I couldn't sleep, so I picked up a New Yorker magazine that had arrived shortly after the holidays and had somehow escaped my attention, and what a great surprise to find Kelefa Sanneh had written a nice long article about Will Oldham, aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy. I've linked it in, so if you click on the title of this post you can read it-enjoy!
Skopelos and Virgin
-by Skorda
when first you see it
across the water,
rising round and new above the mountain.
Open your mouth and swallow
while youth holds its roundness near,
and you are running fearless in the dark.
Hold it inside, it is still warm
and you will need its light,
there, inside you.
Down the road of time, somewhere
after you’ve aged, traveled,
Explored, discovered.
And the dust around your doorway
has been pounded hard and smooth under your feet.
When you find yourself growing weary and bored,
when your eyes see only ruins,
and your heart is empty.
You may believe, in your exhaustion,
that this is truth, at last.
That the mystery has unraveled,
leaving no wilderness to explore or tame.
All secrets have been shared,
the frontier has dissolved.
Know then, with these thoughts,
you have been swallowed.
The warm belly of the beast
comforts with confining darkness
and lulls with rhythmic sounds
Murmuring to you,
Curl up and sleep,
just go to sleep.
Shake your head,
stretch your legs,
do not sleep now.
Remember what you know.
You swallowed the moon,
you hold it inside you.
Not as a magpie hoarding shiny things,
or wearing the moon for beauty
or bartering the moon for wealth.
You swallowed the moon for this moment.
When you will walk to the water’s edge,
open your mouth, release the moon
and let its light build you a pathway
across the wine dark sea.
©Skorda 2008
Showing posts with label Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Show all posts
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - No Bad News
Trouble, more trouble can you get anymore
Slow bubble boiling on the bedroom floor
Lonely ain't lonely, someone calling at the door
Someone lovely and she's bringing bad news
She clenches and she cries and she lays on the stairs
Pounding on the earth and yanking at her hairs
And showing such fear at being found unawares
To be here and be bringing bad news
Well, something bad happens and a lot of people go
Bad themselves, that's how awful it is
Turning half the heart into something hard and dark
And she had to bring here this
Well, she's told, "Hold your buttons and look at the sky
Someone will fix things if you let your face dry
Keep your face near the earth and your heart beat high
And you may transcend the bad news"
Well, something bad happens and a lot of people go
Bad themselves, that's how awful it is
Turning half the heart into something hard and dark
And she had to bring here this
For all hammers and nails
For all leaves and winds
For all love ambitions
And enemies and friends
She shakes her face so fiercely that all her features go
She lays like a monkey unclothed in the snow
And her voice it decays and before it does she goes,
"I will never again deliver bad news"
Something bad happens and a lot of people go
Bad themselves, that's how awful it is
Turning half the heart into something hard and dark
And she had to bring here this
Mm, hey little bird – hey little bird
Thank you for not letting go of me when I let go of you
Hey little bird – hey little bird
Thank you for not letting go of me when I let go of you
(Hey little bird – hey little bird)
Thank you for not (letting go of me when I let go of you)
Sunday, September 14, 2008
bonnie prince billy
I find I just keep wanting to hear this song!
Horses
- Will Oldham
-Bonnie "Prince" Billy
I'd be riding horses if they let me
sleep outside at night and not take fright
I would ride the range and never worry
I would disappear into the night
Everybody needs an angel
but here's that devil by my side
Deaths head ring upon his finger
poor boy hanging on the light
They'll be drawing straws inside the courtroom
as the sudden twilight turns to black
torches burn into the sad eyes
on the wrong side of the track
make those horses jump through hoops of flames
they won't kick and they won't scream
let the good lord do the driving
while the poor boy sinks in the stream
I can smell the campfires burning
but I'll go out walking on my own
by day and night the world keeps turning
frightened people hiding in their homes
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