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Upload Some Stuff 1

by Ben Newman

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1.
/ Em C Em D / Em C G D / / / Would you now learn the mysterious truth That everyone knows and yet nobody tells Of that festive occasion, beloved of youth The Sandcastle Season we all know so well? Then come with me, friends, let's go down to the sea At the ebb of the tide, at the half of the moon Bring buckets and shovels and afternoon tea Slip across Shoreline Avenue, climb over the dune / G D Em D / C G Em D / C D G Em / C G Em D / / C D G Em / C D G Em / C D Em C / Em C D G / And we'll build sandcastles, proud and tall Cities for fairies to dwell in And we'll spread our blankets and picnics, all And watch 'til the tide brings the swell in For civilizations rise and fall And fate comes for us, be we large or small The days dart past while the ages crawl And the tale is revealed in the telling When you build on the beach have you ever imagined Diminutive fairies who come there to live? Are they dwelling right now in the castles we've fashioned? Look now and see, if you dare to believe... With their smallness of size comes a briefer duration The short span of time that we call a day Is an age of the world for their civilization Until the tide rises and sweeps it away And yet think of the sandcastles they must build That each breaking wave washes over With what strange, brief creatures might they be filled Too small for our eyes to discover? And do they tell stories, as dreamers will Of worlds yet smaller, or larger still? Do you see at last what the sands reveal? Within every world there's another Now, who here has been to the capital city And stood in the center of Origin Square? Recall to your mind those colossal cathedrals The spires and towers and palaces there Our school-teachers take us to visit these towers Whose age and whose makers, they say, are unknown Not daring to name those mysterious powers Much older than ancient and stronger than stone Who built their sandcastles, proud and tall Cities for people to dwell in Are they watching still from the mountain wall? Do they tell the same tale we are telling? For worlds must end, be they large or small And for men and fairies and titans, all The days dart past while the ages crawl 'Til the turn of the tide brings the swell in Our history begins with the works of the titans The cities and nations they founded and taught But legends still whispered 'round campfires at night Tell of worlds gone before that were drowned and forgot This world of the fairies we've built with our hands Is more true and more real than a game that we play Watch as their cities return into sand You are titans to them — can you hear when they pray? The end will come, be it swift or slow And none can preserve what they fashion When we shape a world we must let it go Can we keep the waves from their crashing? Can we save this world for the fairies?— No If the titans still watch us, they never show But things stand above as they stand below So remember these worlds with compassion
2.
/ G D C G / Em C (G) D / G D Em C / - - D - / Tales tell of a Spinner who spins fates like thread And speak of Her in whispered tones of pious dread Whose simple shears cut across the years Between the living and the dead Yet, despite those words of warning, let the wise beware That soul may find instead a source of comfort there Who understands that a spinner's hands Must work with patient, loving care / G D C G / - C G D / / G C D G / Every inch of this thread passed between my Lady's fingers From distaff to spindle, from bobbin to ball Be it bulky or fine, every fiber is mine And my Lady's fair fingers have twisted it all Sometimes I close my eyes and watch Her sit and spin And I see Her hands have guided me through thick and thin And Her tenderness unties the tangled mess I all too often wind up in And as my days take shape beneath Her nimble grip I know that every now and then a slub will slip As she drafts me out, I place my days of doubt In the keeping of Her craftsmanship Every inch of this thread passed between my Lady's fingers... /: Em - C - / Em C G D :/ And I hope and believe She will take it and weave A web that wears warm in all weathers And although it may fray — a twist of fate, don't we say? No! — the twist is what holds it together! For every ounce of yarn was once an ounce of fluff And if our fates are fashioned from the self-same stuff It must surely be by that same alchemy That we can be so soft and yet so tough For spinning tales, like yarn, is still a kind of spell And if this yarn is one that She delights to tell Then when it ends, I hope that you, my friends Will say that it was twisted well Every inch of this thread passed between my Lady's fingers...
3.
/ G - - - / - - D - / G - - - / C G C D / I was an islander in the Southseas Who thought a few islands her world And I was a mariner, blown by the breeze Who crested the breakers as they crashed and curled / G - - - / C G C D / G - D Em - / C - D - / In wide-eyed amazement I watched from the strand As I beached my boat from some far-away land And, because I was both of them, I understand The wonder we're seeing unfurled... / G D C D / C - G D / G D Em C /[1. C - D - :/[2. C D G - / The lives I've lived have carried me far — Such places I've seen, such people I've been — I can hardly dare guess what new life may begin In the light of this falling star... How is a person made whole? In the meeting of hearts — we're the sum of our parts — And every new day is another new start For a wandering pilgrim soul I've been a pilgrim since time was begun And remember for many a year Though my memories fade into legends, not one Recalls anything like what we just saw appear A thing like a house falling out of the sky With a terrible light and a deafening cry My friend, you don't have to explain to me why You don't think that it's from around here! From this height I see the horizon stretched out 'Round the curve of the bay — are there worlds far away? Can a pilgrim not hunger to see them someday? Isn't that what life's about? And so I've made it my goal: The smell of fresh air, a self I can share Who knows what adventures are waiting out there For a wandering pilgrim soul? / C - D - / Em - C - / G - D - / - - Em - / - - C - / - - D - / The sky-house has landed I see a creature step from the door A stranger stranded Grasping-handed Walking on two legs, not four And with only one body, not more! But now I can see soldiers hemming it 'round I would almost charge into the fray Not to miss this chance meeting I only just found Even knowing my selves may not all last the day Now, well you might ask if I'm out of my mind Though I notice you following not far behind I do feel as much kinship as with my own kind To these pilgrims from so far away Today I'm Wic, Kwik, Rac and Rum But selves come and go — we change and we grow — And set out in search of new people to know And new people to become And, as the centuries roll Though my selves be replaced, voice by voice, face by face Through them all runs one ribbon of yearning and grace -- A wandering pilgrim soul

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My first bandcamp upload!

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released March 8, 2020

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