Tin Hut Songs

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1.

Goodbye to Glenesslin

Where the fir and the white birch grow
With the green spread about them
And the bell sounds in the stone-way
Where the water comes by them

I have been by the heather
Where the lands are unfallen
Where the honey lies open
And the sun comes unhindered

And the years came like water
You were not long in drinking
And the dew filled the rose-cups
On the walls you have lived in

I have been by the strong stone
And I shook the hard bridges
And the alders were shaken
When floods took the summer

And the world beyond is wider
There are hills full of grazing
There are the great hills that are empty
And the flat lands about them

And the sea lies beyond it
With the years you remember
If you hear it on the first day
You will hear it forever

And the voyage goes through it
In the grey and the sightless
With the waves’ chant and the wind’s chant
And the boat’s voice between them

And the world beyond is stranger
I am lost to the surges
I am lost at the furrows
And grains made without me

But I have seen the splendour
Of the rain on dead brackens
Of the grey rain on the dyke-stones
When winter meets the valley

And I heard the hail hissing
In the walls that are empty
Where the ewe lambs in April
And the Plough-stars swing over

When the Glen is behind me
May the song I will carry
Through the wide air about me
Be a roof to the grey stones

I will make it with tongue-like
Reeds from the wetlands
With the red yew about it
And the black of the elder.

2. A Wanderer

A Wanderer on the road, she looked hungry and alone
And the young man at his wheel said, let me help you with your load
But she smile a crooked smile, as she straightened up her shoe
I can get on by myself, without the help of you
For a mountain stands
With its head in the cloud
And it may be north
And it may be south
But I’m going there
Yes I’ll see the sun
And the moon that shines beyond
Then that young man stood admiring, yes he left the car he drove
And he fell down at her feet and he vowed undying love
Then they turned into an inn that stood close beside the way
And they drew the curtains shut at the ending of the day.

Well the inn was burned to dust, the young man vanished with the dawn
And the little that she had was the little that she lost
But she smiled her crooked smile – sure my pockets may be clean
But tonight I’ll find a cave, and I’ll bed there like a queen
For the mists are thick
And the voices loud
Where the people throng
And they call to me
And they call in pain
And I must act
As if I never heard.
Then the king who ruled that land heard, and came down from his height
And he passed her a handsome cheque, and he said, go put it right
For my country is full of need, and I know what I must do
But I’ll never get it done without the help of you

Then that wanderer took her rags, and she locked them in a chest
She said, fetch me the barefoot singer, fetch me the child who begs
Then she smiled her crooked smile, as she put her finery on
And she led them in a dance to the gates of Oblivion
For the sheep still graze
Where the mountain crumbles
And the dead grass blows
And the moor-birds whistle
For I’ve always gone
Where the wind has blown
And soon we’ll go to sleep
For the Revolution came, and the darkness swept away
And the Mother of the People is a thing of yesterday
Now she lies beneath the stars, where the air is clear and keen
And the stillness in her face is the triumph of a queen.

3. Winds of Freedom

It’s got eyes of glass, it’s got skin of steel
it comes grinding up the hill and all the people kneel
and its shout re-echoes in the mountains round
and the deep foundations tremble and the walls fall down
And I’m standing on the edge in the pouring rain
with nothing between me and the sky again
like the sheep on the hill, like the cattle at the cull
there is nothing between me and the hollow men

So cheer up my boys, and knock that whisky down
for we’ll all be feeling better when the prison-walls close round
for it’s cruel through the snow and the cold sodden ground
and defenceless where the open winds of freedom blow

Will you tell me my brother, why is the sky so red
Is it evening or morning that’s overhead
have you spent all that money, will you save it up for years
to bolster your confidence, and calm your fears
And I’m standing here, holding out my hand
but take it or leave it, you’re the hollow man
with your wall full of charts and your mouth full of dirt
as you head back for exactly where you first began

But cheer up my boys (chorus)

My brother had a vision as he slowly sank
he saw sunlight on the water through the sights of a tank
there was nobody near, no target in view
and the icy hand of fear clawed his heart in two
When they told his little daughter, daddy’s never coming home
the silly thing sat in her treetop all alone
and with never a tear said I’m waiting here
till he’s everything he promised he’d be when a man

But cheer up my boys (chorus)

The prophet Elijah came and warned us for our good
of the coming tides of darkness and the rivers of blood
and the bankers, and their accusers, and the jailers, and the just
all join into the chorus, let it not be us!
But I hope when the time comes, that the last thing I’ll see
will be my brother’s daughter at her wishing-tree
with a hollow tambourine that she batters with her hand
and I hope she’ll do the latest crazy dance for me

So cheer up my boys (chorus)

4. Still Somewhere

I was born in a year they were making moon-flights
They were picking folk-songs from the tree like peaches
And I said I would make a song for the future
With the instruments our forefathers played
For I saw it plain, and I saw them shining
All the torches carried by the sons of women
How they’d build and sow under the sky’s benediction
Yes my song said it all, and all the plans we made

But the strings had frayed, and the chanter cracked
While the tree-bark peeled and left the heartwood bare
You brave young men, with your bags all packed
Are you off again, is there still somewhere?

Now you men who catch the sun in your pockets
Who have measured the future and found it wanting
What will you teach your sons and daughters
What songs and dances will you leave to the young?
For I’ve seen it plain, like an old old story
And I laugh when I see their frightened faces
And I wish that I’d never stopped exploring
With all the worlds out there, I wish I’d just sung

But the strings have frayed, and the chanter cracked
And the tree-bark peeled and left the heartwood bare
You brave young men, with your bags all packed
Are you off again, is there still somewhere?

5. Time Before Time

Oh my love
takes me back
to a time
before time
telling me that my lack
and my hunger is no crime

When I stood
with my nose
to the crack
in the door
as they took
my decisions
for me one time more
oh my king and my queen did
so seldom disagree!

Such a sad,
slow skip
to my step,
to my tune
oh my love,
it’s past noon
by the clock on the wall
and so soon
I will have sunk
behind the trees
behind the hill
I will have gone beyond control
I’ll be the breeze among the rocks

– Mister clock,
keep your hands
big and small,
to yourself
do you think I’m some lightbulb
left up on the shelf
when my king and my queen
left me their empty hall?

In the time
before time
where the jungle
presses thick
I will watch
each shining leaf
for the mirror of my face
ah my love
you did not choose
you took your pick
you’ll search in vain
and only music in my place
the music that always played me

– Oh your hunger
is for skill
and my hunger
will embrace
everything you straighten out
in your court on the hill
my love, play your song:
I’ll dispute every case.

6. At Ythanwells

I’ll sing you a story of a land of many rivers
And some of them stop and call by name,
there is
Ythan, Deveron, Bogie, Isla,
Don and Urie, Eden and Tay –
Stand at the source of any river
the water always flows the same,
and the names you call it, the names you live by
will not make the water change or stay.

There on the hillside the water rises
flowing to north, or south or west;
with the
flocks about us, the clouds above us
we walked like giants and the farms had no names;
and there where the towns have gathered, darkening the water
(love is the water’s name, and no-one contests it)
the years mount up and the stones are gathered,
stones to build a better resting-place.

If memory serves, there once were two of us on the hilltop
smoke in the distance, dark clouds on the south horizon;
wide as the world was then, our steps could match it
giant steps to cross it in a summer’s day;
But Isla was here, and over there Eden
down in the valleyland the gleam of the water challenged
choices before us – hard ways to choose from
choices no water can dissolve or ease.

Where we have gone astray and where we made good choices
now we can look back and forget and forgive
it took
twenty-five steps to cross the world in
twenty-five years moves you hardly a pace!
Urie reminds you and Bogie will ease you
and Ythan wash our memory away, while the
water flows, its source always hidden,
love at the wells, love at the sea.

7. Girl Called Dragon

Sit down beside me
You tell me I’m dreaming
And I’m sure you can read me
For I’ve no secrets but one
That leaves no guessing for two
So sit here beside me
And roll me one of your specials
For today she’s at peace
The swell is gentle and blue
The sea has her secrets
Not one of us can find out
Why should we care, we have our lives in it, she plays no part
I left my heart – I left my heart out there, is that a thing too deep to fathom?

Her nickname was Dragon
But kindly she could be
And she was gentle at times,
And always loyal and true
Oh, curse on the storm-wind
That took that tiny boat flying
Through the black waves, the low cloud
That quickly hid her from view
Curse on the skipper
And his feeble-handed crew
That let her run when all the signs said stay behind and wait
I lost my friend – I lost my friend, my lover and my only true companion

Why do I keep watch
On an empty horizon
You say no boat that goes over
Is ever sighted again
Oh, wise when you tell me
No-one returns from such distance
And I would never know her as
The same one she was then
I’ll show you teeth-marks
That I hide here on my chest
The seared-in scar of hate and love I still can wear with pride
What else could match – what else could match the mother-teeth of her I called my Dragon

8. (still missing)

9. Synchopated Lullaby

My darling, stay awake two minutes
longer, I’ll synchopate a lullaby
The night is long enough for sleeping and singing too,
the quiet frosty night;
Tighten your arms around me and`
let your soft lips wait open listening, even
the clock on the wall seems hushed in prayer, pauses
in its needless anxiety;
Come hear me tell you and in the morning every-
thing will be washed away.

For water’s the greatest secret,
it even drifts through the far black universe
And all the things I’ve been sure of, I only ever
saw them tail-end first;
Come stand on the bridge with me
and hear the water bubbling down slyly
stare to grey hills, half blind in the undiscovered
country where I once lived and loved before;
But downstream we can see ourselves dancing in bright
colours no-one ever wore.

For dear, there’s too much weight in old
record books, gravity’s a killer disease;
The starlings and the robins know better, they even
sing it from the trees;
Old rooms filled up with cobwebs and
shrouded grey heads buried in sadness
pavements where split sacks and broken chests still display
their dusty charred tarnished finery;
But we can only see forwards to clear blue
horizons – how good it will be!