1. |
Flashlight
02:41
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if you shine your flashlight
to the palm of my hand in the night
if you hold your hand up high
to the eastern rise
you can see your veins
you can see my veins
you can see the light shine right through
did you think you were just out walking
did you think you were just out walking
out walking through an easy grove
did you think I was a monk in a robe
easy grove
falling leaves a serious tree
this is all I am
this is all I will be
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2. |
Chainbreaker
03:06
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chainbreaker
it's your task
to lose this grip
this hold on fearfulness
first is first
free yourself
and then you'll free
your family
your whole lineage
bravely pick the locks
generations old
open all the doors
chainbreaker
who were you
one life
two lives
you’ve changed
the whole design
how simple
how perfect
how clear the path
you fear it
draw near it
bravely pick the locks
generations old
open all the doors
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3. |
Toxic Town
04:11
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when you were born, you knew
one breath of city air
one taste of North America
you tried to slip away
before anybody guessed your name
they didn’t really know
how to care for your soul
they laid you in a cradle
by a highway sign
between a shipping lane and a railway line
on the unceded land
you inherited from a soy farmer & a native band
they didn’t really know
how to care for your soul
how can you plant a seed in a toxic town
the debt of generations weathered and worn
your grandfather was gravely misinformed
he covered all the land with chemicals
that seeped into the water table
some grew a harder shell
while the cancer spread
from the horn of plenty to the fountainhead
you caught a train to ride
to the end of all tracks
where you sunk your spade in the unturned land
they didn’t really know
how to care for your soul
how can you plant a seed in a toxic town
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4. |
Promise of Spring
05:26
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I have been afraid of the truth
don't say it
I have been afraid of the truth
every moment clue after clue
every moment bells ringing
wake up you!
I just roll over
when you climbed inside this shell
you suspended all
to become a story written in the marrow
directed by stars
cued up by symbols and signs
by heron and by season
by fruit and by wine
who can name the root of this fear
don't say it
who can name the root of this fear
just watch the last leaf
quiver and cling to the tree
I am that leaf
I was 26 years old when the panic seized me
unrecognizable when she came to meet me
a lily from beyond
handed me by a stranger
a promise of spring
in the midst of deep freeze
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5. |
Eisblumen
03:17
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make me the ice flower
that blooms in darkness
in minus centigrade
against the curve
of your glassy surface
make me formlessness
crystallized
iron filings polarized
singeing you
with my shattered light
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6. |
As a Cloud
01:43
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as a cloud passes by the sun
testing shades of darkness
revealing light in its time
testing shades of light
shades of dark
shades of light
didn't know darkness
didn't know how dark it could get
didn't know how far
down I would descend
didn't know lightness
was a place I had to climb
minute by minute
as a cloud travels fast and far
testing new formations
pulled at once by four winds
testing shape and form
shape and form
as a cloud passes by the sun
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7. |
Snake Charmer
03:15
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come on and be
my snake charmer
summon me
I don't wanna wait anymore
I want to rise
when I was young
I saw a world full of damage
desperate souls
buried beneath all their sadness
everywhere I went
I'd smell a thief and I'd vanish
I hid my light so they wouldn't
take what was mine
come on and be
my snake charmer
I have been so guarded
and so uninviting
to generous hearts
who loved me deep and abiding
all they were trying to do
was to free me from hiding
turn back the stone
where I live alone
come on and be
my snake charmer
I don’t wanna wait
anymore
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8. |
Hunter
05:29
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follow with your eye the animal
moving through the trees
watch where the horizontal line forms the vertices
follow with your eye the animal
train the eye to tell
the spots on her hide from the skin of the alder
follow with your eye the animal
grey wolf howling
all the night and all the morning
build a fence of sound around the valley
bluff to bluff their voices bouncing
seems the pack is multiplying
set the deer to run
follow with your eye the animal
listen for the leaves
notice the movement of the birds
the rustling wings
follow with your eye the animal
never look away
and if a thought should cloud the mind
let it pass by
follow with your eye the animal
on the beach the eagle nesting
dives across the path we're walking
cries a piercing cry to come no farther
all the night and all the morning
grey wolf howling
set the deer to run
follow with your eye the animal
the same I hear you singing
round our patch of land
fallow for a hundred years
and turned over by your hand
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9. |
Where is God
06:41
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don't put ideas in her head
her young and blessed head
she came not long ago
I suspect she may still remember
the place where secrets are kept
we should be asking her instead
why do some trees grow so tall
while the dragonfly lives but one season
ask her where is god
when she was young she said to me
this world is one big house, Emily
I do not know this world, she said
we walked below a skytrain
I wish I'd asked her, Madeline
what happens to a dead man's soul
but she was only two years old
I wish I'd asked her who and why
how and where is god
I still remember in those days
when I was very small
too small to be alone
my mother watched from the window
a ceremony in my hands
I held it in the sticks and stones
I heard it in the heaving wind
I wore it in my ancient bones
I rearranged the poles
I moved the universe
I ordered up the the stars
consoled this haggard earth
a steeple nor a cross
need have marked a holy place
a river or a mossy bank
a rock of any shape
answered
where is god
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10. |
Hourglass
03:46
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what you never knew
has been haunting you
strange visitors knocking
at your dreams
what would it take
to bring back that day
without turning away
what's buried in the sands of time
swept away by winds of the mind
grain by grain collecting on
the bottom of the hourglass
if you're willing to see
would you even believe
and what would you do
with what you know
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Emily Millard
Emily Millard, known formerly as Miss Emily Brown, is a Canadian singer-songwriter whose unique blend of art-folk combines
poetry with vintage keys, steel strings and found-instruments.
In the last ten years, Emily released a series of records under the moniker Miss Emily Brown and with chamber-pop band Morlove.
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