lyrics

autumn song

autumn song

sunday morning she's still asleep and breathing soft
awoken by the kettle whistle
send from the distant moss-hung keep to the drowsy croft
a prayer my flower won't become her thistle
as i train my fingers to the steel to bring us luck
and now she's found my weakness
she's in my heart and in my dreams and in my waking up
she's in the clay and the landscape drawing on my coffee cup

bleary-eyed the dawn birds sing their songs of love
looking for someone to hold them
free from all our aimless thoughts they fly above
like us just doing as mother told them
in leaving footprints in the lawn when the dew drops freeze
while the world keeps spinning
she's in the keen touch of the frost and the wind that moves the trees
she's in the smoke from the bonfire burning up the autumn leaves

i numb my fingers in the steam watch the dog run away
from safe behind my window
i think up rhyme to keep us calm and fill the day
now she's in each vowel and consonant of every word i say

consolation #1

when you've got a heavy heart
and everything around you is falling apart
you can pin it on a rotten day,
nothing that tomorrow won't blow away
or the hope you get every time you pray

i know we've got so many minds,
so many hidden meanings between the lines
and it seems such a simple thing
not to worry what the winter wind'll bring
with the sad song that the robins sing
but when the puddles freeze it's time

to turn the heating on, dear, because the summer's over
instead of pinning our luck on a four-leaf clover
just give me a call and i'll come right over

and i know i've got a lot of faults
and all those hidden futures locked in the vault
and only time can tell
if we stay together and we both stay well
with a quiet place for our hearts to dwell
but the foghorns say you're mine

so put the kettle on, dear, now the battle's over
instead of pinning our luck on a four-leaf clover
just give me a call i'm coming over.

i got a call from you

ferris wheel

ferris wheel turning slow
waving at mother below
yes i'll try my best mum not to let go

picture a long summer night
watching the comets burn bright
and we'd sit for hours bathed in the moonlight
let's throw sticks in the park
and try teach the dog not to bark
and i'll try not to be scared mum when it gets dark.

oh river run true
driftwood i'll follow you
'til eddies swirl me around deep in the dark blue

now it's getting time to move on
they've faded the stars that once shone
and i'll try not to be sad mum when they're all gone

the empty bookcase

when you've been filed in the wrong category
and both your dog and your cat agree
that you shouldn't be alone

take a leaf from a different tome
place a wreath on your empty home
and pick up the phone

just because i hold you dear
just because i need you here
just because i'm see-through
just because i miss you

from the clouds brewing over you
to the leaves rotting under you
in the death-fed stew of life

from the mud fields of the steeplechase
to the bloodstains on my delsey case
i'm in this race

just because i hold you dear etc

from the bottles by the hedgerow
to the moss on my gravestone

from the dawn to the setting sun
from the end to when it all begun

from these pictures of ourselves
to the dust on these shelves

he bedtime charm

got the mobile spinning from the ceiling
and the moon's making patterns on the wall
reflected from the spires and the midnight briers
where the owls start the call

goodnight to the shadows climbing up the door
goodnight to the scary clothes heap
you kiss goodnight the ghosts underneath the bed
before you fall asleep

and your mind's spinning through all the day's scenes
as your heart beats loud in your ear
apparently surprised now you've closed your eyes
to find your troubles are still here

and you're trying hard to distract yourself
but now you've run out of sheep
and then you get the whole world inside your brain
just because you can't sleep

bring out a drum for the hiding sun
pull out the heart from your ear
just a little reminder that you're still alive
before your wits disappear

leave the moon to the ghouls and the midnight pools
and the vampires too tired to sleep
and don't let the world occupy your brain
just because there are no more sheep

and hug all the monsters underneath your bed
before you go to sleep

stormy ol' weather

leaves in the wind
rain on my window
the tears from above catch the moonlight and glisten
weather's on the radio we'd do as well not to listen

the birds are asleep
the bugs are a-sleeping
under the ground where one day we'll all go
pushing up the flowers that our kids'll grow.

it's warm in the sun
but we can't depend on the sunshine
to see us through the daylight gloom the whole time
high above the clouds the sun always shines

the needle's set to change
and the times they are a-changin'
but somewhere in the trees there's a home for you and me
far from all the noise and by a windless sea

oh girl that i love
girl ever lovely
let me be your coat through the stormy ol' weather
then even in the hailstorms and the fog we'll stay together

and even through the thunder and the flood we'll be together

the antique toy

sepia-toned waiting alone to be sold
where is the boy now his precious toy is getting old

where are the times the rosy times of long ago
who is this man whose are these hands that he holds

now all your colours are fading
through a life of waiting
for someone to come and take you home

cheer up they said paint on a smile and be a clown
and just go to bed if this wooden life gets you down

now all your colours are fading
through a lifetime waiting
for someone to come and take you home

dead poets

blue sky sunshine fill up my hall
and leave me the feeling to keep
for when it's dark and i can't see the light at all
and i can't sleep

songbirds spitfires swooping in the sky
well i don't know that much it's true
but i know that everybody's born to die
and that i love you

sara i see you used to like it here
but now there's room on your bench for two
i'll share this quiet place and talk with the trees
about how they miss you

with songs to live by and maintain a heavy heart
there's music for the melancholy soul
but mothers lovers smiling in the park
know something you don't

samuel taylor where can you be now
you're not walking your quantock way
xanadu and kubla too are just over the brow
but you're so far away

and i know too we'll join you soon
under the ground but until that day

consolation #2 (magpie pie)

put another log on the fire
push another nest from its tree
sing a happy song for a melancholy choir
before you fly back home for tea

and as you pass, the oak trees sigh
and peter rabbit's doing fine
oh mrs mcgregor please don't put me in your pie
i swear that i'll try harder next time

bad news from the treetops
all your friends flew away
when they saw the writing on the kitchen wall
said magpie pie today

on a nothing afternoon that always ends too soon

an aching heart as sundown
heralds the sunday blues
and with the woodsmoke from the chimneytops
i'll fly away with the sunday news

under the yew

the shadows grow long in the churchyard
as the skylarks fly away
and lost to the loam all the dreams we'll never know
we'll dream them there one day

i've sung the hymn from its first bars
and i fought my way through the gameplan
now for all the world i feel like a little girl
but i'll do my best to be a man

rook on the bough what tales have you to tell me
from over the stile and the hills of this evening view
if only these stones quiet in the moon, would allay my fears
and we could have dreams asleep under the yew

into the past go our futures
in running streams will our thoughts flow
unto the earth the sum of all our worth
and the seasons that we'll never know
and that garden we'll never grow

rook fly away from your bough into the night sky
and carry our prayers on your wings up to the moon
and watch the world spin until we've all had our turn
and it's time to go home
back to the earth to sleep under the yew

safe in the earth asleep under the yew