I had to write songs about nature as a final for my nature writing class, that's what these are, songs about nature. Nature songs. The bird on the cover is a Cedar Waxwing.

Raccoon Fight

Happier

Sunday

Fallen Timbers

Possum

Squall

Playground

Limbs and sticks and buds and flicks of light
Flitter through the old workman's eyes
Fame and blood and bluffs of jagged rock
Find their peace among the grazing flock
All I wish is for a brief repose
The setting sun is all one needs to know
Comfort is a tall and naked tree
Towering over fallen leaves

Don't take this air for one who cares
It's only dying light
Don't feed the grass with fears and ash
This ground is built on plight


Thank you to Will Bingen for playing bass and guitar on the track.

Repose

Gluten free waffles
Sacrament of Reconciliation
Given the Joyful Mysteries as penance
Hoping to avoid conversation

Whole wheat bagels
Christian Indie, Baháʼí
What if this is what God made me for
Two young communists
Laughing at conservative Christianity

Stove top granola
Protein powder

I did not get you a gift

That's cool don't worry about it

Gluten Free

Marilyn, bless you Marilyn, quiet as a dove
Just the two of us and the Holy Ghost
Hiding in the bright lights with the God Man
Open up my roof and settle in

Peregrine, subtle peregrine, on the window sill
Scratching at the stone with its talons
Don't you know people can't fear when they're stuck in here
Your peace is a piece of Marilyn

Staring straight, I direct my gaze towards the holy host
Pay no mind to noisome peregrine
Holding up my eyelids by my weakness
Drifting off to songs sung in my head

Marilyn

New London

Sit aside
For a day
And watch carefully how the little ones play in the rain
With your tired attention
Everything looks so small
When you forget it all

Lay down
On the soil
And feel the earth surround your bitter heart
You've lost your scale
Let worms fill the sky
And the birdsong will ring below

Let it fall
Down your check
Does it feel like you've been cast out of this world?
As you sink into mud
There are thousands of living creatures embracing you

Has your time
In the ground
Led you to the same conclusion?
I can't speak for you
But I will hope it isn't so

Ground

All those people
You tried to love
And loved to hate
Are first in line at heaven's gates
All those people 
That smile at you
Their eyes so true
Makes you wonder what you're going through

I exist alone in the hollowed husk of a white pine
Listening to critters crawl up my spine
Staring at the tracks I've left behind
I exist alone in the crowded cross walks
Parking meters, clotted car lots   
Beating hearts will never stop

All my children
Will learn to love
And learn to hate
To plant their cross in a gust of fate
All God's children
Will turn the page
Of a revolving age
They'll join together the night and the day

But I exist alone

Warming wind and violet skies
Heal my heart
Golden light and burning bark
Heal my heart
I'll go away in a flame of faith
To sear this flesh, to burn this grave
I'll disappear in a spotlit sun
To lose myself and gain the whole

Monkey Soup

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