1. |
Witness
05:42
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The coffee is cold
the morning is colder
I throw seed to the birds when I want a cigarette
I'm tired of seeing the world through smoke
Sunlight falls on the unmade bed like it recognizes the flax from the linen
from fields of California where we were young lovers
united by the summer
I study the silver tongue songs of coyotes in high desert blizzards
I saw the moon break through illumine the snow-capped mountain
like a fable
that told of strangers aglow at your father's fireplace
and never knowing home
and knowing loneliness enough to know we are not alone
for each of us is alone
All I love I did not choose
but I choose to follow love
across the endlessness of my failures
until the blame is all my own
Should I fail to lessen the distance
between fear and all I can't outrun
until my offerings are no sacrifice
Should my only witness be you
Candles and dried flowers in wine bottles
from nights we want to remember
now like Carolyn's stones from across the earth
we can't tell one from the other
Hold on to me
you are all I need
I'll remind you if you remind me
who we became when we began to live as if this life is all
All I love I did not choose
but I choose to follow love
across the endlessness of my failures
until the blame is all my own
should I fail to lessen the distance
between fear and all I can't outrun
until my offerings are no sacrifice
Should my only witness be you
It's enough
Should my only witness be you
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2. |
California
05:59
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Let's drive to LA
where I was once taller
carried in the hero arms of friends
Their faces on my coins
Their flowers pressed in frames
My ships bear their names
We'll race the setting sun
Arrive with the grey-line of dusk
as the pacific emblazons
the silhouettes of strangers
to silent film silver screens
you and me at the beginning
in California
Your beauty remains through the blindfold of age
you know I'd recognize you with my hands alone
When I first touched you
the years turned to days
and I knew you'd never be old
for nothing here is long ago
I was reborn on Stanley Ave
The mornings came with a warning
and not about the future
Are you prepared for the past?
You don't know yet, but memories of beauty
can also bring sadness.
Now I can't find friends like the old ones
Matthew was always the last to leave the party
It's as if he knew that someday
we'd be grateful for what we never had
for it brought us together
in California
Where beauty remains through the blindfold of age
I'd recognize you with my hands alone
When I first touched you
the years turned to days
and I knew you'd never be old
for nothing here is long ago
We set the sun
from Venice Beach
with our drums
and swore to pursue
come what may
a life faithful to youth.
LA disappeared around a girl
like a city in the night without electricity
and I had no choice but to follow the stillness in her voice
It will be the last thing I hear
She lights the lanterns in windows
of abandoned homes on the prairie
for the illusion of company
In the soft focus of memory
every friend I had is alive through her
Oh she has become
California
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3. |
Mother
04:44
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Mother,
I found a place to call my own.
Far from the streets of Baltimore
baseball cards and 90's songs.
I live on a mountainside
apples taste better outside
the light moves backwards to the sun.
Mother,
I got a girl
she wears black and brown.
Leopard print shirts when we go into town.
She holds the hand of those with whom she speaks
and with such small hands
she weaves baskets for the harvest
from which we feed our friends from our garden.
Mother,
I got a dog named Nebraska
at the park we go and sit under a tree
like the one on John Lennon's first LP.
You know the one you got
when you were younger than I am now
on which you drew the hippie signs of peace
Mother,
I still play your guitar
its yet to be heavy in my arms
at the Taos Inn I turn into song.
My voice spills out into streets
once part of Spain and the Seven Cities of Gold
I've known you longer than I've known anyone.
Mother,
when the western nights come swinging
I turn to face the East and you're just out of reach
but only as far as the horizon.
The wind whips like a bullroarer
I swear it moves the stars and I'm almost afraid
like a child
but then I see your face.
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4. |
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More years with you than not
There's nothing more I want
Nostalgia a shrinking violet
Although your past makes me want you more
The eyes of every lover through me
From Orpheus to Wesley
Watching you turn to fire without smoke
In the alpenglow like a magic lantern show
The first morning every morning
The last evening every evening
No more multitudes for me
I've never been in one place at once
It's always later than I think
I'm gonna find a new way to tell time
And live as if I will not get
More years with you than not
More years with you than not
A peace I've never known
I know we must go
Where the other cannot follow
So I will learn how to be
Close to you when I'm alone
Even the mountains are smaller
When we are apart and they seem to speak
"There was never time enough to grow old"
The first morning every morning
The last evening every evening
No more multitudes for me
I've never been in one place at once
It's always later than I think
I'm gonna find a new way to tell time
and live as if I will not get
More years with you than not
More years with you than not
More years with you than not
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Michael Henry Collins Taos, New Mexico
Michael plays nearly 200 shows a year. His song “Witness” premiered on NPR's World Cafe. He was featured in American
Songwriter magazine. His single here entitled "More Years" premiered on the Acoustic Cafe.
americansongwriter.com/michael-henry-collins-opens-up-with-more-years-with-you-than-not/
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