Lyrics
THE WINTER SET
Albatross
Know me by my eyes / not my hands full of crimes / I’ve kept my heart inside / a cage, a cage, a cage / guard my place by you / let no man pass through / if I’m the one you choose / to take, to take, to take // an albatross has set upon / our sail and bending mast / now leave the eastern gates unlocked / I’ll see my home at last // Wide eyes and weary hands / you’ve dreamed of other lands / you’ve made and canceled plans / to fly, to fly, to fly / the late and early rains / will cleanse you and your wings / and as I hold your place / you’ll rise, you’ll rise, you’ll rise //// I’m nothing like the boy I was / or the man I want to be / but you’re still the girl I love / forgive and wait for me
Sons of Metropolis
You brought us back a pair of guns / bent into circles like balloons / no one can know we are your sons / but his shirts are red and mine are blue / you flew a banner for our band / then put T. Marsha behind bars / a suicide you caught her hand / a robbery you flipped their car // Underneath the rolling train / while we change you stay the same // we took a walk I could not fly / I wrote a book you read too fast / when he broke a bone he did not cry / but chose your colors for his cast //// mother learned to look through you / but saw the same things we all do / underneath the rolling train / while we change you stay the same / my friends throw stones to test our strength / they are disappointed by my skin / you’ve always a new nation to save / always a victim to befriend / underneath the rolling train / while we change you stay the same (and that’s okay)
Living with a girl (what ain’t my lover)
I’ve seen it happen in films / she rides her bike between buildings / and the wind moves the camera like old leaves / and that’s the end it’s just a pause // When I hear you go insane in the next room / I keep my headphones off // When we walk I keep up at a jog / you break a sweat from people watching / and the wind moves our days like old leaves / and every end is just a pause //// now I miss you in every film / on every paperback novel / when we die if we keep out of the sky / well then we’ll haunt the same writer / and every end is just a pause // It’s your gypsy call in our two bedroom cathedral / that makes you worth the light / when I hear you go insane in the next room / I keep my headphones off
River Carol
My brother from the river / grew taller than I / made me wish we’d let him float on / then a babe to die / I loved him like a lesson / I was forced to know / he joined us Christmas morning / to carry the boat // Papa set us drifting / wrapped the oars in our shirts / they lighted on the river / and on the babes like white birds // as we gathered up the infants / dropped from the road / I reached beyond my grasp / and fell low into the cold / my brother mercy giver / stronger than I / by my ankle from the water / drew me like a child //// the Romans recognize us / call out in the street / happy riddance mercy givers / my brother and me
Letter Through Your Window
My two hands should more than suffice / but you make me wish I had eight or nine / I fill the room with all the light I have / it’s all dust compared to how you shine // maybe there’s a corner of your eye / where my mind can circle and settle satisfied // I hear you say I’m suffocating you / I see you lock yourself in your bedroom / I sent my letter through your window with a stone / and saw you smile when you told me to go home //// It’s not your fault you’ve done this to me / there’s nothing you could do to ever set me free / I’ll stay here plotting out our days / and lose sleep measuring the angles of your face // I know that there’s a trick I can try / to get you to come down the stairs / admit it that you’re mine
Malchus
I’ve not changed since I was a child / I sow seeds in soil that’s not mine / we went out with swords and shrouds / to the garden where Peter cut me down // I’m alive, I’m alone / the lord saves, the lord knows // Jesus put my ear back in place / he wouldn’t fight his men ran away / I can’t change I do not belong / to myself I saw the bloody cross //// So I spit in the city well / I hear vines hanging themselves / I grow old I’m nearly blind / my hands ache I hear just fine ////
The End of Aaron Sussex
Esme takes a walk indoors / her ghost in the polished floor / ties its hair up just the same /as Esme on all saints day / Breathing like a falling tree / guilty as the space it leaves / Aaron lets the hours pass / holds her in a looking glass / I say this love is no longer our home / See the rain pass through closed windows / If you need a coat take mine / I still have some life // When the sky exhumes the sun / and his morning prayer is done / Aaron writes a friend in town / tells him not to track him down / I no longer shiver at the cold / see the rain pass through closed windows / If you need a coat take mine / I still have some life
Preacher’s Son
// Come out of those hills preacher’s son / we will rebuild stone by stone / only God will lift all you’ve done / from your shoulders preacher’s son // You started work on another house / you’ll never call your own / you leave it bare with no door in place / and start down a winter road / she’ll find the house like an open hand / nothing to take or give / no parting note and no wedding band / another life you won’t live //// I wish I had loved you well / met your eyes when you spoke / I passed you by when your car broke down / I held hate and lost all hope / but every town drinks in a sunrise / just after it goes dark / and we will wait to see your true light / when you lay down your heart ////
December News
I’ve never been more certain / youthful times, bonds are broken / me, I’ll watch the snow fall / Unfurl like hours change the roads / your jacket hides what we know / you hope it dies your shoes are drinking / you walk alone along the sea / please come watch the snow fall
Bell Jar
Off in your carriage / hunting without a tie / I’ve seen you empty / dirl up above your eye / Sylvia stumbles / younger than your waistcoat / bright as the morning / you asked me not to lose hope // she’ll never see you / she’ll never see you in time // though I was the elder / truly I was afraid / you went in without me / leaving me at the front gate / the house would not let in / light though I searched at dawn / our mother knew before / I reached home you were gone // I’ll never stop you / I’ll never stop you in time // brother refrain / go home empty / lights on a wall / sea gray far off / you’re cut but not bleeding / lost but not wandering / in love but not loving / she’s cold but not covering up / fire on a candle / God in her blood and heart / where will you leave her / small underneath your bell jar // I’ll want to be you / I’ll want to be you in time
Bank Robbers
The plans are in stacks and folded oblong / and they slide on the floor of my car / with a gun and ten gallons of gas / catch me if you can / and you in your aviators can lead / you can smile as I empty the safe / you can wave as we tiptoe away / join me if you can // join me I don’t want to sleep in the dark / on the gravel road of a state park / without you beside me in a pair of my old jeans // I won’t lie there’ll be blanks in the gun the whole time / we won’t leave any breadcrumbs behind / we’ll be rich you’ll be safe and I’ll be kind / join me if you can //// Your bags fit in my trunk / and your legs on my dashboard / the air conditioning and your thoughts will cool
When We’re Gone
I don’t love you like a ship unmanned / or a red rose drinking all the earth it can / not like a sunrise made to disappear / or a nightingale singing out of fear / When I say the stars all shine for you / you kiss me and answer that’s not really true / but I don’t love you like running or lying down / or a snowflake flying without knowing how // In the shadows of the world / every breath I hold is yours / like a man going blind / I gather you to my eyes / new lit light, nascent hope / yours is every breath I hold // You’re a song a whisper a shelter a storm / you’re a curtained morning and late night before / and I can’t love you well enough in one lifetime / when we’re gone the others will admit I tried ////
Tithonus
She found me warming on the wall / Eos goddess of dawn / and by the time the city woke / the sun had come and I had gone / In love she prayed that I might live / forever hers to hide / but while I lost the power to die / my flesh and heart remembered Time // I will hold on lightly and / your heart will break its walls again // I saw her rouse the sun at dawn / her sea surrounds the world / the Hours found me in her bed / and stole the youth Eos adored //// she left me cooling in a field / more artifact than man / and centuries of kisses fell from me / like dew from flower stems ////
Young Curmudgeon
I cannot kill a tree with my bare hands / or undo all the damage that your land / has suffered in the days since your favorite son left his bed / every door of your house has a bolt / that you slide into place against the cold / but I will let the winter rinse the walls and lift your head // I won’t raise my voice / or hand against your choice / to stand and watch for the son you lost / I will love your earth and beg it to bring worth / to what I have and what he has not // A leaf may fall to water and sail off / or wait atop a building for the frost / but it will not return to the great branch that was its start / underneath the rule of sun and cloud / you keep your wishes buried in the ground / and I have found the spot and set my heart beside your heart //// run to him like a boy running to the sea / weigh his gentle hand down with your ring / the one I’ve often seen and hoped you might one day make mine / you listen to my long withheld complaint / I deserve your love and he your hate / you say before you go though he was dead he’s alive // I won’t raise my voice / or hand against your choice / to set your arm round the son you lost / and I will love your earth / and grow to see the worth / of who he is and who I am not // now the season turns / our eyes up to the sun / to change, the air, the earth and me / I know your love outweighs / my pride and his disgrace / the fields are high and the boy goes free
A MOVEMENT BACK AND FORTH
Canon
We don’t wait we pine / we don’t bide our time we burn it / and we don’t rest our eyes or travel light / we are burdened by the negative of you / and our footfalls are a drum-roll to your arrival / and this canon is the anthem of our survival / storm clouds you’re leaving an oasis you’re breathing / see our bending spines we share our sin / we’re children of crying children / every word we write and read at night / is a movement back and forth / the things we make don’t roll or stand upright / all our shoulders burn and good intentions turn / and our footfalls are a drum-roll to your arrival / and this canon is the anthem of our survival / storm clouds you’re leaving an oasis you’re breathing / see our bending spines we share our sin / we’re children of crying children / meet us
Dragons
I’ve looked so hard for dragons to slay for you / but if you’re caught in the rain there’s so little I can do / if I took a swing at the sky I’d miss / I hate to see you disappointed // but I’ve read Tolkein again / and if my last breath tastes like you / there’s nothing left to win // They don’t let boys carry swords these days / so I use my words to make you feel safe / it’s not what you need you didn’t ask for this / I hate to see you unimpressed // but I’ve read Tolkein again / and if my last breath tastes like you / there’s nothing left to win //
Rolling Storm, Titan Sigh
And if I feel the pull of stone / and if I hear the grass blades comb / and if the Lord tells me he’s alone / would you listen or nod along / we’re still so far from our wedding / bring the oil, bring the oil / it’s not a hymn to sing / if I tie the sunrise in a bag / would it go stale on your front step / a lightning glint in lidless eye / a rolling storm, a titan sigh / we’re still so far from our wedding / bring the oil, bring the oil / it’s not a hymn to sing / and if I close my hand on yours / and you show me three falling stars / I’ll tell you stories in our sleep / we’re still so far from our wedding
Holy Africa
Brother breathe your breathing / your bones give rhythm to their song / lids eclipse their seeing / lions are on the lawn / children come indoors now / lions are on the lawn / your brother tends the fire / your father is dead and gone / brother breathe your breathing / your bones give rhythm to their song / lids eclipse their seeing / lions are on the lawn / keep the dogs on chains now / lions are on the lawn / keep out of the shadows / your father is dead and gone / brother breathe your breathing / your bones give rhythm to their song / lids eclipse their seeing / lions are on the lawn / children go to sleep / lions are on the lawn / your safe in the shadows / the fire’s dead and gone / brother breathe your breathing / your bones give rhythm to their song / lids eclipse their seeing / lions are on the lawn
Lazurus
We’ll never talk this way again / two decades you’re still thanking him / you keep your shoes beside your bed / are you sure this time you will stay dead / I learned to change my oil here / I shot a crow out of this air / I took the couch you took the bed / are you sure this time you will stay dead / did you walk far across that plain before the fourth day / how long ought I to wait around before I close the ground / we’ll never talk this way again / even his miracles must end / linger if you like above my head / if you’re sure this time you will stay dead
Lyrics
THE WINTER SET
Albatross
Know me by my eyes / not my hands full of crimes / I’ve kept my heart inside / a cage, a cage, a cage / guard my place by you / let no man pass through / if I’m the one you choose / to take, to take, to take // an albatross has set upon / our sail and bending mast / now leave the eastern gates unlocked / I’ll see my home at last // Wide eyes and weary hands / you’ve dreamed of other lands / you’ve made and canceled plans / to fly, to fly, to fly / the late and early rains / will cleanse you and your wings / and as I hold your place / you’ll rise, you’ll rise, you’ll rise //// I’m nothing like the boy I was / or the man I want to be / but you’re still the girl I love / forgive and wait for me
Sons of Metropolis
You brought us back a pair of guns / bent into circles like balloons / no one can know we are your sons / but his shirts are red and mine are blue / you flew a banner for our band / then put T. Marsha behind bars / a suicide you caught her hand / a robbery you flipped their car // Underneath the rolling train / while we change you stay the same // we took a walk I could not fly / I wrote a book you read too fast / when he broke a bone he did not cry / but chose your colors for his cast //// mother learned to look through you / but saw the same things we all do / underneath the rolling train / while we change you stay the same / my friends throw stones to test our strength / they are disappointed by my skin / you’ve always a new nation to save / always a victim to befriend / underneath the rolling train / while we change you stay the same (and that’s okay)
Living with a girl (what ain’t my lover)
I’ve seen it happen in films / she rides her bike between buildings / and the wind moves the camera like old leaves / and that’s the end it’s just a pause // When I hear you go insane in the next room / I keep my headphones off // When we walk I keep up at a jog / you break a sweat from people watching / and the wind moves our days like old leaves / and every end is just a pause //// now I miss you in every film / on every paperback novel / when we die if we keep out of the sky / well then we’ll haunt the same writer / and every end is just a pause // It’s your gypsy call in our two bedroom cathedral / that makes you worth the light / when I hear you go insane in the next room / I keep my headphones off
River Carol
My brother from the river / grew taller than I / made me wish we’d let him float on / then a babe to die / I loved him like a lesson / I was forced to know / he joined us Christmas morning / to carry the boat // Papa set us drifting / wrapped the oars in our shirts / they lighted on the river / and on the babes like white birds // as we gathered up the infants / dropped from the road / I reached beyond my grasp / and fell low into the cold / my brother mercy giver / stronger than I / by my ankle from the water / drew me like a child //// the Romans recognize us / call out in the street / happy riddance mercy givers / my brother and me
Letter Through Your Window
My two hands should more than suffice / but you make me wish I had eight or nine / I fill the room with all the light I have / it’s all dust compared to how you shine // maybe there’s a corner of your eye / where my mind can circle and settle satisfied // I hear you say I’m suffocating you / I see you lock yourself in your bedroom / I sent my letter through your window with a stone / and saw you smile when you told me to go home //// It’s not your fault you’ve done this to me / there’s nothing you could do to ever set me free / I’ll stay here plotting out our days / and lose sleep measuring the angles of your face // I know that there’s a trick I can try / to get you to come down the stairs / admit it that you’re mine
Malchus
I’ve not changed since I was a child / I sow seeds in soil that’s not mine / we went out with swords and shrouds / to the garden where Peter cut me down // I’m alive, I’m alone / the lord saves, the lord knows // Jesus put my ear back in place / he wouldn’t fight his men ran away / I can’t change I do not belong / to myself I saw the bloody cross //// So I spit in the city well / I hear vines hanging themselves / I grow old I’m nearly blind / my hands ache I hear just fine ////
The End of Aaron Sussex
Esme takes a walk indoors / her ghost in the polished floor / ties its hair up just the same /as Esme on all saints day / Breathing like a falling tree / guilty as the space it leaves / Aaron lets the hours pass / holds her in a looking glass / I say this love is no longer our home / See the rain pass through closed windows / If you need a coat take mine / I still have some life // When the sky exhumes the sun / and his morning prayer is done / Aaron writes a friend in town / tells him not to track him down / I no longer shiver at the cold / see the rain pass through closed windows / If you need a coat take mine / I still have some life
Preacher’s Son
// Come out of those hills preacher’s son / we will rebuild stone by stone / only God will lift all you’ve done / from your shoulders preacher’s son // You started work on another house / you’ll never call your own / you leave it bare with no door in place / and start down a winter road / she’ll find the house like an open hand / nothing to take or give / no parting note and no wedding band / another life you won’t live //// I wish I had loved you well / met your eyes when you spoke / I passed you by when your car broke down / I held hate and lost all hope / but every town drinks in a sunrise / just after it goes dark / and we will wait to see your true light / when you lay down your heart ////
December News
I’ve never been more certain / youthful times, bonds are broken / me, I’ll watch the snow fall / Unfurl like hours change the roads / your jacket hides what we know / you hope it dies your shoes are drinking / you walk alone along the sea / please come watch the snow fall
Bell Jar
Off in your carriage / hunting without a tie / I’ve seen you empty / dirl up above your eye / Sylvia stumbles / younger than your waistcoat / bright as the morning / you asked me not to lose hope // she’ll never see you / she’ll never see you in time // though I was the elder / truly I was afraid / you went in without me / leaving me at the front gate / the house would not let in / light though I searched at dawn / our mother knew before / I reached home you were gone // I’ll never stop you / I’ll never stop you in time // brother refrain / go home empty / lights on a wall / sea gray far off / you’re cut but not bleeding / lost but not wandering / in love but not loving / she’s cold but not covering up / fire on a candle / God in her blood and heart / where will you leave her / small underneath your bell jar // I’ll want to be you / I’ll want to be you in time
Bank Robbers
The plans are in stacks and folded oblong / and they slide on the floor of my car / with a gun and ten gallons of gas / catch me if you can / and you in your aviators can lead / you can smile as I empty the safe / you can wave as we tiptoe away / join me if you can // join me I don’t want to sleep in the dark / on the gravel road of a state park / without you beside me in a pair of my old jeans // I won’t lie there’ll be blanks in the gun the whole time / we won’t leave any breadcrumbs behind / we’ll be rich you’ll be safe and I’ll be kind / join me if you can //// Your bags fit in my trunk / and your legs on my dashboard / the air conditioning and your thoughts will cool
When We’re Gone
I don’t love you like a ship unmanned / or a red rose drinking all the earth it can / not like a sunrise made to disappear / or a nightingale singing out of fear / When I say the stars all shine for you / you kiss me and answer that’s not really true / but I don’t love you like running or lying down / or a snowflake flying without knowing how // In the shadows of the world / every breath I hold is yours / like a man going blind / I gather you to my eyes / new lit light, nascent hope / yours is every breath I hold // You’re a song a whisper a shelter a storm / you’re a curtained morning and late night before / and I can’t love you well enough in one lifetime / when we’re gone the others will admit I tried ////
Tithonus
She found me warming on the wall / Eos goddess of dawn / and by the time the city woke / the sun had come and I had gone / In love she prayed that I might live / forever hers to hide / but while I lost the power to die / my flesh and heart remembered Time // I will hold on lightly and / your heart will break its walls again // I saw her rouse the sun at dawn / her sea surrounds the world / the Hours found me in her bed / and stole the youth Eos adored //// she left me cooling in a field / more artifact than man / and centuries of kisses fell from me / like dew from flower stems ////
Young Curmudgeon
I cannot kill a tree with my bare hands / or undo all the damage that your land / has suffered in the days since your favorite son left his bed / every door of your house has a bolt / that you slide into place against the cold / but I will let the winter rinse the walls and lift your head // I won’t raise my voice / or hand against your choice / to stand and watch for the son you lost / I will love your earth and beg it to bring worth / to what I have and what he has not // A leaf may fall to water and sail off / or wait atop a building for the frost / but it will not return to the great branch that was its start / underneath the rule of sun and cloud / you keep your wishes buried in the ground / and I have found the spot and set my heart beside your heart //// run to him like a boy running to the sea / weigh his gentle hand down with your ring / the one I’ve often seen and hoped you might one day make mine / you listen to my long withheld complaint / I deserve your love and he your hate / you say before you go though he was dead he’s alive // I won’t raise my voice / or hand against your choice / to set your arm round the son you lost / and I will love your earth / and grow to see the worth / of who he is and who I am not // now the season turns / our eyes up to the sun / to change, the air, the earth and me / I know your love outweighs / my pride and his disgrace / the fields are high and the boy goes free
A MOVEMENT BACK AND FORTH
Canon
We don’t wait we pine / we don’t bide our time we burn it / and we don’t rest our eyes or travel light / we are burdened by the negative of you / and our footfalls are a drum-roll to your arrival / and this canon is the anthem of our survival / storm clouds you’re leaving an oasis you’re breathing / see our bending spines we share our sin / we’re children of crying children / every word we write and read at night / is a movement back and forth / the things we make don’t roll or stand upright / all our shoulders burn and good intentions turn / and our footfalls are a drum-roll to your arrival / and this canon is the anthem of our survival / storm clouds you’re leaving an oasis you’re breathing / see our bending spines we share our sin / we’re children of crying children / meet us
Dragons
I’ve looked so hard for dragons to slay for you / but if you’re caught in the rain there’s so little I can do / if I took a swing at the sky I’d miss / I hate to see you disappointed // but I’ve read Tolkein again / and if my last breath tastes like you / there’s nothing left to win // They don’t let boys carry swords these days / so I use my words to make you feel safe / it’s not what you need you didn’t ask for this / I hate to see you unimpressed // but I’ve read Tolkein again / and if my last breath tastes like you / there’s nothing left to win //
Rolling Storm, Titan Sigh
And if I feel the pull of stone / and if I hear the grass blades comb / and if the Lord tells me he’s alone / would you listen or nod along / we’re still so far from our wedding / bring the oil, bring the oil / it’s not a hymn to sing / if I tie the sunrise in a bag / would it go stale on your front step / a lightning glint in lidless eye / a rolling storm, a titan sigh / we’re still so far from our wedding / bring the oil, bring the oil / it’s not a hymn to sing / and if I close my hand on yours / and you show me three falling stars / I’ll tell you stories in our sleep / we’re still so far from our wedding
Holy Africa
Brother breathe your breathing / your bones give rhythm to their song / lids eclipse their seeing / lions are on the lawn / children come indoors now / lions are on the lawn / your brother tends the fire / your father is dead and gone / brother breathe your breathing / your bones give rhythm to their song / lids eclipse their seeing / lions are on the lawn / keep the dogs on chains now / lions are on the lawn / keep out of the shadows / your father is dead and gone / brother breathe your breathing / your bones give rhythm to their song / lids eclipse their seeing / lions are on the lawn / children go to sleep / lions are on the lawn / your safe in the shadows / the fire’s dead and gone / brother breathe your breathing / your bones give rhythm to their song / lids eclipse their seeing / lions are on the lawn
Lazurus
We’ll never talk this way again / two decades you’re still thanking him / you keep your shoes beside your bed / are you sure this time you will stay dead / I learned to change my oil here / I shot a crow out of this air / I took the couch you took the bed / are you sure this time you will stay dead / did you walk far across that plain before the fourth day / how long ought I to wait around before I close the ground / we’ll never talk this way again / even his miracles must end / linger if you like above my head / if you’re sure this time you will stay dead
