1. |
Say Yes, Say Yes!
03:55
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SAY YES, SAY YES!
Dragonfly
hovering by
pine top in Muskoka sky
while I just lie
on my back trying to take it all in
For three hun-
dred million years
they have hovered there and here
since long before
we were a gleam in anyone's eye
Don’t even try
to guess how long
they have been here
or before we all will be gone
Sunshine rays
on my face
through the needles makes my heart race, and
I can’t quite place
where I begin and the universe ends
Where it will start, when it will end
is anyone’s guess
Instead of no, only say yes
only say yes
Moon on river
cricket sing
and I’ve got this crazy feeling that
I could survive just about anything:
There’s no magic in this, no illusion or sleight of hand
Only the heart making its normal demand
Just pretend to
have God’s eye
or the sight of any fly
Look down on you
as if from the dragonfly’s point of view
Sometimes survival trumps happiness
Instead of no, only say yes
Only say yes!
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2. |
Shed Your Dread
04:17
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SHED YOUR DREAD
Lately you’ve been brooding
dismally dreaming of
novel ways to occupy yourself, alternatives
to love.
Avoiding posted warnings
you shuffle down Memory Lane:
all the ruts and all of that congestion, well
you only have yourself to blame
Frowning at your mirror, you’re strangely reminded of
Picasso’s final portrait of himself, terrified
of death
Put that thought away now
you’re younger than he ever was
Besides
it’s so demeaning to subject yourself
to such banal analysis
Listen carefully: you’ll hear the rattle
of your desiccated dreams
rolling around with a rhythmical sound
a gourd full of old has-beans;
rolling around with a rhythmical sound
a gourd full of old has-beens.
Where’s that crazy demon to whom you deny parole?
Can’t you show some mercy on your own
incarcerated soul?
Shed your dread and monkey, tread
on some smouldering coals
Once you felt a kind of holiness but now you feel
only full of holes
Once you felt a kind of holiness
now you feel
full of holes
Let the band strike up a hot mazurka
Loosen up your tie and pants
Let yourself go like you did long ago
it’s time to get out and dance
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3. |
Tuscany Stone
04:18
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TUSCANY STONE
She taps her fingers on a counter of Tuscany stone
while down along the lane, the barber
is humming a tune
The monkey on the windowsill is swaying in the sun
the scent of orange blossoms drifts
through the clothes on the line
Her contours are austere, she fills her space
gradually
Her almond eyes are clear
as she listens expressionlessly:
the abbey bells are summoning the nuns
encloistered there:
they may ring at any hour
And when they do all must endure
Here comes the knife sharpener
hs bell goes clang clang clang
Children watch him:
They don’t say a thing
So many men have fallen in love with a version of her
a skirt of simple cotton
some rumour that they overheard
She hooks her hair
behind an ear
and bends toward the fire
to light a cigarette for the man who is not there. Now
slowly zoom out from her, the monkey,
and the town.
The end.
till we meet again.
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4. |
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SOME DISASSEMBLY REQUIRED
Their movements are resolute,
intentions are shuddering. Reserved conversation
collapses to sputtering.
They’re not asleep but they seem to be sleepwalking
still.
Yesterday’s argument in their minds muttering
Some indefinable future
is fluttering
It’s like a butterfly:
colourful, clumsy and small
Some disassembly is required
More necessary than desired
Pulling apart what has rusted together
And razing the house so it can be rewired
Their voices are steady, their spirits
are stuttering: how can housecleaning
seem to be so cluttering? There is a history
to every cup, candle and card
They’re
on a rocking horse, flogging it
mercilessly. Inching over
the bedroom floor
The flame
that sustained them is languidly guttering
half-felt apologies quashed before uttering
Neither is right
and neither’s entirely wrong
Some
disassembly is required
more necessary than desired
Pulling apart
what has rusted together
and razing the house
so it can be
rewired
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5. |
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THE DAY THE PLANES ALL STOPPED
The day the planes all stopped the animals thought mankind had finally come to its senses. But it wasn’t so—oh no. The birds relayed the word through the animal world by fence and branch and field and wire, singing we’d become like them.
One day we’ll hang in a museum, and though they try they’ll never guess: the cause of our complete extinction was--simple PETTINESS.
It was not long before that familiar roar began to fill the skies all over. And fires sprang up on the earth.
We’re busy patching up that hole that human kindness used to dribble through. Our pettiness will have to guide us till we learn how birds muddle through: one simple rule (from nest to dust), that gravity is a law that must be disobeyed at any cost.
The day the planes all stopped the animals thought mankind had finally come to its senses. But it wasn’t so. Oh no.
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6. |
Ambiguity
03:46
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AMBIGUITY
Are you stupid?
Are you blind?
Are you just so feckless you don’t know your mind?
How can I persuade you?
Should I even try?
The weeks have stretched into months
and I wonder why
I wonder why
Ambiguity
isn’t new to me
returning love with no design
But if there were another, more resolute
lover,
you’d come running
with a contract in your hand, saying:
I’m staying
But would I sign?
Now it’s morning:
you see that sun?
Maybe by the nighttime
we'll both be gone.
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7. |
Dismantled by an Idiot
04:08
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DISMANTLED BY AN IDIOT
I got an email from a friend in Mississauga.
It said you’d died a lonely man in California.
You were so dark, but the world
is darker without you
in it
without you
in it
Your reaction to a eulogy would be a hollow laugh
Your world unravelled but this world
is a psychopath, who’s will’s inviolable,
who’s heart’s undaunted that war’s never over
because no one really wants it
The lunatics have seized control and thrown the warden out
They kicked the exits open with a wild, triumphant shout
And here we kneel incapable while field and river burn:
They murdered almost everyone; we’re waiting for our turn
Most poets die before their bodies stop breathing
Thinking too deeply, after all
shows poor breeding. But
you were probably the kind of guy
who thought the party started
at the moment you left
Somnambulic zombies
we’re blindsided by pornographies and phoney realities
(that’s what you get on your TVs)
And so it goes that we are systematically
Dismantled by an idiot
I got an email from a friend
in Mississauga
It said you’d died a punctured man in California
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8. |
Carry On
04:36
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CARRY ON
Everyone seems to be lonely now
it’s catching like a flu
Well I hope I don’t get it from you
But there I go—projecting on the rest
of the human race
Maybe I’ve got too much time to think—
the alternative’s too hard: what a drag
watching TV isn’t a job
Watch the notch between your eyes deepening
with all the shit you go through
Life’s a series of accommodations to
things you’d rather not do
Maybe I’ll call my friend Jessica—
we’re not as close as we were, but we talk
(at least once) every ten years
Flares occasionally go up to show you where you are
Carry on as the wagons burn
Carry on as the widows yearn
Carry on there is still so much to learn
Sometimes I wonder if spirits age
in heaven or in hell
And if so, do they age well?
I don’t envy Jesus Christ at all:
it must be a tedious job
to keep all those demands straight in your mind
Are we meant to be clear of memory
mind and consciousness-free?
Forms appearing and disappearing blind,
quite anonymously?
Souls congregate over these lines that don’t even exist
Carry on as beliefs collide
Carry on through this deicide
Carry on till there’s nowhere left to hide
Carry on so what if God paused?
Carry on through this holocaust
Carry on even though your cause be lost.
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9. |
Lego Town
02:42
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LEGO TOWN
Filling the night with sound
‘cause there’s really no one around
here down
in Lego Town
The streets are empty now
everyone’s staying in
An assortment of ragamuffins
listens to my musical din
Ain’t no shame:
only a rapture
Down here there is no sin:
let everybody in
and let it all begin
Let it all begin
And when the morning mists clear
I will still be here
waiting for you,
darling, down here
in Lego Town
in Lego Town
in Lego Town
in Lego Town
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10. |
Ridiculous, Miraculous
03:15
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RIDICULOUS MIRACULOUS
I seen you in your Canadiens
sweatshirt in the sun
You were so not aware
of what a babe you were
I don’t have words
to say it right
but you looked really good
You really looked...
real good
I don’t mind the missing teeth
you don’t mind that I’m a thief
We both beat real bad odds
Ridiculous
Miraculous
I clutch you in my arm
I lost the other one to my buddy’s hunting gun—
and if I fucked around on you
you’d tear the other arm off too
I love you now, I always will
I would not have a clue who else could love me
but you
I know I’m not real bright, I never do what’s right
but what else can I do?
I used to think I was a loser
until I seen your Daddy’s Girl tattoo
Improbable
Unstoppable
I don’t have to get drunk to be with you
I love you
at least that’s what they call it where I’m from
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11. |
Simple Grace
03:05
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SIMPLE GRACE
Rubber balls on concrete walls
skipping ropes on gravel paths
Things unsaid
bills unpaid
candlelight and Epsom baths
So the time flows by
and you bob like a paper boat
Moon and star
bug in jar
showing everyone your scar
Minding store
wanting more
no further now you’ve come this far
Like a lonely wolf
that howls at a pregnant moon
on a hill surrounded by unseen eyes
Your past lies like a broken car
abandoned on an empty street
You drive by from time to time
with a vague sense of defeat
But you move on, there’s some-
one to meet
You see your children sleeping
and somehow you forget
the panic of passing time
the illusion of the closing net:
Just the simple grace
of their eyelids and their face
as their dreams convey them
to some warm place
Rubber balls
concrete walls
skipping ropes on gravel paths
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12. |
If I Forget Thee
03:59
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IF I FORGET THEE
I only have me to blame
Can’t blame you, I can’t blame time
If I should forget that I’m
Still in love with you
I thought I’d outgrown you
Without really knowing you
The seed that was sown grew
Still in love with you
I used to say, “Who loves you?”
You’d say, “Only you.”
But both of us know that that
Is not exactly true
The sea that caresses you
The sun that undresses you
The moonlight that kisses you
Are all in love with you
Still in love with you
You’re dancing alone in moonlight
Upon your balcony
Your dancing alone enhances
The moon’s intensity
There’s suffering in your eyes
Though humorous, kind and wise
I never could realize
What I felt for you
Still in love with you
Still in love with you
You’ve been alone while I’ve been
Making other plans
Soon I’ll return and then
We’ll resume the dance
Still in love with you
Still in love with you
Still in love with you
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13. |
Little Flame
03:22
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LITTLE FLAME
Why do we lose that incandescent fuse?
We have it in our youth, before we pay our dues
Try to be unborn, a perfect, shapeless form
drifting in your dream, beneath the human game
No shame, no time, no place to be
just a little flame
Be not just a tomb for dead regret and blame
but make your mind a womb, to house the little flame
And when you feel it grow, you will know
yourself again
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Christopher Warren Toronto, Ontario
Wise, funny, sad, joyful, astute, Chris Warren is a songwriter whose words span the world but whose voice speaks heart to heart. A literary songwriter, he brings words with the sophistication of a Leonard Cohen to a melodic scope reminiscent of Elliott Smith or Elvis Costello. Warren has created a body of work that speaks urgently to our times and to you. ... more
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