Into Nothing (black water song) Sail on now, out into darkness Oh my boys How these black waters rise Sail on, with a thousand Goodbyes burning Back across the shore line And silently we’ll watch The buildings tumble Grey tattered steel hung across the horizon I keep my eyes far From the city Where the sad sun rises Only to set And who is this Who walks beside us, Cloaked in sorrow And in tears? His voice it whispers In our ears But when we listen There is no one there For us to hear Sail on now, into black waters Leave your dreaming for awhile Sail on now into silence Out into nothing …I suppose Sail on into darkness Oh my love How these black waters rise Sail on now into the silence That waits in turn For the word to speak Sail on though hope shall not hold us As the night comes on I will wrap around you All the light That I can hold All the light now That I can bleed Sail on now into nothing Leave your harbor safe and warm It’s tattered sails and cardboard ships Only play host to the starving ghosts And who is this who stands beside us Known in emptiness and in blood Sail on into nothing Out into nothing

All along the garden’s edge The boundaries burning Atop the blackened sedge The angels chained Their eyes become cruel As they raise the iron rod To enforce the golden rule And lifting up his flaming sword Michael asks anew; “Have you any reason Why I should not do As I am commanded to?” And Descartes is there With Milton, Hume, and Kant All searching for a reason But the evidence is scant White with fear, they fear There is no getting around This condition No mountaintop to be crowned Outside of this perdition Now an adversary rises up From Milton’s skull His eyes are full With both pain and mirth The his body is a scar That cannot forgive The wound of his birth Turning back face to face He speaks to his creator And mocks the very voice That proclaims man the savior “Reason, thank you, Has fed me very well, It fully backed the coup d’etat That sealed my lordship in Hell, I am grateful Oh yes to be sure And I hope you don’t think it unkind That I must levy such heavy taxes On your rational animal mind. But as I know myself For I came from the working class Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit, It does no good to ask…” And from their iron cages The faces of the sages Turned to an occidental sky Looking west of Eden Burned by the sun of evening They gave out a burdened sigh But above them the birds in flight And below them the flowers in bloom For whom Each day God Rises from the tomb Looked on All the while With sad But knowing smiles For humanity the idol builder For humanity the idol slayer We Who have become Terrified by treason Lost in the forest Of our very freedom We Who are lost at sea Our spirit and flesh The ship And shipwreck… We Who have become Terrified by reason Lost in the forest Of our very freedom We Who are lost at sea Our spirit and flesh The ship And the shipwreck Of our odyssey

We are garlands Hung on the crown of death Bursting ephemeral worlds With the exit of our breath We are the blossoms Of no one And the blossoming Of nothing We are bereft of garden Or gardener The blossoms nobody shelters Housed in blood, in mud, and in glass In the rib cage Of the broken body That houses this age Between the silence And the pounding waves We are driftwood And we are dreams Born of longing Born of death Our fingers and senses Torn and displayed On the five-pointed Wheel of the world Bleeding out into endless night out into nothing I suppose We envy the flight Of the birds For whom god is not dead And we envy the plight Of the stars For being too far To think of divinity At all… Spirit Inside of flesh Flesh peering back Into the lack The pain of new birth In your eyes heaven In my hands the earth Beyond the horizon Of the ideal Lies the wound Of the real Of the real… We envy the flight of the birds For whom god is not dead We envy the plight of the stars For being too far To think of divinity At all…

Fallen Fallen I am Fallen am I Like the snow on the ground When the winter comes ‘round Fallen I am Fallen am I Neither sign nor star Has ever fallen so far …has ever fallen so far… For his love was immense It was terrifying And I could not exist In the fullness of him I thought it better to reign And as rain I shall fall I will wrap myself warm in my flesh Safe at last from all that he’s blessed And I shall soften the features Of his face as he appears Before his creatures But I’ll spit on the broken Crown of the human race Fallen I am Fallen am I Like the snow on the ground When the winter comes ‘round Fallen I am Fallen am I Neither sign nor star Has ever fallen so far …has ever fallen so far… But Michael, oh Michael Oh you blond child… You sing at his feet Yet appear elevated by your very nature Your back does not really bend Nor hunchbacked do you appear …though you kneel But as for me When I began to sing The notes they choked in my throat And the words just fell all apart And the fire… It just left my heart Fallen I am Fallen am I Like the snow on the ground When the winter comes ‘round Fallen I am Fallen am I Neither sign nor star Has ever fallen so far …has ever fallen so far… And there’s one house empty Oh, there’s one house empty There’s one house empty In Jerusalem tonight In Jerusalem tonight Oh, there’s one house empty There’s one house empty Yes there’s one house empty In Jerusalem tonight In Jerusalem tonight In Jerusalem good night In Jerusalem Turn out the light…

All under the leaves, and the leaves of light I met with virgins seven One of them was Mary mild First mother of our lord in heaven Where are you going My seven pretty maids? Where are you going to All under the leaves of light? We are going Thomas they said Seeking for no leaves We are seeking Thomas they said For a friend of thine… Went down to yonder town Sat in the gallery There we saw our Lord Jesus Christ Hanging from a yew-tree Mother don’t you weep for me Do not for me grieve Mother don’t you weep for me I must suffer this for Adam and for Eve The lily and the rose The briar and the thorn Between the day and the night This is where we are born The lily and the rose The briar and the thorn Between the day and the night This is where we are born This is where we are torn How can my weeping cease My sorrows to forgo When I see my own son die And sons I have no more Now he’s laid his head on his right shoulder Die drew him nigh “may the Holy Ghost receive my soul dear mother now I die…” (now I die) The lily and the rose The briar and the thorn Between the day and the night That’s where we are born The lily and the rose The briar and the thorn Between the day and the night That’s where we are born That’s where we are torn Oh’ the briar chokes the rose But that’s how our garden grows…

Now its springtime again And the sparrows descend And your lily-white hands Well they reach out to me And your lily-white hands They’re all that I see They’re all that I see… Now the people are talking I hear them down in the street They’re just holes in the emptiness Our eyes never meet And their laughing words Are just sorrows deferred And they don’t mean a thing to me You are all that I see You are all that I see… Lift me up ~ lift me up Drag me down~ drag me down I don’t care where I go If I’m carried by your lily-white hands Carried by your lily-white hands Carried by your lily-white hands Carried by your lily-white hands And I see you in forests Moving free in the night And seven white stars About your face hover bright And you are crowned as a lamb That rises above the earth And the hope of your body Holds the hope of rebirth And seven bright angels They surround you in song And you appear in the darkness In many shapes And in many shapes you belong Lift me up~ lift me up Drag me down~ drag me down I don’t care where I go If I’m carried by your lily-white hands Carried by your lily-white hands Carried by you lily-white hands I’ll be buried by your lily-white hands… Now its springtime again And the sparrows descend And your lily-white hands They reach out to me And your lily-white hands well they’re all that I see they’re all that I see….

Yes I know Well I’ve been here before I can see how the darkness grows Standing there Against trees stripped-bare And a sky that is blackened By crows Yes I know Well I’ve been once or twice To the point where it freezes Fragile like ice Leaving you standing With your reason stripped-bare Leaving you standing No stranger To fear Dance me on With this very broken song Your Jerusalem rose And you hair worn long Reach to me With these holes in your hands Your body a book None can understand So sing now in silence Cast yourself into the wind It’s sullen and shaken and torn And everything, everything Everything’s gone It’s a silence that will not bloom Sewn by the seeds of our voice It’s a word that has been lost Lost to us now In these desert time So sing now in silence Cast yourself into the wind Its sullen and shaken and torn And everything’s gone It’s a silence that will not bloom Sewn by the seeds of our voice It’s a word that has been lost Lost to us now in these desert time Yes I know Well I’ll been here before I can see how the darkness grows Standing there Against trees stripped-bare And a sky that is blackened by crows Yes I know Well I’ve been once or twice To the point where it freezes Over like ice Leaving you standing With your reason stripped-bare Leaving you there No stranger To fear Dance me on with your very broken Song Your Jerusalem Rose And your hair worn long Reach to me With these holes in your hands Your body a book On your lips its command Dance me on….. Dance me on and on This utterance is threefold A prayer, a lament, and an exultation A taste of honey on the tongue Mixed with brambles: Briars, brimstone and living bread May these words go straight Into the starry silence Rootless, like a Russian thistle Blown into the camps That litter the night Outside the city walls You are the you called out for And never received But leading on Streaming blindly Thread-red into the Winter night From the stinging silence That creeps over the rooftops That is borne, Like ash upon the wind And steals across the Sleeping houses In the American twilight The voices call forth: O Polyphony Of fallen forms To the muted song Of the sullen Danube And the whispering Of the Thames As they sneak by, Ghosts beside Their estranged shores To Tehran And sad Jerusalem To Western Sudan Gaunt in her empty wilderness To the television visions Of a thousand unbroken walls And the hands of children Burning in the mouth of hunger This utterance is threefold And absolute in its impossibility This entreatment A sacrifice to silence But in silence Is their still song? From where shall the light Be drawn? The temple is always torn The rose rises Chocked by briar and thorn But God will Again be born Cast out beyond hope The net of your voice And speak madly Against this Unrelenting wind…