1. |
Slab
04:06
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2. |
Triplets
11:20
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Triplets
Paradox, Paradigm and Paragon
Were triplets, sharing the placenta.
They jostled and tangled in their mother’s womb
(Up and down and round again!)
Each was born rejoicing, satisfied.
Paradox defied all intuition,
Achieving the apparently impossible.
Paragon embodied virtue, wit and charm.
(Round and down and up again!)
Paradigm was an example to us all.
They were the heart and soul of our town,
Impressing everyone who met them.
We missed them all when they were hounded out
(Up and down and round again!)
Driven away by hardship, poverty.
We’re saddened by the fact that they have gone,
Although they’d smiled and said that times will change.
We still hear their laughter round every corner
And still we feel expectant, full of hope.
At what secret spring did those girls drink?
Where the hive at which their lips were honeyed?
At whose knee did they learn their letters,
Sharpening their literary knives?
Paradox, Paradigm and Paragon
Lie side by side, they rest in peace,
Waiting for the trumpet that will split their sleep,
Prising open their deaf ears,
And the light to wash their bleary eyes.
*
Time and again I feel myself drawn back
To where it all began.
Yes, to where it all began.
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3. |
Rush Of Kings
08:49
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Rush of Kings
In the rush of kings to claim an empty throne the kingdom was destroyed.
Potential queens roamed empty palaces, rich but unemployed.
No-one saw the subjects slip away, melting back into the hills and forests.
The crown became irrelevant, a symbol without meaning.
In the battle for a land of milk and honey the harvest failed.
Rack-boned cattle fell on cracking river-beds, dying in their droves.
Hunger sat content at every table. Marching armies stalled for lack of food.
Still the battle raged over a landscape featureless and void.
On a windswept beach with spade and bucket we build our wondrous ship.
Its keel we make of driftwood, its bulwarks all of sand.
We choose a captain, post a watch, call our water “grog”;
We weigh anchor, haul on ropes, set imaginary sails.
Then we stand vacant as the tide comes in, and our endeavour fails.
We called him a red setter, because as the sun went down, he used to bark.
Yes, we called him a red setter, ‘cos as the sun went down, he used to bark
With a sound like a whale breaching, crashing down onto the water;
With a sound like a tree falling, and then a shower of splinters;
With a sound like wild horses galloping down a long hill.
And his bark was wordless and full of a kind of meaning;
And his bark was wordless and full of a kind of meaning,
But it made no sense to us.
We sense the tired slow-handclap of time impatient for beginning;
The deep swell of a tidal wave approaching, readying to break;
A whisper in the few remaining trees; an other-worldly light above the clouds;
The seventh trumpeter licking his lips and drawing breath…
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4. |
Shadow Street Shuffle
06:16
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Shadow Street Shuffle
You moved; I moved;
We said nothing,
Playing shadows.
Thinking in double time
Slow communication
Casting shadows.
And the mouse creeps down to the garner floor
The cat just smiles, flexes a paw
The dog’s away tonight; there’ll be trouble!
Looking, taking stock;
Across the pathway lie the shadows.
Move to intercept the slow trajectory,
End up chasing shadows.
Somewhere deep beneath the ocean’s heave
Skeletal fish gape and grimace.
With spark and glow they lure towards their jaws
The almost-blind – desperate for light.
Puzzled, trying to unravel
The complex interplay of light and shadow
Trying hard to fathom depth of feeling
Groping in the shallows.
Silent slips the slow-worm from his home.
He keeps his head down. He licks the air.
Swans fly overhead into the wind
Wing-beats slow, but making headway.
Focussing, our gazes meet, engaging;
My spirit surges with new-found exuberance.
My heart takes up its bed and follows on
Curving to the line of least resistance.
And how the snail struggles with her burden
And how the blackbird shouts his sympathy
And how the cuckoo-pint cowers for cover
And how the heart leaps and struggles to be free.
To be free, to be free.
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5. |
Grey Rocks
11:20
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Grey Rocks
The wind wheels
From a place of grey rocks
Black stones
And stinging spray.
It whirls and returns
Its voice loud and empty.
The rocks fall, pulverise, consolidate, rise up, and fall again.
The sea surges
To the tug of the moon
Advancing, receding,
Restless and cold.
The spaces seethe
There’s a mist of ancient stars in tatters across the sky
And the wordless voice of the yawning spaces calls.
And I am filled with that cry,
Dumb, and charged with longing
Oh, come Lord, quickly come.
Round up the scattering stars;
Give language to the voice of silence;
Take all the old things
And make them new;
Tie off this unravelling thread of time;
Come and rescue your desolate bride;
Break open the universe and come in,
Come in, come in, oh, come in.
Tectonic plates move
Land masses break up and drift apart
Life teems and swarms on sea and land.
Epochs unfold.
Exploiting resources, jostling for dominance,
Species adapt or fail.
Down on the savannah
One species stands up and looks around,
Desires lordship of all it surveys.
Millennia pass.
The human tide washes over continents;
The silence retreats.
Centuries pass.
The tide of human affairs rises and falls.
Everything changes; it all stays the same.
Endless recombinations
But the same old fault lines run right through
- Under the sun there’s nothing new.
Tune in to the chatter
It all merges into a single sound
- It’s that same old wordless cry.
And I am filled with that cry,
Dumb, and charged with longing
Oh, come Lord,come Lord, quickly come.
Round up the scattering stars;
Give language to the voice of silence;
Take all the old things
And make them new;
Tie off this unravelling thread of time;
Come and rescue your desolate bride;
Break open the universe and come in,
Come in, come in, oh, come in.
*
In the space between heartbeats
Between breaths out and in
Your hand is protecting the flame of my life.
In sunlight and in shadow
In starlight and in moonglow
You always are my guide and my direction
My protection
My direction
My protection.
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daviesteelman London, UK
David lives in south London, UK. He has been writing and recording (but rarely finishing!) music for a number of years. He
plays keyboards, guitar and bass, and enjoys the process of recording, producing and mixing.
He has played keyboards in The Arrivists and The Othersides, both London-based bands, and regularly played in blues-rock jam nights in south London (before Covid! Those were the days).
... more
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