1. |
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“A Windy Night Has Brighter Streetlights”
A windy night has brighter streetlights
So a windy night has lights
The sensors read the tea leaves
And make it all alright
The variation of the air
Can make you shield your eyes
And when you feel protective
It’s like darkness, a disguise
And darkness makes it hard to see
Like an umbrella or a hood
Or a flicker pattern in the trees
It can make you feel so good
But the pleasure is confusing
It’s an intermittent storm
It gets hard to toe the bossman’s line
Staying tethered to a norm
The wind would make the snapping rope
Like a little snapping string
But a good adjustment of the streetlights
Clarifies most everything
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2. |
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“And Everything In Between”
They drove to L.A. from New England
In the old golden age of that whim
They slept in the van on a futon
Till their flashlight was no longer dim
But when, though, they finally arrived there
They wouldn’t be needing that beam
From one shining sea to the other
And everything in between
He worked in a store selling records
She sold trendy clothes in a shop
Back at home in their shoebox apartment
They smoked grass and wrote folk-singer pop
And though they got signed to a label
Their future was yet to be seen
From the best to the worst they imagined
And everything in between
In a multidimensional mindset
On the cusp of a total eclipse
Everything every direction
So, too, the musical disc
These people, they think that they’re normal
Beautiful, catchy, and clean
But the brightness is suddenly darkness
And everything in between
Now numberless years in the future
In the neighborhood of a whole other sun
The radio waves were still traveling
Of those one or two times they got spun
I can’t say for sure who was listening
Or what this observer would glean
But I can imagine most anything
And everything in between
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3. |
As Simple As Possible
03:37
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“As Simple As Possible”
I’ll paint you the picture
As simple as possible
As simple as I can possibly say
I tell myself this
And it’s totally comical
How far from the mark I can stray
For the minute I get to the part
Where I somehow am impossibly expected to say
Even the simplest thing about you
I get lost in a wonderful way
Following this strand
And following that one too
And plus hoping to show how they might weave
And also the play
Of the difficult opposites
Very complex to conceive
And I’m turning around
Then I’m turning again
Till my lasso is wound round around me my feet
I’ll paint you the picture
As simple as possible
This painting I’ll never complete
Following this strand
And following that one too
And plus hoping to show how they entwine
And also the play
Of the paradox opposites
Very complex to my mind
And I’m turning around
Then I’m turning again
Till my lasso is wound round completely my feet
I’ll paint you the picture
As simple as possible
This painting I’ll never complete
This painting I’ll never complete
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4. |
The Original Lunar Phase
03:11
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“The Original Lunar Phase”
Not a copycat
The Original Lunar Phase
A mechanical drawing that I did by hand
Back in the 80s
Get a load of this
LLC
You know it’s not right
For you to steal from me
In Tilton, New Hampshire, in 88
We printed the first Lunar Phase
Drawing that shit, you must concentrate
Moon after moon, as they change
We realized how toxic the printing was
Preparing the 89 debut
So we switched to vegetable ink
For the very next calendar
And that’s still what we do
Not a copycat
The Original Lunar Phase
A mechanical drawing that I did by hand
Back in the 80s
Get a load of this
LLC
You know it’s not right
For you to steal from me
In Tilton, New Hampshire, in 89
59 minutes away
In Durham, New Hampshire, a person there
Is starting to learn how to play
And now when they’re lost in their music
When over the barlines they phrase
They gaze at the color they’ve chosen
For this year’s incarnation
Of the old Lunar Phase
Not a copycat
The Original Lunar Phase
A mechanical drawing that I did by hand
Back in the 80s
Get a load of this
LLC
You know it’s not right
For you to steal from me
Not a copycat
The Original Lunar Phase
A mechanical drawing that I did myself
Back in the 80s
Get a load of this
LLC
Cause you know it’s not right
For you to steal from me
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5. |
I Hear Harp!
05:01
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“I Hear Harp!”
I hear harp!
I hear amateur harp
I hear spindling harp
With a fine mist about it
Dappling the author
Of twisting mechanical topics
There’s something unsettling
I feel that the harpist is me
But I don’t play harp
I don’t have one to any degree
I hear harp!
I feel silvery silver
And also I seem to feel golden
I feel recently returned
And that just now I’ve just been restolen
I hear harp!
I hear roughly-hewn harp
I hear spindling harp
With a fine mist about it
Dappling the author
Of twisting mechanical topics
Who’s divining with quizzical fingers?
On tension that sings?
The dimensions are resonant
Deep in the strings
I hear harp!
A light springs eternal
From dazzling emerald springs
Look at them there
But don’t drop from your hand what you bring
Cause I went with my hatchet
To chop up some windfall for fire
And instead here I am
Perplexed by a heavenly choir
The harp pricks the stars
And voices fill in what’s between
What’s going on?
Am I sleeping and is this a dream?
But everything’s maximally clear
And yet also it’s hazy
I hear harp!
And it sounds crazy!
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6. |
Patio Accent
04:23
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“Patio Accent”
Patio Accent
Is a table from Target
A table from Target
I own
We called it the patio
That concrete rectangular
Where at dusk I shot hoops
There alone
It’s a circular table
Metallic and short
It’s painted
A uniform black
In the shadow of the hill
To the cemetery there
I was bouncing the ball
There out back
One of the legs
Came unsnapped from the table
The Patio Accent
Was weak
Out on the patio
Bouncing the ball
Mostly missing the shots
That I seek
You can snap it back in, though
And anyway the legs
Connect
To a circular base
The ball in the dark
Looks like television static
But I see it
Just swish into place
I pull it on over
To put on my things
The things that I use
To make this
An accent is music
Music with language
The absence of one
Is a myth
Patio Accent
Is a table from Target
A table from Target
I own
We called it the patio
That concrete rectangular
Where at dusk I shot hoops
There alone
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7. |
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“Where Would I Have Put It?”
Where would I have put it?
Where else could I ever even guess?
It should be precisely here
Suddenly I’m resonant with stress
Where would I have put it?
It’s madness not to find it in this spot
Where else could it be?
This one option’s everything I’ve got
Where would I have put it?
Where would I have put it in a pinch?
I can fathom nowhere
This feels like it’s a film by David Lynch
Where would I have put it?
And was my motivation even sane?
Where would I have put it?
Perhaps the forest, rotting in the rain?
Perhaps it fully vanished?
Perhaps it fully vanished in a flash?
Or I threw it off a bridge?
And down it went into the water (splash)?
Or maybe someone stole it?
Broke in and left no trace and got away?
And the only thing they took was:
Exactly what I’m looking for today?
Where’s would I have put it?
It’s madness not to find it in this spot
Where else could it be?
This one option’s everything I’ve got
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8. |
Floating Couplets
04:54
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“Floating Couplets”
I saw a floating couplet in the sky
I asked the floating couplet how and why
I saw a floating couplet in the noon
Traveling between a couple tunes
I saw a floating couplet
In the store
Wearing cleats and clacking on the floor
So funny
I saw a floating couplet on the mountain
Then later at a movie in the Fountain
I asked a floating couplet what they wish
They wish that they could play guitars just like Blue Dish
I saw a floating couplet
On Wantastiquet
It shone its light then soundlessly it split
So funny
I met a floating couplet on the Common
Gazebo Buddha, styrofoam of ramen
I saw a floating couplet at the co-op
Headed north and just here for a stop
I saw a floating couplet
Through my window
Flying by with trailing wake of rainbow
So funny
I saw a floating couplet in my room
Tidy there, then every which way strewn
I heard a floating couplet and they laughed
They liked the decorations on my path
They liked the decorations
I collaged
They asked me what it was and so I dodged
So funny
Because it means too many things to me
I also like the floating very free
Floating down from Cherry, then back up it
One day I wish to be a floating couplet
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9. |
Something's Happening
03:26
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“Something’s Happening”
Something’s happening
Something very neat
Something’s happening
Makes me feel so sweet
Open your eyes in the morning
Open your eyes in the night
I’ll try to give you a warning next time
I turn on a billion Christmas lights
Don’t mind me, man
I’m just very glad
Almost nothing else
Also can turn bad
Open your eyes to the story
Of a thousand potential parades
So CIA infiltrates it—sorry
I can’t make myself feel afraid
Cause something’s happening
Little collectible knickknacks
Filling your cupboards with joy
I don’t believe in a reason—sorry
It’s cool to collect all those toys
Something’s happening
Something’s happening
Something’s happening
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Chris Weisman Brattleboro, Vermont
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