1. |
Julie
02:57
|
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Julie
I am thinking of the time
we were sitting in your back yard
back in spring, 2009
and a cloud came
to console the sky
said you've got a lot of dying
left to do before you die
and the rain came
to console the roofs
said you've got a lot of morning
left before the afternoon
and you can just lie there
let your thoughts detune
let your life go out of focus
it doesn't matter what you do
and the moon came
to console the sun
said you've got a lot of lying
left to do before you're done
and I know you are scared now
that you'll be found out
but don't worry they can't prove it
past a reasonable doubt
and I stayed
thinking I would console you
tell you something so pretty
that it would have to be true
but I'll have a lot of letdowns
before I learn my worth
and there are no consolations
to be had upon the earth
|
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2. |
(If Not Today)
01:02
|
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3. |
This Must Be
02:46
|
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this must be the silence
of a city in the distance
back over the Verrazzano
every time we come home
something's getting simpler
and farther away
must be the stillness of the hawk
coasting on its dream above your parents' house in Newark
must be, must be
must be the shadow that is cast
by the new opacity of the past
must be, must be
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4. |
Heraclitus
03:11
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oh why can't they tell
fire is the atom of the world
and everything else
is a slurring of this only word
oh why do they think
that their revetments will hold true
when loss is the only thing
that you'll never lose
why'd St. Anselm say
being is the same as god remembering
when it's just the other way
the world's a fact that someone keeps forgetting
don't they understand
that they can't keep hold
what they feel in their clenched hands
is the sluice of it going
|
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5. |
(A Cloud Came)
01:30
|
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6. |
A Winter Country
03:33
|
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I'm going away
if not today
then tomorrow
I'd like to migrate to a winter country
Terra Australis, land of white flowers
I'm barely here
I'm gonna disappear
one of these days
I don't really mind
this isn't my
kind of place
I'd like to migrate to a winter country
Terra Australis, land of white flowers
oh distant haven
oh missing continent
land of the handbell
land of the asphodel
I know it's out there
out past all weather
I'm going away
if not today
then tomorrow
|
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7. |
Something Else
01:48
|
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strange, what I remember now
when you and I waited
by the interstate
for the ambulance to come
only how our footprints
complicated the perfect
surface of the late November snow
--| only how you took off your glove
--| reached down and scooped a mouthful of
--| the late November snow
only the cold air sparkling
on your skin and only
the new light I saw
in Cassiopeia to show
--| only the soft geometry
--| of my thoughts and only
--| the new light I saw
----| only the reddened joints of
----| your hands when you pointed
----| up in Cassiopeia to show
that something else had become
the fact about the present and it
could not be undone
|
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8. |
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9. |
Jubilee
03:18
|
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time to go now, time to leave
your blood is honey and your breath is sweet
didn't you know there's a jubilee
for a minute or two before you go to sleep
tomorrow's coming, but it ain't here yet
and you were right the time you said
there's a wage for living and the wage is death
but just for now you have no debts
'cause it's a jubilee year
for a minute at least
the earth is iron and the sky is brass
and the weight of it will press you flat
but just for now it hasn't come to that
'cause it's a jubilee year
for a minute at least
it's a jubilee year
till you go to sleep
it's a jubilee year
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10. |
Cooper Park
02:50
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missed you up in Rochester
ashes in your hair
that and no other night
I wished I were
perfectly used to you
used to your hands
yours and no others
like I had been
at Rockaway you tried to hide
your body under the water
it was dark in Cooper Park
we were climbing trees
the night and no other brings
a new thrift of seeing
did you notice the way the wind
coordinates the leaves
you and no other
rearranged me
|
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11. |
Hurricane
03:43
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back when the dawn was still trying
to pry open the day
I thought of what the river said
I'll forgive you when you're in my bed
and I was lying next to you
watching you hide behind your face
thought I was a good man
but I got lost when I found your hand
back when the hurricane was
just a rumor in the trees
I thought of what the east wind said
I'll strike you down with a gentle hand
and I was lying next to you
waiting while you prepared your voice
tell me you forgive me now
that must have been another man
back when we were lying side by side
the day of the storm
I still thought that I was someone kind
well I'd not yet learned
that everything that goes
is gone for good
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12. |
I Noticed
02:12
|
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once I was a secret word
I had not been spoken
till you said my name
that is when I noticed
I'm at home with you
|
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13. |
||||
it's good to stand in the minor light
when things have not yet finished remembering to exist
it will not guard against the day
but it's good to stand there anyway
it's good to hear from my old friend
think back to our desperate years and all that happened then
it does not compensate the past
but it's good to hear from you despite all that
I don't take it back
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