Charles Wright

Stone Canyon Nocturne

Ancient of Days, old friend, no one believes you’ll come back.
No one believes in his own life anymore.

The moon, like a dead heart, cold and unstartable, hangs by a thread
At the earth’s edge,
Unfaithful at last, splotching the ferns and the pink shrubs.

In the other world, children undo the knots in their tally strings.
They sing songs, and their fingers blear.

And here, where the swan hums in his socket, where bloodroot
And belladonna insist on our comforting,
Where the fox in the canyon wall empties our hands, ecstatic for more,

Like a bead of clear oil the Healer revolves through the night wind,
Part eye, part tear, unwilling to recognize us.

Pärson Sound 3 LP Box Set

This has been killing me ever since I got it in the mail a few days ago. Well worth the 60 bone price tag, and I'm not one of those VINYL NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES types. I love records but mostly I want to hear them, not be fiscally threatened by new Robert Wyatt reissues (which are, incidentally, excellently done). If you've heard Trad, Gras, och Stenar then you have a basic idea of what to expect - long-ish, tasteful workouts that make you think: early spring early evening laying out in the grass don't have to work tomorrow no bills no bullshit enjoying being alive. Pretty great. This is just like that but stranger, and a little more threatening. Pretty great. I think the CD set is already out of print, and I'm sure the LP set is on its way also (1000 total pressed).

Here's Julian Cope tingling over it.

A whiff:

George William Russell

DAWN

Still as the holy of holies breathes the vast,
Within its crystal depths the stars grow dim;
Fire on the altar of the hills at last
Burns on the shadowy rim.

Moment that holds all moments; white upon
The verge it trembles; then like mists of flowers
Break from the fairy fountain of the dawn
The hues of many hours.

Thrown downward from that high companionship
Of dreaming inmost heart with inmost heart,
Into the common daily ways I slip
My fire from theirs apart.