24 + 24

 

I wonder who you are

24 and 24

I wonder who you are

24 and 24

 

Do you hear the chime

24 and 24

Of the life behind your time

24 and 24

 

I wonder who you are

24 and 24

I wonder who you are

24 and 24

 

ART AND LIFE

 

New York City wasn’t what I expected it to be

The venues were closing, everyone was working

And aside from such mean questions of economy

Even the graffiti looked a little half-hearted

 

I waited in line to see the show

But the band in question, I don’t know

Forgive me if I say it felt a bit try-hard

And the DJ, don’t get me started

 

Art and life will make you crazy

Lined and graying, memories hazy

Yearning always, take me baby

Cure this sickness in my heart

 

At least out on the West Coast, they smile as they kill ya

And in Europe, I hear, the hospitals don’t bill ya

But who wants to sing about a fucking croissant?

You know I would, babe, if that’s what you want

 

So I guess it’s New York, for now at least

Just a few more years, then I shall be released

And tho the big apple never falls far from the tree

Babe, I’m glad you picked me

 

Art and life will make you crazy, &c

 

Couldn’t sleep, got up early

Watched the morning kiss the buildings

Found a park bench, sat there thinking

Til I found you

 

As I walked home a woman came up to me on the street

Said, “Get more rest, thy neighbor greet

Eat’cher greens, and never forget

Death is all around you.”

 

Art and life will make you crazy, &c

 

ART OF WAR

 

Let your worries disappear

 

Let your worries disappear

 

Cry baby don’t you cry

 

Calm down, just let the noise in

And after that, survive

I’m gonna get some even if it’s poison

For it’s what’s keeping me alive

 

Kept alive but on his own

 

Sand in the fire, it’s time for us to go

Lost my footing, left to drown

Thinking all about how I wish that I was up

But when I’m there, I want to come back down

When I’m there, I want to come back down

When I’m there, I want to come back down

 

All I can see, all I can see . . .

 

The vinyl skips, the oil slicks

Come along the way is clear

 

The children waited round all Indian Summer

For their tall friend to reappear

The gifts that we brought with us were thrown into the fire

On the hottest day of the year

 

They sang, Let your worries disappear

Let your worries disappear

 

BACK TO LIFE

 

Waiting to see

If the world starts turning for me

If the dreams I carried all my life

Are the ones I’ll carry to my grave

Oh let a single soul be saved

If not mine

 

Love goes by

Years go by

I see it happen all the time

Oh they’ll never take me alive

Say the guilty ones who survive

I’ve been waiting for the feeling to come back

Back to life

 

Love!

 

BLACKNESS IS THE ROAD

 

Blackness is the road of love

And falsity the lane

Wish I could tell you something else

But baby, it’s the same

When that tape recorded runs out

Baby, I’m the same

Taken ill and stricken with visions

I cannot name

No, I cannot name

 

But they stopped giving out awards for

All that years ago

Take another stranger’s heart if

It tells you where to go

But carefully with that clarity that

Cuts that it might hold

The eyes need be in heaven

For to see the world

For to see the world

I want to see the world

 

For this is the holy image

And this the crazy speed

And this the borrowed time

May it give us what we need

And this the lawless land

Ungovernable and mean

And these the lies

That keep the house of cards from falling

 

Blackness is the road of love

And falsity the lane

Vanity the rising sun

And novelty the shade

In the leaving, feeling closer

In the staying, far

And in the dark, never

Seen for what you are

Not for what you are

Never what you are

 

CHEFCHAOUEN

 

Open the little blue room

Both of us in it

Holding on

Just for a minute

 

Just for awhile, you stayed

As out in the dawn they prayed

 

Like the end of time

Opening doors

Hoping it’s fine

If one is yours

 

If one is mine, please stay

Baby we could go insane

 

Go tell them the news

Absurd and important

They’re freeing the doves

That burn up in orbit

Of the stories

There are really just two

The flood that cometh

And the first time I saw you

 

Not to put too fine a point on it

But if we’re doomed, who gives a shit?

If I could just have that crystal ball

I’d take you there like a witness called

But it’s not someplace we can be

You just come closer to me

 

When they woke up one morning

The city was blue

Up in the mountains

For me and you

That’s what they told us

Laughing, we went on

Then I turned

And you were gone

 

And down in the valley, night came

And the moon like a lady lay

 

The silver pilgrim

And the violin player

With a single string

To lead us out of the lair

Down alleys at dawn

And illegal temples

Journeymen and ringleaders

Lapped at my ankles

 

I saw the apostles after they stood

I saw the flowers blooming after the flood

I saw the keeper proud and tall

Who said as I passed him “If it hurts you, I’ll call”

Next your reflection in a made-up room

Beside a tuxedo on a mannequin groom

On streets and in diners the curtain calls

Empty but for us reflective of all

 

Mama got quiet

Whenever that song came on

But none of us

Ever really knew what was wrong

And dad just stood there

Telling under his breath

Of all life’s riddles

Birth and birth and death

 

Who knows why the years go by

The birds fly south these tears I cry

Wings of trust rings of deceit

Never the two once parted will meet

 

I met someone new

She’s sweet and sad

And we think of others

When I hold her in bed

The dream goes on

It drips from the leaves

It rushes down the gutters

Out to the sea

 

At the top of the hill

The Atlantis Theatre

Grand marquis

Spelled out ᴅᴏᴜʙʟᴇ ғᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ:

ᴀ sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ ʜᴏᴍᴇ &

ᴛʜᴇ ᴜʟᴛɪᴍᴀᴛᴇ ᴛᴇᴀᴄʜᴇʀ

And a girl behind glass

So nobody could reach her

 

I said “What’s a ticket — hey —”  

Through the screen I heard her say

 

“Do you still love me although I’m not right

And I’m not much to look at in the pale blue light?

I’ll be your companion when the rivers run dry

And the money stops coming and the powerful die.”

 

I said “Do I know you?”

“I’m so sorry,

Moon is my name

But some call me Ari

To some I am ghost

To some I am muse

To some the wheel

Warped with misuse

 

There can be no peace

For the transient heart

The world starts calling

And it all comes apart

There’s no going back

At the final warning

You can always return

But I’ll be gone in the morning.”

 

“Then how will I find you?”

“You know where,

You’ve seen it before

Although you’ve never been there

 

At least, not for awhile — OK —

Here’s your ticket, enjoy the movie.”

 

I found my seat

The lights went down

And up on the screen

These words were shown:

 

It came as a kind of an epiphany in a Mexican restaurant in East Nashville

As the lone waiter bustled about, pouring drinks and tending to his flock

It was the night before a wedding, I was thinking about you and all the times that were so special

And how I’d still give it all up just to get to listen to you talk

 

About pilgrims and pogroms and even old Basquiat

Who conquered the world with his mind and never even made it past 27

What happens after the instruments have been destroyed and it all goes quiet?

Does that Vox Humana still reach all the way to heaven?

 

And I thought about the time we made love in the California Gulf

And later sat by the water and lay in the sand

And an old blind man appeared and he smiled by himself

And placed a stick of chewing gum into my hand

 

Now, I ain’t no prophet or rabbi, at least not yet

But it’s the night before this wedding and I’m trying to stay calm

Thinking about you in that restaurant, I know I’ll never forget

And I still haven’t tasted that holy stick of gum

 

All we’d need is a tree

To hang the seasons on

Outside our window

In the stillness of dawn

Not traveling blues

To show we belong

Or highlight reels

To sing along

 

We could always just move away

But you never really liked L.A.

 

Perfection?

Perfection is slow

Perfection is boring

You just learn to let it go

Your crooked eye

Your drunken ghost

We all got something

We’re feeling the most

 

I said that’s amazing — how’d you know?

You laughed and said “Baby, the cracks always show.”

The villagers gathered, the rain kissed the road

I’m sorry to hurt you and to leave such a load

But I’m not afraid of getting it wrong

Think of how we’re getting it right

 

Open the little blue room

Both of us in it

Holding on

Just for a minute

    

Just for awhile, please stay

Baby we could go insane

I followed you to Paris

Chefchaouen, New York City

Baby let’s go

I’m ready

 

FORTUNE AND HER ORCHESTRA

 

Feed the void with dollars

Feed the dollars with death

Feed the death with yet more death

Til nothing’s drawing breath

It’s the song on the river

It’s a product of the times

Received

In strange and shifting signs

 

I was born a hitchhiker

Created for to roam

Made to love with a broken heart

Divided as the moon

And there seek a completion

You may never find

Completion

It’s the last thing on my mind

 

Stay thy hand, paranoid dreamer

I’m a mortal man, not a miracle mind reader

Strange indication,

It’s the sign of the plan when there is no plan

 

I went down to Nashville

And there I bought some dancing shoes

Somewhere was a band

Playing that bittersweet rhythm & blues

And tho she sang for her supper

She did not get to choose

Deceived

Still she could not refuse

 

Maybe life is but a billboard

That we’re passing in the night

I know so many think it’s so

I just don’t buy the hype

Pretty wise for a pilgrim

Fast-fading, out of sight

Gone, gone but the stolen song

He’s singing in the night

Still, I hoped you’d notice

And to feel this when it’s right

 

Everyone wants you, baby

Everyone wants the way assured

Everyone wants the reason

The treason the reward

But do not weep and tremble

At the voices in your ear

The Word that just you hear

The silver nor its worth

At the edges of the Earth

The lie that is the end

Like seekers into deserts,

Fishermen to streams

I see you

Don’t care if it’s a dream

 

Stay thy hand, paranoid dreamer

I’m a mortal man, not a miracle mind reader

Strange indication, 

It’s the sign of the plan when there is no plan

 

HALL OF MIRRORS

 

Living in the moment

Long to break away

Wear it once or twice

On a perfect day

 

And I know how it sounds

As it burns to the ground

 

It rises like a fountain

It falls like a leak

In a hall of mirrors

Each unique

 

Don’t worry, baby

If the hunger makes you crazy

 

Trusting in coincidence

Like a long-awaited dream

 

It’s all right there beside your heart

It’s all right there beside your heart

It’s all right there beside your heart

 

The Lord is my shepherd

She tells me what to say

This time I’ll be different

Baby, I can change

 

Guess we should’ve known

But it beat sleeping alone

 

Nothing but a visitor

When the watchmen make the rounds

 

It’s all worth it beside your heart

It’s all right there beside your heart

It’s all right there beside your heart

 

HEARTFALL
 

A broken heart, a broken heart can see

But my heart is free

 

It ain’t much, but it’s home

Out here with everything in bloom

But when your hair blows in your face

Weather’s turning strange

 

Pretty soon, all the lights are fading

Everything is gonna change

Air and fire turned but the water was awaiting

Everything’s gonna change

But babe your colors never fade

 

Heartfall, heartfall

 

A broken heart, a broken heart can see

But my heart is free

 

It ain’t much, but it’s home

Alive forever in the tomb

We stormed the gates of paradise

As the Lethe overflowed

 

Always knew that man would go down swinging

But he was singing as he cried

In the end everything is not forgiven

Just look outside

 

Heartfall, heartfall

Babe, your colors never fade

Heartfall, heartfall

 

A broken heart, a broken heart can see

But my heart is free

 

KEEP STRANGE TO YOURSELF

 

Keep strange to yourself

Be not so sure

Of the ways you have been

Sometime before

Stumbling out the door

For the thunder in the distance,

The waves far from the shore

 

Is it a product of the heart?

Is it a product of the mind?

Can you tell them both apart?

 

String the bow, bait the wood

And lie in wait

But it won’t do any good

They just fly away

Trembling where you stood

Let the shadows take you

Where the fire never could

 

Is it a product of the heart?

Is it a product of the mind?

Can you tell them both apart?

 

Babe, I had a dream

Babe, I had a dream

Strangest thing I ever seen

 

I want to sail a ship

No gilded man o’ war

Feel the breeze on my skin

Go by the stars

Floating far, very far

But everywhere you go,

They say that’s just where you are

 

Is it a product of the heart?

Is it a product of the mind?

Can you tell them both apart?

 

Babe, I had a dream

Babe, I had a dream

Prettiest thing I ever seen

Babe, I had a nightmare

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