1. |
Calling It Spring
02:56
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Calling it Spring
I’ve truly become a Finn
‘cause I’m calling it spring
When there’s snow on the ground
And not a trace of green
We take vitamin D
We run and we swim
Drink hot whisky and gin
To keep the dark down
Lift your eyes
There are blues and greys
You can only see this time of year
Sleet caught falling in lamplight
The sea heaving its burden of ice
Cigarette smoke blown out a window
Into the dark night
In February you cease to believe
That anything will ever grow again
So in April when you spy the first bud
Your conkered heart breaks open
And lift your eyes
There are blues and greys
We can only be this time of year
Us caught falling in lamplight
We heaving our burden of ice
Cigarette smoke blown out a window
Into the dark night
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2. |
Skylark
03:01
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Skylark
I wrote my longing
An early song in two crayons
The dawn, the spring
Cool and sharp like the first breath in
Stepping out the door
To freeze my words on an April morning
Clawing like a crocus
Through the frozen earth
For a vertical flight to cry out ecstatic
And sing to you
Though I didn’t know you yet
You were waking next to somebody else then
Our tomorrow’s were unknown
And our plans would fall though we didn’t know it yet
Our plans would fall and I’ll always be grateful for that
‘Cause all of this led me to you
Tomorrow’s a great molten river
Surging through an eastern city
Will you meet me on the bridge?
Will you wait for me?
Will our limbs and voices
Always move so easy together?
If I only have love and questions
Will you help me reach the answer?
For a vertical flight
To cry out ecstatic and sing to you
With every song that I have left
Our fingers turning chords out of silence
Our tomorrows are unknown
And if our plans fall
Can we build them up again?
If our plans fall
Can we build them up again?
‘Cause all of this leads me to you
All of this leads me to you
All of this leads me
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3. |
Winterless
03:13
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Winterless
The new buds are coming
It’s January twelfth
And the water in the bay is high
The blackbird has sung
But winter didn’t come
We can’t rely on the seasons anymore
We are winterless
Winterless
We wait with the weight of a vast hollow
Fearing what the next years will bring.
And no-one knows what to say
So we don’t say anything
Just carry on like everything is fine
Well I just decided to give myself time
Time for the grieving for all that we’re losing
These things we will never get back
Time for the joy that we’ll need to survive
That luckily comes with just being alive
Time to get out there and pay attention
To stay with and stand with the ones taking action
I’m going to fill this unimaginable absence
Where winter used to be with that
And there’s always going to be someone wrong on the internet
But I no longer have time for that
We are winterless
Winterless, winterless, winterless
For every ghastly prediction
And every unanswered question
From our terrified children
What do we do to protect them?
Now we are winterless
Winterless
We wait with the weight of a vast hollow
Fearing what the next years will bring
The new buds are coming
It’s January twelfth
And the water in the bay is high
The blackbird has sung
The blackbird is singing
The blackbird’s still singing today.
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4. |
Loose Lines
04:29
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Loose Lines
I used to say I could take anything you could throw
From a paper plane to a grand piano
So it’s strange that after all this time
You could throw me with less than a line
Don’t need loose lines
Full of dreams and lightning
If you see one floating on the breeze
You have to try not to touch them
We were pilgrims passing on the same road
Shining with rain
I heard your song and your strength
As you sang, as you sang, as you sang
Through all your pain
So sing your song now throw it out into
That faraway city
Shake the roots of his Holy Trinity
Don’t need loose lines
Full of dreams and lightning
If you see one floating on the breeze
You have to try not to touch it
And what we were searching for is now (There’s no need to press this bruise)
And how could I say to you
I could have taken anything except silence (All these different shades of blue)
But love came to me with sunlight in his lashes (There’s no need to press this bruise)
Whispering the credo in a brand new language (All these different shades of blue)
I’m building a house of prose (There’s no need to press this bruise)
And these are the ways we chose (All these different shades of blue)
A love to live in (There’s no need to press this bruise)
A love to live in
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5. |
Surgery To My Soul
04:16
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Surgery to my Soul
The kaleidoscope twists
Look through it
Ice breaking up the frozen sea
The Aurora Borealis
Perform a minor surgery to my soul
To my soul, to my soul
I was totally alone when love came
Like a rock through a window pane
Her delicate frame was measured in handspans
Her brave heart beating like a downpour onto my chest
She shows me the best poetry is wordless
She showed me the dream of a future with you:
A small explosion on the sun
A midnight full of green
It was beautiful, it was lonely, it’s gone.
Now the kaleidoscope twists
Look through it
Ice breaking up the frozen--See--
The Aurora Borealis perform
A minor surgery to my soul,
To my soul, to my soul.
Now if you come scratching at my door
You’ll find in the place where I was standing
A carpet of crocuses across the landing
And the quaint English Underwood that we abandoned
And fifteen tonnes of Lovely on the windowsill
Do with it what you will.
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6. |
Anodyne
04:30
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Anodyne
Take this city from above
Darken every aspect
Except the lights from the tram windows
Watch their graceful curving arches
As they circumscribe the darkness
Moving at the same speed
No advance and no retreat
We could scream til we’re blue in the face
It’s not fucking fair
Clearly we only dared to dream
About something that was already there
We could comfort ourselves with clichés
How love is all about timing
Well the timing’s wrong for us
Here’s an anodyne, darling
Let the warm palm of the night
Rest upon your eyes
Silence the stars and hush the lines
Drawn to form our unfavourable constellations
No silver bridges the moon is new
I’ll even learn to shut down the glow
Oh how I light up when I’m around you
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7. |
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Walking in the Path of the Rain
I distilled my life down to a word
And it rolled on the tongue of the road
Until it came home to you
And you set it to a chord
Now we’re walking home from the sauna
Our hoods are up and the birds call loud in the empty street
In the late spring green with your banjolele on your shoulder
We’re walking in the path of the rain
And the air is sweet with the trees exhaling,
Saying we got through another grey season
And the words to the song of this downpour
Are caught in the leaves unfurling
And we are caught in this great unfurling
Holding each other, humming softly
We’re walking in the path of the rain.
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8. |
Sparrow
04:39
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Sparrow
Headlights form a diamond necklace
Ensnaring a slender throat
It’s getting tighter every day
We walk out without looking
Bang a fist on the windscreen that got too close
Turn away from the animal inside
Sometimes, I feel I just can’t breathe
But then I hear your voice
You appear like the last leaf
Left brown in the dense winter branches
You reminder of next spring
And very last chances
But I’m amazed, I'm amazed
That you’ve stuck around this long
Where do you go to when you die?
You leave so quiet
When you are Rounded Up to gone
Maybe if there were tiny corpses everywhere
We’d stop dowsing the garden
And let those weeds just be
Sometimes, I feel I just can’t breathe
But then I hear you speak
Your ever hopeful words
In a language much older than mine
You remind me of next spring
Remind me there’s still time
But I’m amazed, I'm amazed
That you’ve stuck around this long
I mean how strong are you?
I’m amazed, I'm amazed
That you’ve stuck around this long
So please shout louder than the traffic
Please shout louder than the traffic
Tell us, tell us when spring will come
‘Cause I don’t know what you find to eat here
And I don’t know where you sleep
Or where you go when you die
Or where we go when we die
But I am amazed, I'm amazed by you
I am amazed, I am amazed by you
I'm amazed
I'm amazed
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9. |
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All the Good Things in the Bright Air
Is that a hare? Or is it a rock?
Crouched at the base of that oak
No don’t stare too long and scare it off
The park’s so small and there are so many dogs
Get a little rest if you can
And all the good things in the bright air
Are winging their way to you
Every word a kiss
Every kiss a prayer
And every story, every song, every poem, every particle
That we shed and catch
In the commonwealth of our breath
Make me closer to you now
Than I’ve ever been
And I know you are holding me
Yes I know you are holding me
Your hands are hurting
It’s hard to focus
You find yourself thrown by luminous purple crocuses rising
And signs can be quite small
And you can make them
You’re doing the best that you can
And all the good things in the bright air
Are winging their way to you
Every word a kiss
Every kiss a prayer
And every story, every song, every poem, every particle
That we shed and catch
In the commonwealth of our breath
Make me closer to you now
Than I’ve ever been
And I know you are holding me
And I am holding you
Yes I know you are holding me.
The phrase “commonwealth of breath” is borrowed from the American ecologist and philosopher David Abram.
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Rebecca Clamp Finland
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