Hymns 7
SOLIDARITY
The people stand in the square,
faces grim, breathing fire & snow
assembled by the will to live despite bureaucrats growing old
You see what you want to see, but
you don't know
what you really need to know
you think the Pope can lead you down the road
you think you ought to go
The
cannons painted black & red are aimed at young & old alike
and even Rosa Luxemburg today would defy the Party's might
but that's no excuse to rally to the cause to raise a buried king
don't you know the system can't be changed
by the seal of a sacramental ring
surely in this time of realigning
you've
re-discovered such a fundamental thing
You see what you want to see, but
you don't know
what you really need to know
you think the Pope can lead you down the road
you think you ought to go
There's danger when you place your faith
in leaders with a selective sense of past
since everything is relative
yesterday's fears may become tomorrow's laugh
You can't believe what you read, when what you read
are nothing but lies
so you hold on to the only truth you see
reflected in each other's eyes
You
see what you want to see, but you don't know
what you really need to know
you think the Pope can lead you down the road
you think you ought to go
False
prophets of gold & N.A.T.O. offer no solution
they're just another boss.
- JEFarrow -
[San Francisco 1981]
[NOTE:
Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) was a Polish-German revolutionary socialist who
along with her partner Karl 
Liebknecht
formed the internationalist Spartacists faction within the Social Democratic
Party (SPD) as a reaction to the SPD's capitulation to nationalist war aims
(World War I). Both were instrumental in transforming the Spartacists into the
German Communist Party. Despite serious misgivings, Rosa Luxemburg participated
in the failed 1919 Spartacists insurrection. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were
arrested and subsequently murdered by reactionary German troops that same
year.]
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The House at Pooneil Corners
you
& me we keep walking around & we see
all the bullshit around us
you try & keep your mind on what’s going down
can’t help but see the rhinoceros around us
& you wonder what you can be
& you do what you can to get bald & high
& you know i’m still gonna need you around
& you know i’m still gonna need you around
you say it’s healing
but nobody’s feeling it
somebody’s dealing
somebody’s stealing
yet you say you don’t see & you don’t
you say you won’t know & you won’t let it come
everything
someday will be gone except silence
earth will be quiet again
seas of clouds will wash-off the ashes of violence
left as the memory of men
there will be no survivors my friend
suddenly
everyone will look surprised
stars spinning wheels in the sky
sun is scrambled in their eyes while
the moon circles
like a vulture
sun
stripped away no one cried one tear
i thought that would stop the war
that someone is killing me/you
that’s
the last hour to think anymore
jelly & juice
& bubbles
bubbles on the floor…
castles
on cliffs vanish
cliffs like heaps of rubbish
gleaned from the stars hour by hour
as splintered scraps & black
powder
from here to heaven is a scar
dead center
deep as death
all
your
idiots
have 
left
cows are almost cooing
turtle doves are mooing
which is why a pooh-is-poohing
in the sun
Sun…
paul kantner/marty balin
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NIGHTINGALE
Jacob’s heart bent with fear
Like a bow with death for its arrow
In vain he searched for the final truth
To set his soul free of doubt
Over the mountains he walked
With his head bent searching for reasons
Then he called out to God for help
And climbed to the top of a hill
Wind
swept sunlight through the wheat field
In the orchard the nightingale sang
Near the plum that she broke with her brown beak
Tomorrow will turn into song;
Then she flew up through the rain
With the sun silver bright on her feathers
Jacob put back his frowns and sighed
Then walked back down the hill
God doesn’t answer me
And he never will.
Judy
Collins
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FOR FREE
I
slept last night in a good hotel
I went shopping today for
jewels
The wind rushed around the
dirty town
And the children let out
from the school;
I was standing on a noisy
corner
Waiting for the walking
green
Across the street he stood
and he played real good
On his clarinet for free
Nobody stopped to hear him
Though he played so sweet
and high
They knew he had never been
on their TV
So they passed his music by;
I meant to go over and ask
for a song
Maybe put on a harmony
I heard his refrain as the
signal changed
He was playing real good for
free
Now me I play for fortune
And those velvet curtain
calls
I’ve got a black limousine
And two gentlemen
Escorting me to the halls;
And I play if you have the
money
Or if you’re a friend to me
But the one man band by the
quick lunch stand
Was playing real good for
free
Joni Mitchell
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The King
A ruler in a barren place declared
There is no light in my kingdom
Even the moon has lost her glow
Where in the world did she go
She must be held by a night waiting for a ransom
The birds refuse to sing or stay
And with the dawning of each day
More darkness falls
Upon a fertile land now turned to clotted clay
For twenty-nine years
There’s been no rain
Just a greenish mist that leaves a stain
Where withered ivy crawls up the walls
Running down crackling hollow halls
Like talon claws where glass should be on colored windowpane
The King knows better than to complain
Or solicit his subject’s past tense or their unpopular opinion
Once glory grew like flowers through a perfumed, balmy night
Now swords and broken hearts abound
Obstruct his lordships’ sight
He summoned all his ministers in council to advise
How to replace the love he left
The virtues lost to vice
The jester grinned a wicked sneer to hide his sheer delight
To see his former liege cast down imprisoned by such a plight
Each man must account for his own blight
Bring the king a rope
Bring the king a knife
Bring the king some hope
To save his wasted life
No one knew an answer for a man whose head was high
The most ruthless of them encouraged him
That he could only try
To accumulate more stacks of gold
And other things that don’t make sense
What could he do but carry on
Straddled on a fence
Interest paid on castle fees
Drained the monarch’s best defense
Stripped from the throne the robes & crown
Of pomp & circumstance
The jester sheds a phony tear bows low to the floor just like he cared
Barely managing to conceal contempt a long suppressed & secret glare
Addressing his royal majesty as though he was now then wasn’t there
Bring the king a rope
Bring the king a knife
Bring the king a purse of pretence
He wills to abdicate his life
JEFarrow
Honolulu 197 4
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PETTY-BOURGEOIS BLUES
Life is lonesome & true love so rare to find
You can search the world over just to discover one of your own kind
People hide their contradictions & need to appear in control & cool
But, honey I chucked off all that nonsense
When I came down with the Petty-Bourgeois Blues
Pretty Mary owns a graphics business she says she’s doing just fine
But she’s fear-full of falling back into the working class life she hoped she’d left behind
Now she shops the bargain basement for a lover, a diversion, or a raging fool
Mary joined the congregation where we sing the Petty-Bourgeois Blues
My boss came from China to find a country wherein he thinks freedom resides
He left Beijing to make more money bolster up his sagging profits & his pride
Now he's scrimping out a living on the backs of people who claim he’s too cruel
The landlord and his renters join the chorus of the Petty-Bourgeois Blues
Oh we’ve got no class in America that’s certain I still hear the drums
Going ratty-tat-tum inside my poor battered head
Reagan is Our Savior because he restored the dominance of greed over bread
Yet farmers lose their land & lots of people wish that they were dead
No one will know my name since I refuse to tow the party line
Sure it’s no cause for celebration and buddy you already took my last dime
There’s got to be a reason or at least something left for me to do
But I despair I’ll find an answer locked inside these Petty-Bourgeois Blues
My friends I don’t need fame or fortune just give me something that’s real
In this world of stunting conformity I reach out just to breathe & feel
There must be others out there who don't buy into this Brave New Deal
We'll meet up where the stars do and forget all about these Petty-Bourgeois Blues.
We’ll meet up where the stars do and forget the
Petty-Bourgeois Blues.
JEFarrow
San
Francisco 1985
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THE
GREAT ESCAPE
I’ll use a lock that has no key
Aren’t you in chains
That no one else can see.
Let the water creep over your face
I’ll send it in waves
Just to watch you perform The Great Escape.
How long can you hold your breath?
While you hold mine again and wait
Just to watch you perform The Great Escape.
I’ll pull your arms tight behind your back
Use myself as weight
And wonder why you fade.
How long can you hold your breath?
While you hold mine again and wait
Just to watch you perform The Great Escape.
Moby
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Ceres
A
touch of frost tips
the
sides of green mountain
sun
slowly sinks out of day
sleeping
sounds now stirring
night
life is returning
even
in the darkness
some
light remains
Ceres
Goddess of the Earth
bring
us back in rebirth
our
souls seeds of grain
much
like dust here to stay
wait
for first calling
season
of falling rain
I’ve
run all summer
I
can’t run any longer
the
fire in my veins been bled
yet
the heart grows stronger
love
is the passion of fools it’s said
so
I wear crystal bells & silver collar too
O
show me the way through this lonely, lonely night
and
I promise to follow
will
follow
any
path you choose
Ceres
Mother of New Birth
watch
while we dream of sky & earth
here
left to chance
to
sleep & to rest
to
rise above love’s
bitter
confusion
to
wake
from
this dreaming paradox
of
SELF
d
e
l
u
s
I
o
n
Ceres
Ceres
Ceres
Great
ONE Great one
great
one
Bring
us back into communion
JEFarrow
San Francisco 1978
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exorcism
poetry is my passion
stronger than lust more potent than any drug
a solitary distraction
an amulet worn to ward off love
the intrusion of physical attraction
an artifice created to circumvent
protecting against
the hurt & the harm
unlike love never spent
poetry presents
a
dis-
arming
charm
the last wall
of
defense
the castle grows within my soul
outside the seas swell with the cold
inside my heart
strange scenario
fire
&
ice
&
molten
snow
i
stopped
yearning for this world
a long
time
ago
how can you look across the stars, that cosmic ocean
how can you nurture the seasons born in your breast
when you fail to find any reason
this world a flame
without any rest
the
all-consuming
ego's
quest
don't whisper stolen tales of astral bodies & veils
when you can’t even find
that sum one within
the undead roam the earth
where shadows have been
feast on the darkness
where life should shine in
well-paid to scavenge
cultural
garbage bins
they
harvest
humanity
as
both
kith
&
kin
we're beyond the policies of reaction & pain
the political process of hate & disdain
choosing a side faking a faction
we've failed to regain our place in the reign
there's no philosophy of pure satisfaction
that can ever compel me to conjoin us again
the people have taken the moon by the throat
choked her to the point she cannot breathe
heedless of time & the prophet's decree
they think they can tame her
they think they are free
don't believe it love
these centers are turning
distorted holograms
flooding out to the sea
the people are lost
their windows are burning
cause & effect
their source of belief
we cling to a cross any vantage station
an excuse to display our ghosts to the wind
a bounty of bloodshed clouding the light
open the darkness and evil flows in
a tyrant’s game
a tyrant’s grin
consulting no one
convicted of sin
searching for secrets long buried on mars
we don’t even know
who
what
where we are
our discourse begins
but the compass is cracked
words stick in the craw
& only come back
a curse from afar
from a cruel avatar
our love making
leaves only a scar
slashes of steel
the wound never
heals
children are pushing
a cart with no wheels
content to remain
with ghouls of the
past
they think they can feel it
we
think
it
can
last
grasping to myths that only conceal
we think that we’re holy
we think
it
is
real
and it is & it’s not
who can say how to feel
who can tag us with numbers
or call us unreal
what the gods have wrought
they can always un-deal
loving
to
play
hide
&
reveal
every battle that’s fought
every beginning & end
the screw keeps on turning
again
&
again
by ancient tombs in shadows sought
where sex is torn & love is bought
in fertile wombs & hollow glen
the gods & their jesters
make it
all
up
amen
JEFarrow
Year
of OurSELF 2006
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queen of
fantasy
your eyes
keep begging me in
I lose
control
open the
gates to our sin
zombies zoom
in
I just don’t
know ‘bout you, baby
don’t know about
you
your love is
a lock
one night
you’re hot
next night
you're a knot
honey chil’
you sizzle & freeze
you got me
walkin’ on my knees
you’re the
queen of fantasy
crazy jack
razorback
when the hell
you comin’ back
swampy shack
magic black
mistress sue
blue bayou
mummers
miming voodoo rouge
vampires
lickin’ loup garrou
hookers
hummin’ hot hoodoo
slice of life
stripper show
open tombs
Marie Laveau
funny things
on St. John eve
you serve it
up just to tease
a potpourri
of class & sleaze
you’re the
queen of fantasy
sometimes I
think I’m goin’ stark naked insane
confetti
clowns slide up the drain
I see the
walls begin to fall
tiny specks
ten feet tall
I hear you
smile I see you say
You feel me
rising from the grave
shoot it up
again baby face
don’t save it
for another day
take it like
a man or let me be
I call it one
you make it three
you’re the
queen of fantasy
your love
floats me down on bourbon street
where scents
& sounds & street spells meet
a Mardi Gras
romping on your bed
necklaces of
glass adorn your head
crowns of
jewels sparkle on your breasts
the most
disarming acid test
I like it
warm
you like it
green
and now I
know because I see
behind your
mask of poverty
you’re the
queen of fantasy
your eyes keep begging me in
I lose
control
open the floodgates
of sin
let the party
games begin
light the
candles ring the bells again
loose the
beasts from Circe’s den
you take from
me I give to thee
you know I
always aim to please
the queen of
fantasy
you’re the
queen of fantasy
the queen of
fantasy
tonight your
dream belongs to me
JEFarrow
New Orleans 1967
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HYMNS 3
