1. |
Nuts From The Hazel Tree
03:18
|
|||
|
When I was young I used to look for hazels after church
Long in seeking, hard to gain but better for the search
Crack the shell to find the meat, rich and pale and wild and sweet
Poet, mage and madman eat -- nuts from the hazel tree.
Wisdom's pride hazels hide;
Hazel graces sacred places,
Wind and tide, scatter them wide;
Nuts from the hazel tree.
Seedlings stretch to see the sun from secret roots below
From a single nut a spreading hazel grove may grow
For story is by story fanned; poets, singers, authors stand
Scattering from either hand, nuts from the hazel tree.
I come to hear you sing for me the restful hazel shade
The rising dust of time and sorrow in my soul has laid
A thirst that only magic slakes, answered when the zephyr wakes
Where its careless footstep shakes -- nuts from the hazel tree.
Journeying consider well how life and story link
Anyone may hunger for the poet's meat and drink
Always take a satchel strong, stuffed with story and with song
When you journey take along -- nuts from the hazel tree.
|
||||
2. |
Bold Adventurer
01:54
|
|||
|
I thank ye for the flower but I fear I cannot stay
Come get off my cloak my girl, and let me go my way,
I had your firstest kiss, you say, why honored, that I be
(But) I'm a bold adventurer; you cannot go with me.
You fling your arms about my neck; you say you love me so
When your eyes are full of tears, it's hard to tell you no.
But hush your silly crying girl; how can I make you see?
I'm a bold adventurer; you cannot go with me.
I think you wouldn't like the moldy bread I sometimes eat
The rocks would leave such bruises on your dainty little feet
The first we met a nasty dog, I'm sure you'd turn and flee
I'm a bold adventurer; you cannot go with me.
Your Da would sure call out the guard to take me any day
That such as I should think to steal his darling girl away.
Your Ma would want my head for that, for sure and right she'd be...
I'm a bold adventurer; you cannot go with me.
In the end we wouldn't suit; the reason I will state:
I am twenty seven, lass, and you--are only eight.
So come and dry those crystal tears it breaks my heart to see.
I'm a bold adventurer; you cannot go with me.
You asked my help to cross the ford, but that was just a ruse--
When I went to set you down, I found you'd stole my shoes.
You've had your story, and your song; take pity on my plea--
I'm a bold adventurer--you cannot go with me!
|
||||
3. |
Quaddie Ballet
03:33
|
|||
|
At a nexus deep in Quaddie space I tumbled off my ship,
My first time out on station on an interstellar trip.
I had orders to find culture, so I went to find a way,
And this weird old guy suggested I should see their ballet.
I was staring right and leftward, I was gawking up and down,
Like those dumb Dendarii hillfolk on their first trip to town.
I had only thought to visit here, but now I want to stay.
I lost my heart forever at the Quaddie ballet.
Now these folks are pretty different; they've got hands instead of feet.
It's "handy" in free fall, but it's startling to meet.
But they're poetry in motion, if you ever have a chance
You owe it to yourself to come and see how they dance.
That was how I saw her, like the dancer of the dawn,
Shining like a comet's tail and soaring like a swan.
My heart broke into pieces at the sight of her soul,
And miracles were granted when her love made me whole.
My captain didn't like it and my messmates made it stick.
They said mutants made on purpose were just spooky and sick.
When they dragged me from her arms, the bastards put her in a cast.
I just don't understand how things went crazy so fast.
She is strength and grace and power; she is beauty given life.
And I'll have to leave my home if I would have her for my wife.
For Barrayar hates mutants and that's all that they would see.
I'll stay with her I love, because she can't come with me.
|
||||
4. |
Goodbye You Willamette
03:50
|
|||
|
Goodbye you Willamette; your daylights and darks
Are graced with a garland of bridges and parks.
Mother of pearl, are the clouds in the sky,
While langorous water goes murmuring by.
Of all of the faces my home has to show
I see but the fairest the hour I must go.
Rocky and steep at the end of the day
Is the road homeward when taken away.
Hard by the highway the hills I have seen
Draped in a velvet of golden and green,
Fields of the finest of foodstuff that grows
Fashioned by farmers in corduroy rows.
Mount Hood rises royal, with snow in her hair
Veiled in blue linen as light as the air
Dignity's dresses are certainly hers--
The throne of her foothills all covered in firs.
Eastward of Portland Columbia spills
Blue as a gem between forested hills;
Cliffs cup the valley, and down the rock stair
Waterfalls braid like a maid's flowing hair.
|
||||
5. |
The Living Earth
04:23
|
|||
|
It is the fragrant eve of June and all the world is green,
Buried in the highway's roar, so much flies past unseen,
Even through the windshield glass, I mark the dancing crows
And how the freeway fences shelter buds of wild rose.
The radish and the redwood tree a dozen cycles link,
Plants that make our food and clean the water that we drink.
The sun sustains us all through these, like pearls upon a string,
A thread, a web, a tapestry, through every living thing.
I bike to work and walk to church and hang my clothes to dry,
But who has seen the salmon run, or watched the condor fly?
Let us make ourselves a place that will not leave a scar,
And let our passing leave the threads no weaker than they are.
For oilfields or superstores, we tear the trees away
Jostling the balance binding predator and prey
Depending on the web of life for every breath we draw
On the heap of injury we toss another straw.
The strings we pull for power's sake, to run our own affairs
Are raveling the tapestry till even weather tears.
Concrete breaks as dandelions stretch toward the light.
There never was a living thing would yield without a fight
Let's leave the streams their flooding room, where spring's wild rhythms run
Build to take advantage of the gifts of wind and sun,
Opt for fewer children, while we teach the ones we've borne
To weave our life lines back into the tapestry we've torn
Frogs and crickets sing of love, and ask nobody's leave,
The blackbird wears his hopeful heart upon his feathered sleeve,
Flowers don their dresses now, to lure the passing bee;
In June, to love the living earth, comes easily to me.
|
||||
6. |
Mortal Clay
05:49
|
|||
|
The mandolin was flirting and the bodhran stamped and danced
The women's skirts were swirling and the menfolk smiled and glanced
Laughter in the shadows kissed the magic in the air,
When I glanced around the circle and my husband wasn't there.
When I turned to seek him in the dark, among the sheaves
The earth gave way beneath me in a storm of flying leaves
I fell and heard the music change, unearthly pure and chill,
And knew myself an idiot who'd blundered Underhill.
I scrambled to my stinging knees, trembling with fright
And scarcely dared look up to see a Lady crowned in light.
The music shattered in my ears; I found I couldn't rise,
For in the crowd about her throne I met my husband's eyes.
I heard the smile in her voice, malice chiming fair,
"So mortal, have you come to play the dancing of the air?"
She offered me a challenge any bard well understands.
A flute of mist and magic in the moonlight of her hands.
My hands were coarse and dirty, next to hers so fine and fair;
I hid them in my pockets, and I found an ally there.
Hope rose up and whispered I might fashion if I tried
The key to win my husband from the blindness of her pride.
"Surely, noble lady, though your magic flute may sing
True skill can pull enchantment from the coarsest mortal thing.
Who owns the finest instrument can't show our music's worth,
But who can play that instrument that's closest to the earth."
I didn't quite take fire from the smolder of her glare
Too much earth about me and too little fire and air;
She flung the moonlit flute away; how terrible she stood
Brandishing a whistle made of simple mortal wood.
She raised it to her blood red lip and sighed its voice awake
Her every breath enchantment, and her skill without mistake
My blood and passion quickened as her melody advanced.
Till if I could have risen I am sure I would have danced.
I'm not the best musician in the mortal lands around
Even in my village better players can be found.
But reaching in my pocket I drew trembling breath to play
Rough as any stone, an ocarina made of clay.
Her hold undone I rose and wiped my hands upon my skirt.
For she had played on mortal wood, but I had played the dirt.
"Go free and take your man" she said, "but bear my words in mind.
You've tricked me once, a second time's not given to your kind."
|
||||
7. |
Two Falls Out Of Three
04:37
|
|||
|
Capable hands on a tabletop fold
Girt with such power to give or withhold
Desire was written in blood on my face
Aflame at this chance to crawl back into grace.
My pacing is bounded here, tied up in knots
Driven, constrained, like my circling thoughts
Like thread winding tighter the harder I flee
I wrestle temptation two falls out of three.
He sees me too well; we are two of a tribe,
From weasel to weasel, an elegant bribe.
The price is to finish, as quick as I can
This Audit, condemning an innocent man.
But why? All his passion is given, I'd say
To Simon's old job, he has taken--away.
I bounce off the walls as I grapple his plan
Finding the motive, uncovers the man!
Security's chief will not lightly be caught
Accusing Haroche, I'll get only one shot.
I wonder what "accidents" he might approve;
Pounding the carpet I ponder my move
But wait just a second; suppose I accept
And turn him in later with evidence kept?
Of course, I'd be witness he couldn't afford...
But hey, while it lasted, we wouldn't be bored.
But facing the moment, the questions recede.
If I knew he'd play straight--I still wouldn't concede
The webs fall away, I am steadied and warmed
Shedding my tangle, emerging transformed
The power of ImpSec he wears like a cloak
Leaving a trail made of mirrors and smoke
But I'll be the one who finds proof of his crimes
Who wrestled temptation and pinned it two times!
The answer I reach for I cannot evoke...
How shall I catch him in mirrors and smoke, mirrors and smoke, mirrors and...AIR FILTERS!
|
||||
8. |
O, Sumer!
04:42
|
|||
|
How, O Sumer! Thy mighty are felled,
Thy bright wealth is looted, by others enjoyed
Thy princes are captives, to labor compelled
Thy city demolished, thy temple destroyed.
What has become of the tablets of law
Broken to shards that no whisk will reveal
Clay that our scholars once studied with awe
Dust ground to dust by a plundering heel!
From teacher to student the mystery runs:
The humblest clay holds our words after death.
We struggled to writing through pictures and puns
And history first became more than a breath.
Bright as new bronze was the warriors' wrath
The streets where they passed painted crimson with blood
Poetry, law and religion and math
Where writing is gone are but leaves on the flood
Who can be silent, oh who can find rest?
The souls of the scribes have been shaken and dashed
Jackals and owls in our libraries nest
Our wellspring and heritage stolen and smashed.
Our works have all faded, our kings but a list
The faintest of ghosts, we won't even be mourned.
It was by creation we hoped to persist
Yet all we created is shattered and scorned.
What has become of the tablets of law
Broken to shards that no whisk will reveal
Clay that our scholars once handled with awe
Dust ground to dust by a plundering heel!
|
||||
9. |
United 93
03:46
|
|||
|
From pocket, purse and seatback, the telephones arise
Victims of a hijack, calling home to say goodbyes
Learn it's no coincidence; the networks all have shown
Lives and buildings pulverized in fire and falling stone.
Exactly what took place in there, there's none alive can say
We only know the outcomes of decisions made that day
We bow our heads in silence, honoring the free,
Remembering the heroes of United 93.
Someone must have realized; they haven't got a qualm
To kill our friends and neighbors, they'll make this plane a bomb
We've got to take the cabin back; if that much can't be nailed
God knows how many people will be dead because we failed.
The bastards are outnumbered, and all they've got are knives.
We haven't much alternative; surrender won't save lives
Our families, our children; their grief we cannot spare
The fields ahead are empty; let us end the struggle there.
The rest of us are thinking how best to manage strife
A blanket makes a blindfold, a pillow slows a knife;
The next poor chumps who try it, will find we've paid the fee
For lessons from the heroes of United 93.
|
||||
10. |
Jack Frost
02:30
|
|||
|
I garb the mourners for summer's demise,
I am the least of the faery
I am the trickster more clever than wise;
Untutored, unfettered, unwary.
I am the leaf-painter, sometimes I deign
To make lace that will melt in the morning.
I herald a harvest of blessing and bane,
A promise I bring, and a warning--
Life is a carousel, laden with mirth;
Reach for the ring as it passes!
Harvest time's bounty turns swiftly to dearth;
Fill up your bowls and your glasses.
The leaves they are burning in colors so rare;
The wind picks the brighest for wearing,
But winter she dances with stars in her hair,
Turned-away, cold, and uncaring.
Summer was hot, it was golden and bright,
But death there can be no denying.
Make your own warmth now, and make your own light,
For the cold of the winter comes crying.
The dead who forsook us are gathering near,
As Hallow's eve opens the portal;
The wind walks beside you to breathe in your ear,
"Remember, O man, you are mortal."
|
||||
11. |
The Spotted Goat
01:52
|
|||
|
The spotted goat was spite with hooves, and I know what she did
She struck a bargain with Old Nick, when she was just a kid
They chewed the whole agreement o'er in yonder barren field
Whose state affirms the contract's terms in jimson weed were sealed
No field, no fold, no fence would hold, no chain would keep her still,
No rope would be her tether, she would wander at her will.
I bet Old Nick just looked at her, and scratched his scorching hair,
And asked her flat "why ask for that? You're more than halfway there."
The kid she matched him stare for stare and said "The world is tough"
"There will be a time," said she "that half is not enough."
The spotted goat did many dark deeds and wandered where she would
Till she ate my pies before my eyes, and I shot her where she stood.
The devil he took her soul to hell, for all her life of crime,
But if you ask me, I'll wager she was gone by milking time!
|
||||
12. |
Columbia
05:08
|
|||
|
She was first among our shuttles, and we watched her from afar:
Liftoff's soaring angel-plume, re-entry's falling star.
She carried hope and knowledge on that flying fortnight run
Crewed by warriors and healers, and sometimes both in one.
Sixteen minutes out from home she faltered in her flight,
Lost communication, and broke up in beads of light
And my heart is soaked in sorrow as it slowly understands
That Columbia, sky-strider, is fallen... with all hands.
As a people and a nation we have paid a price to learn
That in any exploration, there are some who don't return.
We are neither fools nor cowards, to be shaken now to know
What our founders could have told us, twice a hundred years ago.
Pictures stark before us, spelled out the flyers' fates.
A hundred miles of wreckage lay strewn across two states:
Scraps of twisted metal, a helmet grey with char,
Across the fields of mem'ry, a black and smoking scar.
Across a waking nation the shock and sorrow ran
From sunny Amarillo to the forests of Spokane.
From India to Israel the mourners claim their own;
A nation grieves its heroes, but we do not grieve alone.
Columbia is fallen, yet her journey isn't done;
The secrets of the universe are dear--and dearly won.
In every generation we find some dreamers rise
And set their lives at hazard to give us all the skies.
|
||||
13. |
High Frontier
02:36
|
|||
|
Over the mountains like the break of dawn,
Spring'll come a ramblin' but I'll be gone.
Gonna find my fortune and it won't be here;
Gonna ride a rocket to the high frontier.
Look for me on an April night
I'll be in Taurus if my charts are right...
If the wind ain't blowin' and the sky is clear
You'll see me goin' to the high frontier
I'll be workin' where the starlight's found,
Meantime moseyin' the whole world round.
Savin' up for better things than beer;
To build a station on the high frontier.
Hope and hardship and a worthy task
Is all I offer and it's all I ask
It'd be perfect if you were here--
Won't you follow to the high frontier?
All I ever needed was a silver flute,
Freeze dried coffee and an air-tight suit,
A star to follow and a ship to steer,
And you beside me on the high frontier!
|
||||
14. |
Out Of The Music's Way
02:10
|
|||
|
I stagger and struggle and stutter and strive; the music I fancy my friend
Dances unwilling just out of my reach and slips at my fingertips' end
Sometimes it whispers behind my ear like a soul shining out of its shell
But I never can master the mandolin till I master myself as well
Out of the music's way, my friend, letting the melody play
I wish I could figure out how to let go and get out of the music's way!
I dreamt that I studied a song last night; it fought like a demon from hell
My fingers like feet as I wrestled the tune, I stumbled and fumbled and fell
Locked in the struggle he flung me down, to lift me aloft again
Till fingers like feathers, I followed him fairly to dance with an angel then.
Practice is over and lessons are done; the mandolin's sitting alone,
My fingers are itching to try it again; I know in my breath and my bone
If I could just figure out how to let go and follow the melody in
We'd frolic together, the angel and me, on the strings of the mandolin!
|
||||
15. |
Wedding Promises
03:31
|
|||
|
My joy and my solace, come sit by my side.
I've bread and I've milk and I've plums for my bride
And when we are wedded, why what shall we do?
But travel away and be somebody new.
My love you look weary, come sit in my chair;
I'll rub out your shoulders; I'll comb out your hair.
You've tied it with twine but a promise I lay,
You'll tie up your hair with silk ribbon some day.
The silent road waits, with the lore that it guards,
For heirs to the kingdom of scholars and bards.
It's ours to be claimed, yet wherever we roam
Your arms are my shelter, your presence, my home.
Though autumn be fleeting and winter be cold,
And all of our wealth be two rings of pure gold,
Through all the adventures tomorrow may send,
With you at my shoulder the future's my friend.
|
||||
16. |
You'll Be There
04:17
|
|||
|
You were drawn toward each other, and heart discovered heart
Through the years you've grown together, now you're making a new start
As you turn to face the future, and your wedding party nears
Through the times of music, laughter, joy and tears...
You'll be there for each other just to talk to
You'll be there, to show how much you care
Through life's joys and its burdens you will shelter side by side
To celebrate each other, you'll be there.
As you face the task before you of creating all your dreams
And you look to the horizon and how far away it seems
Just remember friends are near and help is never out of reach
As you cope with all the lessons life will teach.
If you seek the truth inside you and you find the still, small voice
You can learn to trust yourselves and bravely tackle each new choice
And whatever gloom might come, your love will chase the fog away
As the bond you share grows stronger day by day.
You have summoned friends and family, today we've gathered 'round
To witness and to celebrate the partnership you've found
As you speak your wedding promises, we add this wish for you
May the love you share be always strong and true.
|
||||
17. |
Rainsong
02:44
|
|||
|
The oak and the apple, the cherry and pine,
In wind and wet weather, do wildly entwine
Till I asking after them, finally found
Petals like garments flung thick on the ground.
High on the hill in a skystruck romance
Iris and snowdrop to wind-music dance,
Fancy and fragile, ephemeral-fair
Raindrops like diamonds festooned through their hair.
The rain will encourage each stream in his course
To prattle and laugh with exuberant force
Braiding a river where rapids appear
Combining in thunder too constant to hear.
To love grown too quiet, the rainstorm may bring
Passion and play with the tempests of spring
You are my joy's inspiration made plain
As every good thing is the child of the rain.
|
||||
18. |
Sunshine Waltz
02:09
|
|||
|
I sit in the sunshine and spin,
And I wait for the song to begin.
Winter was bitter; ah, winter was hard,
With snow like a mountain piled up in the yard--
But the wildflowers bloom, there is grain in the bin,
And I sit in the sunshine and spin.
I sit in the sunshine and spin
With the wool and the wheel and the wind.
The sun is returning and gracing the lands,
Warm on my shoulders and warm on my hands.
I let the cat out, and I let the cat in,
And I sit in the sunshine and spin.
I sit in the sunshine and spin,
And I don't ask the cat where he's been.
Summer will come and the flowers will fade;
Too soon I'll be seeking the cottonwood shade,
But the moment is precious, and waste is a sin,
So I sit in the sunshine and spin.
I sit in the sunshine and spin,
And that sleepy old cat seems to grin.
He dozes and drowses through morning's delights;
I think I can guess what he does with his nights.
He's sleeping them off now with milk on his chin
As I sit in the sunshine and spin.
|
||||
19. |
The Carousel
03:42
|
|||
|
The children come crowding to look at the ride,
They laugh and they chatter, small hands on my side
They climb to the saddle so joyful they came--
But the music and scenery's always the same.
I dream of sweet meadows, the grass growing high
Of clear running water, a great starry sky
Of carrots and apples and hot mash as well
Of clover to roll in and flowers to smell.
The people, the popcorn stand pass to the sound
The litter and ice-cream cones keep going round;
I'm making a living in show business but
There's just no denying I'm stuck in a rut.
But evening's coming, an end to the strife
I smell the dew falling and seek out my life
The lights will go out, I'll be done with my part
Deep into dreamland I'll follow my heart.
I wake from my dreaming, the night nearly gone
The stars, like a carousel, wheel toward the dawn.
The children will squeal and the music will play
And all my tomorrows will be like today.
|
||||
20. |
Tribute
04:12
|
|||
|
With one foot in the spirit world, where dreamtime veils the day
He spoke the tongue of angels and he bore their songs away.
Like dewdrops on a spiderweb they cling to common themes,
Like pearls from the darkness of an ocean that he charted in his dreams.
Must joy be sorrow-bounded then, must glory travel fast,
As a flower lives a summer, as a sunset cannot last?
Yet music is eternal as the river and the reeds,
While the dandelion bloomed it flung away upon the wind a thousand seeds.
As gently as a waterbug whose shadow's ringed in light
He'd stroke the skin of language till it bore him up in flight.
Like a falcon he could drop to pierce the hearts within us all,
So we mourn the tongue of angels that was struck untimely silent by his fall.
As endless spring was ending, as his heart began to fail,
It seems so very typical he'd stop to tell the tale,
And pause at dying's border with a wonder in his eye,
In an end as out of season, as a sudden silent snowfall in July.
When grief was dark and bitter, over still and silent strings
A bird came to the window, with the lamplight on its wings;
And hovered like a message, till it fell away in flight--
Where the road is long and rocky wear the memory like a mantle made of light.
|
||||
21. |
||||
|
In the rhythm of a heartbeat music is begun
In the rhythm that we travel when we saunter, when we run.
The thrill that lifts our hackles when the wind begins to moan
We learned to recreate with just a length of hollow bone
I look at all the pieces and I really want to know
How far back does music go?
How far back (I say) how far back does music go?
How far back--how far back does music go.
When the rhythm of a mama's heart'll make a baby grow.
Through the mesh of our perceptions music seems to reach
To the nerves we grow to notice how emotion colors speech.
Speed and pitch and volume held relaxed or urgent vibes
In the wordless cries and chatter of pre-neolithic tribes.
If the stimulus is missing, the pathways never grow
How far back does music go?
Dolphin calves learn music in the waters off the coast
Fledglings study music where the sparrows curse and boast
Wolves will sing together; it's a guess, but I'll be bound
Words grew out of music, not the other way around
Listen to the world, then come and say it isn't so:
How far back does music go?
|
||||
Echo's Children Portland, Oregon
In 1995 Cat Faber and Callie Hills teamed up to form Echo's Children, a duo known for well crafted harmonies and interesting lyrics about science fiction and fantasy subjects. They worked together until 2003, when Cat Faber moved to Tennessee and the group broke up. ... more
If you like Echo's Children, you may also like:
supported by 16 fans who also own “From The Hazel Tree”
go to album
We Are Who We Are
by Vixy & Tony
supported by 15 fans who also own “From The Hazel Tree”
Vic Tyler has passed. But Dawsons Christian will haunt filk for all time. An anthem of an era. RIP Vic.
go to album
supported by 13 fans who also own “From The Hazel Tree”
The Salad of Doom makes me so happy! And I had to have the D&D track. <3
go to album
Mind, Man, Medicine
by The Secret Sisters
The Alabama duo's fifth album exults in dusty Americana, showcasing rich vocal harmonies alongside blissful folk instrumentation.
go to album
More contemplative folk from the Minnesota singer-songwriter, sustained by raw full-band arrangements and philosophical lyrics.
go to album
Irish singer-songwriter Oisin Leech's acoustic folk music is characterized by its muted beauty and intimate, solitary quality.
go to album
supported by 12 fans who also own “From The Hazel Tree”
This album has a haunting beauty to it. Almost all of the songs get deeper the more you listen to them.
go to album
