snow iced into the chopped wood stack not going back but watching the cold sun glowing in crystals like burning the wood broken blade knife theatrics old battered stump fibers cut the quick axe to the pith and holler and you were there too spinning in the winterfall making it wonderful wandering into the drifts and banks in the blackening woods this life is not my own I gave mine to the woman I loved yet the woodfire heated a home Far Away Unsettled thoughts of persons long ago Are tapping on the glass between the lines A number under name beneath the glass A word beneath a word beneath a name Beneath the nearest feeling impulse burns A sentence of a sentence in the heart A heart beneath the thoughts unbeaten still Controls the manifesting of the mind The sinews of the nervous system taut To pull against the deeping of the light To push into the ether in a sign Entwining in the lines between the minds Jackrabbit Jackrabbit jackrabbit Walking alone outside my kitchen window Gentle stepping, no hopping Earfur alight in the desert gold (cold?) morning sun No coyotes, no no no please Leave alone this funny fellow Under the mesquite trees Rabbit can almost reach the beans Jackrabbit jackrabbit jackrabbit Once a horse fed in this poor field Eating from my mesquite trees Jackrabbit jackrabbit THE PERMAFROST IS MELTING the permafrost is melting and as it melts the frozen underground dormant organisms will come to life the animals the ancients fought and buried in the snow the deadly fever and the sickening creeping chills secret thoughts whispered into settling fog and they themselves their souls trapped in the heaving hills the permafrost is melting it was cooling then, as an evening falls the word like a nightlight flickered open made into flesh and electricity and soon they will arise the old ones, the ancient suffering spirits in the dark the never-written people in the shadows of the soil will rise and ask us for a name the permafrost is melting the permafrost is melting five short prayers winter trickling, dry creekbed, crackle ice under boot feet, crunching afternoon oak leafs held holy, brown and brittle, fallen frozen like two butterflies puddling -- slush bus, tread names corner tracks diverge, step foot follow the snowmelt climb through the broken grate sit on a step in the shadows watching the rills all the traffic drones late again today -- nightfall, mountainside hiker headlamp circle flits, rock-hides, peers a moment into dark we marvelled at the moonrise overhill -- tree-flickering sunshine driving north bicycle flashing red crashing fathers forth situation control, hide what's underneath me words matter, not believing no sir, no sir, not very much sir I respect your profession, yes sir, yes how can I help you do your job best? -- in the quiet time after awkward conversation you were so beautiful in your movements from tension to calm in the quiet time after awkward conversation