1. |
Franny & Zooey
03:58
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I've got a skunk on my shoulder,
turned 20 this year but I feel like I'm getting
somewhere,
now I see God most every mourning.
& her strings are pulling me up
and though they crack me up, most of the time
they just tear me apart
The damned dog, he just laughs at me -
he's a dead dog - you know just what is going on -
and I am, I am, I'm filthy with feelings
my sun cast his own shadows
but still peels my skin off
Sometimes I live inside
my own insides
& I digest my anger
I feel reckoned with
and run over
The hand of God sets my mind right-kind
and I see light in August,
I see Light
Daisy died 2 weeks before you left
Well I guess you got put out in the dog house again
well, I've been working on my serendipity - Oh,
I know I'm not alone
on these by-myself mournings
oh my-
Dog barks
but don't I feel better than this?
I'm rocking on my front porch
and my televisions always going
the day runs itself out again
just like the day before that one did & the day before that one,
I looked again, at the sun,
and he looked just like a swan or a ghost hanging above my own shape
well, Amelia's in the basement, Amelia's in a painting
and oh, Blue, won't you make it south?
Your art - it fills up my room with this quiet sound
Well she says,
"I hate that painting! It's off-centered and unfinished and depressing and it's goddamn ugly!"
Well I disagreed- it was my favorite piece
Just then the hand of God set my mind right-kind
and I saw light in August, I see light
& I've seen people do good without being kind.
well,
may the rain weep your name, Emily Dickinson
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2. |
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3. |
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When I hear that Pavement song about being so drunk
in the late summer sun,
I get a cigarette hand-passed down by God.
When I lit it up, it was a joint
he said "That one was for missing the piont",
Well - I still don't get it and you're always on my mind.
I could happily lie down and die
I chased my heart full of hope and desire
Well I feel dumb, but so did you
I smell suffer - wrote a letter on the gospel of Matthew
I didn't get one back, but they said that they would write me back, and I still think they meant it -
but why, and for how long?
Star of Wonder blinked for us in Acadia -
and he was sensible enough not to tell us what it meant.
My dog barks
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4. |
The Paintings Song
02:53
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I'm sitting in my room surrounded by my paintings
and they're all self portraits - I don't want to be reminded
There's a snake biting a wild dog
he howls but does nothing else
his tongue looks like it came from hell
I bet his feelings hurt like hell
oh my god
The stork keeps his claws in her back
she's crouched down and his wings are spread out
her palms are stretched out, placed in his mouth,
I bet his talons hurt like hell
The albatross is flying upside down
and plastic water bottles are hanging the heron
the ocean looks like it came from hell
& I bet this planet feels like hell
God, I hope not
Red- Rabbit turning into a well
shaking hands at goddess, screaming "what am I hear for?"
they forced this whole world onto my back
and I haven't seen my mother since
oh I'm sitting in my room, my room,
surrounded by my paintings &
they're all self - portraits
I don't want to be reminded
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5. |
You Are A Crow
03:29
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The good mourning sun swallows me
the moment I wake up
so I rise before the sun.
Some things last a long time,
some things last a life time.
Mother Cow, please fly over my pain
she rolls her tongue of spirit all across me
cleans of my story
but you are a Crow
and too sardonic
for that old magic
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6. |
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7. |
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Now that I have found you,
I can finally focus on myself
I am visited by the ghost that follows you around
you've never heard her but I hear her rave everyday
and at this point I'm unsure if she can even see me,
what I move inside myself is
sharpened by my own teeth
and it rips me open to anybody who doesn't mind the smell of a skunk.
I was sitting at the south station diner
with the son of David - when he asked the waitress
for some vinegar I caught her smiling at me
They say, "you look so grounded"
but I know what you are - you're a cloud caught on fire,
The tide that returns to my center,
you're the cowboy.
And I've known you for so long. I've loved you for longer than that.
Think that I saw you in a past life, and I think that I saw you in the one before that
And when I saw the green light in you
Well I knew a part of me was a part of you
and I hope you never love anything as much as I love everything
because you're the patches that I've been missing
Coyote's tender heart is wrapped up in a wet blanket
I'm running through his ranch and I'm naked
and you radiate something I want to soak in
and you radiate something I want to sulk in
and you radiate something I want
something I want
something I want
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8. |
Halloween
04:36
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9. |
I Dream of Raw Meat
04:52
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Since I woke up that morning in South Paris
I have felt different from myself
When I got my new way to be
I learned to menace my swallows
There's a droning negative narrative and I don't want to hear it i don't want to hear it but it talks to me
Lucy's in the corner table going off about something with dragons on it she was looking for it in the morning and she found it
and I am trying to move to a southern state but my shit foundation is getting in the way
& the library doesn't open til 10:30 - oh my god
And Lucy's going on again, Lucy's going on again, Lucy's going on again
when will she stop
and I really loved you
there's a droning negative narrative and I don't want to hear it I don't want to hear it but it talks to me
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10. |
Lost Dog (Live)
05:12
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11. |
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12. |
At The End, You Meet God
04:55
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"You will have another chance to live this life" the voice ringing in my ear says
you'll wake up when you're alive
forgetting who you were
before -
and you'll keep living this life
until you've returned to the universe
and at the end, you meet God,
wearing a face that shows your whole life as it was flashing before your eyes -
do you not choose to hide?
Your face in your hands - To weep, to cry.
Do you hide your face to cry?
When your whole life flashes before your eyes
do you choose to hide your face to cry
At the end you meet God
& do you choose to hide your face in your hands to weep
when you stand to say -
"This was my human condition", and I am happy
grateful for it.
We blame God for being alive but you thank God for not dying in those times
but you thank God for not dying in those times
You'll wake up when you're alive
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August West Portland, Maine
green light!
swamp swan,
old man coyote
aint got no swash
poem and songs by August West
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