1. |
Time Dance
02:20
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Time Dance
You say time moves slow at the end of a boring day
They say time’s too fast in love or going gray
Others say time passes fancies in your mind
I say time to quit worrying about the time
Capitalist hours punched in on the clock
Olympic seconds sliced in hundreds for the jock
Trains planes trucks and buses run on tock and tick
I like the rhythm of my heart when I’m not sick
Boil it down so I can taste
How you cook with time to waste
Dreaming out the window they never call it work
Two minutes late your card marked by a manajerk
Late for meeting, late for supper, late for school
Who made the hour into an iron rule?
All we have is one thing then another two
Three, four, a thousand more
and then there’s me and you
We spoon out time by the spaces in between
Slow or fast don’t matter, time to dance with me
Slow or fast don’t matter,
time to dance with me
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2. |
Slack Wire Dancer
03:19
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Slack wire dancers
Sometimes on Sunday morning At his cottage by the lake
My father took a cable out Hung it between the stakes
There was no stretch or tension For his catenary play
He was a slack wire dancer A slack wire chancer
A slack wire prancer Back in the day.
The Dutch army recruited He was the company cook
Their circus saw him practice One set was all it took
Balancing with one leg chairs A table set with wine
He was their slack wire dancer their slack wire prancer
They cheered their entrancer One more time
A human body rolling Like Lake Erie’s waves
One step to place the balance no hand to save
Don’t look down
My father and my mother came To this Canadian grace
But the centre of their family Shifted out of place
Whatever dreams they may have had
Slipped through the cracks of life
They were slack wire dancers Slack wire chancers
And one after another fell into night
It was on Sunday mornings At the cottage by the shore
My father took the cable out But not any more
I look back at my life And ask if I’m like him
A slack wire dancer An off-balance prancer
Some stage frightened chancer
Once again
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3. |
Outside My Window
02:54
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Deer Outside my window
I see deer outside my window
Deer outside my window
Running through the trees
Oh, I wish I could run with them
Wish I could run with them
But they won’t let me
“Deer aren’t really out there, father
Deer aren’t out there, papa
Only cars you see”
And they tuck my blanket closer
Tuck my blanket closer
On my chilly feet
You say you love me I know it’s true
Even as I love you my legs are dying
I can’t run to you
I try getting out of bed
Getting out of bed
Is harder than it seems
Farm work with my aunt and uncle
For my aunt and uncle
Was that all a dream?
they say they love me I know it’s true
even when I’m smiling My legs are dying
I can’t run…
I see deer outside my window
Deer outside my window
No matter what you say
I’ll remember them tomorrow
Once again tomorrow
Once again, once again
Once if only one more day.
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4. |
Promised Land
03:56
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Promised Land
In the shadows of the city there's a place of small relief
and hope lies through a bottle and a sour caress of thigh
The Promised Land they call it, though some have come to grief
when passing through its doors, such as you, such as I
late last night summer of the city
A pretty pretty boy took me by the hand
He talked me up, he shook me down
we were going to the Promised Land
That bar was hot the food not so much
lights all faded band played loud
someone hit me from behind
everything gone in the dancing crowd
refrain:
Don't go to....the Promised Land
Don't let nobody.....ever take you there
They feed you lies....they strip you bare
Don't go
to the Promised Land.
Milk and Honey had a back alley door
puke and piss washed in my nose
tried to stand with three cracked ribs
tried to remember my way back home
ah ah ah tripping on the curb
ah ah ah Christ! Breathing hurts.
Two hours later my apartment door
wanted keys as barter for a rumpled bed
I buzzed the super I smiled through pain
She glared at me her stinkeye said
ref
You shouldna gone....to the Promised land
flashy grit....bitter ecstacy
There's a corpse behind....that high marquee
don't go
To the Promised Land
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5. |
A Bit of Change
02:52
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A bit of change
Charlie lives in shadows he’s been sleeping by a wall
if you don’t look too hard you won’t see him at all
smells like dying shrimp coughs out a lump or two
talks like his throat was busted back in ‘62
He used to be so sober he used to be so clean
he wore the shoes the workers wear spinning the machine
He lost it, all his reasons for a reasonable life
his work and god and children and his all too faithful wife
Looking for his inner self he fell out of his body
an epic epidemic of rage-panicked flight
faking his floundering into a mortgaged future...
Chorus
but Future will not care
Past forgot her tears
and Present’s begging for a bit of change
He sits down on the curb pukes out a chicken pie
wipes a sleeve across his face stares into the sky
poor choices some might say poverty of choice say more
while drink, stink, and government ink
Bolt damn near every door
Losing his inner self he falls out of his body
an epic epidemic of rage-panicked flight
making his younger years into imagined futures...
but Future will not care Past forgot her tears
and Present’s begging for a bit of change
Charlie lived in shadows they found him by a wall
if you didn’t look too hard you saw nothing at all
Call it fate or choice he was alone no one wept
a welfare ticket bought his grave nothing, nothing left.
Looking for his inner self he fell out of his body
an epic epidemic of rage-panicked flight
crashed in a drunken haze pissed up the future
but Future will not care Past forgot her tears
and Present’s begging for a bit of change
[repeat chorus]
...begging for a bit of change...for a bit of change
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6. |
Boogie with the Reaper
03:30
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Boogie with the Reaper
I was walking to party with friends At their house on the top of a hill
It was slick and cold and steep as a bottle of malt
As I was making my new year’s way Mr Grim sidled up to me
He found my fear, and ground my pace to a halt
He looked me over with his one good eye
I glared back with both of mine
There was a chip on his shoulder the size of an old rotten cross
He said “I know you and you know me,
You got away seven years ago;
Let’s dance to the top and see who takes the loss
REF:
You’re gonna Boogie with the Reaper
Boogie to the Reaper’s delight
Boogie with the Reaper
You’re comin’ with me tonight
I had to get to the top before the dance was done Or I’d fall like stone on the snow
I started my move he put his hand into my chest
didn’t have to press didn’t have to lead
he tossed an anvil on my ribs
Meat-filled mouth said “This is for the best”
REF:
It was dosido and pirouette foxtrot driveway from there
Grim sashayed “Aren’t we having a ball?”
One step, three steps, ten steps then
I staggered to my friend’s front door
He melted into shade as I fell into the hall
I Boogied with the Reaper, Boogied with the Reaper
He thought he had me in his sights
I Boogied with the Reaper, Boogied with the Reaper,
and I ain’t dead tonight
Boogied with the Reaper
And I ain’t even seen the light
Boogied with the Reaper
I’m ventilating and upright, that’s right!
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7. |
In The Arms of Morphia
03:21
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In the Arms of Morphia
I wish I could stay on this island
Where tides tear holes in the shore
Where cry of gull and steamer’s hulls
Fly into the deep and more
In the sweet arms of Morphia
Caught between river and sea
I slept in the black and woke in the grey
The sun never waited for me, for me
The sun never waited for me
I wish I could stay in this orchard
Of apples and nipples and rum
Where wisp woody smoke and lavender toke
Foretell of good things to come
Deep in the arms of Morphia
Step nightmare and ecstasy’s feet
I remember them well
Those ghostly old shells
But they always caught up to me, to me
They always caught up to me
Now I must leave by evening
God’s fingernail beckons me west
On rivers of asphalt, road salt, and no fault
My wickedness searching for rest
Away from your arms, oh Morphia
I’ll miss your tart foretaste of death
If my memory’s lost
Like October’s first frost
Desire will keep you like breath, my breath
Desire ever keeps you like breath.
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8. |
Prophet's Yesterday
04:11
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Prophet’s Yesterday
Quarter after midnight I caught myself and
Forced a broken bottle
Through the eyes of the next three minutes
Disfigured time For the next hearse home
I took out the panthers
To piss on the chrome of the sleeping rich
It was all I could do With nothing to say
No time like no time like no time like A prophet’s yesterday
the swirl in my gut And my hurricane heart
Dream of the big emptyTear reason apart in wet ribbons
There’s a psychopath gouging Out the social contract
Where white and black Means no going back to his good old days
It was all I could do With something to say
No time like no time like no time like A prophet’s yesterday
the slouching beast the hydra hate
take the helm of the shithole of state oh it’s foundering fast
white wheel house stained with blood and fear anybody other don’t belong there
(they’re not like us and they don’t like us)
fires of doubters burn the west dry
Our fires of love leave the moon too high
The shadow of the valley churns the middle of the sea
It’s come for you, it’s come for me
The water is rising, my sweet young things
High water dark and astonishing
You’ll use your plastic to slice your wrist
Till your bible falls from your cold, dead fist
This is all I can do With too much to say
This time is like a Prophet’s yesterday
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9. |
Caught
03:26
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Caught
Ah----
Nightmare in a gale of blood and shattered concrete
hills
Ah----
Smell of corpse and cordite in my throat are photo
stills
All might be true
Bones will not stay – gone
Ah----
Fear and flesh like flotsam from the shipwreck of the day
Ah----
Cover faces of the dead and crows will fly away
Body of child
Grief numb and wild –Aah!
I am a scream in the storm
Tossed in the spiral of fate
Outside with you
Bones in my arms - gone
Ah----
I-- saw you in my dreamtime laughing at the sky
Ah----
All the stars, oh, all the stars were falling in your eyes
Flames caught your hair
My name broke the air
Exiles in truth-crusted shoes
We are the refugee soul
Outside with you
Memory in arms – gone.
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10. |
Arrorró mi Niño
04:18
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Arrorró mi niño
Mariá and Jesùs have a new mom and dad Foster and Betty deGrace
five years since the cages Jesus still stares into space
Maria remembers her motherwailing their names
Her voice fading into the weepingFace full of fear and shame
And the children around them scream mamì y papì
The babies can only scream.
Maria turned sixteen the other day Jesus is barely ten
Foster and Betty made up their birthdays No papers, no proof, no pen
The painting of Elvis watches When Foster mounts the stairs
takes Jesus into a dark corner Maria cannot shut her ears
And the children around him scream mamì y papì
The babies can only scream.
what do you do how did love make you
what do you do how does love shake you
And what will you do As love finally breaks you when
La Justicia de Dios es la Muerte
[The justice of God is Death]
now deep after silent midnight Maria kisses Jesus goodbye
She finds Foster’s gun in the closet Heavy with memory`s sigh
Two in the heads of the sleepers Two more in their Elvis-stained hearts
and then one to finish Foster`s secret Maria’s hands feel like falling apart
And the children around her scream mamì y papì
The babies can only scream.
Jesus eyes wide hears one more shot And the ghost of a lullaby…
Arrorró mi niño,arrorró mi sol,
arrorró pedazo, de mi corazón.
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11. |
Circus Tent
03:33
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Circus Tent
There’s a smell in the air of the old circus tent
You think it is mould but you gag from the scent
of the festering crowds who don’t notice at all
They’re used to the stink It’s been here since the fall Of our town.
When you first came in It dazzled like wine
lights camera distraction right movement in time
You swam in the swell you shouted so proud
In this terrible safety No thinking allowed In our town
Civility’s remnants vanish in lies
of the ringmaster’s mouth
And the mob’s ringing cries
When you breathe in the hate of that fiery flood
Do you see the bodies? Do you taste the blood?
You crave to belong you risk all the loss
Of yourself to the clan Or the tribe or the boss
They brand you with words First weapons of choice
to bulleted points you take your dead voice Going down.
our neighbours’ remains vanish in lies
of the ringmaster’s mouth and the mob’s ringing cries
you breathe in the hate of that fiery flood
(Yiddish) Du zest di harugim, un [you see the bodies]
bist toyem dos blut [and you taste the blood]
Christchurch now weeps With Sandy Hook school
With Charlotteville, Pittsburgh, Quebec City, too
Too many others The fear does not cease
And words comfort less In a hard search for peace
There’s a smell in the air Of that old circus tent
centuries of shattered innocents sent
to the limb of the tree,bits of flesh on the wall…
from the back of our memory we need to call back our home
Humanity’s vestiges laid in the dark
Shut the ringmaster’s mouth Search for that faint spark
Don’t breathe in the hate of the fiery flood
Remember the bodies Remember the blood
Remember the bodies Remember the blood
Remember the bodies
Remember…
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12. |
Love May Yet
03:12
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Love may yet
REF:
Day will rise Night will tumble
After all our living’s done
Bread and drink make us humble
Love may yet bind us as one
Longest night’s a half-caught sigh
Longest day a lightning spark
Solstice swings across the sky
Morning always birthing
Shadows creep like wall-strung vine
Light of day a seed in soil
Ephemeral as thought in time
Starry nights unwinding
REF>
insignificant as dust
my love and hate a fool’s conceit
old earthy turns as turn she must
calendars unravelling
REF>
Let the frauds and despots steal
Karma waits between our hands
Care and passion take the wheel
Spinning into justice
Day will rise Night will tumble
After all our living’s done
Bread and drink together humble
Love may yet bind us as one
Love may yet bind us as one
Love may yet find us
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13. |
Curmudgeon
02:55
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Curmudgeon
Ninety-three times I have seen the winter come
always arriving with it's finery-o
Don't tell me the world will end
Rocks and trees and seas can fend
Very well without so much as a by-your-leave-o
Very well without a by-your-leave-o
Bones are brittle and my joints do ache
Knees go a-snapple and a-crackery-o
Don't tell me I should behave
I can't hear well your breath you can save
I don't suffer fools and their quackery-o
Any fools and their quackery-o
Most of my friends are crazy or dead
Killed by the wars and the boardrooms-o
It's lonely, sure, and long are the days
But not as long as nights in this place
When I long for the charms of my Marguerite-o
For the charms of my Marguerite-o
Marguerite born in Trois-Rivieres
Came with me to Ontario
Six sons, four daughters, we buried three
The rest have raised fine families
Marguerite died eight winters ago
She died eight winters ago
Jesus might come, but then again not
Me and God have a bargainy-o
My mouth and heart straight as a rail
He'll mind his own when I fall and fail
I'll only fear the suffering-o
Only fear the suffering-o
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14. |
Pearls of Light
03:19
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Pearls of light
A boy looked through the window On a cold November night
Wind fingering through a broken pane
In shadows of the far hills Glowing pearls of light
The 9:15 to Kingston once again
Can you hear him dream? Can you hear him sing?
I wanna ride on that train I wanna ride on that train
I don’t care where it takes me I don’t know what I’ll bring
I wanna ride on that train I wanna ride on that train
There’s a parking lot and burgers Where the old house used to be
so much smaller than I remember
a spur line and a trestle A larger maple tree
But pearls of light still roll on in November
Can you hear me dream? Can you hear me sing?
I wanna ride on that train I wanna ride on that train
I don’t care where it takes me I don’t know what I’ll bring
I wanna ride on that train I wanna ride on that train
I look from my apartment almost Christmas eve
Pearls of light through the window trees
A muddle of middle-aged men In a laundromat of dreams
Smoke despair as yellow fingers freeze
Can you hear them dream? Can you hear them sing?
I wanna ride on that train I wanna ride on that train
I don’t care where it takes me I don’t know what I’ll bring
I wanna ride on that train I wanna ride on that train
I don’t care where it takes me I’ll never know what I’ll bring
I wanna ride on that train I wanna ride….
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15. |
The Dream
03:37
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The Dream
Some days my heart is white water wave
Some nights my heart is delta barge
Sometimes it feels like toddler’s fist
can a thing so small Love so large?
Sometimes my heart is exile slave
It whispers and screams some refugee song
Somewhere there’s a piece I must have missed
Can a thing so lost Love so strong?
Your name comes to my lips unbidden
When I introduce my lover to friends
Then I dream of you unhidden
I kiss you and weep I weep in a river
And this river, never ends
La de da da da..
Much to my sweet consternation
Someone finds my precious jail
Who knows that’s where I cannot live in
Can a thing so bright Love and fail?
When my heart ignores its station
Blind, unlocks forgotten cells
Trespassing still and unforgiven
Can a thing so bad Love too well?
Your name comes to my lips unbidden
When I speak about my lover to friends
Then I dream of you unhidden
I kiss you and weep I weep in a river
And this river, never ends
La de da da da...
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16. |
Paradise Found
03:27
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Paradise Found
Rainbow in the morning mist
sunlight paints the bay
Bell Island slowly reappears
stay my darlin’, stay
Surf on pebbled stony beach
Cackled rushing spray
Calls like wind through hillside trees
Stay my darlin’ stay
Stay my darlin’ stay
Stay my darlin’ stay
you’ve come from far, from far away
Stay my darlin’ stay
Moose prints on the hiking trail
new friends on the way
my weary legs will bring me back
stay my darlin’ stay
I’m full of sunset on the deck
whales breathe in the bay
voices whisper in my ears
stay my darlin’ stay
Stay my darlin’ stay
Stay my darlin’ stay
you’ve come from far, from far away
Stay my darlin’ stay
Stay my darlin’ stay
Stay my darlin’ stay
It’s too late now, too late for leavin’
Stay my darlin’ stay
|
Edward St Moritz Barrie, Ontario
Ed lives in Collingwood Ontario.
He and Don Bray produced his first CD of original songs
Small Things Shining Bright and has just completed a second project A Bit of Change with Ray Dillard.
Why a darkside navigator?
“I am responsible for the directions I take in those gray territories. I do go into depression, but I also know how to sail through it. My songs are the maps of experience there.”
... more
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