1. |
Tinos
03:55
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some old man is hacking his lungs out
as he rolls a cigarette
birds are all atwitter in the sun
the dogs enjoy the doorways
the shade of empty shops
laundry in the alleys
smells of cooking have begun
sound of a telephone carries through
all the cobbled streets
big sheep abluster in the wind
the children watch a priest
conduct his make-believe
father, son and holy ghost
i pray my soul to keep
empty white sky, almond blossoms
sausages, newspaper and beer
empty blue sea, sails against the olive trees
half-drunken drawing of the pier
i stood in one place for so many hours
that my shadow crept from out beneath my feet
where the walls meet, momentarily
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2. |
Metronome #1
04:08
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metronome and codeine
four wheat pennies
sitting on robert lowell
laughing like breathing
one night's sleep a day
coffee cup of shadows
nearly dark at three
light barely makes it
through the late summer's leaves
lovely lonely long bright warm blue day
been a long time since I felt this way
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3. |
Corsica
03:40
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|
on an open steamer trunk there is a photograph
you and your grandmother are smiling
against a sky of blue
and in this photograph one of your two front teeth
is darkened like a doorway
against a sky of blue
you are swallowed in your sheets
with just an arm protruding
and a foot baked orange
from years spent barefoot as a child
the smell of lemon in the hollow of your arm
foot baked orange from years spent barefoot as a child
i watched you wash your hair
i listened to the water in the sink
i ate a piece of toasted bread
i don't remember a single word we said that day
but i know our greatest mutual gift
is that we never once agreed
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4. |
Sao Paulo
04:08
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|
sausages sizzle on box metal carts
hang an invitation over the park
it's a city of indifference, abiguity,
city of plans unrealized
where the kids play with sticks
and balloon vendors honk their horns
old bicycle horns
woman dries her face with a yellow towel
old man lights candles and cuts out paper dolls
city of indifference and ambiguity
and plans unrealized
beside the television
underneath the crucifix
between these loose walls
leaning over dirt floors
strung together with rope
the weight of drying clothes
keeps the walls from falling outward
opening up the house
revealing all its secrets
where a child draws a cactus
cause it looks like a balloon
against the sky, against the sea
where someone set it free
singing in her white dress
ringing tiny bells
communion wafer it's all intangible
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5. |
Bay of Angels
04:03
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her hands are crooked as roots
her hands are weathered bark
her hands are quiet as the leaves
were all your stars about
did all your stars come out
did you write the book you want to read
i know this beauty wrought in struggle with itself
bears the love that's suffered and has fought
"lola" will work for me
tonight at nine thirty
also i'm going to "the bay of angels"
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6. |
Annecy
03:11
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|
houses are shuttered against last night's rain
against paper hats that are shifting on cobblestone
dust leaf and brick, train station timetables
these shuttered houses have passed from our stories
perhaps this is a world to grow wise in
as i had once believed that it would be
as the train was first inching forward
i looked at your face and you smiled back at me
and that made me smile too and made you smile bigger
and all of these smiles then dissolved in a kiss
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7. |
Song of Hiawatha
04:55
|
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|
of all the choices that didn't get made
of all the things i thought and did not say
of all the things that i kept shyly hidden to myself
this proud untested love was not one of them
the usual miracle, this common transformation
how shall we consecrate the smallness of this morning
i want another spoonful of your bitter cappucino
to taste this proud, untested and overwhelming love
i want to watch your sock, fallen down around your ankle
i want to drink the afternoon and taste it all behind my teeth
i want the sadness, desperation, gentleness and longing
of overwhelming, wayward, unfamiliar love
i want to complicate our secret childhood handshake
i want to go outside and read the song of hiawatha
want to watch the fading light fall across your face
fall across this darkness, madness, this overwhelming love
and i go to the point of communication that i have with my heart
at the end of the scar i received from reaching for
the too-perfect apple and i ask it again what promises you've made
my heart is a shy one and not good at keeping secrets
and it told me you said, 'keep yourself beating . . .
and i will make you beat faster
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8. |
Metronome #2
05:11
|
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|
metronome and codeine
four wheat pennies
sitting on robert lowell
laughing like breathing
one night's sleep a day
lovely lonely warm bright
long blue day
been a long time
since i felt this way
coffee cup of shadows
nearly dark at three
light barely makes it
through the late summer's leaves
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9. |
Geneva
03:46
|
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|
squirrel took a dozen sticks into a hollow tree
he made a fine addition to his home
impatience and industry, his room is full of food
certain as the corner grocery store
train is in the station and i am in my seat
though i brought a book along
i'm much too tired to read
the flowers on the cherry trees have fallen on the grass
i guess that they have found another plan
i watched my dog growing old
she chased a rabbit in the snow
she runs a little tighter than she did
on a day in early june she ran across the grass
dandelion powder on her nose
train is in the station and i am in my seat
though i brought a book along
i'm much too tired to read
end of the festival is as unpreventable
as the sound of children laughing
on the station platform
train is in the station and i am in my seat
though i brought a book along
i'm much too tired to read
mother leads her baby ducks
across a busy street
they crash into the curb like keystone cops
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10. |
Sweet Creek
02:48
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back out of all this now too much for us
back in a time made simple by the loss of detail
burned, dissolved and broken off
like graveyard sculpture in the weather
there is a house that is no more a house
upon a farm that is no more a farm
and in a town that is no more a town
i walk into this sweet creek
let a guide direct me
who only has at heart my getting lost
and if you're lost enough by now
to find out why you've come this far
pull in your ladder road behind you
and there's the children's house of make-believe
some shattered dishes underneath a tree
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