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The Revelation according
to the birds
The words for this final piece came spontaneously when Thomas & I were
improvising. Only later, after I had transcribed the tape, did I realize
that halfway through, the narrative switches from an address to an abstract
and unknown "you" to a narrative in the first person. I realized that the
person addressed in the first part was really some sort of dissociated
aspect of myself. Some part of myself which I caught up with in the process
of improvising.
Later on, it seemed to me that the narrative is addressed to a person who
went to hell & came back. He wakes up & realizes that he is alive & that he
has only dreamed his dark night of the soul -- perhaps his own suicide. He
is glad to be alive. In a sense, it is simply a theme to improvise around.
[wind]
You are standing in the middle of the room.
You have got your eyes open
and yet you are in a dream.
You are thinking that you are
glad to live in a town,
where you can still hear the sound
of a railway train.
You are glad to be alive.
You are glad you're still around.
You're glad you've got another chance
to express yourself.
You're glad that you got some good friends.
You're glad that you can dream
and that you can wake up from your dream.
You're glad to have a place
in the natural world.
You are glad that you have got someone
you can talk to about these things.
You're glad to get up in the morning,
look out your window, bright sunshine.
You're glad to think these thoughts.
You're glad you got the chance
to work out some of the things
you haven't got quite right
in your life. You're glad
you can stand at this window,
think your thoughts, talk your talk.
You are glad to feel the beating of your heart,
glad to feel the movement of your arms,
your breathing,
you're glad you can look in the mirror & say
Hey that's me, I look just about
how I did yesterday. Not too old --
maybe a few lines around the eyes --
maybe the hair a little grey.
But I don't look too bad.
Hey, I don't look too bad.
That's what I tell myself.
Say, I'm glad to be part of the music.
I'm glad to take what happens to me seriously.
I'm glad to take a serious part
in what happens to me.
Glad to listen to the voices
that come to me in the night.
And I'm glad to wake up too.
I'm glad to see the cars cruise
down the avenue,
Glad to take my part
Glad to hear about yours.
I'm glad to see the beautiful girls
with bodies like gazelles.
I'm glad to see the young men
with bodies like lions.
I'm glad to see the clouds.
Glad to see the rain.
Glad to see the snow.
I'm glad to say the names of things.
Glad to see the wind blowin'
in the poplar trees.
Glad to see your face
lookin' back at me.
Glad to hear the birds
talkin' in the trees.
Glad to hear the birds
talkin' up in the trees.
They're talking about their relatives.
They're talking about the parties
they've been to.
Talkin' about the Saints they knew
all down through history.
They're talking about the revelation.
They're talking the revelation talk.
They're talkin' bird talk.
They're talking that wise talk.
Talking soul talk.
Talking heart.
They're talking about the revelation.
They're talking the love talk.
Talking about having fun.
Talking about the revelation.
Talking about the revelation.
They're talking revelation.
They're talking the language of the birds.
They're talking about the liveliness of everything.
They're talking about the sweet shimmer on the edge.
They're talking about sunlight & instinct.
They're talking about hunting & being hunted.
They're talking about the X-ray animals
& how they shine out of rock.
They're talking birth-talk and death-talk.
They're talking sunshine & rain talk.
Talking about the magnetic sky
and the colours of the sky.
They're talking prophesy
and how nobody has every been here before
in exactly this way.
They're talking about how to get around
how to forgive a person when
they have done you wrong
how to give yourself away
Hell, they're talkin' about everything under the sun.
They're talking about the revelation.
They're talking about the revelation
that comes down in words
they're talking about the revelation
of the heart & the body
they're talking about the revelation
of music & the rays of the sun
Talking about how to fly
and where to fly and when to fly.
Talking about wings and air.
Talking about high.
Talking about high. |
Mind
Fields I
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Mind Fields II
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