1. |
woodgrainthing
03:52
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I’m a little more passionate than you see
I can keep a little hidden inside of me and I will always be this way
It’s a wood grain thing
It’s tight and thin
Somewhere within
All these fragile things
It comes with age
Like a dog eared page
But it seems to frame
These God sent days
I’m a little more passionate than you see
I can keep a little hidden inside of me and I will always be this way
It’s like a dry stonewall
It’s old and small
But it’s lining all
These fields we walk
It’s like a favourite place
That you always praise
Somehow it remains
Within you, but anyway
I’m a little more passionate than you see
I can keep a little hidden inside of me and I will always be this way
It’s like a little box
That you don’t what’s
Beneath its top
So we’ll wait and watch
I’m a little more passionate than you see
I can keep a little hidden inside of me and I will always be this way
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2. |
From Inside
05:36
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Here I stand and watch the lightning from inside
Hear the rain, I hear thunder grumble sometimes
Waiting on a starless sky
I am wasting moments, wasting wondrous time
With the window open I can smell the wet air
Hear the rain arrive from way up there
Waiting on a starless sky
I am wasting moments, wasting wondrous time
Songs are never written I daylight, I find
Eating into sleeping hours I hold tight
Waiting on a word to write
I am wasting moments, wasting wondrous time
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3. |
My Trouser Pocket
03:52
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Free as a rope swing in the summer
Like a kite I chase the wind
Without you, without you
Without you, without you
Free as a tawny owl in the night time
Like the moon I am just watching
Strange to see you again, so strange to see you
Free as a ripple in the ocean
Like a wave I carry on
Free as a hole in my trouser pocket
Like the coin I am anyone’s
Without you, without you
Without you, without you
Free as an autumn leaf in the autumn
Like the ground I carry on
Strange to see you again, so strange to see you
When there’s a depth, a strain, an intrigue.
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4. |
Sarah
05:01
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Sarah, darling I’ll remember you with fondness and pride
You’re special to me, treasured even, but you're not quite mine
We were so slow to go
It hurts a little deep inside, a little deep underground
With these roots being intertwined and grown around
We were so slow to go
We took a long time to take our bow
You’ll be a long time fading out
It’s not an easy choice to make when it’s nicer to stay
We lingered, we were clutching fingers as we walked away
It was so hard to leave
I’m strangely proud of the pain we’re feeling now
There’s something to commemorate, it feels good somehow
We were so slow to know
We took a long time to take our bow
You’ll be a long time fading out
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5. |
I Broke My Lead on This
05:16
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I remember it with unnerving clarity
I hold dearly the way you held me
A simple phone call was the way that it dawned
‘Have you heard the news, James, at all?’
A heart beat heavy as another stopped
I stood in the kitchen with the ticking clock
The normal daylight came through the normal window
But what about a second on the list at 17 though?
I broke my lead on this one
I would hold it back, I would hold it back
I tried but I couldn’t listen
To ‘The Local Boy in The Photograph’
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6. |
The Way She Would Sit
04:59
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Candle glowing sticky ochre flame clings to
The fingers of a man sitting silently
He is strangely aware of his hands and face
He has held them close together these past days
All he can hear, is his own breath
Ringing out clear
In the cold air, alone in this house
He sits on the stairs
He’s sad in his heart, he’s sad in his soul,
For missing his darling so
The stones of the church wall have seen him when he
Has been most joyful and when he’s been most real
Most like he’s free, and most ambitious and
Most close to tears, or with an
Excitement like he is dancing on the inside
And he now is…
Sad in his heart, he’s sad in his soul,
For missing his darling so
He misses her laughter, her smile and her smell,
The way she would sit and the way she would tell
Him she loved him
His mind and his candle flame are all he knows
But there’s more than this slow, clumsy amber glow,
The one he has loved throughout his life
Sits with him now, without his wife
She’s gone, now, to heaven, she’s gone to the grave
And he’s praising the Lord her soul was saved!
Sad in his heart, he’s sad in his soul,
For missing his darling so
He misses her laughter, her smile and her smell,
The way she would sit and the way she would tell
Him she loved him
I’ll miss you
I’ll miss you, darling o darling
I’ll miss you now I’m gone
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7. |
It Was a Brandy Night
03:17
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We lie, we give, we try, we live, we wait like a seed we’ll never sow
But hope is like a firefly that’s lights up a single spot on the darkest night
Oh, I love mysterious and serious but the tediousness cuts us both
So we stay, we go, we wait, we know we’ll join like raindrops on a windowpane
Wait a little more I’d say
Wait a little more
Like it snowed but never settled was the way we’d spend our time, forgettable,
But then the fireflies, the sky alive, it was a brandy night
We had a wooden seat and underneath the teak trees, oh we had our time
To unravel all, and travel on, and find that the path unfurled from its start early on
Wait a little more I’d say
Wait a little more
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8. |
God and I'm Not
04:56
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You know, my God doesn’t fit into the boxes I make, but he’s God and I’m not,
And he does not play by the rules in my head, but he’s God and I’m not.
“You let me down”, says a woman of forty five
Dying on her hospital bed, with tears and anger in her eyes
“You let me down, you let me drown like a stone
With no grandchildren but this cancer in my bones.”
You know, my God doesn’t fit into the boxes I make, but he’s God and I’m not,
And he does not play by the rules in my head, but he’s God and I’m not.
“I am dying son so I guess that proves your God was never there”
The letter read, as it leaves the boy confused and he says,
“I prayed for you, ‘cause God loves you too and I think he’d want
You to go to heaven now but I’m afraid that I think you're not, but
You know, my God doesn’t fit into the boxes I make, but he’s God and I’m not,
And he does not play by the rules in my head, but he’s God and I’m not.”
It seems just like an excuse or self-defence,
A consolation, despite the evidence.
But if love is blind then I’m happy to be led
And its not denial, no, but its faith and hope instead.
And with her dying breath she feels the fear of the dead end of her life
So she asks God, “can I come to heaven although I’ve denied
You my whole life? I’d be surprised ‘cause now I’m useless!”
And the greatest mystery of all is God says “yes”
You know, my God doesn’t fit into the boxes I make, but he’s God and I’m not,
And he does not play by the rules in my head, but he’s God and I’m not.”
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James Christie Brown Harpenden, UK
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