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1. |
No Escape
02:36
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I’m terrified by numbers
but numbers can’t contain you
Numbers can’t contain me
or show me how to be
I clear a space within me
for something new to grow
I find a place so still
I imagine it’s my soul
I don’t want to think
think a place for you
Speak to me from everywhere
speak to me from here
This is where the night falls
a blessing on my weary head
This is where I find you
a secret shy within myself
This is no escape
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2. |
Headless Husband
04:45
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My cracks began to show. My roots became exposed.
I told you I was fine.
The TV show was good. I read a review afterwards.
Every other review now mentions the end of the world.
I’m scared of the end, my sister is dead, I shook on the bed, and you held me.
I’m the headless husband, babe. Take a ride with me.
Are you and me like freaks now, babe, undone eternally?
-------------------------------------
Vivian under the white oak tree.
Frank sees her there and gets down on a knee.
I never want to lie to you, honey now.
Charlie walks down a darkening street.
Lorraine talks fast and he kisses her suddenly.
I never want to lie to you, honey now.
My mama in the church with a child on her knee.
David sees her there and his heart skips a beat.
Oh, oh honey now.
My daddy in the dark night of his soul.
Val takes his hand and says, “Baby, I know.
Oh, I know, yes honey, I know.”
Shake me with babe, shimmy with me now.
Shimmy with me boy, yes, shake that fear out.
Shimmy with me babe, shake with me now.
Shimmy with me boy, yes, shake that fear out, hey honey now.
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3. |
Book of Hours
03:46
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I like to get anxious about the weather.
I like to stress out as I predict the future.
Oh, I like to analyze this and analyze that.
Oh, I break it all down to bits.
I think I know everything but I don’t.
Just about everything but then I won’t know you.
I’ll be ok, I’ve got the Book of Hours waiting for me.
I like to use nice words because I paid a lot for the major.
I like to think big and not have much to show
For how I spent my time those two weeks home alone.
Oh, I’ve been told to move a little more and drink a little less.
Oh, let me break that down to bits.
I think I know everything but I don’t.
Just about everything but then I won’t know you.
I’ll be ok, I’ve got the Book of Hours waiting for me.
No one convolutes like me. No one tunes me out like you do.
No one complicates me like I do. No one tries to love me like you.
I had a meeting with an old friend today.
He had an urgent message from the last century.
He said, “They’ll be ok, they’ll be ok.”
And I’ll be ok, I’ve got the Book of Hours waiting for me.
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4. |
Thursday Morning
03:10
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Another normal morning. Could be good, could be bad.
Anything is possible. Even the worst, even the best.
I look up at the pedestal and lay myself against the earth.
The world walks gently upon me, a quiet bed of snow-covered earth.
Another Thursday morning. Is it good? Is it bad?
I guess anything is possible.
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5. |
Tracks
03:54
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They just won’t give up. Karen, take me home by another way, another way.
Tracks in the snow lose me as I go down a revenant road that no one knows.
Do you know the time? Can you hear the little white lies they’re saying now?
Can you hear the flood? Will you build a little white house and wait in the sun?
Listen while I talk. I speak in an animal tongue. I have wrote our names on every wall.
Tracks in the snow, rivers will carry our bones down the highway tolls, and we are sold.
Do you know the time? Can you hear the little white lies I’m saying now?
Can you hear the flood? Will you build a little white house and wait in the sun?
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6. |
What If This Were Enough
02:43
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Do you love the world? The clouds, the trees, the laugh of your good friend?
Do you feel a hole in each moment? A black hole in the heart of you?
What if the day gets away from me? What if my friend just leaves me be?
Oh, but what if this were enough?
Do you love the world? The play of light? All these connected stories?
I’ve spent far too long in a web of wishes that it could all be better.
What if the sun burns everything? Yeah, but what if what is never came to be?
Oh, what if all of this were enough? What if this were enough?
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7. |
Fire or Fire
06:05
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Take me by surprise, I don’t want to know anything about nothing anymore.
I can build my world straight from the source. I don’t want to hear about it anymore.
Could I still grow in a world that’s broke?
Should I still grow? Is the world too broke?
On and on in the same place
Cut my ear off to spite your face
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In the widening gyre
The bluebird on the wire
The moment of desire
The servants of the Lord building the pyre
Deny, make it higher, make it higher!
Yes, you are free
To choose fire or fire
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I break free of the world to come, pulling weeds in the garden.
I break free of disaster and in the house i hear laughter.
I know the prophecies of weather but do i know who my sons are?
Oh I would like to know you better.
I think I know what my heart’s become. It’s half-closed and scared to love.
What’s the point of trying? All I see now is the dying.
Oh I would like to see things better.
Slow me down, lord, make it slow. From the ground I can hear my soul.
The whole world is sick and stoned. I would like to make just one thing whole.
I would like to make it better.
One sister loved Seven Swans. One sister loves Hannah Hunt.
What else should I ask for? What else but to love more?
Oh I would like to love you better.
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8. |
Summer Street
04:17
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When I was a child living on Summer Street
The place was tight in the summer heat
The walls were thin and the family next door
Had a girl my age in the room next to mine
I never saw her face
but I could hear her play in the room next door
In the middle of the night
I’d put my ear to the wall and listen for a sound
My dad found work in the factory
He showed us church and the Top 40
He kept singing that song about Johnny Appleseed
Then he broke his back in the factory
I couldn’t see his whole face
He only let himself cry in the pouring rain
In the middle of the night
I put my ear to the wall, I could hear him pray
My sister made a card for the family next door.
She knocked and knocked until they let her in.
She met that little girl, I could hear them play
In the room next to mine, I put my ear to the wall
For just a few days and then they moved away
I never saw her face
But my sister had changed, she’d become beautifully strange
And she never did forget that little girl’s face
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God is in her mind, moving in the sun, sleeping in the dark
Heavy on the vine, patiently ripening
God, are you alive? Growing in the sun, glowing in the dark?
Heavy on the vine, patiently ripening?
God, you are my child, playing in the sun, calling in the dark
So heavy and so light, patiently ripening
Patiently ripening
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9. |
Another Question
02:06
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After lunch at work the world is too much with me
After lunch at work I sometimes take a nap
On the board at work was posed another question
“If you could talk to anyone at all, who would it be?”
I thought of you, my sister, and I thought of you, O‘Donohue,
And Jesus too, and others who are still alive
Later on I called my mother and I called my father
And I wrote to an old friend I haven’t seen in years
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10. |
Keep a Light
02:19
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Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh
Holiest ghost, holiness
I keep a light for you
Wholly at rest, wholly undressed
Hot with the breath of everything
You found a light in me
Step outside and crawl out of me
Up to the sky imagining
I keep a light for you
Step outside in the middle of the night
Hot with the work of remembering
You found a light in me
And I’ll keep a light for you
I’ll keep a light for you
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11. |
Swansea
03:42
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Come and find me, I will be here
I will know you when you come
I can see you holding back all that anger
Walking around with your head held high
And your belly tied in knots
No one knows you like I do
Well, no one knows me either
I won’t let them in but I might let you
Just please don’t let me down
It’s not that hard but it’s not that easy
There’s an emptiness at the heart of me
I cling to you, I seek security
Then I leave you hanging, drive downtown
Looking for some kind of relief
Should I push this anger down?
Let it eat me up from the inside out?
No no no no no goddamn you stupid fucks
I ain’t giving up
I’ll keep walking around with my head
Held high and my belly full of knots
Yes I’ll keep walking around town with
My head held high and my belly tied in knots
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12. |
Chorus Line
03:44
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I cut my hair today
I’m feeling swell
I’ll take that backhanded compliment
I clean up well
We pass on the sidewalk
Strange Americans
I look up and smile as they rush by
I wish them well
I feel like I’m on the edge of a chorus line
And I’d like to dance
You know how it feels- your body moves, you come alive, it feels real good
If the light starts to flicker
Take a breath
This is all that’s ever really happening
This is it
I feel like I’m on the edge of a chorus line
And I’d like to dance
I know a move or two
I’ll fudge the rest
Unlock your mind, it feels so
Unlock your heart, it feels so
Unlock your body, it feels so
Unlock your body, it feels so good
It’s a strange time, it’s a strange land
It’s still a miracle
I didn’t give up, I didn’t give in
It’s a damn miracle
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Solitaires Columbus, Ohio
Solitaires is the creative outlet and recording project of Nate Gelinas. Goal is to express everything while trying to keep it simple. Failures are commonplace. New album "No Escape" out in May 2023. Current collaborators include Jon Helm, Hal Hixson, Jon Schiedermayer, and Andy and Holly Malone. Based in Columbus. ... more
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