1. |
Home
02:52
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Home Winter 2010
Twenty-five swans, give or take ,
Out in the rain, out on the lake
Little hummingbird, beneath my eaves
The life I lead, a life of ease
Between the swans and the hummingbird
Power poles and lines converge
And the road it winds & the chain link fence
Serves only to remind of a first line of defence
There’s a line I learned to draw,
when I was young across my page
There set the sun, from the vanishing point
All lines approached, an ever-widening road
There arose my home
A sliver of moon has bent the light
Just enough to reach here tonight
The stereo glows to a Dylan tune
Most of what I learned I learned too soon
But what I feel and what I know
Flows like iron in my bones
Fingers of fire snap along
To the heretic muse, the relic song
And the daughter knows and claps her hands
Somewhere off the beaten path swings a ramshackle band
And there’s a line I’ve learned to draw
As I grow old, across my page
Somewhere halfway between all that has
Been set to a straight edge
Apart from this
There I raise my home
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2. |
Threshold II
02:57
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Threshold II Spring 2014
This the early, early morning,
Song that whispered through my veins
Took the sleep that wound around
Gently brought my soul awake
These the birds already singing
Every day the same
The light something to celebrate
Each dawn a holiday
Float plane unzips the sky now
Rush of traffic ocean wave
Without an ebb without an exhale
Til darkness and end of day
And I've stood here before
On the threshold hand to door
Is it the brave who follow through
Or those with nothing to lose
A week in Barcelona
One more inland and then back home
To the ever-widening electric console
The clock, the grindstone
There's a cabin by the river
Sparrow in the eves
Perfect spider perfect web
Shimmers in light and morning breeze
And I've stood here before
On the threshold hand to door
Is it the brave who follow through
Or those with nothing to lose
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3. |
Communion
03:37
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Communion Spring 2014
Gonna lay out a bridge across a watery canyon
Throw down a span over a great divide
With the girders strung the deck all fastened down
It’s time to go to the other side
One step at a time across the chasm
Arms held out wide almost home
And here we are in the arms of the not forgotten ones
Brass band trumpets our safe return
Long the nights we conjured up this arrival
All this time apart who knew communion would be so good
Now the desert looms like an empty coffer
Void of all the gifts that will sustain
Move the body sift the memory
Search out water in this land of Cain
And here we are in the arms of the not forgotten ones
Brass band trumpets our safe return
Long the nights we conjured up this arrival
All this time apart who knew communion would be so good
High mountain pass snow comes down heavy now
Heavy o’er the shoulders forward motion bound
Finally the summit the way tilts in favour
All praise descent then level ground
And here we are in the arms of the not forgotten ones
Brass band trumpets our safe return
Long the nights we conjured up this arrival
All this time apart who knew communion would be so good
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4. |
Panama Flats
04:11
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Panama Flats Summer 2011
Amblin’ out on the Panama flats
At last in search of a bird or two
The day is gone the kids drift on
Finally nothing left to do
Much of the colour has headed south
Or tumbled on down to blend in the dirt
I listen for calls, wings beating on water
The scratch and whistle of life on earth
Patio stones strewn with blossoms
Yesterday’s glory tomorrow’s poems
She rides her tricycle around in the middle
Saying, I’m off to Mexico
And she says the drum beat, is the same as my breath
At three she’s got a lot figured out
And whether she’s right, or it just seems right to say
To me either rings true at the end of the day
Happiness comes in a hundred little ways
And leaves in a flutter of unease as sure as night shutters the day
You and I have got a little dancin’ here to do
So dress up in your flannel, let’s see this winter through
Shunting of trains there on the rug
The biggest collision that ever was
Tunnels collapse, trestle bents strain
Ah darling we’ll build it up again
From Port Aux Basques down to Saint John’s
Along the highway a gas stop
We saunter out back, discarded pop bottles
We shatter them all with well aimed rock
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5. |
Lively Mountain
03:10
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Lively Mountain Winter 2014
Down on my knees neath the yellow cedar trees
I'm looking for sign a meaningful line
Blaze cut in the bark sticks laid as an arrow mark
A path a way, an easier day
Drawn by an urge, the tug of a curious nerve
To the mountain side, closer to life
As if a courier pigeon had flown with an invitation a poem
Come abide with me, among the trees
He'd said come on up to the cabin there's a halo around the moon
The brook has froze, just follow the crows
Past the waterfall below the ridge where the ptarmigan call
There I reside, on the mossy side
For now apart from the sidewalk,
I walk along the sighing forest chest
Each step and breath, a curious descent into this lively death
Closer now I can feel the same breeze as the bows
That sweep the sky, the poet's sky
With an alien nose I take in the scent of the falling snow
The tang of the pine, warm animal sign
I'm a foreigner here, the senses have made it clear
Still I long to be as at home as he
He'd said come on up through the woods
there's a little wine and a little food
On the table tonight, I'll seat you fireside
And if snow mounds round the door, you'll stay for a week or more
We'll sort this out, let the wind counter doubt
For now apart from the sidewalk,
I walk along the sighing forest chest
Each step and breath, a curious descent into this lively death
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6. |
Rivers of Old
03:14
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Rivers of Old Summer 2014
There are bass in the river leaping like squirrels
While in high branches squirrels swing about like five year old girls
The moon has bounced half way cross the sky
And I need the water it seems I need to be baptized
Roll over my soul
Roll over my soul
Roll over my soul like the rivers of old
There's a crowd in the alley one hand in the air
Shunting locomotion bodies a dizzy affair
Rat-a-tat-tat of Brazilian drums
Triangles and sousaphones implore the waters to come and roll
And roll over my soul
Roll over my soul
Roll over my soul like the rivers of old
A million bats 'neath an old Austin bridge
I join them and look out at light on the water shift
Oh to be a part of something so grand
Voices in unison echoing off the span
Rolling over my soul
Rolling over my soul
Roll on over my soul like the rivers of old
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7. |
sketch/New Year
06:51
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New Year Winter 2015
14 swans on the ice of the viaduct
asleep their beaks in their wings
White moon over the jail on Wilkinson,
so alive to what the new year will bring
Freedom is s coffeepot, the element glowing
Beauty sundown over the flats
I'll go and play my trumpet for the dead and not forgotten
Raise a toast to the looking glass
And I'll sing, for you my friend
As each day unfolds, you'll ride the light 'til that day's end
When you close your eyes, you'll know the truth
Whether you've moved or dealt in the manner that you were meant to
Blackbird trills on a cattail spire, suddenly I'm five
In the back of a pick-up with a roll of barb wire,
he's on the fence as we motor on by
Freedom two wheels rolling in your favour
Beauty Miles with the phones on
I'll take my direction with an eye to the hills
Say a benediction for all done and gone
And I'll sing, for you my friend
As each day unfolds, you'll ride the light 'til that day's end
When you close your eyes, you'll know the truth
Whether you've moved or dealt in the manner that you were meant to
Down on the beach on a January morn sun about to round the curve
Broke from my bungalow hours ago
I've come to relish my time on earth
Freedom is a bufflehead ahead of schedule
Beauty fire in a circle of stones
I take my medicine in a double dosage
Douse the flames and set out for home
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Roger Dean Young & the Tin Sea Victoria, British Columbia
Roger Dean Young is a singer-songwriter sprung from the foothills of Alberta and deposited on the West Coast of British Columbia.
Roger Dean Young & the Tin Sea recommends:
Late Riser
by The Abramson Singers
The Abramson Singer makes me believe
go to album
Well Below The Stream
by Spotted Boy
where it all began
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