Powers, Principalities, Thrones, And Dominions

[Steve]

ARIA THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE


Aria the Great and Terrible
Was a maiden fair and true
She lived on the shores of a great wide sea
So wild and O so blue
One day she met a sailor
When she was twenty-one
They set off on that great wide sea
On a rowboat in the sun
They rowed from the shoreline
And all was quiet there
And then he said of all the girls
Aria was the most fair
Aria the Great and Terrible
Was a maiden fair and true
She smiled and laughed and kissed him
Against that great wild blue
They stripped under that summer sun
And lay naked in that boat
And as he slept she drew a knife
And promptly cut his throat
O Aria the Great and Terrible
Was most terrible that day
She tossed the sailor overboard
And then she rowed away
O Aria the Great and Terrible
Was most terrible that day
They never found that poor man's body
And with murder she got away

[Steve]

A RATHER LOVELY THING

O muse, tarry not beneath the umbra now
But further go until the umbra pass!

Woods in a dark, wandered in a cave
Two pilgrims in a fable swallowed up
In a great stone room with some gigantic beast
A black and ancient lake, wet flowstone walls
Diving down the deep stone flues
Of the rinstone pool
Soudns of a dull glass bell tolling tolling
Water drips drips and sings
Sings the years without cease
(sein und zeit)
(sie mussen schlafen aber Ich muss tanzen)
Borrowed time borrowed wolrd borrowed eyes
And we must grieve for it

O muse, hast thou ever looked upon the moon
A smirk on the face of heaven!
O the winking stars all gilt in silver!

The world grows colder, the night lies long
Keep moving
Keep moving to
(what?)
The fire
The fire O yes the fire
Flames sawing in the wind
Pale and deep and deep and pale
The bloodbeat of some dying thing
For each fire is our fire and our fire is
The first and last and ever to be
The fire of our love

O muse, the moon menaces the heavens
Thy terrible fang, a silvered scythe,
Flung to the nocturnal hush!

The sacred idiom
Shorn of thy penitent sky
Lone figures shambling the brutal wastes
In a time before God and gods
All gone now save me and thee
me and thee
me and
(is it real?)
--the fire
(yes the fire)
--yes it is
O now the point of no return!

O now my muse draweth breath
Her hillocks of pleasure rise full as pale moons
Now, against the dawn!

I try to think of something to say
Beyond the numbness of the dull world
My love for you grows and beats
Never to wink out
(dont give up)
--okay
(are you an angel?)
--I dont know what she is I never thought
(-what if I said she is a goddess?)
--is she?
yes
well

The day is here, the day is come
O my muse O day is here!

A dull rose glow in the sky
Love eviscerate upon the heavens
Fused traceless forever from the earth
Neckcords and boneshapes

The noonday sun spins in the sky
Like a molten bolt
With al the glory of a forgotten god

The sun is setting
drowning the western sky
old dry leaves rattle frail and withered
as old voices
trailing stiffly down down down
a world always verging on ruin
if not for you
like some rain sprite
beauty
innocence
plenitude
goddess my goddess

I'll fear not the darkness
When my flame shall dim O muse
Clear peal of vesper bells
Laughing of children
A spinning silver sun.

Signs in gypsy language
lost patterns, first in forever
I stand in the leaves at the top of the hill
and look into the blackness
nothing to see
no wind no past a future with you
only that
there you are
just the faintest visible shape
where the moon melts to the earth

A leaden curtain and O my muse
Behold the glory!
Of her visage in great twilight!

Goodness or godness
god or good
one and the same
Do you believe
Do you believe in love?

[Steve]

THROUGH THE WINDOW (MY LOVELY)


I sit at my bedroom window
By the light of a spirit lamp
For all my days have no glow
The night on my soul a stamp
O and the space between us
Opens up wounds in my hearts
A black lantern in the failing dusk
O the deepening shades of dark
And the kerosene smokes damn thick
Throwing sparked showers bright
On the window where the rain runs slick
Like constellations fresh with light

Through
Through the
Through the window
O my lovely

After three days and sleepless nights
Burnin the midnight oil
I miss your smile, your sweet delights
Which flower in my heart's soil
And the rain outside, babe, showing signs
Of letting up once again
And if I don't see you again
or take you hand in hand
I won't ever go to sleep again

My window
Through my window
Through my window
O my lovely

I pass the night in restless pursuit
Of your memory O my lovely
Of a beautiful face and a body to boot
And times spent in your company
Someone to share the strafes and stripes
Of all the hate, all the drama
A companion to cling to in troubled times
By the long dark nocturama
Come through my window
Come through my window
O please come through my window
Come through my lovely

[Steve]

IN THE GLASS, EYE OF GOD

It haunts my dreams, my waking life
Simian eyes of horrible knowledge
Unshaped by things at the behest
Of a raw god of the depths.

In my dreams the depths are plumbless
And you are forever falling, falling down,
The darkness (solid to the touch!) swoons in grots and clots:
Sphere of the Father, shining white and bright:
Nothing more than a slip of a memory.

Now see, dear friend, sentinels of the watch.
Great eyeless squid jetting, drifting into shadow
The pasty lid cracks to wink hugely and I see
My soul twinned in that great craze
Deeper than the sea, deeper than the
Icy bottomlands of Hell.

Flakes of flame fall from far above,
(Does God weep for the sinless?)
Struggle as I fall from that Face, that eternal Love,
And by and by Sorrow comes to steal your breath,
--Who are You, what right do You have,
To shuttle me here, unvaulted night, unwanted terror,
Away from the shining glory of Heaven,
And the smiling rays against the days:
O, all things shining!

The thrum of the chord, plucked by fingers unseen,
The guardsman of this eternal gaol where I am kept,
(The days are forever etched in the black
Scratches, bright as jade dace, of time spent lost).

Does the judge weep for those upon whom he passes sentence,
Is he troubled, does he pray, tell me so,
I cry out to the battlements and dark ramparts
And my voice falls on deaf ears:
And mine among them.

Drowning in the black bay of ichor,
Hell's rollicking sea:
There is a storm a-comin', sure as the world,
There! What crackles on the horizon there:

Desolate castaways look to a sun, the Sun, and smile,
Smile in blood to the broad beam of the ball, droll drawl of the day,
Their lifelines have come and so hath mine;
Hands thrust heavenward, clemency unwashed,
Brothers--guiding me to the Light.