1. |
Lavender & Oranges
03:10
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I only took a little lavender, sir
I wouldn't take no more
I know that you can spare it
It is for my mother who is dead, sir
Gone five winters past
Her grave lies bare and I cannot bear it
When she was a child she came from Spain, sir
In the court of the queen
Where all smelt of incense and oranges
If I am to die, I will do it well, sir
Let me to my priest
I will confess all my sinner's ways
Though I only took a sprig of lavender, sir
I suppose that is enough
To undo a thousand holy days
Would you kneel beside me as I pray, sir?
I know the stone is cold
But you have firs to rest upon
But a moment of your time, sir
Then you may fetch the blade
And breathe easy once my breathing's done
Will I hear the whistle and the gasp, sir?
Will I feel a chill
When you set my spirit free?
If there is a maid standing by, sir
Would you let her take the flower
That has so condemned me?
And if God will not receive my sinner's soul, sir
Then I will go to Spain
And rest amongst the oranges
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2. |
Roan Dappled Mare
05:19
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Is it strange to you I loved another man
Before I loved your father?
Would it be easier felt if I was born
Then you were born mere moments after?
I was a child as you are, my girl
And ill I knew of men
But love him I did best as I could
As I knew loving then
Then the wind comes
Then the wind
When I was only grass-hopping high
I had a roan dappled mare
Wherever I thought of riding to
She would take me there
I fed her on white sugar cubes
With grains so finely defined
Easily I costed love
In that time
But the wind came
Yes the wind
My father bequeathed me an acre land
So I took my beloved there
We sat sprinkled with orchard shade
And scoffed up the juiciest pears
I awaited each morn my receipts of love
Eager as a flower sun-born
Tail thudding hearth like a loyal dog
Eyes as damp as a fawn
But the wind comes
Still the wind
The scales remained all set askew
But he gave me no sugar cane
Just the same confusion every week
Trying to fight me again
So I took myself down to the river glen
And washed away my old mare
Then he wasn't sure how to love me no more
So used to seeing her there
Oh the wind comes
Yes the wind
Is it strange to you I loved another man
Before I loved your father?
Would it be easier felt if I was born
Then you were born mere moments after?
I was a girl as you are, my girl
And ill I knew of men
But love him I did best as I could
As I knew loving then
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3. |
Widowmaker
00:49
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What is a woman that you forsake her
And the hearth fire and the home acre
To go with the old grey widowmaker?
What is Woman that you forsake her
And the hearth fire and the home acre
To go with the old grey widowmaker?
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4. |
Ancient History
03:33
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What god or fate or pharaoh
Mapped us in these fey ley lines?
We're carved in stone and split in two
In dolerite and Saracen spines
Brought by boat and time to be stood
Knotted together like carpenters' wood
In the basin of a fertile land we stand
Ready at Arthur's hand we stand
To speak the sun's revolve
Into magic when the morning clears
To map the strangely passing
Of the winter summer years
I fear they did not know but only knew
They must stand us here
For stone calls out to stone when souls
Are split as we are split, my dear
Call and repeat and repeat and call
And the owl has it wrong and the cuckoo will fall
And the breaker will snatch what rocks it can
Snatch but we stand far inland
Does it please you to be thought of this way?
As hewn-off granite or sculpted clay?
It is the only way I find easy to say
How bones are just stones in the remains of the day
How love eternal inters all its promises in earth
Smooths them over solemnly with velvet turf
But if we are turf and earth and bird
And day and night and dolerite
Look! How we stand and stand and will not let go
Not for any god or fate or pharaoh
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5. |
This Poor Gift
05:51
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In a year I've had a hundred thousand lives
So my brain is rather tired
And no one has the time
To recount them line by line
So please forgive this prayer is short
You see, the other problem is I don't believe in God
But hey, you never seemed to mind
Your version was inclusively inclined
That we had in common
That, and the shape of our chin
And half our kin
In mourning and yearning
For that which has fallen into disrepair
I turn to the rituals we habitually thought
Would cross the river and take us there
Or keep you here
But in the pallid candlelight
Your only given death rite
You seem no nearer
So in my attempt
To fulfil the promise of blood to you
I am only confronted once again
With all I cannot do
I cannot excarnate you
Or burn you on a pyre
Or wear your mask to dance with
Or stack your long bones high
Or drink from your skull
Or pipe you down the Merlot
Instead we left you to the worms
Which hardly seems fair
For one, they didn't know you
And there's no humour down there
I fear they will bore you
Due to these constraints of space and time
We are left with a song
And if you've still ears to hear
I'll tell you what's been going on
The cat is sleeping
And soon he will be dead
And we will all follow you both
Into the earth or into the water
Or up to the sky if you're a better daughter than I
And in this fickle gap we make
Between these two voids of peace
I hope we did nothing
Of any meaning
But give and receive and laughter
So those who come after
May sense on the breeze
That giants lived then
And they were as foolish as we
And our little plans may be reborn inside their mind
And they may become dust, as us, in time
May they honour the dead
As I cannot well do
Except this poor gift to you
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Bethan Le Mas England, UK
I am a British singer-songwriter, playing piano, guitar, cello,Celtic harp, ukulele, and whatever else I can get my hands on. Livestreaming on twitch.tv/cornyears
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