black square

The premise of this song was lovingly stolen from "The Overcoat," an 1842 short story by Nikolai Gogol. You can listen to a man with a sonorous radio voice read you the story (for free!) at the following link: https://archive.org/details/TheCloaktheOvercoatAndOtherStories

Refrain: 
I've only ever had one coat to wear
Only ever sung one song
I've only ever had one job to work
Is that so wrong?
I don't mind copying words all day
I don't think I'm someone special

My overcoat (The winter cold)
Is looking worn (It grips my chest)
My humble means (Is this the end?)
Can I afford to stay warm?

[Refrain]

I scrimp and save (For my new coat)
I don't use candles in the dark (I don't go out)
I hear you laugh (Behind my back)
Is my whole life a lark
To you?

You give a toast (To my new coat)
I drain the glass (Walk to the park)
My mind composed (Two strong young men)
Run up so fast (And take my coat)

[Refrain]

The Overcoat (for Gogol)

hell house

The Dawn of Everything

Fireworks Every Night

From Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie DIllard, p. 165: "Even  more spectacular is a desert plant, Ibervillea sonorae -- a member of the gourd family -- that Joseph Wood Krutch describes. If you see this plant in the desert, you see only a dried chunk of loose wood. It has neither roots nor stems; it's like an old gray knothole. But it is alive. Each year before the rainy season comes, it sends out a few roots and shoots. If the rain arrives, it grows flowers and fruits; these soon wither away, and it reverts to a state as quiet as driftwood.

"Well, the New York Botanical Garden put a dried Ibervillea sonorae on display in a glass case. 'For seven years,' says Joseph Wood Krutch, 'without soil or water, simply lying in the case, it put forth a few anticipatory shoots and then, when no rainy season arrived, dried up again, hoping for better luck next year.' That's what I call flying in the teeth of it all."

Don't be a little Spartan boy with a fox in his shirt
You don't have to hold it back
Tell me where the moon sets, tell me where you hurt
Blood and fur to mark your track

Driftwood in the desert putting down roots
Ibervillea sonorae
Sleep for twenty summers, coiled as a noose
Water in an inward store

I've been a hand upon a hilt of a sword for the Lord
Righteous in my indignation
Swinging through the hot night, cutting with a word
Dreaming of a Judgment Day —

Shun the death upon your lips, take the name of your love
Say it to an angry sky
Quiet as a serpent, quiet as a dove
Silent as the world roars by

Ibervillea Sonorae

SIMEON:
What did you make of the gifts that they brought
As she washed off the musk of the cows?
Now you smell of the tomb when they wrap you in cloth
In the temple where men make their vows
Revelation, consolation to me
Revelation, consolation to me
Wondering, waiting these last lonely days
For a sign of the life up ahead
He kept me alive through delight and malaise
Now you live, in my arms, in my stead
Revelation, consolation to me
Revelation, consolation to me

ANNA:
Creation groaned in my knees and my back
As I fasted and prayed every day
Now I forget the husband and child that I lack
As you cry in my arms and I sway
You're the answer to each of my prayers
You're the answer to each of my prayers
Bodies of doves are now broken for you
As your mother's was one month ago
They pass you to me and the Spirit is true
And your father's in tears as you go
You're the answer to each of my prayers
You're the answer to each of my prayers

Simeon & Anna

The Way the Whole Thing Ends (Gillian Welch cover)

An old Rich Mullins song that my brother and I recorded for our dad on Father's Day.

2019 demos

Hold Me Jesus (Dona Nobis Pacem)

Crooked Cross

Verse 1: Ebm - Ebm/Bb
Woke up in the night,
You weren’t feeling right,
You said, “Honey, you ought to know
We are not alone.”

Took me by the hand,
You said, “You know you are my man,”
But when your belly, it did show,
My eyes turned to stone

Chorus: Ebm
But you had the strangest dream
You had the strangest dream

Verse 2: Ebm - Ebm/Bb
The bile in my throat,
The burning in my eyes,
I pushed them both aside,
I had to decide

To let you go out in the night,
To bear the shame alone and quiet.
Peace be mine, a mourning dove;
I’d spare your life for love.

Chorus: Ebm
Then I had the strangest dream
I had the strangest dream

End: G# - A# - Eb
Do not — do not — do not — do not be afraid
To take her as your wife
Do not — do not — do not — do not be afraid
To take her as your wife
For that which is conceived in her — that which is conceived in her —
Is from the Holy
For that which is conceived in her — that which is conceived in her —
Is from the Holy

***

Image: Joseph's Dream by Rembrandt, oil on mahogany panel, 1645

Joseph

A Redwood Called Nadine

What Large Letters

wave of mutilation

Listen if you like quasi-folk music, storytelling, or songs about death. I write songs for a band called the Camellias. These are rough drafts.

Paul_Bowers

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