1. |
Ilsanjo
01:14
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I will go to Lake Ilsanjo.
There is where I first found you,
Partly in sand; alive, buried
Beneath my feet and the Spring Trail creek.
One brown stone: alive, buried,
Come undone, and gladly shouting
My new name, that became me,
Sounding the bell in the ravine
And my song is berry seed;
Rose petals, my tongue,
a long time trembling; finally sung.
And my core, crafted sugar,
In the moisture of my longing
Collapsed, and ran into Ilsanjo,
And the lake captured my heart.
This sweet water endures,
Every seed, and stone; for a moment,
Moments strung like pearls.
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2. |
Judy
02:39
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The snake is mine,
Under the white stain that I call blood kin.
In cedar shavings, in a cage.
My bled muscle raging, I’m falling
Inside the wave. Your secret is safe.
Cake mud below the sum of rain and glide
Beneath the trickle grave where the snake died
Now snow covers the moon
Will you come home soon?
I’m two; alone: The cherry, and the stone.
At night,
When I bend and running, my turn to weave,
I curl in too quickly, I can’t breathe,
The song plays; erased.
Make it different again by the light of the A.M.
We couldn’t be the same, and I was always
Judy
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3. |
St. John
03:31
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I hear
Fire draws
My soul from inside my heart to dark halls
No one in empty
No God, but inside my life to lead me.
O, happy night,
In secret, when no one sees me
O night my guide,
Sweeter than the dawn, and more lovely.
My unrest,
My caresses,
Awake my lover where he lies sleeping
Fan trees in the wind
Part his hair, I am the cedar breezes
Wound of mine; Speak.
Who made thee? It was He.
I myself cease,
All the world undone among the lilies.
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4. |
Coming Home
03:18
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I’ll tell it the way it is if I’m able
You stop your shaking, I knew you when.
This night in a fine brownstone in Brooklyn
That smoke you breathe goes right to my head.
I don’t mean that it means nothing
I don’t feel that I need more.
I’m just an outlaw from the prison,
I was sure
You’d lay your savor on the table.
The bread I come is broken and eaten
The bread I go I taste in disguise.
When you peel the mask away you’ll know me
I was your favorite when you were a child.
Go get up, now, call your neighbors
They didn't help you once before.
I am the place of your direction
I come to you with my report.
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5. |
Say You Will
03:53
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When you try to wish on a star in my eye,
I long to answer from my heart.
Waving like the ocean waves; not “Hello,”
Just the way it is.
Rocking into summer. Strangers
On the beach, one careless kiss:
Say you will. Say yes. Say something.
Say you will.
Eyes bright, everybody look a little,
The girls smile and comb their hair
Their words flow out like water
Rising up to a mountain miracle.
Carefully, now, you don’t care
And no one else is coming here
Mirror on the water break
Soak the sand, make me crazy:
Say you will. Say yes. Say something. Say you will.
Long white dress, long dark hair
Some warm woman walk like out of the air
You can smell, you can taste
The salt on the wind as she moves your way…
And you’re on, with somebody, all day;
Making love to Me that way
And Somebody called, and Somebody said,
That Nobody; Nobody did.
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6. |
My Life's Work
02:33
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My Life’s work: raising children
A mundane an ordinary thing, some people say,
And it won’t give you energy,
No matter how you want the world to work that way.
You can give up the truth to make it easy,
But it doesn’t mean that much to me now: the easy thing.
If I can, I take the fall. I take it all,
No matter what the changes bring
I live another day, I learn to love you,
Live another day, I learn to love you.
My right to pretend expires on Tuesday
You won’t see me running off this time to change my name
Love’s a knife that cuts inside, we change or die
We can’t get by and stay the same
Still I believe in love. It has no ending.
I sense some kind of end but I suspend my disbelief.
In imagine we make love
In His image, Love re-makes me
I live another day, I learn to love you,
Live another day, I learn to love you.
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7. |
Love Falls Down
03:59
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I dreamed I left you, baby,
For a man who didn’t want to marry me.
All our promises were easy to keep.
All love falls down. Our love falls down.
We found first love together
After school when we were seventeen.
He moved away, I never saw him again.
All love falls down. Our love falls down.
I miss the sky that rains over my mama.
I lost the place where I was my own.
The silver winters of my January call me home.
But you wrote me a letter before we met,
Remember what you said to me?
You didn’t ask, you said that we would marry.
All love falls down. Our love falls down.
That teenaged boy wrote me a letter.
He said I hope you find the one.
Because it’s you who deserve love, and I guess,
If I can just love myself.
I woke up this morning
In this bed where last night in darkness I loved you so.
Beautiful bird of darkness I will never go.
All love falls down. Our love falls down.
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8. |
Window
02:04
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I say, “Call me by name.”
You indicate, “Words fail”
So I number your breaths against my neck
For the story they tell.
Come press your lips to the glass of your window,
I can’t come in, but I’m not leaving,
I wait in the sand and the
Sifting and weaving of time,
To be transformed,
Transeamus,
To be something far and inside,
Is all I’m asking to feel,
To follow your sighs
And move in through your clarient eyes.
There is a light in the dark of my memory
Iridescent pearl, fur back of an animal,
Leaves that fall fragrant and cool,
Broken under my hand.
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9. |
Blue Light
03:32
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The light divided: part bright , part black.
This is California contrast, this is California land.
I no longer recall, yesterday falls.
Blue light lie down in the road. Blue light open the road.
I’m walking: locked, and open my key
Blue is mine, and you’re the empty,
You’re the line, the color is me
Don, our moon, clear and pale:
Twilight rings a bell.
Blue light lie down in the road. Blue light open the road
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10. |
Appleseed
04:04
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Pull this autumn reed,
Play for me your breathing.
Earth, I am dancing, the apple seed at my feet
Hollowing out grass that was green,
Now I grow out away from the earth
Stay, my darling, I was with you in everything
Wave from the mountain,
Harvest my love in the rain
My body breaks off, like moth wings
Culled aloft in to the drawing night
My apple seed, apple wine
Be born again, and die
And born again, into hollow song
Come away for so long
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11. |
The Apples
03:34
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The scene is the apples.
The apples are mundane, and
Mundane is the most genuine thing
Now.
I saw you, I saw you, eh
You’re the best man that ever was for me.
It’s the way it is it’s ok.
Then there goes:
The black spring from my underground hole,
And heart is the only way.
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12. |
Far
01:36
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I had a dream
Nothing
Curling
Ocean thunder, myself falling,
Entering.
Then louder
The water
Whistling songs in unknown order
and then: Nothing.
Far Far Far Into Into Into
Crashing wall
Broken
Ripped open
White bells entering my throat explode,
The foam clears, crushed stone
Reveals the sudden bending wall
Returning. Turning back to black, revealing
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing
Far Far Far Into Into Into
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13. |
What's True?
03:04
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I want to take your breath away,
Watch you fall, and catch you.
After that I don’t know what I’ll do
I’m practicing the right thing, and I won’t give in
What’s true? What’s true? What’s true?
There’s a spark inside a beat,
And a beat inside my hungry heart
If I give you my heart’s beat,
When you draw your breath, your hunger becomes like fire
What’s true? What’s true? What’s true?
If I believe in what I’m feeling, deep with wishes; underground.
All my longing carves a river for my ancient love to drown.
I won’t be redeemed forever
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14. |
Love is Everything
03:28
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Love is I everything, my darling.
The garden spring rush that washes us away with everything.
At most I recall
Something sweet, but my memory it fails and I release
Loneliness for this. Loneliness for this.
Happy ever after is the saddest thing, ‘cause love is never close enough, and love is only everything.
Love is pale morning, and high noon.
White and gold warp and woof along the loom, and we fly
This carpet tonight, we close our eyes
And ride into the dark with our surprise
Make a wish, penny for a kiss
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Robin O'Brien Santa Rosa, California
Eclectic mix of recordings; mostly lo-fi. I've been a closet home-taper, recording my music since before multitrack was
available to us common folk at home. It's my joy.
George Reisch re-imagined some of these tunes, and you can find them at Luxotone.com
recordings by Jean Farmer and I are at notan.org
... more
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