Songs and Poetry Read online

  song lyrics

  2

  The Guests

  One by one, the guests arrive

  The guests are coming through

  The open-hearted many

  The broken-hearted few

  And no one knows where the night is going

  And no one knows why the wine is flowing

  Oh love I need you

  I need you

  I need you

  I need you

  Oh . . . I need you now

  And those who dance, begin to dance

  Those who weep begin

  And "Welcome, welcome" cries a voice

  "Let all my guests come in."

  And all go stumbling through that house

  in lonely secrecy

  Saying "Do reveal yourself"

  or "Why has thou forsaken me?"

  All at once the torches flare

  The inner door flies open

  One by one they enter there

  In every style of passion

  And no one knows where the night is going ...

  And here they take their sweet repast

  While house and grounds dissolve

  And one by one the guests are cast

  Beyond the garden wall

  Those who dance, begin to dance

  Those who weep begin

  Those who earnestly are lost

  Are lost and lost again

  3

  One by the guests arrive

  The guests are coming through

  The broken-hearted many

  The open-hearted few.

  4

  Humbled in Love

  Do you remember all of those pledges

  That we pledged in the passionate night

  Ah they're soiled now, they're torn at the edges

  Like moths on a still yellow light

  No penance serves to renew them

  No massive transfusions of trust

  Why not even revenge can undo them

  So twisted these vows and so crushed

  And you say you've been humbled in love

  Cut down in your love

  Forced to kneel in the mud next to me

  Ah but why so bitterly turn from the one

  Who kneels there as deeply as thee

  Children have taken these pledges

  They have ferried them out of the past

  Oh beyond all the graves and the hedges

  Where love must go hiding at last

  And here where there is no description

  Oh here in the moment at hand

  No sinner need rise up forgiven

  No victim need limp to the stand

  And look dear heart, look at the virgin

  Look how she welcomes him into her gown

  Yes, and mark how the stranger's cold armour

  Dissolves like a star falling down

  Why trade this vision for desire

  When you may have them both

  You will never see a man this naked

  I will never hold a woman this close.

  5

  The Window

  Why do you stand by the window

  Abandoned to beauty and pride

  The thorn of the night in your bosom

  The spear of the age in your side

  Lost in the rages of fragrance

  Lost in the rags of remorse

  Lost in the waves of a sickness

  That loosens the high silver nerves

  Oh chosen love, Oh frozen love

  Oh tangle of matter and ghost

  Oh darling of angels, demons and saints

  And the whole broken-hearted host

  Gentle this soul

  And come forth from the cloud of unknowing

  And kiss the cheek of the moon

  The New Jerusalem glowing

  Why tarry all night in the ruin

  And leave no word of discomfort

  And leave no observer to mourn

  But climb on your tears and be silent

  Like a rose on its ladder of thorns

  Then lay your rose on the fire

  The fire give up to the sun

  The sun give over to splendour

  In the arms of the high holy one

  For the holy one dreams of a letter

  Dreams of a letter's death

  Oh bless thee continuous stutter

  Of the word being made into flesh

  Gentle this soul

  6

  I Came So Far For Beauty

  I came so far for beauty

  I left so much behind

  My patience and my family

  My masterpiece unsigned

  I thought I'd be rewarded

  For such a lonely choice

  And surely she would answer

  To such a very hopeless voice

  I practiced all my sainthood

  I gave to one and all

  But the rumours of my virtue

  They moved her not at all

  I changed my style to silver

  I changed my clothed to black

  And where I would surrender

  Now I would attack

  I stormed the old casino

  For the money and the flesh

  And I myself decided

  What was rotten and what was fresh

  And men to do my bidding

  And broken bones to teach

  The value of my pardon

  The shadow of my reach

  But no, I could not touch her

  With such a heavy hand

  Her star beyond my order

  Her nakedness unmanned

  I came so far for beauty

  I left so much behind

  My patience and my family

  My masterpiece unsigned

  7

  Un Canadien Errant (The Lost Canadian)

  (by Antoine Gerin-Lajoie)

  Un Canadien Errant

  Banni de ses foyers,

  Parcourait en pleurant

  Des pays etrangers.

  Parcourait en pleurant

  Des pays etrangers.

  Un jour, triste et pensif,

  Assis au bord des flots,

  Au courant fugitif

  Il adressa ces mots:

  Au courant fugitif

  Il adressa ces mots:

  "Si tu vois mon pays,

  Mon pays malheureux,

  Va dire a mes amis

  Que je me souviens d'eux.

  Va dire a mes amis

  Que je me souviens d'eux.

  O jours si pleins d'appas,

  Vous etes disparus...

  Et ma patrie, helas!

  Je ne la verrai plus.

  Et ma patrie, helas!

  Je ne la verrai plus.

  [A wandering Canadian,

  banned from his hearths,

  travelled while crying

  in foreign lands.

  travelled while crying

  in foreign lands.

  8

  One day, sad and pensive,

  sitting by the flowing waters,

  to the fleeing current

  he addressed these words:

  to the fleeing current

  he addressed these words:

  If you see my country,

  my unhappy country,

  go tell my friends

  that I remember them.

  go tell my friends

  that I remember them.

  O days so full of charms,

  you have vanished...

  And my native land, alas!

  I will see it no more.

  And my native land, alas!

  I will see it no more.]

  9

  The Traitor

  Now the Swan it
floated on the English river

  Ah the Rose of High Romance it opened wide

  A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer

  and the judges watched us from the other side

  I told my mother "Mother I must leave you

  preserve my room but do not shed a tear

  Should rumour of a shabby ending reach you

  it was half my fault and half the atmosphere"

  But the Rose I sickened with a scarlet fever

  and the Swan I tempted with a sense of shame

  She said at last I was her finest lover

  and if she withered I would be to blame

  The judges said you missed it by a fraction

  rise up and brace your troops for the attack

  Ah the dreamers ride against the men of action

  Oh see the men of action falling back

  But I lingered on her thighs a fatal moment

  I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still

  My falsity had stung me like a hornet

  The poison sank and it paralysed my will

  I could not move to warn all the younger soldiers

  that they had been deserted from above

  So on battlefields from here to Barcelona

  I'm listed with the enemies of love

  And long ago she said "I must be leaving,

  Ah but keep my body here to lie upon

  You can move it up and down and when I'm sleeping

  Run some wire through that Rose and wind the Swan"

  10

  So daily I renew my idle duty

  I touch her here and there -- I know my place

  I kiss her open mouth and I praise her beauty

  and people call me traitor to my face

  11

  Our Lady of Solitude

  All summer long she touched me

  She gathered in my soul

  From many a thorn, from many thickets

  Her fingers, like a weaver's

  Quick and cool

  And the light came from her body

  And the night went through her grace

  All summer long she touched me

  And I knew her, I knew her

  Face to face

  And her dress was blue and silver

  And her words were few and small

  She is the vessel of the whole wide world

  Mistress, oh mistress, of us all

  Dearly dead; Queen of Solitude

  I thank you with my heart

  for keeping me so close to thee

  while so many, oh so many, stood apart

  And the light came from her body

  And the night went through her grace

  All summer long she touched me

  I knew her, I knew her

  Face to face

  12

  The Gypsy's Wife

  And where, where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight

  I've heard all the wild reports, they can't be right

  But whose head is this she's dancing with on the threshing floor

  whose darkness deepens in her arms a little more

  And where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?

  Where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?

  Ah the silver knives are flashing in the tired old cafe

  A ghost climbs on the table in a bridal negligee

  She says, "My body is the light, my body is the way"

  I raise my arm against it all and I catch the bride's bouquet

  And where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?...

  Too early for the rainbow, too early for the dove

  These are the final days, this is the darkness, this is the flood

  And there is no man or woman who can't be touched

  But you who come between them will be judged

  And where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?...

  13

  The Smokey Life

  I've never seen your eyes so wide

  I've never seen your appetite quite this occupied

  Elsewhere is your feast of love

  I know ... where long ago we agreed to keep it light

  So lets be married one more night

  It's light, light enough

  To let it go

  It's light enough to let it go

  Remember when the scenery started fading

  I held you til you learned to walk on air

  So don't look down the ground is gone,

  there's no one waiting anyway

  The Smoky Life is practiced

  Everywhere

  So set your restless heart at ease

  Take a lesson from these Autumn leaves

  They waste no time waiting for the snow

  Don't argue now you'll be late

  There is nothing to investigate

  It's light enough, light enough

  To let it go

  Light enough to let it go

  Remember when the scenery started fading

  I held you til you learned to walk on air

  So don't look down the ground is gone,

  there's no one waiting anyway

  The Smoky Life is practiced everywhere

  Come on back if the moment lends

  You can look up all my very closest friends

  14

  Light, light enough

  To let it go

  It's light enough to let it go

  15

  Ballad of the Absent Mare

  Say a prayer for the cowboy

  His mare's run away

  And he'll walk til he finds her

  His darling, his stray

  but the river's in flood

  and the roads are awash

  and the bridges break up

  in the panic of loss.

  And there's nothing to follow

  There's nowhere to go

  She's gone like the summer

  gone like the snow

  And the crickets are breaking

  his heart with their song

  as the day caves in

  and the night is all wrong

  Did he dream, was it she

  who went galloping past

  and bent down the fern

  broke open the grass

  and printed the mud with

  the iron and the gold

  that he nailed to her feet

  when he was the lord

  And although she goes grazing

  a minute away

  he tracks her all night

  he tracks her all day

  Oh blind to her presence

  except to compare

  his injury here

  with her punishment there

  16

  Then at home on a branch

  in the highest tree

  a songbird sings out

  so suddenly

  Ah the sun is warm

  and the soft winds ride

  on the willow trees

  by the river side

  Oh the world is sweet

  the world is wide

  and she's there where

  the light and the darkness divide

  and the steam's coming off her

  she's huge and she's shy

  and she steps on the moon

  when she paws at the sky

  And she comes to his hand

  but she's not really tame

  She longs to be lost

  he longs for the same

  and she'll bolt and she'll plunge

  through the first open pass

  to roll and to feed

  in the sweet mountain grass

  Or she'll make a break

  for the high plateau

  where there's nothing above

  and there's nothing below

  and it's time for the burden

  it's time for the whip

  Will she walk through the flame

  Can he shoot from the hip

  17

  So he binds himself

  to the gall
oping mare

  and she binds herself

  to the rider there

  and there is no space

  but there's left and right

  and there is no time

  but there's day and night

  And he leans on her neck

  and he whispers low

  "Whither thou goest

  I will go"

  And they turn as one

  and they head for the plain

  No need for the whip

  Ah, no need for the rein

  Now the clasp of this union

  who fastens it tight?

  Who snaps it asunder

  the very next night

  Some say the rider

  Some say the mare

  Or that love's like the smoke

  beyond all repair

  But my darling says

  "Leonard, just let it go by

  That old silhouette

  on the great western sky"

  So I pick out a tune

  and they move right along

  and they're gone like the smoke

  and they're gone like this song

  18

  Suzanne

  Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river

  You can hear the boats go by

  You can spend the night beside her

  And you know that she's half crazy

  But that's why you want to be there