Solid Days
Your world is young
And it’s full of love
Can’t believe your luck
All is looking up, clear skies
Yet there’s a point
Here in the plot
We must say goodbye
To Camelot, still I
Hear, I know you hear it
Oh, so many ways
I yearn to save the spirit
Of these solid days
Look around
At this place I’ve found
These laughing friends
I do depend on so
Hear, I know you hear it
Oh, so many ways
I yearn to save the spirit
Of these solid days
And there is nothing so strange as a final goodbye
Hear, I know you hear it
Oh, so many ways
I yearn to save the spirit
Of these solid days
Sure, the train is leaving
And sure, I cannot stay
But still, I’ll keep that feeling
‘Cause I’ve loved these solid days
The Answer Will Be Yes
Well, hello
I didn’t think you’d come around, you know
So nice to see you, but it’s
Such a mess
It’s been this bad for ages, I confess
So out of hand, this
Way I’ve been
Would you come on in, because
Yesterday, I sat in sadness
Yesterday was all a guess
Now I pray your answer will be yes
It will be yes
Walk with me
Well, here’s the guided tour
Company
It brings the place together
Yes, it blooms
Well, if you like it we can
Clear a room
I’d be delighted
If you’d stay
It’s a great cliché, but
Yesterday, I sat in sadness
Yesterday was all a guess
Now I pray your answer will be yes
It will be yes
Yes, it will be yes
More than a visitor
More than a guest
Love, won’t you make me your home?
Yesterday, I sat in sadness
Yesterday, I felt a mess
Now I pray your answer will be yes
It will be yes
Yesterday, I came careening
Yesterday, I had a fall
If you ask to stay, my answer will be yes
It will be yes
Yes, it will be yes
Half-Hitch (Shouldn’t Say)
It’s just gone time
Time to feel forgotten
To ask again
Some sort of solace
I’ll make a shrine
A small pursuit of comfort
Just gotta try
Got to reach out
Nothing I’ve been planning
I beg your understanding
Show me who you are
Something sealed and something sacred
All four seasons in your day
Lonely reservoir
Drink of all the things we shouldn’t say
Jackbooted thugs
Do their best to keep us
Keep us apart
Senses reeling
And it’s because
No one is the wiser
Oh no one knows
What we’re seeing
Got no time for questions
Or aiming our intentions
Show me who you are
Something sealed and something sacred
All four seasons in your day
Lonely reservoir
Drink of all the things we shouldn’t say
Make it your only wish to disappear in me
Promise I’ll do the same for you
And we will lose ourselves, yes and so totally
Hallelujah
What is left to treasure?
Well, and by what measure?
Show me who you are
Something sealed and something sacred
All four seasons in your day
Yes, we’ve gone too far
Blown off course atop our endless
Lonely reservoir
Drown in all the things we shouldn’t say
Shouldn’t Say
It Isn’t Hard to Tell
It’s a kind of ecstasy to understand that I’ve been in a trance
It’s okay
Sort of strange, it comforts me to face the fact I missed my only chance
Anyway
Now observe the edge of everything I understand
All my thoughts of love and heartbreak, members of the band
Clap for them as they replay my greatest hit so far and stand
I shake their hand, and
No, it isn’t hard to tell
The only thing between us
Is a bridge to sell
Oh, it isn’t hard to tell the end
My friend
If there’s any point in being cross, I cannot see it, no, can you?
Didn’t think
We’re just out of joint and I’ve been caught in what I failed to see through
Missing link
I sure wish it went another way, oh can’t you see?
I’d do almost anything to have you here with me
Please believe I looked up at the sky each night and wished for you
You know it’s true
But no, it isn’t hard to tell
The only thing between us
Is a bridge to sell
Oh, it isn’t hard to tell, the end
My friend
In another universe
In another life, we learned
What we needed to in time, I know
Never doubt that my affection walks along with you
One day we will map these twisted tunnels we’ve been through
The dream of us is dead but there will be another port of call
So say we all
Now it isn’t hard to tell
The only thing left for us
Is a fond farewell
No, it isn’t hard to tell the end
My friend
Smoke All the Way Down
Maybe it’s true what they say
Maybe it’s me who’s wrong
Maybe I’m hollowed out and half-asleep, so long
And if it’s all connected
If most the mess is mine
No wonder I’m sailing faster
On open ocean
I duck disaster
How can you trust?
How can you stay here?
What with my tears of a clown
When I’m all dust
When I’m just vapor
Steady smoke all the way down
Somersault safely southward
Into a fairyland
Into a world of talk and meaningless chagrin
Not that it matters much now
Everyone’s long since gone
No wonder it’s all been emptied
Places and people
Now just memories
How can you trust?
How can you stay here?
What with my tears of a clown
When I’m all dust
When I’m just vapor
Steady smoke all the way down
Ask of me
‘What do you see?’
And I will sigh
‘I see the sky
And nothing more
No, nothing more I see’
Tell me true
What’s it to you
Where is the rub?
When is enough?
It’s zero point
Ad infinitum, lie
How can you trust?
How can you stay here?
What with my tears of a clown
When I’m all dust
When I’m just vapor
Steady smoke all the way down
Steady smoke all the way down
Chemical Spell
Adelaide
I feel defeated
You say ‘jump’
I say ‘love, how high?’
Show the way
Lead me laughing
Wind me up
And I’m floating away, goodbye
Into the chemical spell I’m under
Oh, the age of attention lost
To a terrible time, I wonder
When will it end, oh
That chemical spell I’m under
Under
Every time
I catch a crack-up
Evidence
Of nothing left
I just mime
Crawl right back down
Perfect sense
I’ve a fluttering heart, amen
But it’s a chemical spell I’m under
It’s an age of attention lost
To a terrible time, I wonder
When will it end, oh
That chemical spell I’m under
Under the shell, ask ‘where and when’ she says
‘Fare thee well, but don’t come ’round again’
Chemical spell I’m under
Oh, the age of attention lost
To a terrible time, I wonder
When will it end, oh
That chemical spell I’m under
Chemical spell I’m under
Oh, the age of attention lost
To a terrible time, I wonder
When will it end, oh
That chemical spell I’m under
That chemical spell I’m under
Under
Like a Charm
Absolutely absent a
Motive or a thought
I’ll avoid the advent of
Anything but urges
Absolutely inland of
Heaven’s shore, well it can wait
Less is more, I abdicate
And like a charm
Thoughts of futures fall into the sea
Like a charm
I’ll be using my two hands for me
Accurately aching for
Something from beyond
Fool, the man I’m making is
Not the one I’m after, no
Accidentally asking for
Something I can never claim
So I give myself again to shame
And like a charm
Thoughts of futures fall into the sea
Like a charm
I’ll be keeping my one heart for me
Look down that narrow road
Looking and wincing, sure
Choose now or just shut the door
All my reasons in a row
Each one frivolous, I know
But like a charm
Thoughts of futures fall into the sea
Like a charm
I’ll be going
Like a charm
Skip the steps and count on jubilee
Like a charm
I’ll live this absent life eternally
There Goes the Game
Laughter masks a million reasons to
Forget it
Laughter keeps me running in one place
One place
I could almost acquiesce and she’d
Just let it
Just let
Oh let it
Go
But if she doesn’t want to play
There goes the game
It’s sad
Think what you may
Have had
All the same
There goes the game
Cast the errant thoughts to outer dark
To darkness
Cast myself as something like the sun
The sun
She might almost entertain the thought
A second
That’s nice
So nice but
No
It’s clear she doesn’t want to play, so
There goes the game
It’s sad
Think what you may
Have had
All the same
There goes the game
Look around and see
See the world still silently spinning
She can’t stop for me
And so she doesn’t want to play
Doesn’t want to play
So there goes the game
It’s sad
Think what you may
Have had
All the same
There goes the game
It’s true
Sure, it’s a shame
For you
But all this to say
There goes the game
There goes the game
So there goes the game
Fire
I love your fickle, falling eyes
The way they dart
I love the careless compromise
Your aching art
I love the existential agony, so serious
Tumbling and turning to age abandoned
Lifting and laughing at figures
Following in your finest
You inspire
Fire
Oh yes, you win, your highness
And I admire your
Fire
I see your staring solitude
Your haunted heels
I see the match that strikes your mood
A will to feel
I see a sorrow softly veiled
A stabbing silence
Rotating, wrestling you to reckless
Fits of forgetting and finally
Following in your finest
You inspire
Fire
Oh yes, you win, your highness
And I admire your
Fire
Catch me inside of your cat’s eye crusade
Fold me so deep in your hunter’s malaise
Angles of ecstasy, agony, all
All of your excess may soon bid you fall
Following in your finest
You inspire
Fire
Oh yes, you win, your highness
And I admire your
Fire
In the Shade of an Even Keel
What happened to the rush?
That shimmering sense
The lightning, the tell of touch
The secret bets
Don’t think about it much
Just here and there
What do you do if love
It isn’t fair?
Looking at the face of the moving wheel
See the season go, see it turn, turn
Living in the shade of an even keel
Not like I didn’t know
There’d come a day
Once above, now below
A castaway
Time has its tiny charms
Its moments that mend
Don’t have to trust the stars
Just understand
Looking at the face of the moving wheel
See the season go, see it turn, turn
Living in the shade of an even keel
With the weight all light and lifted
As the air
Sing a song of time evicted
Why should I despair?
Living in the shade of an even keel
See the season go, see it turn, turn
Looking at the face of a moving wheel
Walking on the moon and it’s all unreal
See our planet go, see it turn, turn
Living in the shade of an even keel
Happy Turn of Chance
I caught you behind your eyes
Looking for a little lie
Playing at some pantomime
About the way you’ve been
In ten places at one time
Eternally and in your mind
Any inclination’s fine
You let the fault go free
Eleanor
Eleanor
You count on luck
And again you dance
With your happy turn of chance
Interregnum’s on for good
Look who’s the neighborhood
Versions of you from the past
Where’d you see them last?
Well, hello
Did you think that you could hide?
Oh, you know
It’s time
Every lie
And every change of style
In the light
Awhile, on trial
Eleanor
Eleanor
You’ve not much left
But you love a dance
With your happy turn of chance
What’s the use in asking when
You’ll get up and leave again?
You realize you’ve been found out
And that’s your queue, the end
And where will I, how will I know
That you’ve made your mind to go?
Just when summer’s peeking out
Will I have lost a friend?
Eleanor
Eleanor
Do you really want to be out in front when the world, it bids you
Eleanor
Eleanor
Enjoy the trance
You have one last dance
With your happy turn of chance
Enjoy the trance
You have one last dance
With your happy turn of chance
Here Come the Golden Parachutes
I went walking soft and slow
Down my hill to streets below
‘Round to where the buildings all have
Angels in their angles, yes and so
As I walked I thought I’d let you know so
This is my psalm, my song for you
I’ll sing it the whole day here
All may be wrong and terror true
So far, so far but
Here come the golden parachutes
Have heart
I may tarry, but be sure
Only for one moment more
Certainty is hard to find but
I don’t need it for I am secure
I know what those open hands are for
This is my psalm, my song for you
I’ll sing it the whole day here
All may be wrong and terror true
So far, so far
But here come the golden parachutes
Have heart
Walk up to the edge
Step over the railing
Wonder if the waves they ever tire
So, starting to hedge
Stop all of this sailing
No watery grave could take you higher
You might think there’s nothing here
Haunt these factories of fear
You might think this mortal coil’s
A task for which you’d never volunteer
But I’m so glad you did and that you’re near
This is my psalm, my song for you
I’ll sing it the day whole day through
Though there is such a debt accrued
So far
Here come the golden parachutes
Have heart
This is my psalm, my song for you
I’ll sing it the whole day here
All may be wrong and terror true
So far, so far
Here come the golden parachutes
Have heart
I’ll be your golden parachute
Have heart
The Roads Are Closed
See me painting clouds
Over my blue skies, yes
I will hang around
And dripping, I’ll say
Please follow me
Oh, would you follow me, but no
The roads are closed
You’ll have to turn around
Shoring up against
A pall I have prayed for and
Always on the fence
It’s good, it is
Don’t follow me
You should follow me this time
The roads are closed
You’ll have to turn around
And no, who knows
Where I’d even be found
Leave me where I am
It’s a lot to have to look past
Don’t try to understand
Only had one plan
My misery to broadcast
So leave me where I am
Follow me
You should follow me
Don’t follow me
But if you follow me, just know
My roads are closed
You’ll have to clear your way
And God, he knows
Where you could even stay
Always Coming Home
Find it in me to believe
That any given moment might make matters mine
All hail the acquiescent spree
Giving oneself wholly to half of the time
It’s obvious, of course, that I need somewhere else to go
But I’m disenchanted every place I roam
And so, my dear, to you I’m always coming home
Judge the options to be void
The exit doors are here but they’re barred from inside
You really couldn’t miss that I need somewhere else to go
So far from all this mess of monochrome
And so, my dear, to you I’m always coming home
The internet of things inside my head is reading null
Been moving to a mindless metronome
So yes, in fact, to you I’m always coming home
No quarter, and no recourse
I’m all yours, yes, no recourse
The intercepted chatter from the lines across my head
Is pointing down one avenue alone
And so, my star, to you again I’m coming home
Coming home
Torn to Ribbons
That’s a wrap, that’s an empty space
Boarded up, and for good
All those words, all that perfect pace
So much lift, and the love of language
Torn to ribbons
Thrown right off the axis
Of the living
To wherever you’ve gone
All you’ve given
The whispering
Watcher of my words
I’m torn to ribbons
Well I thought I might meet you once
Just a word or a nod
Hope it shows, hope that providence
Lets you know that in death you go on
Torn to ribbons
Thrown right off the axis
Of the living
To wherever you’ve gone
All you’ve given
The whispering
Watcher of my words
I’m torn to ribbons
Once more with verve
Once more with appetite
Set it right, or all alight
Torn to ribbons
Thrown right off the axis
Of the living
To wherever you’ve gone
All you’ve given
The whispering
Watcher of my words
I’m torn to ribbons
Sea of Faith
If I’m anchored to something
Something solid at all
It’s a riddle receding at speed
The full stop begging the question
The question beggars belief
All’s not well and on that we’re agreed
But while you forgive the state I am in
While you explain it away
Off near some silent shore I will swim
In your sea, your sea of faith
Summer stalls into autumn
Autumn ambles away
Years they flit into endless yesterdays
I become like the canyon
Fraught with fissure and groove
But by the present completely unmoved
And while you consider the rest I have found
In slow-motion soft disarray
Off near some distant dawn I will drown
In your sea, your sea of faith
Sing at the mirror
I’m looking me in the eye now
Listen my dear
Why start oh why even try now?
So as I accept an eternal ‘I guess’
That inky enchanted malaise
Next to some other wreck I will rest
In a sea, a sea of faith
A sea, a sea of faith
A sea, a sea of faith