The Decemberists- The Crane Wife 3 (lyrics)

The Crane Wife 3

And under the boughs unbowed
all clothed in the snowy shroud
She had no heart so hardened
All under the boughs unbowed

Each feather it fell from skin
'Til thread bare while she grew thin
How were my eyes so blinded?
Each feather it fell from skin

And I will hang my head, hang my head low
And I will hang my head, hang my head low

A grey sky, a bitter sting
A rain cloud, a crane on wing
All out beyond horizon
A grey sky, a bitter sting

And I will hang my head, hang my head low
And I will hang my head, hang my head low

Charlotte Mew- On the Road to the Sea

On the Road to the Sea


We passed each other, turned and stopped for half an hour, 
     then went our way, 
I who can make other women smile did not make you-
But no man can move mountains in a day. 
So this hard thing is yet to do. 


But first I want your life: -before I die I want to see
The world that lies behind the strangeness of your eyes,
There is nothing gay or green there for my gathering, it may be,
     yet on brown fields there lies
A haunting purple bloom: is there not something in grey skies
     And in grey sea?
I want what world there is behind your eyes,
I want your life and you will not give it me.


Now, if I look, I see you walking down the years, 
Young, and through August fields - a face, a thought, a 
           swinging dream perched on a stile -;
I would have liked (so vile we are!) to have taught you tears
     But most to have made you smile. 


To-day is not enough or yesterday: God sees it all - 
Your length on sunny lawns, the wakeful rainy nights -; tell
          me -; (how vain to ask), but it is not a question -
          just a call -;
Show me then, only your notched inches climbing up the 
          garden wall,
I like you best when you are small. 


Is this a stupid thing to say
Not having spent with you one day?
No matter; I shall never touch your hair
Or hear the little tick behind your breast,
     Still it is there,
     And as a flying bird
Brushes the branches where it may not rest
     I have brushed your hand and heard
The child in you: I like that best
So small, so dark, so sweet; and were you also then too grave
          and wise?
Always, I think. Then put your far off little hand in mine; - 
          Oh! let it rest;
I will not stare into the early world beyond the opening eyes, 
Or vex or scare what I love best. 
But I want your life before mine bleeds away - 
Here - not in heavenly hereafters - soon - 
I want your smile this very afternoon, 
(The last of all my vices, pleasant people used to say, 
I wanted and I sometimes got - the Moon!)


You know, at dusk, the last bird's cry, 
And round the house the flap of the bat's low flight, 
Trees that go black against the sky
And then - how soon the night!


No shadow of you on any bright road again, 
And the darkening end of this - what voice? whose kiss? As
          if you'd say!
It is not I who have walked with you, it will not be I who take 
          away
Peace, peace, my little handful of the gleaner's grain
From your reaped fields at the shut of day. 


Peace! Would you not rather die
Reeling, - with all the cannons at your ear?
So, at least, would I, 
And I may not be here
To-night, tomorrow morning or next year. 
Still will I let you keep your life a little while, 
See dear?
I have made you smile. 


(1921) 

Wolfmother (lyrics)- Colossal

WOLFMOTHER
COLOSSAL

I saw the colossal landscape
Of which I never was a part
It was the magical day
Of which I'd never seen before


The first time I saw colossal girl
The first time I saw colossal girl


Such glowing mountains before us
Pillars of life all fade away
Of all the things I need to say girl
All of these wods are in my way


The first time I saw colossal girl


Well she's running to the hills again
Can you tell me if she'll ever return
She must be mother nature's child
Cause she's running to the call of the wild
She's talkin' to the trees again
Tellin' me that she's one of them
Lookin' at the bird in the tree
Though she's never gonna notice me


Oh is my love a confession
Will I just put it back today
If I had a love to give you
Would you still throw it away


The first time I saw colossal girl
The first time I saw colossal girl


Well she's running to the hills again
Can you tell me if she'll ever return
She must be mother nature's child
Cause she's runnin' to the call of the wild
She's talkin' to the trees again
Tellin' me that she's one of them
Lookin' at the bird in the tree
Though she's never gonna notice me


Can you remember the first time we met
Living together in colossal times
Some things are given with no reason why
Living together in colossal times


I'm just a gypsy with wondering eyes
I'll tell you secrets that send you to sleep
All I can give you is all of my love
These are the things I can give you to keep

Melody Gardot (lyrics)

Sent to me from one of my very best friends....

MELODY GARDOT

BABY I'M A FOOL

How was I to know that this was always only just a little game to you?
All the time I felt you gave your heart I thought that I would do the same for you,
Tell the truth I think I should have seen it coming from a mile away,
When the words you say are,
“Baby I’m a fool who thinks it’s cool to fall in love”
If I gave a thought to fascination I would know it wasn’t right to care,
Logic doesn’t seem to mind that I am fascinated by the love affair,
Still my heart would benefit from a little tenderness from time to time, but never mind,
Cos Baby I’m a fool who thinks it’s cool to fall in love,
Baby I should hold on just a moment and be sure it’s not for vanity,
Look me in the eye and tell me love is never based upon insanity,
Hear the way my heart is beating every other moments fleeting,
Kiss me now,
Don’t ask me how,
Cos Baby I’m a fool who thinks it’s cool to fall,
Baby I’m a fool who thinks it’s cool to fall,
And I would never tell if you became a fool and fell in Love.

Sandra Maria Esteves

(from Aloud; Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe)


SANDRA MARIA ESTEVES
PUERTO RICAN DISCOVERY #23
PORTRAIT IN RAISING SELF-ESTEEM

Flirtacious dreamers
we judge ourselves all wrong


Backward guilt
feet-first jumpstarts into birth
innocent to realize
rain days can be good
blessings from heaven
disguised


We watch for signs
Survival manna
Slow to discover learning lessons
on an oceanic route
full of rocky struts
fathomless caves
voluptuous hills
sea water from the unexpected


The colors in our eyes are misleading
Trapped in partisan confrontations
about the cost of rice
the oil franchise
a video game rate race
for electronic cheese
Every car and plastic bag, a failure
Signatures we tag around
Cheap ads cheating
our children, ourselves


There are no joysticks to the inner life
despite wrappings easily discarded


We are infants compared to the universe
a wise great-grandmother
who can harvest the starts around the moon


She cannot be bought
No pricetags are attached
The inner life has no boundaries
No jail cells--not a one
No fixed points of reference to confine a soul
No eye-catching boxes
to pollute everyday sidewalks


The names of all things are sacred
like thoughts breathing clean air
More than loving
living means giving
like homegrown food
from the eternal harvest within


But for real. 

N. Pham- Desperate Driving

N. PHAM
Desperate Driving


I stare blankly out the windows looking at scenes I've never seen before, that don't necessarily mean anything to me, that don't register in my mind and heart and soul.  Their stories, their emotions and thoughts and whispers are there and present in each broken down house, slow moving train, well kept lawn and wide open field.  Yet none of their stories are known to me- just scenes I've never seen before, that don't necessarily mean anything to me, that don't register in my mind and heart and soul. 


My bus is every minute driving further and further away from you and Sweet Briar and the life I so desperately want to hang on to.  As I head north I pray north is the same as up when you are at the bottom of a lake tangled in yards of seaweed disguised as arms and hands of all the people you wish would love you but don't. 


As I pass these scenes I've never seen before, that don't necessarily mean anything to me, that don't register in my mind and heart and soul, I look back at my own reflection in the window.  My hang touches my eyelid and the face staring back mimics my movements but without knowing why the contact between the skin over my eyes and that of my index finger existed or why it was taken away so quickly.  That face in the window is practically a stranger whose mind and heart and soul are untouchable to me.  


With every minute this bus heads more north further and further away from you and Sweet Briar and the life I so desperately want to hang on to.  The road tips NW and slides a bit NE again and I stare at scenes I've never seen before, that don't necessarily mean anything to me, that don't register in my mind and heart and soul.


But as the road tips to the NW and slides to the NE, it still continues to drive more north further and further away from you and Sweet Briar and the life I so very desperately am trying to hang on to, I now see a different face in the reflection of the window. And when my forefinger touches my eye lid, the reflection stares back at me and blinks with a strong sense of boredom and bewilderment. 


I stare back. and just as my mind and heart and soul registers a connection in that face in the reflection as a scene that I've seen before, that might possibly mean something to me, that touches my mind and heart and soul as real as I touched my forefinger to my eyelid, that face in the reflection looks away.


And then disappears.  And I drive north. And I stare out the window, blinking with a strong sense of boredom and bewilderment at scenes that I've never seen before, that don't necessarily mean anything to me, that don't register in my mind and heart and soul. 


As the road tips NW and bends NE and continues to head more and more north, further and further away from you and Sweet Briar and the life I so very, very, desperately am trying to hang on to, I notice in the reflection of the window the disguise that was there all along.  Those arms and hands of all the people I so desperately wish would love me but don't, are not truly the arms and hands of you and Sweet Briar and the life I was so desperately trying to hang on to, but seaweed at the bottom of the lake.  


As I drive more and more north, further and further away from that life, that school, that love, I can't tell if I am going up or if I am tipping to the side or bending to the opposite diagonal.  


And as I stare at those scenes that I've never seen before, that don't necessarily mean anything to me, that don't register my mind and heart and soul, I touch my forefinger to my eye lid and wipe away a fresh water tear.


The reflection in the window does not mock my movements. It is not even there.  Instead it is at the bottom of the lake with that disguise, with that life, with that school. With that love. 


And I am driving north. 

The Velvet Underground- After Hours (lyrics)

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
AFTER HOURS


If you close the door, the night could last forever
Keep the sunshine out and say hello to never
All the people are dancing and they're having such fun
I wish it could happen to me
But if you close the door, I'd never have to see the day again. 


If you close the door, the night could last forever, 
Leave the wineglass out and drink a toast to never
Oh, someday I know someone will look into my eyes
And say hello-- you're my very special one--
But if you close the door, I'd never have to see the day again. 


Dark cloudy bars
Shiny Cadillac cars
And the people on subways and trains
Looking gray in the rain as they stand disarrayed
All the people look well in the dark
And if you close the door, the night could last forever. 
Leave the sunshine out and say hello to never
All the people are dancing and they're having such fun
I wish it could happen to me
'Cause if you close the door, I'd never have to see the day again
I'd never have to see the day again
(once more)
I'd never have to see the day again