1. |
Kingfishers Catch Fire
05:01
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I don’t have to know the plan
But speak and I’ll go, again.
Got my suitcase packed, old journal in my hand.
Once, the surface was all I saw,
But there's something on the inside going, going on –
A mystery I couldn't solve myself,
Pouring out of every branch, every cloud, every cell.
A hint from the cargo of a sycamore tree
(with which a sermon from a songbird did agree)
Told me “The difference between
the design and the mere fact of a kiss
Is why life's happening, and you happen as a part of this”.
I was tracing my steps on the Braid river path –
It was an old haunt, maybe fodder for a photograph –
Thinking, “Why should I dream up anything new?”
Then your vocabulary did what I didn't think it would do:
Blue, blue, electric blue
Like a bolt from the heavens it flew
Along came one halcyon, along came two,
Heading upstream (countering my downstream route),
So I ran, trampling undergrowth in my training shoes,
For the fire-catching, kingfishing pair I didn't want to lose,
Sprinting for a sighting till I couldn't anymore, and I knew
That the track untravelled was the one I’d take to look for you.
Catching my breath in the brush and the thorns
And my mind's backtracking to the scents of the summer before:
Of backpacking with nowhere to lay our heads,
Cracking up in Como, so easily led;
Back out in Dachau, the aesthetics of inhumanness
Got overthrown and overgrown by a blazing garden.
Then, grabbing on my vision came these lives so luminous –Dragonflies, drawing little flames from heaven.
Yeah, when you speak to me, you know how I'm wired,
Where I'm at in my growing, and my heart's desire.
But, better than how you make the messages unique,
Is how yearningly, burningly, never-spurningly you want to speak.
Speak and I'll go!
Kingfishers catch fire, and I'll follow.
Send me and I'll run into the great unknown with my laces undone
The unknown isn't so uncharted to you.
All the miles that I covered - I'd like to think that I grew,
Caught in a glimpse of the breadth of the story.
When I run right off the map, you're chilling there, waiting for me.
Speak and I'll go!
Kingfishers catch fire, and I'll follow.
Send me and I'll run into the great unknown with my laces undone
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2. |
St. Cecilia (dream)
01:29
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3. |
Bestow
04:24
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Here the deities approve –
The god of music and of love.
All the talents they have lent you;
All the blessings they have sent you.
Pleased to see what they bestow
Live and thrive so well below.
Here we get to exhale our inspirations –
Here we let them wither in the gloom
Or watch them bloom upon the vines we tend.
Here we scratch out our songs on little stages.
We scatter pages, sketching out a scene,
Just guessing what we glean from what the heavens send.
Pull from that place into this place!
Find the odd word comes like a kiss placed on the brow –
Oh wow, I could sweat for days
And never find, never find that honey-dripping phrase.
Like Mahalia, van Gogh, or Joni…
Coltrane, Ursula Le Guin, Antonioni…
Pleased to see what comes their way
Live and thrive ’til it fades away.
Please, let me see – let me see
What you bestow
Live and thrive,
Live and thrive on earth below.
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4. |
The New Direction
04:17
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My public gets
What it wants, but it always wants more.
You touch my chest
With your knuckles like you’re knocking on a door,
saying “All you gotta do, my dear,
Is show everyone what’s going on in here.
All you gotta do,” you said,
“Is to build the world you see in your head”.
Everybody wants to know the new direction.
They're hanging out in front of my door, saying
“What’s gonna happen?” – and I say
“Quiet down, quiet down, quiet down, please.
Let me listen to the, to the rhythm of the
Choirs of, choirs of angels on the FM waves”.
There’s a new day coming on…
Kids ask me why
I’m only listening to long-gone days.
You’re displaying new layers while you’re staying
So beautifully the same.
Emerald, show what you’re worth –
Turn around and let the light disperse.
It’s all you gotta do, in fact,
For the inspiration to flood right back –
Everybody wants to know the new direction.
They're hanging out in front of my door, saying
“Show us the fashion”. But I’m all
“Dial it down, dial it down – oh, please.
Your transmission sounds like air conditioning, and
We could be, we could be walking on paths the angels paved”.
There’s a new day coming on
And I do believe it; Lord, let me see it
Everybody wants to know the new direction,
Hanging out in front of my door, saying
“What’s gonna happen?”. And I say
“Quiet down, quiet down, quiet down, please.
Let me listen to the, to the wisdom of
Donny on ‘Some Day We’ll All Be Free’ –
I mightn’t see it but I, I do believe it.
Look away, look away from your screens.
Got free admission to innervisions of a
Better way, so break away, little heart – be brave”.
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5. |
Purple Emperor
02:25
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Sorry to interrupt your reverie –
Look at the light on that patch of green.
Let in the actuality of air
I'm stopping the clock – we’ll take a walk out there.
Are you alone in grass overgrown?
Honey, it’s somebody’s home
Walk long and walk free, and I'll wager you'll see
There’s an earth that’s going about its own thing…
That river rolls on, and wings awaken the dawn.
Listen ’til you can’t refuse it –
Maybe all of this is music.
A tortoiseshell flies – there were more when I was a child –
Emperors arrayed in purple,
Pretty little wings encircle you
While a change goes on in their cocoons,
People, we all have a job to do.
What are the gifts you’re giving to everything living?
As the harmony grows, feel it healing your bones.
Let the rocks stop crying/our songs start realigning…
That river rolls on. Some friends are already gone –
Got to keep open-hearted.
Admirals arrayed in scarlet
See cyclamen grow; hear crickets in the meadow.
They’re actors in the ecosystem –
People, we are right there with them.
Come evening, the constellations all sing!
Worlds that I cannot imagine
Twirling through a cosmic pageant.
If all of these things – their life, their delicate wings –
Pull upon your heart like magnets,
Maybe all of this is magic, too.
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6. |
Charm of Goldfinches
03:04
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7. |
Fledgling
03:38
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How long, o Lord, ’til we see justice on earth?
I’ve just been sitting on my suitcase making rhymes.
Help me be a blessing, ’stead of bewailing the times.
Will you send me to the hummingbird shore?
There’re beasts there that’ve never been seen before;
Or fly me out to Californ-i-aye?
Even dreams dream dreams there (or so they say);
Or plant me back upon the old north coast,
Get that Portstewart sand in between my toes?
Don’t need to be a legend –
Push me out like a fledgling
From the sunny mountainside on a one-way flight.
I cast my vote – Napoleon’s still running the farm.
If I speak, let me speak like his time is short –
If his thought police are bugging, hope there’s something to report.
I saw a miracle and life didn’t change
Cause I never lived differently the next day.
But we’ll make a path – make it prayer by prayer
Get my hands dirty here (good as anywhere).
The next corner that I turn around,
There’ll be growth, grief and glory there to be found…
That tree is charged with redwings.
Push me out like a fledgling
From the sunny mountainside on a one-way flight.
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8. |
Cetacea (introduction)
01:16
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Cetacea – flora-fauna
Lepidoptera before my eyes
Fill the canvas – Agapanthus
Rhinopithecus nearby
Cetacea: circle the sea!
Flora, fauna: fecundity!
Lepidoptera – glory be before my eyes.
Fill the canvas up with colour!
Agapanthus: fill it fuller!
Rhinopithecus rendezvous nearby
Capreola – flora-fauna
Ptilihopus magnificus…
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9. |
Like a Wild Orchid
04:21
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Like a wild orchid that winds up through paving stones,
You wound up in my heart when it was far from home.
Two tales intertwined:
Tower blocks and orchid vines.
From the choked city to breath of sweet jasmine trees,
We cupped our hands to bring back a bit of the breeze
For the worst of times.
Duty-free for city minds.
When the history of romance is written,
Babe, we’ll be there
(As a beautiful subplot,
’Cause it’s bigger than you’d dream If you dared).
The beginning to the end of time –
That’s about enough to hold the opening line.
What will we leave behind when we pack up and go?
Monet left lilies; Adam just left field notes.
Solomon dressed right – but
A lily never did a lick of work in its little life.
You can show me all the artists that the galleries show!
You can name me all the flowers, but still, sweet smells the rose
By any name you’d care to find.
Maybe there’s a life we live that’s unconfined.
(Take me there.)
If there’s a colour only heaven has, well, I’ve seen it now!
If we could mix it, babe, we’d paint up every wall in this town.
I see you dipping your pen, anyhow –
Like a wild orchid, you’ll do heaven proud.
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10. |
The World That She Was
02:31
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Here come the year’s first swallows –
Scissors through blank, white sky.
They bring with them your tomorrows
And tell of an all-time high –
For now, they never tell you
how many summers there are to come.
True – even if you knew, would it act like a starting-gun
To race for the world’s survival?
To beat on the lawman’s door?
Migratory arrivals don’t want to go to war.
People better find a way to live to uplift the earth.
Hey, what better life to save than your elder sister’s?
It’s only because of the world that she was
That there’s air you can breathe
Every species that’s leaving is grieving the heart in me
If you love the birds, then the least they deserve
Is a home that’s preserved
Tell me what kind of a world she’ll be.
I miss the Norfolk starling;
I miss the bluebuck’s bark.
I see the floods are starting,
But I don’t see another ark.
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11. |
Only Just Beginning
04:37
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There’s a special grace
When two lovers say
That the words they share are off the record.
If you do me wrong,
It won’t be enshrined in song:
May my memory for your kindnesses be so very long.
And if I wrong you,
May the rain just soak me through.
Let the record show we’ve got room to grow
And repairs to do – oh, if I wrong you.
The labour of love that we’re undertaking – It’s a job and a half.
I think I blew the budget! God help us, trying to live beyond our means.
The way yet to go is confidence-shaking:
I could cry, I could laugh. But in my better judgment, you’ve got glory
From some subterranean seam.
What you don’t get told
When you’re twenty years old.
Is when you got love to lose, fear blooms
Like a dry mould.
So if you don’t feel free
Lay it out for me.
If it hurts my pride,
least we’re more alive than we used to be
Honey, these are the days
That might not be replayed
When we watch with the kids. What we thought, what we did,
Might be mislaid – so don’t let’s be afraid.
The labour of love that we’re undertaking –
We build it piece by piece. We might
feel like we’re winning, but not often
(You can’t create while you compete)
The volume of love is like
A house quaking to incredible beats:
It leaves the head spinning.
But it’s worth it –
It’s what gets me onto my feet.
Builder of love, leave us not forsaken:
Whether famine or feast,
It’s only just beginning
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12. |
Nausicaä (discovery)
01:43
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13. |
To Number Our Days
04:13
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Let’s break the silence.
Let’s drop the stylus on another new morning
Brushes on drums,
and hammers upon the strings –
Your favourite track, now.
Let’s look back now –
There’s a kind of a narrative.
Now we see blossom,
Back then there was just the bud.
Music’s a time-jump, and making it
Feels so good
Hey! Let’s learn to number our days
And treat each one just like a gift we’re given
So, when we reach an old age,
We’ll be like palm trees with roots in heaven.
I can be acacia, you can be a cedar.
We can drink from the river.
Like Vincent’s cypresses,
We can live and thrive.
So, whether we’re flora
Or whether we’re fauna, or characters on paper:
Commit to the role, and the world’s
Gonna know we’re alive.
Hey! Let’s learn to number our days
And treat each one just like a gift we’re given
So, when we reach an old age,
We’ll be like palm trees with roots in heaven.
Hey! Let’s learn to number our days –
Riding each one
Just like it’s chauffeur-driven –
And, when the novelty fades,
Try something different.
Remember when songs were sung?
Actual air from actual lungs
Voice of pride, voice of woe –
Enough to bring down Jericho
I want to hear you – I want to hear you.
To see the bright of your iris,
unmediated by devices
Chromatography in mid-air.
An actual moment that we share.
It’s good to see you –
I’m thinking of you with gratitude.
What I once felt on my branches,
I’m pulling up through my roots
This gorgeous, temporal phase:
So dear to me. Don’t wanna be an angel!
In uneclipseable Day,
How much like diamonds
Are actual people.
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14. |
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Now breathe – your soul’s in the top of the trees
And still floating –
Get a hold of your head, Mr. One-Glass-of-Red,
’Cause the hour just turned golden.
Hey – we don’t have to be how they say –
Like fireworks exploding.
There’s a million and one ways to live and have fun
But be still – drink in the moment!
That green-eyed old fox, and that willow that weeps
Over fair Iffley Lock, put my thinking at peace.
'Til I say, “Maybe some days
Last you forever”.
I can’t believe this day is ending –
As chimney tops catch the last light,
I wanna see it all. Wanna climb up the walls!
May the clock never hit twelve tonight.
We’ll rewind the sun as it’s setting,
And dance with each well-chosen guest –
Wanna clear all the plates in this banquet of grace
And leave with the man I love best.
Look – we’re walking through a storybook –
Friends, ain’t it splendid?
Charge your glasses, watch out – for an hour, thereabouts,
Newton’s laws are suspended!
Find a game passer-by to take along for the ride
We’re divinely befriended
And we start to float off, still hitched to our moorings,
Carrying colours aloft,
And we’re dancing like kite-strings can do.
What a strange crew – flying together
I sent out all my invitations to all creatures wondrous and wild –
This one giant leap was never mankind’s to keep,
And none of nature need get left behind.
I can’t believe this day is ending
With you and me touching the clouds,
Singing Sonny and Cher
Out of key in mid-air
While the neighbours complain on the ground.
Let’s rewind the sun as it’s setting
Fire to windows and rooftops and spires.
Now, life has been cruel –
But I’m a fortunate fool.
Some days give you
Your heart's desires.
Come and see –
We’re not at home to Mr. Gravity
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Michael Dornan Music England, UK
Singer-songwriter based in Devon, UK
Listen to the FLORA & FAUNA album now. Yeah, right now
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