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1. |
One Year and One Day
02:37
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I will see you in one year and one day.
I will find a way.
You will know me by the light in my eyes
And my lonely sigh.
If you’ll walk with me a mile,
You’ll find you never knew me before.
If you’ll stay with me the night,
You will know me by the morn.
If you stay here for one year and one day
Through sun and rain.
All the secrets that i know i shall tell.
You shall know me well.
If you choose to stay once more
The moon shall remember your prayers.
If you’ll give another night,
The dawn shall take all your cares.
I will see you in one year and one day.
I will find a way.
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2. |
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Great-grandmother read the leaves
And said that you’d love me.
The Long Forgotten Friend
Open to page forty-three
Abaxacatabax bless you and me.
On christ’s grave grows three flowers
Which bloom on every hour.
The first is for the kind.
The second calls the rule.
The third heals all the bleeding and the wound.
We forbade old trotter head
From home and bed stead,
And bound him to the fence
Which binds the rolling hills.
I see your heart and your star shine in our will.
Now just turn the page
Which we illuminate
With tongues of flickering flame
And breath of grey twisting smoke
Which blows all through the thorn and ash and oak.
You were born under a sign,
A hex drawn so divine
In purpose and meaning,
By hands as old as time.
You are the heart and the star scribed in those lines.
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3. |
Old Bones
02:41
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Silver hair, spider webs,
Knot and twist upon my head.
Yesterday fades away.
Rose thorns gleam with drops of red.
Tears mark all the paths that i roam.
Tears will cut strange runes into my bones.
O my bones. my old bones.
Mirror crack, rippled lake,
Etch new lines upon my face.
Mirror shard, iron hard,
Leave red streams all in my wake.
Tears mark all the paths that i roam.
Tears will cut strange runes into my bones.
O my bones. my old bones.
Draw the knife, shine the blade.
I walk on fields of my own make.
Kiss of briar, tongue of fire.
All i give the worm shall take.
Tears mark all the paths that i roam.
Tears will cut strange runes into my bones.
O my bones. my old bones.
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4. |
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I bear the saint’s curse,
The burden of my clan.
I wear the beast skin
And gave up the form of man.
I gave up the form of man.
I walk the high hills
And forest so deep.
O hear my howling.
I mourn while other men sleep.
I mourn while other men sleep.
And may I sip the wine
As I did drink the blood?
And may I break the bread
As i broke flesh?
For seven long years
In this wolf pelt to roam;
Cast like a leper
All from my family and home.
Torn from my family home.
And no one remembers
What sin so grave;
What oath was broken
That leaves me to wander this way.
O why must I wander this way?
And may I sip the wine
As I did drink the blood?
And may I break the bread
As I broke flesh?
My teeth are red from
The blood of my prey,
But let my tongue taste
The wine of salvation today;
The blood of my savior today.
Or must i bleed
From briar and thorn
As i have bled
Each night in this blighted wolf form.
Each night in this blighted wolf form.
And may I sip the wine
As I did drink the blood?
And may I break the bread
For to break the curse?
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5. |
Blood of the Woven Vine
03:55
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And we shall drink
Your blood as wine,
Lord of the Green,
Lord of Vine.
Anointed by
The Moon’s Lady.
O let us give our gifts to thee:
A lacen-leaf shirt
To wear when you’re dead,
Sewn from pine needle
And cobweb thread;
A crown of thorns
To grace your head.
Though your skin is leaves
Your blood runs red.
And as you’re nailed
All upon the tree,
This gift of blood
You’ve given me:
To see winter
Turn again to spring.
And know that you’ll
Rise again to sing.
The Blood, the Mother,
And the Flame of Green:
Let these three be our Trinity.
Our holy water
From rain or stream.
The woven-vine divinity.
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6. |
Mother Grave
02:07
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I have waited so long -
Come my love into my arms.
You have traveled so far
Under both sun and star.
And I wait,
Mother Grave,
Open arms,
Always here for you.
Go by land or by sea,
All journeys lead to me.
Travel slow or quickly
At the end my face you’ll see.
For I wait,
Mother Grave,
Last embrace,
Always here for you.
Go to sleep, close your eyes,
Rest your head upon my lap.
Swaddled in earth and clay,
Let this be your final nap.
And I wait,
Mother Grave,
Open arms,
Always here for you.
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7. |
Beyond the Seventh Gate
02:36
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Don’t look behind you.
Beyond the road.
Beyond the gate.
Beyond the calling horns.
Trees twist and weave
Above the path.
Leaves block the bright sun.
Don’t look behind you!
Go step by step
Into the dark,
Into the unknown.
Hear footsteps fall.
See shadows move.
Don’t look behind you.
Don’t look behind you.
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8. |
Mother Rust
06:36
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O Mother Rust,
Here at the end of time.
O Mother Rust
There’s beauty in the decline.
O Mother Rust,
For still your heart does shine.
Under broken wings
Of fallen things
Your candles flame;
Your hymns we sing.
O Mother Rust,
We failed then we fell.
O Mother Rust,
We poisoned the holy well.
O Mother Rust,
We have made our own hell.
The trumpets sound.
Towers fall to ground.
On ruined walls
Your face is found.
O Mother Rust,
you are now all i see.
O Mother Rust,
You are all that’s left for me.
O Mother Rust,
At the end of everything.
Your shrine of ash;
Temple of the Last;
Chapel of White Bone;
Church of the Passed.
O Mother Rust,
The Horsemen have now fled.
O Mother Rust,
And what have they left?
O Mother Rust,
Only fear and death.
All this shall fade,
As a birth pain.
Flowers will grow
All on death’s grave.
O Mother Rust,
The rain burns my eyes.
O Mother Rust,
Through all the tears i cry.
O Mother Rust,
I see you in the sky.
Please pray for us,
Dear Mother Rust.
We shake like leaves
And turn to dust.
O Mother Rust,
Here at the end of time.
O Mother Rust,
There’s beauty in the decline.
O Mother Rust,
For still your heart does shine.
Under broken wings
Of fallen things
Your candles flame;
Your hymns we sing.
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9. |
Whispers in the Wood
03:50
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When i was young
There was a tree:
It spoke to me
In cracks and creaks
Upon the breeze.
The kids told me
A witch was hanged
All from a branch
High in that tree
For all to see.
It was her ghost
That was speaking
From that dead tree,
Where she did dwell
Weaving her spells.
O how i shook
With a chill fear
To hear strange words
As i passed by
In the dark night.
She called to me,
The Witch Tree.
I heard my name
On the breeze.
She spoke to me,
The Witch Tree.
I came to her,
To hear her say
One lonely day.
But she had fallen
And her blue wood
Was cracked and split,
No more to creak,
No more to speak.
She called to me,
The Witch Tree.
I heard my name
On the breeze.
She spoke to me,
The witch tree.
And now she’s free;
No longer bound
On that cursed ground.
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10. |
Wake Nicodemus
03:22
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Nicodemus the man was of African birth
And he died years ago, very old.
He was known as a prophet -
At least was as wise -
For the future he did see fortold.
‘Twas his last sad request,
So we laid him away
In the trunk of an old hollow tree.
Wake me up, was his charge,
At the first break of day.
Wake me up for the great jubilee.
O the good times are coming.
They’re almost here.
’Twas long, long, long, on the way.
Go tell Elijah to hurry up Pomp.
Meet us at the gum tree
Down in the swamp,
To wake Nicodemus today.
He was known as a prophet -
At least was as wise,
For he told of the battles to come.
We were cold with fear
As he rolled up his eyes
And we dreaded the shake of his thumb.
Though the clothes that he wore were so simple and plain,
They were patches on elbow and knee,
And he still wears the suit
That he wore long ago
As he sleeps in the old hollow tree.
O the good times are coming.
They’re almost here.
’Twas long, long, long, on the way.
Go tell Elijah to hurry up Pomp.
Meet us at the gum tree
Down in the swamp,
To wake Nicodemus today.
’Twas a long weary night -
We were almost in fear
That the future was more
Than he knew.
’Twas a long weary night -
But the morning is near
And the words of the prophet hold true.
There are signs in the sky
That the darkness is gone.
There are symbols in endless array.
And the storm that had raged
For so long in the sky
Is now driven by bright light of day.
O the good times are coming.
They’re almost here.
’Twas long, long, long, on the way.
Go tell Elijah to hurry up Pomp.
Meet us at the gum tree
Down in the swamp,
To wake Nicodemus today.
Wake Nicodemus today.
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11. |
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We are pinned by knot or nail,
By twine or vine.
We all have trees
On which we’re hanged.
Reflections in a sacred well,
Or holy blood.
By moon or star
We’ll see the signs.
Looking through a ghost eye gaze
Or thorny brow
By shimmering sights
Our eyes entwined.
We are cut by point of spear;
By edge of leaf.
This sacrifice
We all shall bleed.
Shall we give a single eye?
Or all our breath?
Our entire life?
Or just our death?
We are pinned by knot or nail,
By twine or vine.
We all have trees
On which we’re hanged.
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12. |
My Offering
03:52
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If you’ve lost your way
And you can’t find home,
Listen for my voice
As you walk through the night.
For I’ve lost my way
And I have no home,
Sing The Night Bird’s Psalm
As I wait for daylight.
Hear my banjo ring
And this song I sing
Is my offering -
And it’s all i can give.
And it’s step by step
On the winding way,
Moonlight on the leaves
As we walk through the night.
For we’ve lost our way
And we have no home,
Sing The Night Bird’s Psalm
As we wait for daylight.
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13. |
Witch Tree Prophetess
05:19
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Wandering not lost,
We walk through wild flowers,
Me and my brother,
Listening for hours
To songs of rain showers.
Treading so lightly
We step through the briar,
Me and my mother
All crowned in horn,
A rose among thorns.
There rests the prophet
In hollow tree sleeping,
Not dead but dreaming.
The strange words she’s speaking
Are the fruit we’re seeking.
Dei sanguis sanguis lupi
Lupi sanguis sanguis dei
Omnes spine dentes dei
Lupi dentes dentes dei
Calix sanctus pluvie plenus
Pluvie celitus lacrime lupi
Dei lacrime lacrime lupi
Dei sanguis sanguis lupi
Omne flumen sacrum flumen
Omnis lapis lapis sacer
Omnis arbor prophetissam includit canentem
Oculis videntibus audientibus auribus.
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Stone Breath Red Lion, Pennsylvania
Stone Breath is not new. It is cracked. Broken. Imperfect. Hidden. Weathered by the seasons.
We sing of ghosts and of forgotten paths through forest and fallow field.
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