Music won't save you from
Anything but silence
Not from heartbreak,
Not from violence

All armies bear their losses, yet still they rally on.
The fanfare may be muted, the spirit may be gone.
And Troy was devastated by an accident of greed.
I knew that you were taken; a book I should not read.
But the sun danced in your shadow like the mocking of a bird.
A

Oh lord
I've lost the one I love
I gave her all I had
But that was not enough
Oh lord
I cannot bear to breathe
Her voice is but a memory
Her kiss is but a dream

So long
I haven't left my bed
I see no point in getting up
I wish that I were dead
So

We sail on the bad tide
We sail on the bad sea
From your heart to my heart
With sails cut from mercy
From your heart to my heart
From summer to spring
We row through the Dead Sea
To the deader within

Heading south so i can go north
Guided by birds but drifting off-course
Read the tide-table before starting out
Bbut 30 years old with chapters torn out
You, waking up from a dream of the sea
Safe in the harbour from sailors like me
You, in the kitchen, waiting on tea

In travel, there are traps
When I'm writing in the back
Beneath the rain, between the maps
My diary bears this out but memory has it wrong
I loved you when you loved me and then we were done
There's a silence on the railway
There's a bad curse on the land
And this sea

Amongst the books, an angel i've not met
And time hasn't touched her yet
From a to m to z she swans, as if avoiding bed
Pigtails instead of wings
I strung her harp with my heart strings
And i would ask this spring for her
If i knew what the right words were

There's angel pie in the oven and everything is ok, it's alright
The point at which the seasons pass each other on the way out, way in
'A confederate general from big sur' sat in my lap like a happy cat
I can sleep and read at the same time and day and night are just words
I can

1914 - 1918
I've got your letter here,
I've got your memories
Young men, as us - broken soldiers
I've got your telegram,
I've got your souvenirs
1914 - 1918
I've got your photograph,
I've got your poetry
Young men, as us
Artists' Rifles/Young men,

There's rain on the line between his ear and mine
Lost in translation, bad patient
I'm a terrier, a black sheep, half-relation
He's French, a hack, white, Caucasian
We fuck in sadness, a cold frustration
Then we're fine for a while, our hearts adjacent
He types, I read an

There are more people alive now than have ever lived
I read that somewhere and instantly thought it impossible but if it were to be true
I wonder that, if we keep living this fast, no-one will have time to die
i've met people whose lovers died in war and i've wondered what this helpl

Cities and factories spread across the borrowed map
But still I'm lost
Cities and factories spread across the furrowed land
But still I'm lost

And the soil is as cold as the moon
And the trees are as dead as a ghost
And if I never see you again
Well, I was the one w

Came to London to find myself but in ten million people
Where do you start?
Drunk at a party
You asked me if I was someone else and I say
"Yeah, if it helps you, I won't be myself"
Like Japanese poets who capture a Summer in only three lines
With just one kiss
I want

Look at that rich girl twitch - like me she can't sit still
How would you want it seen?
Just like when you were ill?
When you hear the way they talk - the rosy cheeks of the ruling classes
You can argue all you like - they swear by early nights
Never meant to be like this - a

The night settles down on the water
The feathers of sun gather
The trees wave their way to the morning
The birds think about what they'll sing
I have dreams in which you're a nightmare
I have dreams in which you're unfair
But angels still dance in your garden
and flo

None of us are what we were
I know you've heard this all before
I know you've heard this all before
But none of us are what we were

But it's a dark age, a dangerous time
I'm on the last page, the end of the line
But it's a dark age, a dangerous time
I'm on the last

When you're preoccupied,
like a moth with the light,
we are 'sacking your life;
we are bleeding your pipes.
When you're hooked by the line,
by the crook of your spine,
we are sparking the knives;
we are Frankenstein.
When you're preoccupied
by the junk

Get me an ugly wife - no man will look twice
I can fall asleep at night and dream of someone else
I found an ugly wife and she'd led an ugly life
Take my hand, this ray of hope, crawl out of this hole
She weaved her spell on me and I fell hopelessly
I swore to put it right -

You're life's like a comic book
All shadows and childhood fantasy
The people you love, disguised
In a velvet glove biography
But i recognize what's going on:
Deleted scenes
And when your eyes go out
You play them back, as broken dreams

I don't get you anymore

Run away when you see me coming
and I can only say,
"Not fair, this is not fair"
Miles away, reading, writing books
Look outside with imagination
I'm here and I'm sad
I' here and I'm sad