Metamorphose! by schiavocampo

SONGS TO JOHN MORIARTY -

1 ) Krymska 18
(fragments from T.S. Elliott)


Because I do not hope to turn again
Because i do not hope
Because i do not hope to know again
Because i do not think because i cannot drink
because i cannot hope to turn again


Because this wings are no longer wings to fly
but only vans to beat the air
the air that is now thoroughly warm and dry
teach us to care and not to care

---------------------------


2 )Minotaur


You have the power now
and all you'd love to do is to lock away
lock away all you can't conceive
in a labyrinth, underground

You have the power now
and all you'd love to do is to lock away
every monster that can't fit your mind
in a labyrinth, underground

lock away mystery, lock away faith
lock away demons and angels alike
lock away love and its infinite faces
sorrow and its infinite disgraces

lock away prophets as they are too human
writers as they sing their words too loud
lock away women as they would give birth
to another kind of man you probably would not understand

lock away the blacks, lock away the gays
lock away the Chinese as they are all too strange
lock away the Africans as they dance too well
the Germans as they stand too well

lock away the Syrians for they have war
the Palestinians for they had only war
the Scandinavians for they had no war
lock away the Mexicans for they are all drug addicts

lock away the waters lock away the mountains
lock away the rivers lock away the fields
lock away the skies the rains the dew
lock away the sun the bees the fuels

lock away the alien lock away the monster
lock away the alien lock away the monster
but you are a monster too a monster too
you'd better cope on with yourself
you'd better cope on with yourself

you're the minotaur

i see this overcrowded jails in your mind
they'll soon begin to pulse
like a flood on the rise

i see this black forgotten holes, your eyes
they'll soon begin to rot
from inside

--------------------------

3) And now it's your time to tell me
(to John Moriarty)


And now it's your time to tell me
how you came and who let you in
what you carried and what people within
have you inhabited in spirit and skin

As your eyes were open at times
you could see the shadows and darks
and those eagles among the rocks
were no longer birds above

Cried your omens
Heard one too many amen
Sang to the stars

And what is there before you is no longer only yourself
it is you as you were, you as you left
you as you led the princesses to an altar
that since long have been banned

And what is there before you is no longer real
no longer harms you, no longer treats you
like a ghost in an empty prison
where God was dead and dogs were thrown

Cried your omens
Heard one too many amen
Sang to the stars

I am wondered

------------------------------


4) Desert dogs


As i was walking down the path
from Telouet to Aït Benhaddou
I had the desert and all of the silence in me
You had my vision and all its loneliness in you

I had just turned away from a dried up river
an empty village and a mysterious stranger
i reached a sharp bend on the road, the sky high the canyon low
the rocks withered, the silence came untold

It began with a gentle riot of peebles, like a magnetic draw
then shadows run across the side of the hill they were born from
and i suddenly was surrounded by a pack of desert dogs
drooling and howling, their yellow eyes like rotten claws


I got swallowed by the dogs


Because this is not a tale of visions, of symbols, of epiphany
it is not a tale of burning snakes, of pomegranates, of magic dreams
i will tell you just exactly how it feels, their deserted soul

I got used to roam the rocks in search of any type of prey
we hunted like a pack and divided swallowed the loot
it could be anything, a dead cat, a squeaking mouse, a root
this ferocious hurried meals is really all i have got to lose

With time i realized: this is not very far from how it used to be
it is like for certain humans that live for to swallow not for to breath
and if cupidity and greed will not be soon replaced with something else
well i must think the human soul will turn deserted like the one of them dogs

Well i must say when i see you coming, your flesh packed in your blue jeans
i do regret i do not feel you or love you like a brother, human being
i do suggest you to speed up or to jump back in your car
before i will press my jaws against the tenderness of your heart

this is how you are just another meal
maybe a better then usual one, but still

-----------------------------


5) Metamorphose!


How did I come this way?
Where I was born, was it a yarn?
Was it a fairy tale?
I often think there's more of me and them in everyday
A making up of what has been

I was a lizard
they were ants devouring my remains
from what was left they made a bundle lighter than thin air
then came a sudden blow and burst
the dust around and many states
seemed like one and only way

How did I take this shape?
My legs don't fit the waist
my skull don't hold the brain
I might retain a certain kind of human guise in human age
my soul of animals and mountains and of mirrored stars is made

And if you met me you shall not hold back,
you shall not turn away
there's more of me in you then anything you may see everyday
we've all come from somewhere gone,
we've all seen the blinding light of loss

now get the pieces back together, see the wonderful result
now get the pieces back together, see the mess you've done

-------------------------


6) House by nowhere


I leave in a house by nowhere
the nowhere being me
as far from any outcomes
as realms will often be

The tides have turn to motionless
the waves are in deceit
it is so hard to bear it
not by the sea

the nowhere being me

I once had many rooms
we often sat down by the fire
poking every cut of turf
at every whispered pyre

We had jackals on the stereo
a mammoth in the aisle
down by the river we would walk
to get us by until the end of day

Sure that the lines would break a dawn
the birds would chirp and warp our song
no losing
no feathers of a loss

You'd check your clock, the risk
the sun would burn the obelisk
and I was gone

I have found a way to be hiding
nowhere

Now i leave in a house by nowhere
I came through a bridge by a bridge
and we lay the clay
in the gaps among the bricks

I came to see the stars astonishing
the ploughmen in the fields
and nowhere being me now
its a place for you my dear

----------------------------


7) In its peace


Mind the shoots,
don't listen to the shouts of men in fear

Lights are out,
the truth's confused
it speaks too low to hear

But i feel a light between us
you know my heart's near

Sleep my son
the morning comes
and brings you something clear

My fingers on your eyelids
keep you on this dream

War will never cease
this noise is our shelter lay down still

Further down the road
the sea
is the womb of many births

It will take us in its silence,
lull us
in its peace

As your brother
I would rather lose you
in its breath

My finger on your eyelids
keep you in this dream

My love is a terminal

-----------------------
__________________
-----------------------

All songs by Schiavocampo.
Lyrics by Schiavocampo, except Krymska, excerpts from Thomas Sterne Eliott poem 'Ash Wednesday'

Recorded at Silverlining Studio, Milan with Max Ficara.

Heartfelt thanks to: Petra Odlozilikova, Paolo Schiavocampo, Frank Armstrong, Daniele Idini, Diarmuid Lyng, Manchan Magan.

Schiavocampo is an Italian songwriter.

Here you find three albums from him.

He hopes you will enjoy them.