1. |
My Fingerprints
04:27
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If I weren't already there,
heaven's a place it would
break my heart to see.
High lonesome angels
sensitive to mystery.
Where losers love that
sacred thunderbolt spark,
each mind an oasis,
each home a kind of
rugged ark.
Moon pulls stronger
as daily worries fade
into the tide of time,
into a holy glade.
I can picture the mailman
joining that blissful stream,
leaving a perfect trail of
postcards, notes, and magazines.
I want to leave you
with my own version,
sweet, serene
written in the mood of an earth man,
scarecrowed and lean.
Take my fingerprints,
leave them in your drawer.
There will come a time
when I won't need evidence any more.
Just the friendship found
in a land so low it gets you high.
To keep the land, just
throw down friendship's cry.
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2. |
Nightshade
02:48
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Nightshade
I play, I play
your charade.
I play your whole charade,
looking for escape.
Nightshade
I say I'll stay
and fall in the fray,
and fall where I may.
Nightshade
I pay, I'll play
I'll pay for what you made,
believe in what you say,
till daybreak.
Nightshade
you see my heart break
Monday through Saturday
for heaven's sake
Nightshade
I play, I play
your charade.
I play your whole charade,
looking for escape.
And awake
And awake
And awake
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3. |
Yellow Bird
04:04
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Even if you despise me,
I'm a yellow bird in flight.
Feed me, just let me bob and weave.
While you're waiting for your maker,
I land on the roof or tap against your window.
The elements aren't kind to me,
I fly between your fantasy
of freedom and the thing that makes you pray.
Yellow bird, I'm in the tree.
How can you stay mad at me?
Oh, you know you'd be a fool.
Yellow bird, I'm on the fence.
You'd curse and then I'd
fly back from whence I came.
You see me between two little dots
that float and drift and cross,
I know you'll love me
when life falls away.
When you're in your bed, I'm wide awake.
I hear as you plot your escape
into my harsh domain.
On that day we'd celebrate,
we'd fly together to our fate
and learn by the lash of freezing rain.
If you see me light upon your windshield,
please let me steal your view.
If you hear me cry for mercy
like tweety bird, you know your mind's askew.
As you contemplate your death and pain
and God and fear and fame,
I know you'll love me
when I'm in the storm drain.
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4. |
Starlight
03:58
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I love the open window,
but I loved the starlight first.
Before I dive into the sunlight,
before I find myself immersed.
I love the window to the morning,
but I loved the starlight first.
And I keep running to the well you discovered.
I love the water and I love the thirst.
How nice it is to know
that in the rain, the wind, and snow
there is relief.
And in this life also,
when there is nowhere left to go,
there is release.
All those unknown houses with no ceilings
I felt a spiritual winter sweep over me.
Sights are casted across the names of sounds,
we're only seeing squares arranged within their bounds.
What's made of wonder is all that I require,
what's made me shiver under this, our ball of fire.
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5. |
Old Growth
03:51
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I'm an old growth pine
in the light of the morning,
shine and shine and shine.
Soak it up and never give up,
never never fall to evil.
It was a good thing
to have me around
before you cut me,
cut me cut me down.
I am living in a half world.
Shady, shady
So shady now.
Ghost of a ghost of an old growth tree.
Carry on in spite of me.
Sound are not sounds,
real is not really near.
Fun is not fun.
You should know,
you're the morbid one!
I see time so clear
now that you cut me
in your fit of fear.
Oh no, don't shed a tear!
I'm not the seer,
but I hold him
very very dear.
I hold him very dear.
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6. |
The Best Time
02:26
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What's the best time?
The best time to say, "Time to move away"?
What does the timeline look like now
that I've found a way back to that morning?
Back to the sun-drenched stone of the patio at home,
suddenly alone.
What does the timeline look like now?
Om
Time keeper, keep me in mind.
I'm gonna live on and on,
now and forever.
Chaotic coincidence, silently divine,
keeps me asking the time.
I keep asking the time.
What's the best time?
The best time to say, "Time to move away"?
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7. |
See The One You Know
05:00
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Body's tired
Is that a reason to write, wasted
on this pile of metal,
on this D class airplane?
There's one thing I gotta say,
it's one twig in a pile of hay.
There's one thing I feel I'd better do.
It may not look like part of a real mission to you.
No
Here in the Western atmosphere,
I can't say just what I mean.
Filled up with laughing gas,
I'm bringing down the house
like a joke in a dream.
My mind is melting
in the fireworks' heat.
Carbon is exploding.
All bets are off, my friends,
it's time to retreat
And see the one you know is really waiting
You know you left grandpa back in Carlisle
to rest easy on a Murphy bed.
You see cars swerving toward his exit,
trying to say one thing they feel needed to be said.
And it's always already infinitely too late,
dogs chasing water from a sprinkler head.
And kids scrape their knees
to remind their friends what's still at stake
and inaugurate the onset of summer's end.
Are you all in?
Are you still hiding?
Waiting for your moment in the sun?
Better get yourself out in the open.
Take your horror as your temporary token
And see the one you know is really waiting
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Julian Cartwright New Jersey
Julian Cartwright is a songwriter, instrumentalist, composer and arranger based in the Philadelphia area. Instagram @julian.cartwright.songs
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