https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny9aE8a5q-w&feature=youtu.be
For me, this song captures what I see as the essence of West Virginia, which is earthiness combined with mysticism, violence combined with faith…
Fun Fact: Did you know that (in some circles) it is considered rude to refer to cats/dogs/etc as “animals” with the preferred term being “country folk?”
5 bright stars that I’ve never seen before
Step by step walking on the checkerboard
You know, some things get easier with time
Blood flows much easier when I know the blood is mine.
5 dark knights sleeping underneath the skies
Toss and turn, thinking of the way you died
I can’t describe what is left of me more delicate than a lace
Hold me in your hand then let me slip into the wind and watch
Me fly.
Sometimes the sky is filled with eyes.
5 small boys I saw them inside my dream
Step by step but the checkerboard was green
You know, they never cried they were a bubble in the air
Flying in the wind they never knew that you were there
All of the time.
They were oblivious to the feeling of your eyes.
Step by step walking to the rabbit hole
And there I will forget, fall into a black so fine
That you were there with me when every wind
Was filled with time.
We were oblivious to the feeling of their eyes.
Download MP3: Five Dark Knights
Walking through flowers surrounded by thoughts of her when she was down on her knees
Wind in my hair but there’s nobody there much less somebody begging to please
Maybe tonight my wind will come
Maybe tonight the sky will unfold
Maybe tonight I will hear the words
Life is a story that’s already told, I’m told.
Clouds at my back I can get nothing back but a picture that’s turned upside down
Clouds that are pink, though I struggle to think I just twist and fall back on the ground
Maybe tonight my wind will come
Maybe tonight the sky will unfold
Capture it quick in a sack of gray
Maybe tonight I will truly be old.
A flag, a sky, a kite, a lie
A memory that fades, twisting and flying away…
Walking the path that I carved with my own feet wrapped in my own cotton cloth
Walking the path to the cliff where I stand with my staff on the edge of the drop off
I know what they say about me
I know who they think I am
And if I’m magic I don’t really know that
I know that I’m not quite a man.
Maybe tonight my wind will come
Maybe tonight the sky will untwist
Capture it quick like a flag of gray
Folded and holded with twine round my wrist.
Download MP3: The Pine Fairy Is Blasted by the Past on His Way to Capture a Saturnine Wind
The stars and moon were calling
but he didn’t hear.
The night was cold and piney
it was clear.
He stayed inside and cried
as though somebody died.
His heart was breaking in two
on the inside.
The owls were cold and silver;
they were harsh.
Green things were fermenting
deep within the marsh.
He rested his head down,
a king without a crown.
The staff held in his hand
was made of larch.
Why did he cry?
Cause he was learning to love himself.
But why?
Because no love came from anybody else.
People say they care
but they can’t always be there.
At times it’s best to think
of something else.
The stars were going crazy
on a whim.
Tomorrow night he may be there
dancing right beside them.
But right now he is tired.
His brain is blue and mired.
The produce on his shelf
has all expired.
Why is he tired?
Because he’s learning to love himself.
But why?
Because he can’t get love
from anybody else.
He lives in a forest of pine.
His home is hard to find.
No one has knocked upon his door
in the longest time.
Download MP3: Introduction to the Pine Fairy
Recently, I was suffering from ridiculous allergies, but when I finally recovered I felt better adapted to living in West Virginia. Living in the hills is just so thick and dense that if you aren’t used to it, it feels like trying to eat a whole stick of butter with no bread. There is a sense that your future does not exist and your present can not be changed.
Life
may not be real
Pikey what a thing to say
you know that you weren’t raised that way
And yet
sometimes I fear
God has left me so alone
a million miles from any home
To walk a road that has no end
The golden hay lies beyond the bend.
But why would we break?
Why would we cry?
In the end it’s only pain
we’ve known it in so many ways
I know
she felt it too
Remember her, that little bird
so soft we never heard a word
A hint of pink behind the door
and in the end a pile of feathers on the floor
Pikey, you know it won’t be long
Take my hand, I can feel their eyes
descending from the bluest skies
My gun
My iron bar
Life remember I was your friend
I knew that you had no end
Your fields were filled with golden hay
Three clouds they fly above then slowly drift away.
Download Mp3: Golden Hay
This airy song is probably not the best thing to publish at the heaviest moment of the year’s wheel, but still, here it is- a simple song about 5 sky blue friends.
They walk the road together;
they walk it side by side.
They hold each other’s hands;
they stretch out five men wide.
The sky stretched, too,
a flag of morning glory blue.
See the five of them
walk into the convenient store.
One of them buys the bread,
the other four wait by the door.
That’s what friends do-
they always hover near to you.
When they wander, when they roam,
they will hit the road together.
If one day they build a home,
they say they’ll live in it forever…
what a word…
so carefree and so blue, like a bird…
The five friends eat their meal
at a table that is round;
they never wince and cringe
to hear each other’s munching sounds.
But why?
Because these friends were dipped in sky,
their nerves never run dry.
The five friends walk the road
in matching jeans but different shirts.
They share a bag of snacks,
passing the bag both back and forth.
No concerns-
the five friends don’t believe in germs.
Five friends sit by the fire;
they listen to the music play.
One friend is asked to dance-
these friends are all too shy that way…
turning pink…
perhaps they could just sit and think?
The five friends seek advice
from a wise man at the church.
He says that friends are great,
but still you have to put God first.
And they agree-
but where is God?- He’s hard to see.
Is he a friend inside your mind?
Or could God be the sky?
The five friends vote on it-
the vote is five to none
that God must be the sky;
He shelters everyone,
so clear and sweet,
surrounding us with time and dreams,
surrounding us with space to explore;
that’s what friends are for.
Download OGG: Five Friends
Little man look to the sky; the world is something blue.
Bridges rise and bridges fall; they will not hold for you.
Bridges rise and bridges fall; you doubt the things you’ve seen.
Did a man cry out in pain or was that just a dream?
Little man look to the sky and let your blue eyes burn.
Bridges rise and bridges fall; there is nowhere to turn.
People everywhere have thought the rain would never end;
Standing in the cold, that’s when they learned they had a friend.
Clouds descend upon you and they fill your eyes with white.
If it’s necessary to do something, you’d rather do what’s right.
Clouds descend upon you and you doubt the things you things you’ve seen.
Did a man cry out in pain or was that just a dream?
Clouds descend upon you, knock you down onto one knee.
Please don’t marry her, little man, you need more time to be free…
People everywhere have thought the rain would never end;
Standing in the cold, that’s when they learned they had a friend.
Winds blow in from everywhere they cut you day and night.
If it’s necessary to do something, you’d rather do what’s right.
Winds blow in from everywhere; they bring the scent of pine.
The world is something far away, a blue and icy line.
One day you will cross that line, uncertain what you’ve seen.
The images will swirl and fade like walking in a dream.
People everywhere have thought the rain would never end;
Standing in the cold, that’s when they learned they had a friend.
Almost everywhere, they thought the world would never end.
When the ending came, that’s when they knew they had a friend.
Download MP3: Little Man
Why you want to touch something so warm
When you know life is cold and it’s back to the war?
Why would you want to see ribbons tied to the tree
Every spring? Life is flat. Ribbons don’t mean a thing.
Or else maybe they do and the problem is you
Watch the kids sing and dance. What’s the matter with you?
Don’t you want to play play? Smile and dance the whole day?
No I don’t. Let me sleep till I gather my strength then I’ll weep.
Obviously there was a time
I believed in the sky, I could dream, I could fly
Then he came to my life, a man fresh out of prison
I thought he was wise like a purple magician
Well, I never believed, but I had to pretend or
He’d lift up his big log and that was the end
Flat on the ground with my face in a ditch drain
Watching the water flow learning the language of pain
Learning languages darker and deeper
Learn how to play dead and be a mind reader
Giving a hand job with only your hand
Was it Shakespeare who said “Villainy- your name is man?”
Maybe he said it, but who would believe it
When nothing has happened till no one has seen it?
Too many things that have never occurred
I saw with my face in the water, the images blurred.
Scenes of night murders, black powder voodoo
Family and close friends cooked into a stew
I did not want to see it, much less to believe it, but
Water in my ears would not let me leave it alone.
Then one day I arose he was gone, and
I was not the same, but the world had marched on
Full of fair-weather friendships and white powder smiles
Won’t you tell me your story, sit down and stay for a while?
I would prefer not to, when you’d never believe me
I walk down the street and there’s black things I see, but
No one else can see them and they’d never believe them
Doomed to walk this earth with only one single friend.
So do I believe in the white unicorn?
Yes, of course, for he saved me with his silver horn, and at
Night we lie down and discuss all the black things
My finger, his horn, with eternity rings.
Until one day the black will reach it’s highest power
We’ll steal all its secrets in that final hour
Then maybe I, I’ll believe I can fly, so
We’ll smile at each other and we’ll turn to the sky.
Download MP3: I Believe I Can Fly