lyrics
for thine is the kingdom.
life is very long.
for thine is the kingdom.
DWELLING (verse i) we are a people without a home/staking tents on cracking stone/just like our father's ghosts/and somehow we ain't alone/oh my soul/somehow our children will know where to go/for thine is the kingdom and mine is the road/thine is the garden and mine is the rose/thine is the sacred and mine is the sand/thou art mighty /and i'm just one wilderness man/chorus/thine is the glory and mine is the grief/thine is forever and mine is the brief/thine is the golden and mine is the rust/thou art living water and i am the dust/chorus/thine is the kingdom /out on the wilderness road/from morn till night and on it goes/somehow we ain't alone/what more could we need for a home?
FORMED (verse ii) before morning cascaded on ivory edges/before the hidden waters/cried glory on glory/before layers of jade/layered light rays on the orients' arc/and the cosmos strung with stars/like old pearls in an ocean of dark/there's a dove o're the waters/and a love watching over/and the first words we must say/are the world's wrought in grace/the lover has a face/and we can speak the name/before there was time/between waves of the sea/before any distance had fallen/between you and me/before the dark was made light/and the dust was made life/any man had breath in his lungs/and a poem to write/chorus/after it's over/after the final exhale/can you believe the name will remain?/when it's all finished/is it terror or grace/the gaze of the love must be faced?
DUST (verse iii) there's grit between my teeth/there's soil falling through my hands/you hate nothing you have made/see what you've done to this clay man/breathed out/breathed out/will you take me in again?/holy holy holy/and you take back your breath/old dust grit dust/dust you are and to dust you shall return/old dust grit dust holy/is this the only world?/there's grime cut into my face/soil scrubbed into my eyes/you hate nothing you have made/and because of you we die/breathed out breathed out/will you take me in again?/holy holy holy/and you take back your breath/old dust grit dust/dust you are and to dust you shall return/old dust grit dust holy/is this what makes the world?/will you not remember/when i have forgotten/will you not recall/i am (made of) earth?/will you not remember/when i have forgotten/will you not recall/i am (made of) earth?/i am this sorrowed world/there's grit within my bones/there's soil falling/through my soul/i am jack and you have ground my bones/i am adam and you will put me back into the earth
INSTRUMENTAL: THOUSAND (verse iv)
DREAM + FADES (verses v + vi) what do i know about a world in time?/all i've made and saved/is taken with the tide/all i've made and prayed /is taken with the tide/why should i care about a world on loan?/i'm a hollow man on a twilight throne/can you tell me if my lord is friend or foe?/can i do anything that lasts past my bones?/if it were just my body i wouldn't mind/but my affections my provisions/are taken with the tide/my affections my illusions/taken with the tide/vanity of vanities/i thought it was a scarlet queen/vanity of vanities/but it's the preacher in the street/vanity of vanities/the preacher’s crying in the street/vanity of vanities/is this what holy men believe?/all of life is just a holy war/and we merciful keep comin' back for more/all our days are just a holy loss/i staked it all upon on man/who's staked up to a cross/all upon a man who’s staked upon a cross
DISMAYED + LIGHT (verses vii + viii) jodi, jodi, wake up dear/i’m burning up in here/that storm has finally broken/and i’m the one who made the thunder crack/jodi, jodi, pull me near/i’ve done the thing i’ve always feared/the poison rain is falling /and i’ve downed it like a drunkard’s flask/jodi, jodi, wake up dear/the wind has blown the ashes clear /from the hearth in the back room/all across the hardwood of the kitchen floor/jodi, jodi, pull me near/don’t be the one who leaves me here/it’ll take a better love than mine/to keep you from walking out the door/it’ll take a brighter light than mine/i know we both need more/jodi, take a moment/turn on our favorite song/remind me what you wore /that night you first took up my arm/is it weakness to acknowledge/these are the things that make men strong?/jodi, turn on all the lights/is it childish or wise/that i’m afraid of the dark inside?/jodi, jodi, why would you care?/most women, most women wouldn’t dare/there ain’t no one alive/who can wash all the ashes from this place/jodi, jodi, let down your hair/you’re so beautiful/and this whole thing ain’t fair/only someone who’s died/could bear all the weight that’s in my eyes/your hands won’t be clean /when you’re done holding mine/jodi, take a moment/turn on our favorite song/remind me what you wore/that night you first took up my arm/there’s something in your love/that takes up all my wrongs/jodi, turn on all the lights/is it childish or wise/to believe they’ll be some light/in the way your eyes meet mine?
KINGDOM OF DRY GRASS
we are the hollow men/we are the stuffed men/worshipping weariness/quiet and meaningless/as each of our own exhales/and the kingdom of dry grass fails/rises, rustles, and rusts, and fades in a day/i have made myself my own pawn/and the eyes I dare not meet in dreams/i have not seen for far too long
WRATH: TAKE ONE (verse ix) i wish there were no prophets/no preachers and no priests/no red-letter stranger talking terror/that holy men believe/avail and veil me/let not the sacred shadow fall on me/all this liturgy is a thin defense of artistry/our best organization/of the damnation of the time/blood and wine/just remind the soul and mind/that everything sacred leaves a stain/starting sunday night we hide/in carousels and wishing wells/and the seer has name i dare not say/and the lover/i dare not look him in the face/it will take my breath away/can't you see?/collide against the cornerstone/with bruises all on your bones/and the older you grow/the more they start to show/and he says, ‘draw near, draw near/to the darkness where i dwell/have i not had my fill/have i not had my fill/without my lord dressed to kill?/prechorus/sex and drugs and sleeping pills/crucified or deified/either one comes of fame/still all i am is human in a fading human frame/all i am is terrified that holiness/will make good on its claim/chorus/is this what holy men believe?
this is the way the world ends:
this is the way the world ends:
not with a bang but a whimper.
YEARS (verse x) when your native tongue/ain’t your default language anymore/and the words you remember/don’t rhyme like they did before/silence is falling but they’re finding a song/they can’t understand why you don’t sing along/and the house has gone black/and it’s not safe outside/eternity in your heart/but you’re translating a lie/all your life but you now see the danger/like sleeping every night with the same stranger/i am still much too young of a man/building ramparts in a wasteland/so much of my kingdom: it still needs to end/the waves are breaking over us here/but we won’t be any safer/higher up on shifting sand/rows of green army men/they said they would be true/stick close as blood /and fight your battles for you/but they don’t tread lightly in our shoes/all their answers you already knew/and your mercy comes/crying compassion with a vengeance/but here’s what’s left of Pompeii/and here is a dustpan/the ocean is bleeding; here are your two hands/all your writing hasn’t done much to mend it/chorus/it may not be poetry but there’s truth in prose/she may not be pretty/but you still gave her a rose/we may feel no wiser/twenty years down the road/this old world is healing/but we need to die to see it made whole/the waves are breaking over us here/but we won’t be any safer/the waves have all been drowning me, dear/but we won’t be any safer/your waves are gonna drown me, my dear/but we won’t be any safer/higher up on shifting sand
INSTRUMENTAL: WRATH: TAKE TWO (verse xi)
THE PERPETUAL STAR
we are the hollow men/we are the stuffed men/in a wasteland of sparks/where the stars have grown sparse/and all that could wash us/we fear has been washed away/and we will stay blind unless/we are seen/unless the starlight lasts/above the garden path and the rose/takes shape in the morning shaft/and the eyes we dared not meet/come down to find us in the fading street
DAYS (verse xii) there's grit between my teeth/there's soil falling through my hands/you hate nothing you have made/i will remember i am clay/there's grit within my bones/there's soil falling through my soul/if i remember i am clay/it must be an act of grace
RETURN (verse xiii) these days my old faith's barely alright/just a blind holding on to a dim Christ/cry mercy the name Yahweh bring light/cry mercy the name Yahweh bring light/Thou art my fear and Thou art my only claim/the face of terror/and the face of mercy are the same/and i ain't nothing holy but i believe/that the one holy man there ever was weeps/and He grieves all this more than me/and He grieves all this more than me/the face of terror/and the face of mercy are the same/either way, my Lord, don't relent your claim/either way, my Lord, don't relent your claim/and i'm standing still here in the midnight/in the darkness of God's sacred sight/in the tomb of my Lord dressed to die/in the tomb of my Lord dressed to die
MORNING (verse xiv) breathed out breathed out/will you take yours in again?/holy holy holy/will you take back your breath?/breathed in breathed in/all the ash i've ever been/here in this tomb holy/a dead man's breathing in the world/breathed out breathed out/will you take yours in again?/holy holy holy/and you steal back your breath/breathe, Lord, breathe, Lord/steal from hell, come back again/here in this tomb holy/you're breathing into me again
REJOICE (verse xv) well i see the morning comin/over jade and ivory across an eastern sea runnin'/and i see the stars breaking the dark/like fragile china against a warming hearth/and i know something of how it will be/and i'll take it all in with my sight/and i'll see it cast back/in the reflection of your eyes/and i'll tell old stories of all the wrecked light/the memory just like a crack/in the walk on a saturday night/and the breath come to dusty bones/and i’ll tell of how a world on loan/was made into a footstool to a throne/chorus/and all the pain and the bruises/we were bringing/will be the old yellowed songs we're not singing/tattered pages on the floor/of a chapel we ain't needin' anymore/and that is how it will be/i can see it in the distance/i can see it in the morning glow/i can see the edge of the shadow/falter against the growing gold/and it's comin quicker/(there's a dove o're the waters and a love watching over)
this is the way the world begins again:
this is the way the world begins again:
though all i hear now is a whisper.
GLORIOUS + ESTABLISH (verses xvi + xvii) we are a people going home/becoming men from hollowed ghost/make our wanderings into roads/make my words your building stones/where i've plowed the dust/bring forth a living rose/for thine is the kingdom and mine is the road/thine is the kingdom - where else can i go?/thine is the kingdom, and thou art my home/where else can i go?