Home Town

Nadezhda

Even the winter
Won't turn the wheel now
Great spokes of still hours
Chained to the bare ground

Reverie, bear me
Deep in the hollow
Of wildwood, slumber
Among the arbour's bloom

Requiem, I hid his songs
In porcelain, and dead man's lungs
I even caught a breath of one
In church bells ringing for the fallen sons

Heavy black roses
Hang in the gardens
Whirled into wreaths now
Dark as death's shadow

Only your kisses
Bees from a sweet mouth
Turn the cold air
Searching for home
Where you lie...

Requiem, I hid his songs
In porcelain, and dead man's lungs
I even caught a breath of one
In church bells ringing for the motherland

Gardenias and Cigarettes

Water on shingle and vagrant hours
That stumble round this sunstruck town
And white lantern blossoms
With torn off wings
Break from their branches
With pale yearning

Oh my mind came unmoored in the night
You set it adrift
With a kiss that was sweeter
Than anyone else's
That I've known before then or since
Oh gardenias and cheap cigarettes
On your mouth and your fingers I tasted

In the name, on the hands and the back of love
Ships were raised and lovers fought
And the Gods above watched from a ringside box
As cities were wasted to ashes and dust

I saw you go through a low window
By the idle tide of dusk
And I should have seen through those arrows and bows
That even golden apples rust

Oh my mind came unmoored in the night
You set it adrift
With a kiss that was sweeter
Than anyone else's
That I've known before then or since
Oh gardenias and cheap cigarettes
And the ghost of the touch of your fingers

Rifle and Wreath

With one hand on a rifle
And the other on a wreath
I'm standing like a fusilier
In battlefield relief
Oh paramour no matter
Will you not concede defeat?
This state of war is wearing out the land
That lies beneath us -

Lets build a cenotaph
And honour those lost and fallen dreams we had
With mud on my fingers
I'll lay down my gun
Cos I don't want this fight to go on

For wise men know
That glory glows
The way of rotten wood
And victories that seem to taste so sweet
On the mouth are bloody underfoot

Will you wait for me
By the ministry
For our final act of accord
I'll bring the first aid
And you warn the light brigade
And all will be good

With one hand on the rifle
And the other on your chest
I weigh you in the balance of temptation and redress
My fingers on the trigger but you play so innocent
So Carpae Diem's my sentence
Cos time's a rogue
In emporer's clothes
It keeps us hypnotized
With promises
Of golden tomorrows
As if we never say goodnight

The Harbour Song

The hours converge on a sea as hard as diamonds
White gold and glittering in the harbour
And the day begins to make its cloudy way nightwards
Now I know what I know I won't risk a second look backwards

I saw you on a sunken day
You were dancing on the deck
It had already happened long before we first met

I turned till you looked my way
Bailed water from your wreck
And I was hook, line and sinker swayed
By your drowning one-man act

I forged you from sehnsucht a Harlequin's mask
I squinted and loved you for plain circumstance
But the world knew better, knew better than I -
It is watchful and far less desirous of lies

Well the day sprang a leak with our treasures on board
Our coveted out-of-the ordinary hoard
But I couldn't care less for those jewels that I left
I just wanted my safety of passage assured

Switching the tracks from black to blue
Glory train's bound but not for you
Head on my shoulders, my eye to the gun
I'll get away second time round

I saw you on a sunken day
You were dancing on the deck
And it had already ended long before we first met

Oh I murdered it so artfully
I was quite the diligent
But you aided and abetted me
So don't play that innocent

Sir Raleigh

How must we look we two
Stranded in mid-morning blue
On the shores of not a clue what this is

Awash in the aftermath
Mutiny dawn made
On night's renegade's ship

Its so unfamiliar to
Walk hand in hand with you
I think I like you better lying down

Among early traders
And breakfasting lovers
We're more lost than found

I can already see how we're gonna end up
You'll be Sir Raleigh and I'll play the Queen of Roulette
Where once you promised me gold with a gun to your back
You'll pen your valedictions from the safety of the deck

You all belfry-headed and the eyes of cloud
That pass me by
You walled up your burning city till the topless towers
Came falling down, oh what a pity

How must I seem to you
Holding my back to the wall
Its a habit I could never give up

Fain would I climb
But fear gravity's pull
As a consequence, dear

I can already see how where we're gonna end up
Reading the signs that you left in overturned cup
Where once you promised me gold with a gun to your back
Now you pen valedictions from the safety of the deck

Silencio

Segadora de canciones,
Canciones de ausencia,
Palabras fugaces
Que se pierden cada vez.

Un remedio mas dulce
Que los versos sin sentido,
Que las caricias de tus manos
Es mi soledad.

Entre suenos de otono
Y las hojas infinitas,
Y el temporal de memoria
En que me pierdo cada vez

Hay un rezo a la nada,
Una cancion callada
Que me alcanza en el sitio
De mi soledad.

Ah silencio
Bendito!
Poetessa del corazon
encalmado

Ah silencio
Bendito!
Eres musica del corazon
inmenso

Despues de horas de partida,
Despues de luchas y victorias,
La lluvia olvidadiza
Cae de nuevo

Entre tierra y cielo
Hay, sin nombre, un consuelo
Que me toca en las tardes de mi soledad


Translation:

Reaper of songs
Songs of absence
Fugitive words
Which are lost each time

A sweeter remedy
Than senseless verses
Than the caresses of your hands
Is my solitude

Between dreams of autumn
And infinite leaves
And the storm of memory
In which I lose myself each time

There is a prayer to nothingness
A song of calm
Which touches me in the place
Of solitude

Ah, blessed silence!
You are the music of the immense heart

Ah blessed silence!
You are the poetess of the tranquil heart

After the hours of departure
After the struggles and the victories
The forgetful rain
Falls anew

Between earth and sky
There is a nameless consolation
That touches me in the evenings
Of my solitude

Salome

Then spoke the King
"Any earthly thing
To see you dancing"
How could I stop
Those words from rising
Like flames on my tongue
(Though not holy ones)
If God himself could not?

There's a man
There's a man
And he will not love me
Like all the others long to
So bring me his head
Upon a silver platter
And with his eyes
Still wide
He'll watch me dancing
And I'll be dancing for him

At night I dream
He pours cool water
Into my mouth
The veils turn water
Then he'll rise golden...

There's a man
There's a man
He was the only one I ever wanted
So bring me to bed
And they'll applaud my death
For who will pray
For my soul now to rise?

Like He Did

In County Cork
You posed with the Virgin
Combed back your hair
A picture preserving

Smiles in the bowl convex
For the wine blood red
Give your body
Like he said
Like he said

And sing songs
Now to praise him
You don't tell a soul
Cos it's of your own making

In County Cork
You laid for his favour
Face on the car seat
And yesterday's paper

Best to be quiet
Think of pietas
And offer your body
Like he did
Like he did

And sing songs
Now to praise
You don't tell a soul
Cos it's of your own making

Heloise

Heloise said "let me be your whore
Why must we be submit to their law?
And though they'll burn our bed to the floor
And our chambers will char to cinders,
The timbers will stagger and soar

While the fruit in the orchard
Turns black as the Bible
We'll still have the wayside
We'll be laughing as we fall

It was certain from the get-go
I would lay more than a finger down
On his body, oh that body
Was a country that I mapped with my hands
Heading south -
I was just a young girl
They said madder than Orphelia
But I knew better myself
I knew better myself"

Heloise said "Don't make me your wife
Though all the courts are ruling you should run for your life
They've tied ribbons to the beeches, they bay sacrifice
Now my head's got a price
In the Luxemberg gardens,
They've a new talking point
Saying "we must make examples" and all the time thinking
Thank God my indiscretions aren't worth repeating

It was certain from the get go
I would lay more than a finger down
On his body, oh that body
Was a country that I mapped with my hands
Heading south -
I was just a young girl
They said madder than Orphelia
But I knew better myself
I knew better myself"

Everything is You

I went walking the streets of you
To see the sky aflame with stars
That you'd kept from my view

And stumbling with a bloody mouth
Along your avenues
I never knew that I'd find love

Everything is you
Everything is you...

You were too good
You left me out of fight
You treated me like something costly
Of the breaking kind

But to diamonds and pearls
There's more to the eye
Oh they're harder
Than hammers and nails sometimes

Since you gone
With the last train home
I lie alone
With the record on
And your sweet words
Like thorns in my side
Won't you bring back the rose?

Everything is you
Everything is you...

Coronation Dance

I walk at low tide
And watch that rag-grey sea
Trammel down the shoreline
To tear dust factories

And I salute the magpie
And sing a sad luck blues
And try to find a picture
That could take the place of you

But you're residing in me
An unintended guest
And now you've brought your friends and all your family
I've not a second's rest

I know I sinned and gambled and I wagered that I was immune
Like Troilus in the temple mocking star-struck lovers much too soon
It was me of course who was on course to get it in the eye
Darling, won't you hear my heart come riding stoned and blind

When the city's on you, and its scratching to get in
And the night is blacker than a plague of devil's wings
I'll be waiting in the doorway, for your mouth on my skin
And the stars will rain down silver like the angel's lucky win
And the road lines will pluck tuneful on their vagrant violin
And your words will taste of bourbon, and your hands will make me sing

We'll walk at low tide
and watch that eye-glass sea
Trammel down the shoreline
To tear dust factories

With a rose of black hawthorn
And an ermine out of down
We'll toast the coronation
To the very best love in town

But now you've taken over
It's a mutiny
You've changed the locks
And left me in a strange and somehow altered key

I know I sinned and gambled and I boasted that I was immune
Like Troilus in the court I didn't count upon the sight of you
It was me, of course, who was on course to get it in the eye -
Darling won't you hear my heart come riding stoned and blind

When the city's on you and its scratching to get in
And the night is blacker than a plague of devil's wings
I'll be waiting in the doorway for your mouth on my skin
And the stars will rain down silver like the angel's lucky win
And the road lines will pluck tuneful on their vagrant violin
And your words will taste of bourbon and your hands will make me sing

Notes From An Opera

I was in a hotel when the city first fell
It was gilded and sullen and neoclassical
I took up with an officer and then his general
He bought me almond biscuits and a freshwater pearl

And took me to the opera, and after to Pigalle
A dancer wearing tassels ate the rose off my lapel
These days I'm wearing Shalimar, no never my Chanel
Cos it reminds him of his mother

He wears me like he does his duty shoes
Immaculately polished, and he keeps my soul
In the Paris saloons
And he occupies my moods...

On the Rue des Abesses
We could see violets had
Colonised the boulevards in June
I walk him down to the station
Banners fly from the irons
And vapour trails
Come rising up
Like dove tails...
Bridal veils...

Sundial creeps its hours
Into July
Among the ruins
Lanternas light

I still count his steps
On this esplanade
Like rosaries...
Arms surround me
Arms surround me

I was in the hotel when the first bomb fell
It shook the chandeliers and that old crystal
Came tumbling down on the tiles like the steeples
Of the St Paul bell

I get my pleasures in the dim stairwells
In fairground hands I undo myself -
Rise and fall like the painted poles
Of the carousel

And now autumn unthreads
Her last dress of gold
Upon long lawns
Shadows unfurl
I still count his steps
On this esplanade
Where violets grow...

All the King's Horses

Oh the bandstand is flooded -
Is flooded with rain
And the saints that came marching
In Jesus' name
Find their bugles and buckles
All rusted away
They will not be salvaged
For one last crusade

In this city of sinners
The children today
Grow up chemically vicious
With sex on the brain
And their babies have babies
So fat and so angry
We feed them and feed them
And still they are hungry

And all the King's horses
And all the King's men
Couldn't put our love together again
Once you gave me the moon
I was after the sun
That's the way it was always
And will be Amen

When I first saw you
At the Easter Parade
I knew from the start
How I'd whisper your name
How we'd wander the city
And dance in the lanes
And kiss by the lamplight
To 'Lily Marlene'

Now this city's for wasters
The coming-of-age
And hard-wired and dead-eyed
With cash and cocaine
But Jerusalem's coming
It's just round the corner
A holy man told me
Though what does it matter when...

All the King's horses
And all the King's men
Couldn't put our love together again
Once you gave me the moon
I was after the sun
That's the way it was always
And will be Amen