1. |
A Day Like Any Other
01:04
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Light is breaking
Over Muswell Hill.
I can’t help but shaking
As I grip the wheel.
We were told as children
That the skies would fall,
But nobody listened
At all.
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2. |
The Lighthouse
06:04
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For all my years I’ve sailed the seas,
In the hope you might come after me,
But hopes are hopes, and never true,
So I jumped the boat and swam to you.
I swam to you.
I met you at the theatre,
Caught smoking by the backstage door.
Your face half-lit in candlelight,
But I walked without you through the night.
The lonely night.
And perhaps, when I’m out dancing
You’ll look at me and smile,
With your eyes just like the lighthouse
Which burns beyond a mile.
My days of endless swimming
Come calmly to an end,
But these dreams are little fictions
And I’ll sail the seas
Once again.
For all my life I’ve watched the shore,
Never knowing what I’m looking for.
The quiet tide brings broken things,
Long since vanished hearts and tarnished rings.
Old rusted rings.
And perhaps, when I’m out dancing I
I’ll find you dancing too,
And we’ll dance between the headlights,
Singing songs we never knew.
My days of endless swimming
Come calmly to an end,
But these dreams are little fictions
And I’ll sail the seas,
Oh, I’ll sail to sea
Once again.
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3. |
Hamelin
03:50
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Four and twenty days ago,
I saw you at a funeral,
In bygone years you set me free,
Now I live alone in old memories.
Whisper in my greenest ear,
The Irish bar, the half-drunk beer.
An ancient moon spun melodies,
From Hamelin, you sang to me,
You sang to me
There’s truth in your eyes,
There’s truth in your eyes,
There’s truth in your eyes,
But you clipped my wings as I made to fly.
Too many nights I’ve stood outside
And watched electric souls collide.
Those childish arms with younger minds,
Such jealous words to hide behind,
We wore our insides on our sleeves,
And we turned our backs on our families.
I trusted your eyes,
I trusted your eyes,
I trusted your eyes,
But you clipped my wings as I made to fly,
And for ever more I will wonder why.
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4. |
Wider Spaces
05:06
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Dinner’s ready,
Dusk is drawing near,
Bring the dogs in from the back.
Lay the table,
Steel and earthenware,
Place the plates to cover the cracks.
Father’s coming home.
Eight hundred meters
Through the autumn fields,
Heavy panting clots in the cold.
Violent sunlight
Cuts the branches shield
And I smile at the secrets we told.
Those days were long ago.
So we grow in wider spaces,
Far beyond these tree lined streets,
For behind these perfect houses
We’re all splitting at the seams.
No one talks about their dreams.
So we grow in wider spaces,
Far beyond these tree lined streets,
For behind these perfect houses
We’re all splitting at the seams
No one talks about,
No one talks about,
No one talks about,
Their dreams.
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5. |
A Life Without
02:34
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6. |
Virgin Soil
05:08
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Mudcrack hands and lichen eyes,
Stained glass spine.
Love you ’til my cheeks won’t dry,
Bathed in brine.
And the seedlings won’t sprout.
Ivy organs, overgrown,
Cut me out.
Shattered glasses, blackened bones,
Lager louts.
And the fox fights his friends.
You told me of the garden,
As we sat in chapel stalls.
I’ll rest my spade by the sycamore tree,
Where you taught me to walk
As I clung to your knees.
Now the soil fills your mouth,
And the roots drag you down.
You’re home.
Custard iris, veins in bloom,
Infant’s smile.
Night swim through the moonlit gloom,
Cracked sundial.
Now your hand’s on my chest
As the garden takes hold.
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7. |
And Maybe I'm Scared
04:33
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Loneliness
Is a blanket,
Hung from stars,
Haunts the streets.
Oh, united souls,
We’ll never meet.
I could be anything.
Evergreen,
Sweater weather,
Hopeless runaways,
Childish chase.
And in those shifty eyes
My freckled face.
Your heart was make believe.
Maybe I’m scared of the silence,
But maybe I’m not alone.
I overhear phrases in fragments
And wish I’d never known,
I wish I’d never known.
And maybe I’m scared of the silence,
But maybe I’m not alone.
I overhear phrases in fragments
And wish I’d never known,
I wish I’d never known,
We’d end like this.
Seventeen
Flights above you,
And the world
Opens wide.
Over tower blocks,
The turning tide.
One day we’ll all forget.
Neighbourhood,
Single mattress.
Words that bind,
Liar’s thread.
On your empty bunk
I banged my head
And it begins again
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8. |
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A tiny bird lies dying in the closing heat.
I watch in silence.
Fleeting shadows dart across its broken beak,
and fatted flies feast amongst the matted down.
I’m sure I had a meeting but I can’t think. Or speak.
Years ago.
When I knew, as much as I ever did. You,
asleep in the morning. Naked, save for socks.
Sallow tissue, limbs askew, adrift within this pallid plot.
I flipped my phone and climbed atop the counterpane,
to view.
All was long forgotten. That is, until today.
Where this tawny clump of feathers ruffle in decay.
A heritage of huntsmen stand proud above their prey.
But, under my skin there drifts a doubt.
A mawkish ferment fills my mouth.
And gut blood drips down ratline ribs.
Inevitable, considering. Reactionary.
We were sleeping then on separate sheets.
Our cattish clawing had me weak
and I was never one to speak, nor try to make amends.
Then there it was. You, asleep in the morning.
Drunk. Alone. But, gentle.
And it was all I couldn’t do to forever own your pain.
Late lunch break, heading back to work.
An isolated office clerk.
I’m reminded of our torment by a torn and mangled bird.
It’s you, you see it always was!
I prise apart my cameras jaws
to take a final snapshot.
You’ve lain dormant since that day.
I turn to leave, to retch or run, stricken in the autumn sun,
and deep below the pavement,
a rumbling insists.
Up through roots and down from trees,
clatter branches, feelings free, and at my feet,
the strangest thing,
the bird’s neck twists, unclasps its wings.
The gauzy film that blinds its eye dissolves
and you make haste to fly.
Now, back to the flat.
You stir, you stretch,
I topple, my head upon your chest,
you wrap your arms around me,
release your weary breath
and then, with a dumb crescendo,
the fact is screaming true,
one simple realisation,
of which I’m sure you knew:
That I always, always loved you and never knew what to do.
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9. |
Reprise
05:34
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Light has broken
Over Muswell Hill.
So much left unspoken,
So much unsaid still.
We were told as children
That the skies would fall.
But nobody listened,
No, we wouldn’t listen,
Oh, nobody listened
At all.
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Seafarers London, UK
Seafarers are a London based group of musicians uniting some of the most prominent voices in contemporary folk and improvised music.
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