(((seeside(((

IF YOU WALK IN ON THE SUN

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This isn't a Good Night for Walking - Arches

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IF YOU WALK IN ON THE SUN

as it fertility-grasps the buried hand of earth
awakening the unbarren memory of her seeping bosom
her perpetuating loins
with the hazy shake of muffled promise –
be sure to give thanks.

and if your taut, startled flesh
comes swimming crude stroked
to the dank surface of night
and your story goes stuttering
like wounded wings
your visions all sullied dim
with slag and soot
if mourning comes as bone spurs
frosting up from earth’s dizzy body
her fractured lungs wheezing
gasping for the damp, recurring meal –
then go on
set your body faltering down
cover the beached fish muscles over
writhe the sleepless static
mumble wet the dark smoke dirge
wail the body unbroken
and once you’ve stared down
that cold horizon
viridian emerald pear tangerine
limp hands cradling at unseen waters
eyes unscaled
voice unfurled
be sure to give thanks.

{(-)}FOR JAPAN{(-)}PART ONE{(-)}

a few haiku from the master as well as two ode's to Japan via some fine jazz compositions (one original & one reworked). for part two i intend to flip this scenario with a poem that is an ode to Japan from a non-native followed by some excellent Japanese jazz - please look for it. lastly, if you're a person who prays, as you enjoy the contents of this post, please pray for Japan. let's encourage one another to support them in this and any other way. doug

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Japan - Pharoah Sanders

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Japanese Folk Song (Kojo No Tsuki) - Thelonious Monk

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{cold horizons}-{seven}

{utopia & visions} - {don cherry}

{{{seven}}}

when you rise up, quietly sing the humming wordless song that lights you - strum strum for the dancing curtains of the wintry morning - for if we’re to live for all of eternity - wheels that keep turning - pulling us further & further until they’re worn into nothing but a vanishing memory of time - than we should say so

go out - walk the treeline - feel the sun - cast your shadows – mutter afresh the story and listen – for if this day you can walk as you do - flannel flag flying free in the pink edges of an orange sky that is pink edgedly orange in just this way, never to be repeated - then you should say so

and if i – today - can tow with ease this chain of glinting thoughts & sounds as they unravel from me endlessly in just this way - churning & bobbing within my dome only - here & gone as quick as they came – than i should say so

for if we are immortal as we sleep in our tangled dreams & cotton sheets - if we are fixed in the sky of God’s good pleasure - a fixture of His golden gaze - set free to shine in ceaseless stardusting reverie - if we are loved - not merely tolerated beneath a pact of unspeakable bloodshed (holy & worthy of perpetual praise) but actually & truly befriended – invited – pursued – embraced – wanted – then strum strum - ring the bells - and let us say so!

<{cold horizons}-{six}>

{six}

reaching
for the solitary cloud
of the crystal morning

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wayfaring pilgrim - ola belle reed
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<{cold horizons}-{five}>

<{cold horizons}-{four}>

{four} such a fond short flash the way we kept the little birds warm all thru the night - new hampshire to virginia and back - if those birds knew just half the words that gave heat to their feet i reckon we’d both be flying by now

<{cold horizons}-{a mixtape}>

{three}

at the prospect of the coming months
i rub my feet together like two sticks
i should probably strip the tree of tinsel this afternoon
toss it’s dead, dry body into the shallow snow beyond the plow drifts
maybe clear a path to the barn
but it’s likely i won’t
i can feel the weight of that tree just looking at it
can feel the labor of it in my heart
once again the cold horizon calls to me thru the curtains
as the old furnace issues another cough
the house creaking

rattling from one end to the other like a shiver in the spine
man is wood tough!
oh God how i wish i was as tough as a tree
strong & upright
i feel like a bent birch
cold & heavy like a snow bank
dark as night
there’s time yet i suppose for me to take up my tree
it would likely do me good to get out
walk the length of the road to the mailbox
let my eyes tear up with wind
take in the cutting air like a winston
sure as sundown, it would do me good
and surely i’ve got a mind to do it
but i’ve minded these things before

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man climbs out of the winter - cotton jones

la chaleur - bertrand belin

january 4th - wixel

raisins & almonds - yusef lateef

migration - the innocence mission

mellow my mind (neil young) - j. tillman

i'm so depressed - abner jay

ramblin' man - hank williams sr.

high time - the grateful dead

young bride - midlake

snow - real estate

things in life - dennis brown

a message from the underground bunkers - psychedelic schafferson jetplane

texas 71 - magnolia electric co.

if i ever needed someone - van morrison

mykonos - fleet foxes

look out the window so they won't see you crying - bobb bruno

solitaire - wilco

Lord, i'm in Your care - the carter family

go down, moses - padang food tigers

<{cold horizons}-{two}>

{two}
abiding in the contemplative silence of what it means for me to love within my own reach – to walk beside the fearsome death loitering in the foreground of all our unspoken queries as we sense the gaze – to live & breathe alongside those who live & breathe in that long lonesome wait for the clapping praise that never seems to come - one good word can carry a woman thru fire – can raise a man above the treeline – how seldom we are free of it – keeping silence I hear it so loud in me – silence is for the brave or maybe the ignorant - i am neither

the static – when it settles - what fortress does He hold out for me that I’ve not yet reached for - not begun to grasp – what refuge reserved – what rest?

When Christmas Comes Around

a late entry.

real happy about the way

this one came together.

hope you feel the same.

enjoy.

When Christmas Comes Around - Be Thine Mountain

^^^^^MERRY^^MOUNTAIN^^^^^

via !!crescere!!, Be Thine Mountain would like to wish you a Merry Christmas. Ben & I wrote and recorded the following song last night and would like to gift it to you. it's a little rough around the edges, but it's wrapped in love. look for a second appearance of this number on an upcoming country mix of the classic sort. peace & joy ~ B.T.M.


Here At Christmas - Be Thine Mountain

{)Christmas Eve(}{)A Mixtape(}

this is christmas eve, one half of a two disc christmas mix i made for some close friends in 2008, though i've made a few revisions for the sake of improvement. this was the mellow half. the other half, entitled christmas morn', was more on the peppy side. perhaps i'll put it up next year. this will be the first of three christmas mixes that i intend to put up between now and somewhere's around the 20th. there are some really wonderful renditions of the classics here, as well as some fine originals. merry christmas. doug

carol of bells - i heart lungs
joy to the world - clem snide
holy night - a perfect friend
o come, o come emmanuel - belle & sebastian
only at christmas time - sufjan stevens
the little drummer boy -vandaveer
lo, how a rose e're blooming - feist
christmas (baby, please come home) - arab strap
in the bleak midwinter - dan zimmerman
silent night - richard hawley
blue christmas - the perishers
the first noel - benji cossa
wrap me up - the sad cobras & the magic twig family
christmas time is here again (bring out the joy!) - my morning jacket
we're going to the country - sufjan stevens
christmas eve, driving home - frontier ruckus
don't be scared, there is a savior - joel pickell
shenandoah - le loup
the choir at your door - the choir at your door
last christmas - erland oye
if you were born today - low
o little town of bethlehem - the innocence mission
white christmas - snow den
it came upon a midnight clear - laura gibson
jingle bells - julian koster

[{( in the saffron sky )}]

{a few of my favorite haiku/american pops from kerouac}

..............

I'm so mad
I could bite
The mountaintops

.......................

~~~~~~~~

"You and me"
I sang
Looking at the cemetery

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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One flower
on the cliffside
noddong at the canyon

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***************

Everlastingly loose
and responsive,
The cloud bussiness

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..............

Gull sailing
in the saffron sky---
The Holy Ghost wanted it

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you know why my name is Jack?
Why?
That's why.

~~~~~~

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Beautiful summer night
gorgeous as the robes
Of Jesus

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When the moon sinks
down to the power line,
I'll go in

******

...................

The little worm
lowers itself from the roof
By a self shat thread

..........................

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other man, just as
lonesome as i am
In this empty universe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[{( born~cinder )}]

orion no. 8

( this here's the last of the orion poems ~ hope yall enjoyed them)

orion no. 8

save the sound of the wings
fluttering backward thru my mind
i heard nothing
there was only rest
the rest of soul sleep
the rest of womb dreams
the rest of subway cars
floating empty
through silent tunnels
coming & going & knowing no enemies
only open passages

orion no. 6

orion no. 6

not one wish for today
from waking sun to setting sleep
i will seek the silence of rustling leaves
& eliminate all thoughts
of if
of when
of why
i shall not laugh
i will not cry
but will abide in the cleft
between life & death
while ceasing to try
seeking only that silence
that breathes deep & intrepid
with lungs full of now & thanksgiving

orion no. 5

this one received a bit of editing

just grammar & word use

nothing major

-it needed it.

orion no. 5

we are mesmerized in motion
marching ~ vibrating ~ pulsating
our small hearts clutched in our little hands
thrust up & over our heads
held like scalps of war

we are dizzy with private thoughts of
genius, grandeur & glory
leading us in shackled feet
to the base of the mountain
whose birds fly crossways
above the tree-line
declaring,

there is a way that seems right to you
........but it’s path ends in humiliation
..............it’s path ends in confusion

....................path ends in vexation
...........................ends in isolation
...................................in degradation
.......................................destruction

... !! ... go no more this way ... !! ...

TRAMPLED BLOOD

here's one more. this was actually the first song i came up with and it inspired the overall idea for the album - just finished editing the lyrics to my liking.

Trampled Blood

i’ve stayed away for so long
without ever really leaving
i’ve traveled back too many miles
thru my mind’s dark ravine

some days a clustered woodland
other days an empty plain
yet bound within this fading skin
each day just seems the same

forgive me Lord

You know I...did not mean

to trample on Your blood
but like a tramp, I wandered thru

forgive me Lord

You know I...did not mean

to trample on Your blood
but I’m a tramp, & I know that it’s true

a light within a mine shaft
a secret unrevealed
a woeful sham, the way I’ve wandered
thru Your open fields

and though I’ve cried forsaken
only You know how it feels
to be the one whose love is squandered
whose pardon is concealed

forgive me Lord

You know I...did not mean

to trample on Your blood
but like a tramp, I wandered thru

forgive me Lord

You know I...did not mean

to trample on Your blood
but I’m a tramp, & I know that it’s true

release me from the haunting of
the lonesome words that call my name
release me from the haunting of
the words that hold me to my blame

i’ve spoken like a mantra
in fear & lonesome doubt
words that died, before they rose up
from my hollow heart

and You see my love-light waning
that once burned pure & bright
The fire’s died, my ember smolders
Like a sunset’s fading light

forgive me Lord

You know I...did not mean

to trample on Your blood
but like a tramp, I wandered thru

forgive me Lord

You know I...did not mean

to trample on Your blood
but I’m a tramp, & I know that it’s true

SINCE IT IS A COAL MINE

same picture as last time, but improved upon. i'm thinking that i'll use this image for either the liner notes or the back cover of the album ben & i are working on. below is the second installment of the BE THINE MOUNTAIN project. i'm pretty sure that it will fall into the number five slot on the album. if anyone has any criticism, please offer it up without hesitation - i really desire to refine this stuff - to improve upon it as much as possible. one concern i've had with this one is the repetative nature of it. it seems to work when singing it, but when i see it on paper i become especially aware of it. that said, i do realize that it helps to hear the tune when making such a call. all the same, i do invite commentary of any kind. thanks loads. doug

SINCE IT’S A COAL MINE

I will give You every inch of my life
if You’ll mine my heart
I will give You every inch of my life
for a brand new start

and since it’s a coal mine
darkness & danger reside
and since it’s a coal mine
light must be brought in from outside

I will give You every inch of my life
if You’ll mine my heart
I will give You every inch of my life
for a brand new start

and since it’s a coal mine
perhaps You could burn down all my pride
and since it’s a coal mine
perhaps there are diamonds hidden inside

break

it is a dark, dusty hollow
and I’ve not made room enough - I know
(repeat many x’s)

I will give You every inch of my life
if You’ll mine my heart
I will give You every inch of my life
for a brand new start

and since it’s a coal mine
what a friendless place it is to abide
and since it’s a coal mine
perhaps You could be my mountainside

Holy Is His Ghost

for those who don't know, i'm colloborating on an album with ben nester. the approach and philosophy of the music makes for a long story which will be made more apparent once it's released, but the reason i mention this is because i'm feeling very compelled to give my spare time to working on the music, but also wanting to continue contributing to and and engaging with what we're up to here. so...i think i will begin posting song lyrics that i'm working on and would appreciate any criticisms yall have for me. for the purposes of this post, i'll share a bit about the project: it's a concept album about a man who is in the midst of a series of dark nights of the soul - teetering toward the brink - feeling at odds with his maker - feeling that he is beyond repair. below is a song in progress that will probably fall into the number 2 slot on the album. the collage photo comes from a few shots i took while in AZ recently and one shot here at home.

Holy Is His Ghost

walkin’ on down to the liquor store
told myself that i could live with more
death’s face came roamin’ cross my mind
old demons whisperin’ thru the pines


i left home without a word to say
pitched my tent beneath the milky way
red eyes that brimmed with tears and stars
sang out to passing highway cars


amblin’ on down to the southern coast
i had a run in with the Holy Ghost
He whispered thru my ready gun
consoled me like a setting sun


i fell asleep beside the ocean blue
i dreamt that i was home in bed with you
cruel men attacked me where i laid
but they could not strip me of this weight


takin’ shade outside the stop and go
exchanging thoughts with birds and radio
i spoke their voices in my mind
as though i’d not left them behind


i spent a night or two in county jail
some stranger came along and paid my bail
i should have seen it in his eyes
i should have seen through his disguise