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A Plague Of Lighthouse KeepersA Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers:(i) EyewitnessStill waiting for my saviour, storms tear me limb from limb my fingers feel like seaweed, I'm so far out I'm too far in I am a lonely man / my solitude is true my eyes have borne stark witness and now my nights are numbered too: I've seen the smiles on dead hands the stars shine but they're not for me I prophesy disaster and then I count the cost I shine, but shining, dying, I know that I am almost lost On the table lies blank paper / and my tower is built on stone / I only have blunt scissors / I only have the bluntest home. I've been the witness, and the seal of death lingers in the molten wax that is my head When you see the skeletons of sailing-ship spars sinking low You'll begin to wonder if the points of all the ancients myths are solemnly directed straight at you. ------------------------------ A Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers:(iii) Eyewitness No time now for contrition; the time for that's long past The walls are thin as tissue and if I talk I'll crack the glass So I only think on how it might have been locked in silent monologue, in silent scream. I'm much too tired to speak and as the waves crash on the bleak stones of the tower I start to freak ...and find that I am overcome... ------------------------------ A Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers:(iv) S.H.M. "Unreal, unreal" ghost helmsmen scream and fall in through the sky, Not breaking, through my seagull shrieks: no breaks until I die. The spectres scratch on window-slits hollowed faces, and mindless grins only intent on destroying what they've lost. I crawl the wall till steepness ends in the vertical fall; My pain has sailed into the sea - no joking hopes at dawn! White bone shine in the iron-jaw mask Lost mastheads pierce the freezing dark and parallel my isolated tower... no paraffin for the flame - no harbour left to gain. ------------------------------ A Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers:(v) Presence Of The Night '"Alone, alone" the ghosts all call, pinpoint me in the light; the only life I feel at all is the presence of the night. Would you cry if I died? Would you cry if I died? Would you catch the final words of mine? Would you catch my words? I know that there's no time; I know that there's no rime... false signs find me I don't want to hate / I just want to grow / Why can't I let me live and be free - but I die very slowly alone I know no more ways / I am so afraid / myself won't let me just be myself and so I am completely alone. ------------------------------ A Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers:(vi) Kosmos Tours The maelstrom of my memory is a vampire and it feeds on me now staggering madly, over the brink I fall. ------------------------------ A Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers:(vii) (Custard's) Last Stand Lighthouses might house the key but can I reach the door? I want to walk on the sea so that I may better find a shore... but how can I ever keep my feet dry? I scan the horizon I must keep my eyes on all parts of me. Looking back on the years it seems that I have lost my way; like a dog in the night, I have run to a manger; now I am the stranger I stay in...ah, well. All of the grief I have seen leaves me chasing solitary peace but I hold experience in my head I'm too close to the light I don't think I see right for I blind me... ------------------------------ A Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers:(viii) The Clot Thickens Where is the god that guides my hand? How can the hands of others reach me? When will I find what I grope for? Who is going to teach me? I am me / me are we / we can't see any way out of here Crashing sea / atrophied / history:- Chance has lost my Guinevere. I don't want to be one wave in the water but sea will drag me deep, One more haggard drowned man. I can see the lemmings coming but I know I'm just a man... Do I join or do I founder? Which can is the best I may? ------------------------------ A Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers:(ix) Land's End (Sineline) Oceans drifting sideways; I am pulled into the spell: I feel you around me - I know you well. Stars slice horizons where the lines stand much too stark I FEEL I AM DROWNING - hands stretch in the dark... Camps of panoply and majesty, what is freedom of choice? Where do I stand in the pageantry; whose is my voice? It doesn't feel so very bad now - I think the end is the start... Begin to feel very glad now: ALL THINGS ARE A PART ALL THINGS ARE APART ALL THINGS ARE A PART |