Light retains all It’s traditional Associations My heart flutters like a bird Fallen from the bow Caged and cradled now with Love and Patience Is the radiance within my soul Divine? Or is it fire burning? Do I crave the waters cold? Or is it for the dark, I’m yearning? Healing hands will always wield The needle and the knife And poison is the dosage Do I kneel before the light? In the rich dark soil Where the crawling creatures toil I offer sacrifice Those who’s cradle is my tomb Their bright embroidery shall bloom Should this flesh suffice Is this dark within my soul Of life? Or is it absence rending? Do I dread the rising sun, Or am I glad the night is ending? Killing hands must understand The flesh, that they might meet their mark And poison is the dosage Shall I rise before the dark. Should one immolate the soul? Or extinguish to the barest spark? Should one still the racing mind? Or simply stop the racing heart?

My heart shiver When the lights go out I hear them whisper Where there is no sound What that slithers Made of smoke and light Wraps around me Tonight Are you home? Are you alone? Are you home? Are you alone? Lights that flicker In their cage of glass Violet shimmers Whenever I walk past Behind the gate they Stand with their hands clasped Dark eyed figures Come for me at last Are you home? Are you Alone? Are you home? Are you alone? Patterns stream in Voices echo Am I dreaming? How would I know? Am I dreaming? How would I know? Am I dreaming? How would I know?

Tension runs on the heart’s taught strings From the thin saw blade, a sharp note rings When it’s frame is pressed to the rib-cage arch I tighten bolts, I cut apart And the floor peels up at the bleeding edge Shadows grasp past the window ledge The ground calls to my bones again My lungs invite the water in They’re staring at me just off stage Their lines not writ upon this page Each laugh might break the world apart Or pluck a song from the ragged heart Above the sky spreads out like wings I, at the mercy of everything Below the sea swells dark and vast I am caught in the current’s grasp

The world is made a photograph By early morning light And I could pull the paper back If I only tried See the seas the seethe beneath Shifting static tides Sink below the surface Step between the skies Waiting for a signal to form within the noise Everything in absence, silence is a voice What swims in static? What swims in static? What swims in static?

How can one deny, what’s seen in the day’s light Dreams risen from the dead The hand that grasps and heart that dreads Dark of life have mercy on me Like a shroud wrap round my body Shield me from what I do not want to know How can one believe, what in the darkness sleeps So easy to deny Even what lays before the eye Piercing light have mercy on me Please don’t let the truth slip from me I pray thy burning grip not let me go What poison shall I drink? Doctor what’s the dose? What thoughts should I think? What name must I invoke? And is the light that shines within my soul divine? Or is it just an aberrant note within my polyphonic mind? They come to me with healers hands The scalpel comes to make amends They leave me with a killers heart And greatly grieve what’s torn apart Each way blood and horror The needle and the knife Live both in the dreaming And the waking life That which wounds can also save The mind that splits is only changed Rise or kneel, the end the same The drowning dark the searing flame

The spiral staircase Round and round Through the stars It’s a long way down Can you hear the distant song Lost and starry eyed Have you found the missing thought, To soothe your troubled mind? The spiral staircase Round and round Through the stars It’s a long way down Do you die in your dreams Were you standing above me? I’d run but I have got no hope And, truly, I don’t want to go Stars rush in where thoughts should flow Time contracts and seems to slow Horizon’s glimpsed by fading eyes Beyond which other worlds must lie

When the churchyard sinks into the sea Come to the water, down with me Where the old king fell and broke his crown And all the walls came tumbling down When the young prince rises in his stead He’ll build up walls where the waters bled Young men will lay them brick by brick Though years of toil leave them sick The old queen in her lofty hall Will spare her love for none at all But turn away her heart and head From all those gifts the water fed The fair maids come from down the hill To find the cracks where water spills To wash their wounds and wipe their eyes And follow for the rising tide When the castle sinks into the sea Come to the water, down with me The young king wrapped in brick and bone Finally freed from hearth and home When the churchyard sinks into the sea Come to the water, down with me When the churchyard sinks into the sea Come to the water, down with me

Oh saint Thomas don't you know, You're bound to reap just what you sow? That every board and brick you lay, By time and tide be washed away? The currents in my blood and bone The hammer makes my heart it's home I'll fall upon you like the gale As all the world become as nails Thomas the builder don't you know, You're bound to reap just what you sow? Your towering church your bright city, Are nothing 'fore the rising sea I shall descend to the heart of saint Thomas And I will deliver what has been promised

In the church he built up just to break Above the shifting tides He kneels before his god and waits To crumble fall and die The light pours in embracing him Where the ceiling cracks above A witness to his final hymn The end of one beloved Below the world, the waves have come To the courtyards edge The sovereign there upon his throne Alone among the dead He looks into the rising dark And opens his mouth wide Smiles to the schooling sharks And swallows down the tide She the riptide’s fury Comes to the sainted heart Each strike falling surely She comes to tear apart She will bring the hammer To the wall and window pane Beneath her blows they shatter As steady as the rain Nothing stands forever Against the toll of time Fate cannot be severed And everything must die Creation’s humble servant And Ruin’s solemn king Fall behind the curtain Just like everything

I live in the dream from which I cannot wake Above me the surface never shall break Of the vast and silent seething sea My self sinks deep inside of me Layers on layers on layers belie The crumbling walls, the sagging sighs Of centers that have never held Before the dark, the songs of hell That fill the throat and burn the Eye The lingering heart that will not die Instead it blooms and bleeds and sees The light that splits inside of me I live in the dream from which I cannot wake Above me the surface never shall break Of the vast and silent seething sea That stifles thought and garbles plea Layers on layers on layers belie The burning mind that cannot die O, God may light the corners well But not drown out the song of hell And there is so much left to do Despite the fire no Word can soothe Layers on layers on layers belie The space where now no core doth lie (Piercing light, have mercy on me) (And let thy waves crash down upon me) (Take my heart, this wretched one ) (And let it hear no song unsung) (But offer me no healing hand) Offer me no healing hand (This burning mind must understand) This burning mind must understand (Uncomprehending, still I sing ) Uncomprehending still I sing (For I have see such awful/wonderous things) For I have seen so many things (Piercing light, have mercy on me) Though wrapped in dark, I can’t deny (And let thy waves crash down upon me) The light annihilating shines (Take my heart, this wretched one ) A sword to pierce this rotten heart (And let it hear no song unsung) The water whirls, things fall apart (But offer me no healing hand) The future dissolves and devours the past (This burning mind must understand) The sets all resolve for the curtain and cast (Uncomprehending, still I sing ) We’re down in the game though we already won (For I have see such awful/wonderous things) The moon breaks the waves and she swallows the sun (Piercing light, have mercy on me) The moon breaks the waves and she swallows the sun (And let thy waves crash down upon me) The moon breaks the waves and she swallows the sun (Take my heart, this wretched one ) The moon breaks the waves and she swallows the sun (And let it hear no song unsung) The moon breaks the waves and she swallows the sun (But offer me no healing hand) The moon breaks the waves and she swallows the sun (This burning mind must understand) The moon breaks the waves and she swallows the sun (Uncomprehending, still I sing ) The moon breaks the waves and she swallows the sun (For I have see such awful/wonderous things) The moon breaks the waves and she swallows the sun