Selected Lyrics
April Fool
We’ll ride like writers ride
Neither rich nor broke
We’ll race through alleyways
In our tattered cloaks so
Come – be my April Fool
Come – we’ll break all the
rule
(“A nod to Nikolai
Gogol” 1809-52 Russian writer)
Fuji-San
See the five finger lakes
Like a hand in blue
Climbing sideways up the pure
To get a glimpse of you.
The great lake
The white shirt
Your white cloak
Divine
(for the people of
Japan after the 2011 Tōhoku
earthquake and tsunami
“a call of prayer
to the great mountain for a protective cloak of love”)
This is The Girl
This is the girl who crossed the line
This is the song of the smothering vine
Twisted laurel to crown her head
Laid as a wreath upon her bed
(for Amy Winehouse
1983-2011 English singer songwriter)
Maria
In a little Narcissus pool
Drawn by its spell
We saw ourselves
Raw excitable
(for Maria
Schneider 1952-2011 French actress who Patti met in 1976)
Mosaic
Precious heart, precious seed
Precious life conceived
In a ring of fire
In a sleep of peace
Nothing stops desire
For the human beat
Last night was a rapture
In the mosaic sky
Dropping shards of love
Tarkovsky (The Second Stop is Jupiter)
The eternal sun runs to the mother
She smoothes his brow and bids him
Drink from her well of hammered mist
The black moon shines on a lake
White as a hand in the dark
The telegraph poles are crosses on the line
Rusted pins not enough saviors to hang
The white mouth of the sun smiles
On his beautiful tongue the seed of flight
(after Andrei
Tarkovsky’s film Ivan’s Childhood
1932-86 Russian
filmmaker)
Nine
Brave in constant motion
Wherein perfection brews
Darkness as his brother
Mischief as his moon
(birthday song for
John Christopher Depp “born on June 9th on the Sabbath under the
full moon”)
Seneca
The canvas is high
The scheme of a life
Written in the wind
The pen, the knife
(for Seneca
Sebring, Patti’s Godson)
