Lyrics-Martyn Bates

<Fireworks & Jewels>

Born Tomorrow
y tell me yr fasting inside/you fast in yr soul/
you will awaken, with all set to rights/
n you will be born new, tomorrow/and then all of
yr yearning will die/n you will wait no longer/
n yr pity will pass you on by/yr heart will fill with
roam/when all of yr tears are overflowing/
where will you go?/as I see you, the distance in yr
eyes/as I watch you unravelling/then I see you
believe you that yr right/n yr old world is dead and
gone/where will you roam, where will you go,
when all of yr tears are full overflowing/
where will you go?


Faith Stars
when she appears/she appears with a word
unspoken/n everyone hears/tho their own
tongues be withered n broken/n all that she
says/turns to the rain/then she appears
in the guise of a different person/
with no conversation/no language
no discussion/n all that she says/
turns into rain/looking looking gladly-
disappearing in the mist n spray/many running
voices in the maddened n devouring rains/
of change/terrifying threatening she appears/
in horror she approaches/fixes her harsh for-
tune/subtle shattered future threatening/
and I turn to the rain/and it is beautiful today.


Call & Response
I am speaking/you are listening/light flickers from
the waters we walk/we talk n we look, we walk to
the clearing/I am speaking/I know I am heard/
likewise-drawing together/alike-the harmony's
true/likewise/-the call' n response ring out/
alike-the source of the tune/you are speaking/
I am listening/you are centered/n I respond/
there's one constant; no rest, no stillness/two lines
running counterpoint in the song/likewise-tho
scattered the meaning/alike-we're sounding the
tune/likewise-the call, the response/
likewise-it breaths: it moves.


Long After
y smile as you feel all yr flight/
living thru the wildfire in yr eyes/y look like yr
laughing/in all their eyes damning/you never
change once yr word is sighed-/n yr unwitting
testimony hides/all the silent sorrow of yr cry/
you sigh to be lying/n y feel you are dying/
you give all of yr love up to this lie/after the long
hours of talking are thru/yr still locked in, spirit n
word/after the long hours of denial have passed
you/all yr name's a dark day/when all yr word
are said and sealed, they're lost/failing,
bearing witness to yr cause/you love where
treading/yr feet of clay riding/weighted
down with all that you endure/
after the long hours of talking are thru/
yr still locked in there spirit n word.


Embers, Starry Tapers
sweep the faint strings,musician/
with thy long lean hand: downward the
starry tapers burn/
sinks soft the waning sand/
the old hound whimpers
crouched in sleep/
the embers smoulder low/
across the walls the shadows
come and go
sweep softly thy strings, musician/
the minutes mount to hours/
frost on the windless casement weaves/
a labyrinth of flowers/
ghosts linger in the darkening air/
hearken at the open door/
music hath called them, dreaming/
home one more.
(poem by "Walter de La Mare" circa 1920)


Away
why when yr tired limbs sigh/
yr voice wears to a whisper/
why do you keep yr fight/
wrapped so tight, to resist then?
yr so low down/
n battled to ground
so torn down in yr insistence/
lost somehow, worried n left out/
nothing seems sound in yr persistence/
you catch sight/of something right/
you've long, long been waiting for/
n you'll be there/
why, when yr hurt to a cry/
with your words weighted in wilfulness/
why you would not pass it by...../
it seemed but sour, foolish doggedness/
yr so low down n yr battled the ground/
so torn down in yr insistence/lost somehow,
so left out/with nothing to be gained in persisting/
oh you catch sight/of something right/
that you've long, long been waiting for/
n you'll be there.


Gathering
gathering in the glass/
all the running days I craved/
each has it's melody/
gladdening & grave/
n those times are beautiful/
I can't make them fade/
break the mirror tip the glass over n shatter the day....
when I refuse you/
still you spurn my frightened flight/
you walk into the room/
n yr bringing it all alive/
n those times are beautiful/
I won't let them pass/
this is truly all I want/
we meet here at last.../
then I don't hide/,
n there is nothing to conceal/
you pull me towards you/
n I'm alive again n real.


Belong
n yr weavin' yr weary way on/
and I ask-how are you safe?/
wrapped up in yr same old stories/
broken litanies of lace/
n yr false and forsaken friendships/
I want to see how they will play/
all yr watching, n yr hateful hauntings/
'n yr running yr damage in yr face/
I want to see how that will play/
yes I 'm hearing a belonging cry/
arm in arm, we walk the summer long/
n I watch you smile, even as your hide/
yr gentle lies I claim as mine/
n every step we walk is stolen/
we're caught in the shrill winds shaking/
I call you out, n yr struck dumb/
as the weight yokes to yr shoulders/
n all my gifts count for naught/
n yr weaving yr weary way on/
and I ask again-how are you safe?/
wrapped up in yr stunning stories, yr broken
litanies of ice&waste/I want to know how
that will play.

If At All

I was the one who stood firm for so long
I was the one always ready to take yr side/
I would always move at yr will, at yr say so/
I'd always wait for your guide, I aspired to yr word
n tho I followed you /
to this day of ruin/do I mean so little to you,
if anything at all?
damn me for a fool for ever trusting n believing/
I was taken in u used time after time uncaring/
n tho I followed you/it didn't mean a thing to you/
n tho I followed you/it seems it meant nothing at all
I was the one awaitng yr wisdom
I was the one that took you at yr word.

shieding/Yielding
all yr wanting/all yr yearning/
all yr powerlesshelplessness/
you are emptying, surrendering slowly/
dumbstruck bewilderment/
will you show me/yr opening face/
will you let me be opening to you
a bright horizon, all unfolding this flowering firmament
yielding & shielded in dismay/
I believe you to be love/n I'll raise you up
I'll raise you high/if you'd show me/my face
uncovered/
n unmask me/reveal my gaze/a spirit stricken,
in forfeit hidden/for blossoming days long cast
away/yielding & shielding/n I'm amazed
n I believe that you are love/n I'll raise you high.

Remembering
I look upon the book you write-the wish
made long before/the house where you bear
have lived yr life/the charm you bring to bear/
I fail yr words/yr frailties/they're far then, n
distant from the heart of me/Yet I feel those
words/for they are flowering/n the drunken taken
day disappears to me/my remembering body
sleepwalks in the hour/the long, pale garden trodden/
in the quiet of my blood/to try n take the skies/
that yr eyes ride/for who would be fearful of sleep and
night?/whose dashed footfall in the rain rides?/
n whose weving path do I walk beside?/
listen n you'll hear/you'll hear/you'll hear ev'ry note
loved/each note sung/ev'ry awed word/
you'll hear ev'ry note loved/singing yr heart's every
word.

Fireworks & Jewels
stillness-all the night is sleeping/
stillness n silence/the dreaming night is sleeping/
the dreaming night asleep n opening in violence-
violet, ochre, amber/firely n frightened/taken,
drugged in anger/dammed, forsaken anger-
a silent, shaken anger/fireworks n jewels/
the night-sky is a maze/diamonds oh so cruel/
all my trust betrayed/the dreaming night over,
above me n below me/I am brought lower/
lost in blinding cruelry- a cutting, mourning
melody/never ever known to love, so alien
to me/fear is brought lower,love-the dreaming
night consumes me/a dreaming fear shoots
to me/the dreaming night consumes me/
fireworks & jewels/the night-sky is amazed/
diamonds all a-ruin/all my trust betrayed.

Unsung
give/give all you know/just to let me live/
I look at you n see a kindness in yr face/
tears, like a sainted glow/just for me, this mercy
day/I look n you n see I never turn away/
you look at me n see I am amazed/
I thought you were dying but you still live it/
I thought you were sighing/but you were
singing/all tangled in song-struck harmony/
and I am there too/frail/I thought us so frail/
but were as strong as endless sea/I look at
you and I see it in yr face/deep as deep as
can be/n sometimes almost drowning me/
y look at me n I can feel such salty tears/
I look at you n feel that I'm drawn near/
n so, I'll forget my cold icy sweat-all my
wild fears/for I stand with you.


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