STARING INTO A DYING FIRE / AUG 16

Arturo Medrano is presenting some of his incredible collages in person at Cairo August 16 at 6 pm. At 8 there will be music from Nerve City, Aykut Ozen, and Case Studies Electric Band. 

Please join us here

June 22 - Tractor Tavern w/ Horse Feathers, Pretty Broken Things

The Case Studies Electric Band:

Bradford Button - Bass
Mike Bayer - Percussion / Vocals
Nico Gonzalez - Guitar / Sitar / Vocals
Jon Parker - Piano / Guitar
Jesse Lortz - Guitar / Vocals

"This is Another Life"

Here are the lyrics for the songs of the next album. Punctuation is a little spotty

This beautiful collage by Arturo Medrano.

This is another life.


A BEAST I HAVE YET TO FIND

I have searched for such a long time

for a beast I have yet to find.

So I'll ask you

If you were a dove in a cloud of ravens

swirling as just one animal

would you deliver me safely

to your nest in the morning light?

And if you were a herd of ponies gathering

and I twisted my fingers into your mane

would you carry me on your back 

or trample me under your hooves?

And if you were the claws and the fangs

of a pack of wild wolves

would you keep me prisoner in your cave?

Would you teach me the proper way to live my life?

And if you were a swarm of newborn spiders

and I lay in your mother's silken trap

could I be the first flesh on which you dine?

On which you dine?

I have searched for such a long time

for a feast I have yet to find.

So I'll ask you

If you were the axe of the executioner

and I painted a new line for you on my face

would you carve me gently

right between my eyes?

If you came in disguised as desire

and I slipped my hands beneath your dress

would you fight for no reason?

Would you open your thighs?

And if you were the keeper of the constellations

would you invite me to visit you up in the sky?

Would we walk together, indivisible,

our movements making new maps in the night?

I felt like a burden and ran away. I apologize.

I won't follow the footprints you've left.

I will recover until I can recognize 

the taste of the feast, 

and the face of the beast I have yet to find.

BROKEN CRYSTAL BALL

I see the future in my lonely woman's eyes. 

I have seen that face before.

On the day I met you

On the day I left you

and on the day that I was born.

I am half alive

Will you carry me

if I should die?

Will you bury me?

I am outside

I thought I had the key

but I don't live here anymore,

I see the future in my lonely woman's eyes

Just like twin pieces of a broken crystal ball.

I will keep them to remind me 

of what happens when I lie

to myself and the ones who love me.

This house is mine

these walls were built by me

There's room inside

Who will fill it up with me?

Each room's on fire.

But which ones do I need?

There are just too many doors.

This may be the last song that I write. 

I hope I get it right.

I hope it gets easier.

DRIVING EAST AND THROUGH HER

Driving East through winter rains

on the way to meet ourselves.

We were drinking something mixed with champagne

toasting the future and our health.

You wouldn't roll me a cigarette

so I was steering with my knees.

While in the road ahead rain turned into snow

drifting through the open window silently.

Got into town and found a bed

and we lay down for a little while.

We rearranged our bodies

and became for a little while.

And all the distance between us

disappeared for a little while.

But when we came down 

it still felt like a thousand miles.

In the woods you were a faun

and I was following in your tracks.

Waiting for the moments in between

when you were looking back.

The morning canyon wind was so 

California cold

and so I let you wear my 

Midwestern hat.

Even then I must have known

in half a year you would be mailing it

Northwestern back.

From when you were the first.

Those days became some photographs 

I wish that I had not received. 

Became a distant past

at times impossible to believe.

But I will recall you on that trail

collecting memories of your own.

I will recall you draped in furs

and when you called me your home.

When you were the first

and the last thing on my mind.

The only thing on my mind.

EVERYTHING

Shake the hand of the man 

who told you lies.

"It will be all right."

And then it came to an end.

Shake the hand of the man

who tore it all apart.

I guess you needed to start

all over again.

And I know

it must have cut to the bone

when you lost your home

and the man you thought you knew.

And you might not believe it, old friend,

but it cut me too.

Shake the hand of the man 

who shook your walls

and made you crawl 

with a child in your arms.

Shake the hand of the man

who let you down

and then spread all your secrets

from town to town to town.

And I know 

it must have cut to the bone

when you lost everything

you thought you knew.

And you might not believe it, old friend,

but I lost everything too.

And you might not believe it old friend

when we lost everything we got everything.

FROM RICHARD BRAUTIGAN

Find a place that's safe and dry

make that your home.

When you're hungry

find some food

and eat it slowly.

And it sounds like sage advice

but no, it's not from me.

It's from Richard Brautigan.

Plant your poems in the garden 

and watch them grow.

Show your little ones

that you were once a little one.

And it sounds like sage advice

but no, it's not from me. 

It's from Richard Brautigan.

And I don't rest easier.

No, I don't rest easier

knowing you can write a story

just like I can write a song

when the words we say out loud

turn out all wrong.

And I don't rest easier.

No, I don't rest easier

knowing you can write a story

just like I can write a song

when the bones that carry us 

will soon be gone.

HOUSE OF SILK, HOUSE OF STONE

In this house of silk and lace

I am not lonely.

I am not angry.

Windows are my face.

My mother is with me.

My sisters are smiling

and laid out before me

I see my bride.

Leather on my feet.

Satin fingers gently holding

my softest places.

Unwrapping them sweetly

like petals unfolding at night.

In this house of sand and stone

I am alone. I am alone.

Curtains drawn and tied in place

I am peeking through windows.

My mother is empty.

My sisters are hungry

and my bride has never been born.

Leather on my feet.

Wooden fingers trying to keep me.

Scratching the wounds of my body.

Weaving wool all around me

keeping me safely outside.

LIKE THE SEA

I had a dream last night

of smashing a stone into another man's face.

There was nothing of his nose or his eyes or his teeth.

His blood splashed on my chest.

And as I hoisted the stone above my head

with your hand on my shoulder you spoke to me.

But I never did hear what you said.

A telephone rang.

And in Detroit, in an abandoned mansion

a policeman was strolling, he was warning me.

And at the foot of my bed he sat smiling, expectantly.

So I took the birthday belt from my jeans

slashing leather across his cheek.

As I swung and I swung once again

his skin bloomed like a flower hungry for the Spring.

I had a dream last night

I walked the road with my father's feet

and I could see everything I ever wanted

just floating in space.

I had a dream last night

of you on the floor on your hands and knees

and my fingers were strumming inside of you

and you had a microphone in your face.

I had a dream last night

you were on a train going East.

Over mountains and tunneling into the Earth

you had gone away.

And when you'd traveled as far as you could

you turned and looked back and you waited for me

but I was too fragile and frail to follow you

so I just waved like the sea.

THE LONGEST WINTER

I have just woken up

from a long winter of hibernation.

I have found that my hair has grown long

and my face is grey.

I lost a love

found a love

lost a love

and found another love

and I might lose one again.

You meet so many people in the road. 

That's how you make your enemies

and you might find some friends.

I hear that you're doing just fine.

I heard you had a little child?

Maybe now you will understand

and throw away your princess smile.

I would sure like to hear from you 

how you're doing

but I changed my name

my number and address.

But I haven't gone too far.

You can find me if you want to, I guess.

I wonder if there will come a day 

when I let my light shine?

I have shaded it from my own eyes

I wonder if it's still alive.

There was a time 

I could climb 

into the nearest tree

and see my future unfolding out up ahead.

Then I'd fall, just to find

that, foolishly, I'd tied

a noose around my head.

YOU SAY TO ME, YOU NEVER HAVE TO ASK

Pretend we are all alone now.

No one else is listening in.

Lay back in my arms.

The first time I saw you

I wanted to hold you.

I wanted to kiss you.

Can I kiss you now?

You say to me,

"You never have to ask."

Like the sun shining down on a frozen lake

to me, say it again.

And I have known witches. 

I have felt sorcery in my veins.

But your lips are whispering spells

and your fingers are magical wands.

And I have burned bridges.

I have stranded myself from the shore

and found what I held onto 

keeping me afloat

wasn't worth holding onto no more.

You say to me

"You never have to ask."

Like the winds of a thousand years 

on a mountain's face, say it again.

I waited for you, my love,

on the path of one hundred days. 

I prepared to receive you.

I prepared to believe my eyes.

The road may be long, my love.

There will be times when we can't find our way.

Would you like to come with me?

You say to me

"You never have to ask."

Like the shackles cut clean from the throat of a slave

to me, say it again. 

Say it again.

Say it again.

Oh, say it again!

PASSAGE / WE WERE NEVER HERE AT ALL

I'm in the bed with you again. 

I hold your body just the way you like.

I have no plans for sleeping

so I didn't even kiss you goodnight.

I'm so afraid to close my eyes.

I'm terrified of what I'll dream about tonight.

Ain't it hard to be alone all the time?

When I get the chance,

I'l slip away into any other room

with the door shut tight.

And if you have any decency

then you'll pretend to be asleep so I can write.

I never made an enemy

who didn't fall in love with me for a while.

Ain't it hard to want to hold a disguise?

Ain't it hard to choose the truth from the lies?

If there is a boat-man left

come and take me, be my guide.

And lead me by the hand across the river

to the other side.

No coin in my mouth

but I hope to pay you for my ride

with a song

for my second saddest lover

may she still see the skies.

Well I don't know if the first one sang to me

and I don't know if the last one will sing to me.

But tonight we've had a little wine

and tonight we have a little time.

And tonight I am on your side.

Sing to me, in the dark.

Well, I heard you lost your instrument

to the father of your children

and until you get it back again

sing to me, in the dark.

You don't have to take your dress off 

to be my family for the night.

Let me wash this Spanish dust off of me.

We are not ghosts. 

We were never here at all.

IN A SUIT MADE OF ASH

I came to you in a suit made of ash

but you were already gone.

Laying on the beach

with the beast at your back.

His fingers were playing our song.

What was it you said when you came?

"What does it matter?

I've already given my soul."

I came to you in a suit made of a son

that I said I could never leave.

Nothing on my mind

but to have a little fun.

Or so I led you to believe.

What was it you said when you came?

"What does it matter? 

You've already given your soul."

I came to you in a suit made for leaving.

I let you do the rest.

Now there is another

with your hair in her fingers

and two new lips at your breast.

What was it you said when she came?

"What does it matter, 

I've already given my soul? 

This is another life."

Here and There, Here and There

Here is a look at what Pamela and I have been up to. We are doing a show in Portland next month with jewelry, books and prints based on the story "Mt Shasta and the Grizzly Bears"

We still have a long ways to go!

Stop when it's time to stop

I have a solo art show coming up at Cairo in Seattle. It will be several drawings and some prints. They will be up from March 8 through April 9. There is an opening on March 8 for Capitol Hill Artwalk at Cairo from 6-8. There will be some wine and beer. I hope you can make it and have a look at what I have been up to.

Here are some examples of what will be shown

Show at Cairo 2/17

with Perpetual Ritual / Baby Guns

video from Expo89 at Cairo

here