1. |
Impetus
02:11
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Existence gifts us with its splendid stimulus
Don’t resist its swift, immense and awe-inspiring impetus
Immeasurably emotive
For magnificence a motive
Or a marvellous injunction
To enact without compunction
The zealousness in all of us!
Vigorous, accelerated, vital, frantic
A hurricane: so not pacific (nor atlantic)
Undestructive all the same
Building beauty brings no blame
Torpidity ’s a stupid shame
Get it done, get in the game
Make the joy gigantic!
In this afternoon of all that is
Who’d stand an idle witness
Shrug mundane catastrophe
Say “it’s too much to ask of me”
And claim some lack of fitness
For the duty to save beauty?
Imbued with honest sense, intensely unreposing
All poisonous and plutocratic power opposing
Surrounded by a sickening
Sad and savage stricken thing
Amplify activity
Contest with creativity
The time is short for dozing!
Existence gifts us with its splendid stimulus
Don’t resist its swift, immense and awe-inspiring impetus
Immeasurably emotive
For magnificence a motive
Or a marvellous injunction
To enact without compunction
The zealousness within all of us!
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2. |
Awakening
01:19
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Be uncontrolled
I want to see you
Loosening the straps
Be unconfined
Give to the air
Your limbs, your hair
Live the wildest liberty
You can find
Display your self
Uncover joy
Reveal the bliss of body
Heart and mind
Express your will
In fervent speech
Identify yourself
As self-defined
Awaken now
Let me tremble
Knowing you are close
And strong and kind
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3. |
Sleepless
02:40
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Our weariness still whispers yes
As in our bed pleasingly spread
With sighing silk we press
‘Though night now flows toward its close
Our senses wake and for their sake
The scented candle glows
Oh gods it’s beautiful!
Life’s purpose may be felt
With gliding fingertips
In hands its hallowed warmth be held
Or drawn within to find
The awed and gasping innocence
Of Nature’s reverent minds
The hours we keep in our deep
Enchantment give us leave to live
Outside the need for sleep
Your languid touch awakens such
A lively thrill; it seems to fill
My own fatigue too much
Oh gods it’s wonderful!
And you’re so meshed with me
Our motion makes an incandescent
Open mouthed unity
In this ecstasy bliss
Promises to keep this
Night perfectly sleepless
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4. |
Insomnia
03:42
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Vivid visions fill the closed eyesight
Thinking's twitches witness night
Endure and drag
Long it lags
But sort of feels alright
The current crawls but strangely swirls unsmooth
Its minute flow my fever fails to soothe
Alertly lying
Dreams defying
With relentless truth
Making restless sense
Ideas dart. They're quick
Refuse to sink
In abstract seas
And skirting all defense
Like reptile tail flick
Thinking blinks
In blindness sees
Gradual grey: a harbinger of harm
Hardly had dark held its charm
But with night crossed
Its softness 's lost
In morning's sharp alarm
Herald of the heat and threat of day
Dawn's dull insistent gray
Promises
That, breathless
All will pass away
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5. |
Rest
01:32
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I gave to sleep a heavy hour
And every mental tissue bathed
Naked in its power
Surreal and drifting, rainbow black
Submerged in depthless lidded pools
Spiralling and slack
And when I stood again like crystal
Sharp clear and glittering
Reasoning, bright
Open to clarity
Sleep's rich colours faded in the light
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6. |
Timely Thoughts
01:46
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So much has gone behind
This present moment too
Is now that moment, gone
A shrinking, scattering of mind
May wait ahead. That much is true
It’s not too soon to think upon
Gather all that memory may find
And add today all that we say and do
And into blank tomorrow carry on
And when the future shows a view far less than kind
Let the cherished and delightful thoughts you knew
Be the very last of all to be withdrawn
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7. |
Flesh And Bone
03:04
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Flesh wants us to think
That we're forever
Raise your glass and drink
And don't stop ever
It’ll surely shrink
As years follow years
Hollow cheeks sallow skin
Flesh's flush disappears
Flesh will fight to keep
Some hold on tomorrow
With a joy so deep
It forestalls sorrow
Swollen and sweet before sleep
Yet it wakes and it's
Aching to open what
Legacy it can make
Flesh and bone are both our own
But in the end you've always known
Which one of these will rest alone
Bone knows it will win
Serenely patient
Hard beneath the skin
The skull is stationed
Hidden behind and within
Holding still until
Softness be stolen
As it always will
Bone's almost revealed
Its grin is mirthless
The plump and rosy shield
Has fallen, worthless
Never will this ill be healed
It'll last til you lie
Lie a little for
Truth's hard, but brittle
Flesh and bone are both our own
But in the end you've always known
Which one of these will rest alone
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8. |
Final Rest
12:56
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Icy breakers sweep and coldly clash
And seem to say that sobs will never cease
Eons pass. That sound has never broken
A wave may rise: it’s over in a flash
Another comes: eternity’s next token
Its grief and fury join mine, and release
Upon a strand made, not of sand, but ash
Another wave has passed. Its time was brief
As those within it rose, then hurtled down
Every vessel gliding sunlit seas
Is headed toward a dark and hidden reef
That waits so water’s shocking chill may freeze
All friendship. The breath of love is born to drown
And wound around all time, the sound of grief
The Dead, who dearly loved us, well knew how
To give our darkness laughter’s light, and keep
Within their care our cherished lives fulfilled
Had they power yet, would they allow
Our happy songs in silence to be stilled?
And let us suffer brokenly and weep?
Or say we may still smile and play somehow?
Most of all they’d want to take our pain
With them into oblivion and spare
(If only for a brief forgetful while)
Our horror of the words ‘never again’
And watch our warm tears flow into a smile
Of joy that we still love, will always care
And won’t forget them while we yet remain
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Miguel Heatwole Sydney, Australia
Miguel’s a versatile singer, choral director & composer. His interests include folk & world music, political satire, the environment, trade unionism & the responsible enjoyment of alcohol. His songwriting embraces themes like peace & justice, the family cat, & visceral passionate attraction. His enthusiasm for recording community singing has let many people share the power of their songs. ... more
Miguel Heatwole recommends:
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Shelter From the Storm
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Hazard, Hardship And Damned Little Pay
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These guys are formidable folk singers I've been privileged to know for many years, way back when they were in their (roaring) forties!
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The freak-folk collective's debut is full of rich, haunted vocals and experimental melodies derived from more traditional idioms
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Dressed in Borrowed Light
by Avi C. Engel
More genre-hopping folk experiments from the Toronto artist, utilizing lap steel guitars, tongue drums, found instruments, and more.
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Wealth of Sorrow
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Bright and skipping songs that foreground the sound of the banjo and fingerstyle guitar in music that feels timeless.
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