Record Tracklist

1. The Devil
   The Devil
   
   

   As soon as I am left alone
   the devil wanders into my soul
   and I pretend to myself –
   I pretend to myself

   I go out to the old mile-stone
   insanely expecting you to come there
   knowing that I wait for you there –
   that I wait for you there

   Come here at once!
   Come on a night with no moon
   because all of my being is now pining –
   all of my being is now pining

   What formerly cheered me now seems insignificant

2. Dear Darkness
   Dear Darkness
   
   

   Won’t you cover me again? Dear Darkness, I’ve been your friend for many years…
   Won’t you do this for me dearest Darkness? Cover me from the sound of the words tightening around my throat and around the throat of the one I love…the tightening, tightening, tightening.

   Dear Darkness – now it’s your turn to look after us, because we kept you clothed and we kept you in business when everyone else was having good luck. So now it’s your time to pay – to pay me and the one I love with the worldly goods you stashed away –
   with all the things you took from us.

3. Grow, Grow, Grow
   Grow, Grow, Grow
   
   

   I sowed a seed
   underneath the oak tree
   I trod it in
   with my boots I trampled it down

   grow, grow, grow, grow

   I sowed a rose
   underneath the oak grove
   with my boots on the ground
   into the earth I trampled it down

   grow, grow

   teach me mummy
   how to grow
   how to catch someone’s fancy
   underneath the twisted oak grove

4. When Under Ether
   When Under Ether
   
   

   The ceiling is moving
   moving in time
   like a conveyor belt
   above my eyes

   When under ether
   the mind comes alive
   conscious of nothing
   but the will to survive

   I lay on the bed
   waist down undressed
   look up at the ceiling
   feeling happiness

   Human kindness

   The woman beside me
   is holding my hand
   I point at the ceiling
   she smiles so kind

   Something’s inside me
   unborn and unblessed
   disappears in the ether
   this world to the next

   Human kindness

5. White Chalk
   White Chalk
   
   

   White chalk hills are all I’ve known
   White chalk hills will rot my bones
   White chalk sticking to my shoes
   White chalk playing as a child with you

   White chalk south against time
   White chalk cutting down the sea at Lyme
   I walk the valleys by the Cerne
   on a path cut fifteen hundred years ago

   and I know these chalk hills will rot my bones

   Dorset’s cliffs meet at the sea
   where I walked, our unborn child in me
   White chalk, gorse-scattered land
   scratch my palms – there’s blood on my hands

6. Broken Harp
   Broken Harp
   
   

   Please don’t reproach me
   for how empty
   my life has become

   I don’t know what really happened
   I watched your disappointment
   at being misunderstood

   I forgive you

   Something metal
   is tearing my stomach out
   if you think ill of me

   Can you forgive me too?

   I tried to learn your language
   but fell asleep half undressed
   unrecognisable to myself

7. Silence
   Silence
   
   

   All those places where I recall
   the memories that grip me and pin me down,
   I go to these places pretending to think –
   I can think of nothing, but anticipate

   that you’ll find me there –
   that by some miracle you’d be aware.

   I’d risen this morning determined to break
   the spell of my longing, and not to think.
   I freed myself from my family, I freed myself from work,
   I freed myself, and remained alone…

   and in my thinking steal you away –
   though you never wanted me anyway.

   Silence. Silence. Silence.

8. To Talk to You
   To Talk to You
   
   

   Oh grandmother, how I miss you
   under the earth – I wish I was with you

   to talk to you

   I found somebody I tried to give myself to –
   many times I wanted to talk to you

   If I lay on the earth could you hear?

   Oh grandmother, I’m so lonely
   all my life

   If I lay on the earth could you hear?

9. The Piano
   The Piano
   
   

   Hit her with a hammer
   teeth smashed in
   red tongues twitching
   look inside a skeleton

   My fingers sting
   where I feel your fingers have been
   ghostly fingers
   moving my limbs

   Oh god I miss you!

   Daddy’s in the corner
   rattling his keys
   mummy’s in the doorway
   trying to leave

   Nobody’s listening

10. Before Departure
    Before Departure
    
    

    Farewell my friends
    Farewell my dear ones
    If I was rude
    forgive my weakness

    Goodbye my friends
    Goodbye to evening parties
    Remember me
    in the spring

    Work for your bread
    Soon we must leave
    Remember your families
    and work for your children

    I don’t need much
    and the older I become
    I realise
    my friendships

    will carry me over
    any cause of strangeness
    and any cause of distance
    The friends that last

    will dance one more time
    with me
    I don’t need much
    but this I need

11. The Mountain
    The Mountain
    
    

    Above the mountain
    an eagle is flying

    High above the mountain
    an eagle is calling down
    to the soldier who falters
    a soldier on the ground

    By the mountain I feel nothing
    for in my own heart every tree is broken –

    the first tree will not blossom
    the second will not grow
    the third has almost fallen
    since you betrayed me so