LOVE FROM PUERTO RICO 🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷💖💖💖

first listen to sparkbird ever .. came here from the short that had a mechs reference 🙏

Sparkbird

Hush! hush!
Listen to the Varied Thrush
The freezing rain has
Pushed them down into the valley
With the rest of us
Flushed
From the comfortably lush
Forest floor
They draw their bows across
Serrated edges of
Musical saws and crush
The frigid, sharply pointed hearts
Of icicles like us

Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush...

Swish! swish!
The Osprey hovers seeking fish
The glassy pond
Displays the menu but won't serve the dish
To birds who wish
To linger when
The air turns cold
Defying pressure
To defer to Cackling Geese
And Western

Gulls, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish...

Who doesn't wish they could
Begin
To leave?
Who doesn't wish they could
Believe
In letting something end?
We have these wishes
But we're hung up
On a superstitious
Focus on the family
We see in Collared Doves
With love much stronger
Than we probably
Should ever hope
For ours to be.

Are we a "we are" today?
Will we be a "we will be" tomorrow?
Were we a "we were" already
Long ago?
We don't know
What price makes sense to pay,
So we settle for indebted sorrow,
Never knowing we could dine and
Dash into that nullifying snow.

Thrash! thrash!
The so-called trash birds
Taking baths
Betray their cuteness
In the recklessness with which
They lash
Their lustrous feathers
Petroleum with flecks of ash
In an unseasonable
Puddle
Glaciating fast

Splash, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, freeze,
Splash, splash, splash,
Freeze, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, freeze,
Splash, splash, splash...

Hush! hush!
Listen to the Varied Thrush
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!
Listen to the Varied Thrush,
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!

Varied Thrush

The Crooked, The Cradle

2nd place winner of Yishan Wong's 2021 Solarpunk Art Contest! 🎉
medium.com/@yishan/solarpunk-art-contest-2021-winners-d935df357c84

Lyrics:

A city in ruin
But only for the blink of an eye
A pitiful tune
But only for a moment in time
In the long run

We came back to these old streets
When the barriers had all gotten
Buried at sea
And when these buildings all
Turned green
We agreed
It’s better than it used to be

How long has it been
Since we last felt fear of the sun and the wind
And how long will it be till we feel
The Metropolis of Eden we live in is real?

A city in bloom
A city with that adapts to survive
A little more room
For underdogs and misfits to thrive

In the rooftop gardens
The Purple Finches are pecking out the eyes
Of the wild yellow sunflowers
Smiling at vanilla skies
And you and I are finally free
To do the things we like
Be it making art or making out
And stargazing every night, and oh
How sweet would it be
If an Eastern Phoebe nested
On the balcony, and oh
How sweet to begin
Seeing life as a gift,
Not a contest to win

We came back to these old streets
When the barriers had all gotten
Buried at sea
And when these buildings all
Turned green
We agreed
It’s better than it used to be

How long has it been
Since we last felt fear of the sun and the wind
And how long will it be till we feel
The Metropolis of Eden we live in is real?

How long has it been
Since we last felt fear of the sun and the wind
And how long will it be till we feel
The Metropolis of Eden we live in is real?

A city in bloom
(We can do the things we like)
A city in bloom
(We can do the things we like)
A city in bloom
(We can do the things we like)
A city in bloom
credits
releases December 24, 2021
Music & lyrics by Stephan Nance
Arrangement by Stephan Nance

Piano/vocals/synths - Stephan Nance
Percussion - Mathias Kunzli

Mixing & mastering by Thaddeus Moore, Liquid Mixing & Mastering

Recorded in Portland and Los Angeles

Artwork by Leif Holt
Graphic design by Chad Lowe

Metropolis of Eden

team best, last life
credits to cherrifire for the cover

the crane w̶i̶v̶e̶s̶ lives - can't have it all

Lyrics:

One small sound
One small word 
In tongues all over the world
I said it
I said it 
One small word
I said it
I didn't
I said it
I didn't
Tongues all over

Can't pick them out
Can't press them in 
I'll never hide my scars
Can't pick them out
Can't press them in
I'll never hide my scars 
I'll never hide my scars 

One small sound
One small sight 
One unsheathed knife must glint 
In an alternate timeline's light
One rust-ridden blade juts out 
Of a friendly moonstruck shape
To tear, tear terribly, terribly
Tear, tear terribly 
The delicate crepe of night

Familiarity breeds
Indifference
Familiarity breeds discontent
Familiarity breeds
Indifference
Familiarity breeds discontent

My other time machine
A pungent, putrid brownish-green 
November smile 
Blandishing my two-timing door

One small sound
One small bite
One tomial tooth
One Loggerhead Shrike must skewer 
My invertebrate doppelgänger 
On barbed wire in a parallel universe 

My tongue parallelly bleeds 
One small drop 
In a monthful of blood 
In tongues all over the world
I said it, I didn't
It doesn't matter
What I said or didn't
Admit it
You were never going to get it
I was always gonna get it

Can't pick them out
Can't press them in 
I'll never hide my scars
Can't pick them out
Can't press them in
I'll never hide my
Familiarity breeds
Familiarity breeds

Not only is it thicker
Blood is stickier than water
Maybe that's relevant somehow
Can I explode now?

Credits:
Music & lyrics by Stephan Nance
Produced by Josh Frigo
Co-produced by Stephan Nance
Keyboard, vocals, backing vocals - Stephan Nance
Drums & percussion - Mathias Kunzli
Bass - Jeni Magana
Strings arrangement - Stephan Nance and Michelle Packman
Strings - Bizarre Star Strings:
• Patti King - violin
• Kyleen King - viola
• Anna Fritz -  cello
Guitar, additional backing vocals - Josh Frigo
Vocal coaching - Nevada Jones and Adam Sweeney
Vocals recorded at The Map Room
Vocal session engineer - Adam Sweeney
Mixed by Josh Frigo
Mastered by Alex Dobbert
Artwork - Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design - Chad Lowe

November

Taking Turns (live) - The Crane Wives

How strange I am to all
How strange to sleep so long

Not a soul, not a soul
Will meet my gaze or greet me
And the carob tree’s brittle leaves
Rattle hoarsely on the wind

“You are out of time
You are out of favor
You are but a cipher
You are the circle maker
You are out of time
You are out of favor
You are but a cipher
You are the circle maker

“How strange you are to all
How strange to sleep so long

“How strange to grow so old
And to never grow up
And to never grow tall
And to never grow wise
And to never grow anything
But smaller and farther away”

How strange I am to all
How strange to sleep so long

But in sleep, I may dream
Fairy lights illuminating everything
Everyone gathered all around me
Singing a song

Only the carob tree
Will keep me company
Oh, bitter friend
Oh, beloved enemy
Symbol of the time gone by
And stretching out in front of me
A lonely life of any length is like eternity

And I am out of time
I am out of favor
I am but a cipher
I am the circle maker
Praying for the rain
Paying for the prayer
Begging for a sign that I was
Ever even there

How strange I am to all
How strange to sleep so long

To sleep to feel seen
To sleep perchance to dream

The Circle Maker

The Circle Maker (Demo)

Lyrics:

If the double-row eighteen-cylinder
Air-cooled radial engine
Is not enough to tip you off
Before he slips you off the needle
Drops you into unstitched space
The wasteland which henceforth
Shall be referred to as “your place”

The captain lives by the sword
And the captain loves by the sword
When the captain dies by the sword
He'll leave you trapped in the cockpit
Crying out "Mayday!"

When a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher aerial courtship
Nosedives in a blitzkrieg from that Whiskey Delta
You can tell the backyard bomber
Never helmed a cargo crate
He croaks out undoing and doom
To the wishful safety net
You jeopardized your life to loom

The captain lives by the sword
And the captain loves by the sword
Once you elope with the captain
You'll leave on a sordid honeymoon
Trapped in the cockpit
Crying out "Mayday!"

Always the last and never the least
Always the fast and never the feast
Always the cult of domesticity
Always the jolts of electricity
Always surpassed and never decreased
Always amassed and never released
Always the past controls your mind
Never the peace you hoped to God you'd finally find

The captain lives by the sword
And the captain loves by the sword
And when he dies by the sword
He’ll reward you for your obedience
For your countenance has woven in at every turn

Even as the back, even as the back
Of the hand
Even as the back, even as the back
Of the hand still burns
Even as the back, even as the back
Of the hand still burns
From the last airstrike

Credits:
Music and lyrics - Stephan Nance
Piano/vocals/backing vocals - Stephan Nance
Programming/bass guitar/guitars/banjo/organ/keys - Josh Frigo
Violin/viola/cello - Yoed Nir
Double bass - Jeni Magana
Trumpet - John Lake
Trombone/bass trombone - Becca Patterson
French horn - Meredith Moore
Piccolo/flute/oboe/clarinet/bassoon - Josh Plotner
Percussion - Mathias Kunzli
Drums - Aksel Coe
Orchestral arrangement - Josh Plotner
Vocal recording engineer - Adam Sweeney
Mixing - Josh Frigo
Mastering - Alex Dobbert
Artwork - Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design - Chad Lowe

Mayday!

All my antics and my gibberish 
Put a damper on my sentences; 
I'm a [cuddlefish/cuttlefish] 
Trying to cover up my incompetence. 
Maybe your fancy just isn't ticklish— 
Maybe your heart belongs to another fish— 
But on your part that'd be foolish. 
Baby, I think you ought to think through this. 

The sea is big, big, big, 
And it's full of scary things! 
Like great white sharks, 
And colossal squid! 
And I'm worried about you... 
I don't want you to get hurt. 
I don’t want you to get hurt... 
I don’t want you to get hurt. 

If you love something 
(So they say) 
You should set it free. 
But I disagree— 
'Cause I can safely say that 
Catching and releasing 
Isn't what I'd want for me. 

I know I know better than you do 
What is best for you to do— 
Can't you see the logic there? 
It's superlogical. 
My perspective is an outside one, 
And that's really saying something 
'Cause we don't have mirrors 
And since we're under the water, 
There isn't a surface 
For you to see your reflection in... 
Not that you don't look nice! 
(In fact, how wonderful you look 
Is exactly what the problem is....) 

The sea is big, big, big, 
And it's full of scary things! 
Like great white sharks, 
And colossal squid! 
And I'm worried about you... 
I don't want you to get hurt. 
I don’t want you to get hurt... 
I don’t want you to get hurt. 

It guts me every time 
I hear you're frequenting 
Such sketchy dives. 
It's not like it's a crime, 
But what if you get caught by a scuba diver 
Just like Nemo and I can't find you? 

Still I'd never cease my quest for you— 
What else would there be for me to do? 
Sure, there are plenty of fishes in the ocean, 
But not one of them could ever get a hook in my devotion. 
So my love for you supports recent scholarly publications 
Reporting that fish have a greater capacity for memory 
Than was previously believed, 
And I will miss you for the rest of my life.


from A Troubled Piece of Fruit, released 23 July 2012

Stephan Nance, piano/vocals

Stephan Nance — Cuddlefish

Land in my mind 
Crawling through the sound 
I found it 
Now I recognize it 
Everywhere 
Everywhere it's aground

Swimming up a concrete river 
Paddling through pine and pavement 
I melted 
Blent in and then 
Recemented

Inside an unprotected 
Hostel suite 
Astride a bicycle 
Defrosting wheat 
Atop a tower with an 
Unrevolving view 
Of illuminated sails

Grey and green 
Grey and green 
The brightest blue could 
Never come between 
Grey and green and 
Amber

Rowing toward a lowered drawbridge 
Clambering onto the Seawall 
Confecting cloud-covered cinnamon rolls 
Wowed by crowds of 
Glaucous-winged Gulls

See? 
No sea. 
Look at the harlequins! 
—I wish you'd said to me. 
Over a decade I discerned 
A path 
My passport went defunct 
Now that junket's out of reach

Grey and green 
Grey and green 
The reddest flags 
Forever come between 
Grey and green and 
Amber

Everybody's body sways 
In unfamiliar funny ways 
Traveling on rainbow 
Wheels of color down below 
The crows pecking suet-surfaced streets 
The subway sounds resounding beats 
Beckoning me to retreat 
On the heels of mighty feet!

But where there's a will 
There's a way 
And I will 
Every day 
Until I dry 
Every day until I dry—

Wait 
Wait 
Don't tell me 
Blare the Heritage Horns 
But I won't leave

I haven't heard firstear 
The 9 o'clock gun 
Or the steam chimes

I've yet to feel firstfoot 
The boom of the Sooty Grouse 
In the mountain woods

I have more notes to take 
On the colors of the 
Land in my mind

I have a wish 
To blow through the mist 
Of the dandelion fountain

I have a truth 
To seek in the xeriscape 
Of the hill on the hill

I have 
a past, a present, and a future 
In this city

Maybe no more than moments 
But there's still a possibility.

Stephan Nance - vocals, piano
Jon Caponetto - trombone
Amy Kappeler - flute
Tim McLaughlin - trumpet
Nehemiah Nance - trumpet
Additional vocals - Adam Caswell, Amy Kappeler, Lyle Nance, Rebecca Waterman
Arrangement - Adam Caswell & Stephan Nance

Grey & Green

Teeth chatter 
Automatically 
A beat clicking double-time 
To the crunch of snow 
An animal 
Licks a beater 
A Northern Flicker 
Clucks a whimper 
A beep goes off inside— 
Is it time 
— or just a timer?

Decalcomania 
Ironed on our hides by the 
Scarlet fever-stricken 
Two-bit hypocritical 
Neo-Puritans 
Turning on a dime.

What are they? 
A little more than kin 
And less than kind 
We live in the same 
But we run on 
Different time.

You are safe 
You are sound 
You are safe 
You are sound

I feel your frequency 
Resonate at my core 
Enkindle my extremities 
Echo through my bones 
Hiccup out its tones
[ . . . ]

We face apocalypses every day 
And fumble stricken phrases 
We ball up to play:

When we feel forlorn 
Just keep peeling those little oranges 
They keep stealing, we keep peeling 
Stuck on an uneven keeling 
Every Great and Snowy Egret's 
Speaking of my evening grossness 
Every Evening Grosbeak's 
Speaking of my great and snowy egress 
Even if we deviate 
Even if we deviate 
The ice rink's set to counterclockwise 
There's no exit till we skate

I lurch along the verge 
A strawberryless frozen biscuit 
My flimsy figure zero traps 
A miraculous lemniscate 
When the intercom comes through 
I think I've lost my refound calling 
Oh, Winter Tanager 
You help me walk but you leave me crawling. 
You are a cardinal 
You are a cardinal 
And I should be so lucky 
As to be a part of you at all

You are safe 
You are sound 
You are safe 
You are sound 
[ . . . ]

You bring the tropics to these chilly parts 
The contrast shocks my system 
Chilblains swell upon my heart.

Stephan Nance - vocals, piano
Simeon Brown - violin
Milo Fultz - upright bass
Hannah Murawsky - bassoon
Hannah Pell - oboe
Lizzy Donovan - cello 
Merlin Showalter - drums, percussion
Arrangement - Stephan Nance & Merlin Showalter

Overwintered

No one can see
My bravery;
I stomp on humdrum ground,
I navigate mundane terrain.
But all the same,
An ancient flame
Ignites a fervency that
Surges into every vein.

Dash, jump, climb, crawl!
Gotta get out, gotta get out—
Dart, dive, fly, tumble!
Gotta get out, gotta get out
Gotta get you out, out, out!

In a previous life
I surely
Swept you off your feet
And carried you away
From the choking ash
And scorching heat,
To begin anew
Beyond the ruins of Pompeii
And to live
To see another sunny day.

On every list
Of things to do,
An unchecked box reminds me
That the task of saving you
Remains undone
And unbegun
And unfulfillable 
Until the day we need to run
Until the day we need to run
We need to run—

Dash, jump, climb, crawl!
Gotta get out, gotta get out—
Dart, dive, fly, tumble!
Gotta get out, gotta get out
Gotta get you out, out, out!

In a previous life
I surely
Swept you off your feet
And carried you away
From the choking ash
And scorching heat,
To begin anew
Beyond the ruins of Pompeii
And to live
To see another sunny day.

From form to form,
From place to place,
From birth to birth,
From death to death,
From earth to outer space—
From Plague and flood,
From fire and blight,
From each catastrophe
That threatens to eclipse your light—

Dash, jump, climb, crawl!
Gotta get out, gotta get out—
Dart, dive, fly, tumble!
Gotta get out, gotta get out
Gotta get you out, out, out!

To begin anew
Beyond the ruins of Pompeii
And to live
To see another sunny day.

Stephan Nance - vocals, piano, synth
Simeon Brown - violin
Maddi Krafve - alto & tenor saxophones
Tim McLaughlin - trumpet
Lizzy Donovan - cello
Arrangement - Adam Caswell & Stephan Nance

Grey & Green

Sparkbird

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Jon 🌴🌈|👁️📼|🍋☎️|🔲🔳|♥️🧠🔱|🚦

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