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1. |
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The midnight sky all stars and black
Like darkened glass and glitter
Suggests that I go back inside
And wait for warmer weather
So here it's New Year's Eve again
And everything keeps changing
I raise my glass and toast the Gods
In charge of rearranging
All of the world is designed to remind you
All of the light you could find is inside
Under all of the noise
What's it like to be overjoyed
In spite of day-time planners higher standards
Dreams defended
There's not a single thing that's turned out
Quite like I intended
And so you learn that holding on
Is nothing less than panic
When big things fall apart
Then hearts get that much more gigantic
All of the world is designed to remind you
All of the light you could find is inside
Under all of the noise
Are you scared to be overjoyed
It used to be a race to see
Just who'd get there the fastest
But this frozen night it's only right
To consecrate the madness
All of the world is designed to remind you
All of the light you could find is inside
Under all of the noise
Here's your chance to be overjoyed
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2. |
Nectarina & Avocado
03:27
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Wouldn't it be lovely
to name your daughter Nectarina
Sphere of sunshine ripe and reddened
Tender sweet and tasty, too
Wouldn't it be lovely
if she were a ballerina
gauzy skirts and arabesques
and slippered toes like sleek bamboo
Nectarina, Nectarina
Dance horizons, rise and set
Fill the hollows
Dart like swallows
there is no tomorrow yet
Bright the smiles we oft forget
Wouldn't it be dreamy
To date a boy named Avocado
dark and dashing, cloaked in leather
creamy butter-soft within
Wouldn't it be dreamy
If he had no false bravado
swing his axe, observe the tracks
and quietly be listening
Avocado, Avocado
Ripen to the rain and wind
Roll your sleeves
and laugh like leaves
Goals & weeds & things to thin
Rest upon my loving skin
What if Nectarina took a shine to Avocado
And broke out in a sunny smile
while trying on his name
What if Avocado went all shy with Nectarina
She's too smooth and I'm too rough
We're not at all the same...
Nectarina, Avocado
I will find them in the woods
an autumn stroll
with stories told
of how they came to where they stood
Both found the other's heart-shaped pit was good
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3. |
Fireweed Ladies
04:05
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Needle 'n' thread pushing up through the mud
sunny soil birdsong spilling on a table
fingers spare and lean and nimble...
Needle through a bead and another bead
and another bead of the other color
pushing out strong --- springtime
sunny soil sunny soil
Fireweed Ladies, Fireweed Girls
Polymer clay rolled thin as a leaf
roll it out roll it out in the sunny soil ---
color on the other color layer after layer then
roll it to a butterfly thimble
Jackie and the Beanstalk long stem thigh high
Stitch another row and another row
weaving layer after layer –
Sun's not going down anytime soon...
so bud and bloom, bud and bloom...
Fireweed Ladies, Fireweed Girls
Cotton & silk & fur & fleece
rainy day rainy day, knit another row
and another row, purple and pink on the road
like a long scarf stretchin' out yonder
(to the fireweed fair)
Soup in the crockpot, birch bark, needlework
patch'em all together in the warm soil rainy days
open up proud and plump and full and laughing...
Fireweed ladies, Fireweed girls
Oh snapshots, stickers and sunny smiles, pretty smiles
cut 'em out glitter-paste handmade pretty paper
scrap book, pretty paper smiles, wild and whispy...
Scraps in a basket, beads in the box
Chitter chatter pitter patter pass it on pass it on
Rusted red and taken by the wind to the cool ground
Gone to seed, gone to seed...
Fireweed Ladies, Fireweed Girls...
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4. |
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Simplified Translation:
“Ask! Who can I ask? Should I ask God?
Why this fighting? What are people dying for?
It is problem is as old as humanity. To what World can I go?
Where is a safe place? I want to live in Paradise. I’m going now to find my peace with God....”
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5. |
Where Is The Field
02:55
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Where is the field, Boy? Where is the field?
It’s over the spokes of a turning wheel,
Walk still Boy, walk still…
What’s in your bag, Boy? What’s in your bag?
A tourniquet fashioned from feathery steel,
Do spill, Boy, do spill…
Believe in the wind, Boy Believe in the wind.
It will lift you and carry you to the moon,
Fly soon, Boy, fly soon…
Where is your love, Boy? Where is your love?
It’s sowed in the seed of the winter wheat,
It’s green, Boy, it’s green…
Where is the field, Boy? Where is the field?
It’s over the spokes of a turning wheel,
It's over the spokes of a turning wheel,
It's over the spokes of a turning wheel,
walk still boy, walk still boy, walk still....
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6. |
Echo Point
05:34
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Joe Sutherland lived North from here, log cabin on a lake
Homesteaded there after the war with his love Elaine
When work was done, the wood was cut, the baking set to cool
They’d go on down to Echo Point to see the river’s view
They’d call Hello…..
The river bent and twisted there, it ran so cold and deep
A quarter mile from shore to shore, the current tossed and leaped
Dark water rushed between steep hills, the West side Curry Ridge
Elaine would dream of crossing it, she wished there was a bridge
Joe was sleeping when she left the house, he woke up with a sigh
“Elaine” he said, she wasn’t there, he thought that he would die
This land had never felt so big, the river never so wide
He stood alone at Echo Point and all alone he cried…
Hello…
It’s 30 years now since Joe died and no one lives there still
The path they took is overgrown and hidden on their hill
I’ve heard from several local guides who’ve rafted there downstream
They’ve heard a sound come from that hill and echo like a dream…
Hello…
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7. |
Chokecherry
03:00
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Stack it all under the chokecherry tree
ready to go, ready to go
White petaled honeysweet memories
ready to go in the morning
Annie Dillard, Thoreau, Guides for the field
words overgrown till the path is concealed
Lay them all down 'neath the chokecherry tree
Lay down...
Slinky thin nighties for a 20 year old
Ready to go, ready to go
a fabric so threadbare the nights become cold
Ready to go in the morning
Rickety ladders, tired old tools
level and square – you built by the rules
Lay them all down 'neath the chokecherry tree
Lay down...
Pennies from Europe and silk from Japan
Ready to go, ready to go
clutched to your heart then released from your hands
Ready to go in the morning
Wheelbarrow roll, lighten my weight
Goodbye to the good to make room for the great...
Then lay in the shade of the chokecherry tree
Lay down
Stack it all under the chokecherry tree
ready to go ready to go
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8. |
What Can I Say
04:30
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Call me up, look me up, ask me how I’ve been I’ll tell you fine
Pick me up, drop me off, have some cheese and crackers, have some wine
I pretend to listen to you talk about yourself
Your lips are moving, I say uh huh, I say mmm hmmm, I say...
Well, well, what can I say to you?
I’m letting my world fall away from view
It’s almost like I’m in a movie scene
‘Cept I’m just a shadow behind the screen
Took my shoes in for repair, couldn’t find a shoe fix anywhere
They were broke, what a joke, tossed ‘em in the trash, I’m a good American
I can buy them new 10 bucks, who really needs a shoe fix shop?
Just like your vacuum cleaner, boombox, TV, air conditioner
Blender, blue jeans, VCR, electric razor... trash ‘em all...
Well, well, what can I say to you?
I’m letting my world fall away from view
It’s almost like I’m in a movie scene
‘Cept I’m just a shadow behind the screen
Think I’ll get me a carpet, so I can sweep the dirt under it
Think I’ll find me a new man, Casper Milktoast this time dammit
I can change my life real good, just like everybody says I should
Go to work to pay the bills, consume a lot of booze and pills
To keep the headaches and the thoughts at bay, then find a doctor
Keep me going, keep me going, there’s no dying in this living death
Just keep me going, there’s no dying, keep me going...
Well, well, what can I say to you?
I’m letting my world fall away from view
It’s almost like I’m in a movie scene
‘Cept I’m just a shadow behind the screen
God bless America
God bless me and you
We live off the Land of Low Prices
So God bless Walmart, too....
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9. |
Face
03:07
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I... I wanna take a picture of your face in the morning
Sometimes
You don’t look so good
Sometimes
You sit there yawning
You’re a child with no direction
You’re a spider with seven legs
Why can’t you see what you’re gonna be today?
Why can’t you be, just plain ol’ be, today?
I... I wanna take a picture of your face when you’re dreaming....
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10. |
Wintered In
04:27
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The stepmother sun in the twilight has come
It’s a cold, cold day
She sees me here coatless and shivering pale
She calls but then scolds me away
“Oh Lady of Winter won’t you please let me stay
I want to feel you on my skin”
But her light is a warmless one, brittle and mean
My sigh turns to frost as I follow my footprints back in
Oh - Wintered in....
Miss Aurora you have such a beautiful name
Befitting a girl of your grace
I’d gladly brave 40 crystal clear nights
Just for a glimpse of your face
So often you tease us and leave us in want
One shimmering sweep then you go
Oh pity the sleep-laden eyes of the dreamers
Who lay unsuspecting in bed while you swirl your hello...
Oh - Wintered in....
The wind and the dark are a hooligan pair
laughing and howling in glee
disturbing the peace of this ice shrouded eve
taunting sheew whistle woo tee lee dee
I would come out and join you fine mischievous boys
Heed your swaggering swashbuckle dare
But no - I'll play it safe in the warmth of my cabin
Throw birch on the fire to light the walls' withering stare
Oh - Wintered in....
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11. |
Stay Warm
02:54
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Did you greet the sun this morning, despite his late arrival?
Did you know there was a stowaway dangling from his rays?
'cause I sent a message with him - and signed it with a grin
I hope he dropped it off for you today
Stay Warm...
'Cause I'm thinking of you way up north, as I adventure on
Remembering cozy gatherings - the sweet times that we make
Potlucks, music, homebrew, laughing & grumbling about the town
Midnight skiing 'round the moonlight lake
Stay Warm...
I'll put that lazy sun to work
Tell him to thaw your frozen piece of earth
I'll beam you gentle crocus smiles
the smell of soil the sound of birds
I'll dream you little fiddleheads just waiting to unfurl
Stay Warm...
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Esther Golton Alaska
Esther Golton creates music that satisfies the quest for something delightfully different & diverse. Her voice is "silky smooth, precise and winsome." Add an unusually intricate use of the mountain dulcimer, stunningly fluid flute, & melodic, colorful writing, strengthened by formal studies in flute, jazz & composition. Peter Mulvey has praised her work as "solid, beautiful, vibrant...inspiring. ... more
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