Van Stanley - The Pirouettist
THIS IS ONE VERY ROUGH TAKE OF A ROUGH DRAFT of a song in progress… but I wanted to share what I’ve got so far, so here y’go.
LYRICS:
Hey, you stole the night
you wore a piece of it
& it fell from your lips
when you smiled & you caught the wind
& gave everything for the buzzards
& a bloated balloon
& I, well I just want you to know
you never needed those things
at all…
All we, all we want’s a cure —
but we never could, it never was easy, no,
to bide the while, to be so sure —
sure to make a folly of fleeting love.
Was it the most magnificent of sights
when they combed yr crown of hair with the Christmas lights?
You kicked a shoe to breeze, showed the scars on yr knees.
Kid, is it half bad just because it’s all over?
Sister, every stone thrown’s
a tower we’re standing hand-in-hand on.
Freedom tastes like field-grass
& god knows what’s further from here than death.
Sister, when we count clouds
are the shapeless ones forgiven for their pouring?
You saw, they were giants
& they’ll file away the corners of yr chest.
Sister, you’ve had it hard, it’s true,
& most things just got a way
of turning over on their heads, you know.
Sister if the day don’t keep you close like we do,
well, hey, you stole the night
you wore a piece of it
& it fell from yr lips
when you smiled. Hey, you did a mean pirouette,
kid. Took everything
to turn it, turn it, turn it all…
All we, all we want’s a cure —
but we never could, it never was easy, no,
to bide the while, to be so sure —
sure to make a folly of fleeting love.
All we’ve got’re hearts a-jingling like keys
for all the world to divvy & swallow. Oh, no. Oh, no.
You dance & you sing, “take a chance on me”,
while harboring the self yr still healing, oh.
Oh, hey, you, yr on yr way…
Van Stanley - Like Feathers
LYRICS:
Sorry, dear, to disappoint you, dear, if I’m
brought alive by the same sun-light that touches yr nose
on the tip when it hits yr wrist like the
pinnacle of a pure thing — c’mon let’s
get off our asses & roll in the grass like two
hot dogs gone to leather in a case at the corner store.
What to do, now? You’ll start anew, now & then
we’ll make like a hair & we’ll split, again.
Just another one thing that’s stuck in yr head.
Calm me, dear. There’s a comet, dear, somewhere
dippin’ a handful of glimmering sand into the river of
deep space. Ain’t most people & places so…
just-so? Oh, & tiny, too — altogether a
field of tongues where we’ll go running &
fall among all the wet tickles — hey, is this love?
What to do, now? You’ll start anew, now & then.
Ain’t it one thing about life: it starts even as soon as you go to bed?
Ain’t it just another one thing stuck in yr head?
How would you start anew? How would you start anew?
I would only have you clothed in glitters.
How would you start anew? How would you start anew?
I would only have you open a door.
Oh, rattle-rattling like some change of mind.
I’ve got a fickle little face & a feather on my shoulder, it’s true.
I’ve got it complicated, every thing’s fleeting — you pick the thing that means something to you.
I’ve got a gut feeling that yr heart’s not meant to mend.
I’ve got a gut feeling that a heart’s not meant to do anything.
Lord knows where to go, go from here…
but surely it’s the pain of love that we are after?
Yeah, surely it’s the pain after all, the pain after all.
(Source: vanstanley)
Van Stanley - Like Feathers
LYRICS:
Sorry, dear, to disappoint you, dear, if I’m
brought alive by the same sun-light that touches yr nose
on the tip when it hits yr wrist like the
pinnacle of a pure thing — c’mon let’s
get off our asses & roll in the grass like two
hot dogs gone to leather in a case at the corner store.
What to do, now? You’ll start anew, now & then
we’ll make like a hair & we’ll split, again.
Just another one thing that’s stuck in yr head.
Calm me, dear. There’s a comet, dear, somewhere
dippin’ a handful of glimmering sand into the river of
deep space. Ain’t most people & places so…
just-so? Oh, & tiny, too — altogether a
field of tongues where we’ll go running &
fall among all the wet tickles — hey, is this love?
What to do, now? You’ll start anew, now & then.
Ain’t it one thing about life: it starts even as soon as you go to bed?
Ain’t it just another one thing stuck in yr head?
How would you start anew? How would you start anew?
I would only have you clothed in glitters.
How would you start anew? How would you start anew?
I would only have you open a door.
Oh, rattle-rattling like some change of mind.
I’ve got a fickle little face & a feather on my shoulder, it’s true.
I’ve got it complicated, every thing’s fleeting — you pick the thing that means something to you.
I’ve got a gut feeling that yr heart’s not meant to mend.
I’ve got a gut feeling that a heart’s not meant to do anything.
Lord knows where to go, go from here…
but surely it’s the pain of love that we are after?
Yeah, surely it’s the pain after all, the pain after all.
New song, “Regular Magritte”.
LYRICS, IN PARAGRAPH FORM:
Just leave your bags & stay the night. Yr father will have you in the morning, if it’s alright. This little room is room enough to miss you. Oh, what’s short of the love you want we can make up.
Loosen yr hair & I’ll lock the door. There’s burning sage, a kettle, & cups on the floor. I’ll say anything & mean anything at all, just push me & I’ll catch you. The final word’s a novel, like the great big ball of the sun, gone out.
Take yr bags & catch yr flight. No one’s really exceptional at goodbyes. I’ll behold nothing here & the nothing that isn’t. Oh, then I’ll pluck yr hairs from my bedclothes & then I’ll die, I’ll die… like the great big ball of the sun, gone out.
Carla spoke like a turtle-dove & you should see how she tosses her neck like a tail. & she held yr hand like an envelope that you will not compare to her body. Oh, beyond the window you see the one obscuring shadow that cuts the horizon to the shape of her figure. & in the way it goes: when it goes, it goes & you break.
You break a bone full of ink in the dark as you hold a candle to the old human wrestle & blanch the poor face of yr frustrated passions like a regular Magritte you hide what isn’t there at all with some silly diversion just big enough to erase its own raison d’etre. You see:
Yr god-given talents are a waste of god & still yr cold & lonely & spent on the cost of a crack in the mirror…
Here’s a real sinister one.
LYRICS:
Harbinger, apropos of nothing.
A human heart does not a lover make.
Hold your breath like you hold the wheel.
Does the honesty excite you still?
A clinical-list biographic.
A broken rib wrapped in attic tapes.
Turn your cheek like you turn the key.
Cloud the thought that will not leave.
Oh, how the sky, how it blushes,
how it’s blushing out the door for you.
Oh, how the sun, how it licks,
how it’s licking off its plate for you.
Whatever it was, curosity killed it
& the cat’s meow, for the cheap cheap trick of it.
Oh, whatever it was, it was diminished
when we shot the chapeaux to show no genius in it.
Oh, like a dream, you know,
how dreams, they go…
Oh, like a wave, how it takes you & it rolls you up.
Harbinger apropos of nothing.
A human heart does not a lover make.
Take your time like you take your fill.
Does the honesty excite you still?
An engine whip. A horse with no rider.
A pendulum swing trims the night air.
Hide your desires like you hide your teeth.
Cloud the thought that will not leave you, no.
[edit: appended lyrics, for personal ref — hah!]
like a curling finger
how it’s beckoning, it’s beckoning
it’s beckoning, won’t you stay? & lay
upon the gravel & forget how even now
the lonely road is crowded, even now
