"Untended Stories"
All songs copyright control. Martin Finke (p)+(c) 1993-2003.
Weight Of Mountains (official) I once had a thing or two to say
I said it, I said them carefully
Then I took you in my arms
Now there's a woman in the mix
A loving man to carry her
I'm with her when I beat the earth
A working man who earns a share
Of every breath of working care
And I can feel your life
The weight of mountains standing in the light
I'm back at my geography
I feel the land in front of me
Maybe if we take that road
With all our might to Mexico
We can find time in the sun
And we will slowly get to know
A little more about our love
Our hands in darkness, our eyes closed
Silver on the shore
My love the weight of mountains in the night
And I can feel your life
The weight of mountains standing in the light
Let's be lonely when there's nothing left to be
I've talked to every man I know about the open sea
What's been in your life that has you laughing so
How can you be passion and master and still hold Every note
The room tells me I'm busy
But my life knows I'm just waiting to come home
To sit beside the table that you laid
To talk about the dinner that you made
Afterwards the curtains can be drawn
For the usual carry on
Private Parades (official) Was there laughter when we were locked
My hand on your mouth when you talked
It could only mean treasures and drinking
And private parades for your private thinking
People believe that I've known you for years
And that all of your medals are mine
And the fruit that you picked
When we started to look like this
Then it's turned into wine
I could open the door and step into the rain
Not knowing the traffic but sure
There's a book on the shelf
And a new load of delph
You'll buy it yourself
I'll go with you
This isn't my footprint
This isn't my town
This lost body's been washed up in heaven
Like wool on a barb I've been caught on the run
On the run from this shimmering flood
Of loneliness
Was there laughter when we were locked
My hand on your mouth when you talked
It could only mean treasures and drinking
And private parades for your private thinking
I cleaned my house and wept
So happy that
I'd been kept
And though I've also done some keeping
There's a little weeping left
Burning Maps (official) We're resting from the sights of town
I'll put another chaser down in front of you
And burn the maps that brought us here
This is the part that I need to watch
I'm careful and wired with a crowd behind
It's easy when it's sweet
But touching you makes me look strained
A holy walking thrill that's barely around
When there's no street corner noise for us to play in
And when there's no light show
Just a welcoming suburb with no life on show
We're resting from the sights of town
In love if there's a crisis now and then
For me to work on
For me to take everywhere with a smile
Captain (official) When your love caught hold of me
I was drinking
Guinness on my own
Fastest pint I ever drank
I swung onto the street believing
My news would go to print by morning
I sang a song to Mark
It was an acorn of a song
It was a toy song for grown-ups
A paper song that stood up in the lamplight
Both of us sang harmonies we didn't understand
You are my captain
And I am open
To every course that we might sail
Because I need you
I need the daylight
The day within you
The morning's quiet passed before the morning sun
When your love caught hold of me
I dropped what I was holding
Or fell off my chair, one or the other
I think we stand to gain by being lovers
Or others stand to gain from it
One or the other, maybe both
You are my captain
And I am open
To every course that we might sail
Because I need you
I need the daylight
The day within you
The morning's quiet passed before the morning sun
Passed along the morning shore
Other Men (official) In the night time locks are loosened, bows untied
I shake off my shoes in a travelling way
A day of service done, a closing to the day
I find a blushing message in my mail
And read it as the light begins to fail
A flicker on the screen sets your name dancing
It's a pinch of electricity that answered
Tonight I'll regale other men
With tales that I'll be seeing you again
tonight
I went outside and walked away
I walked onto the road
I took a look at the black ground
From it came this old dreaming house
You helped me line the stones
That mark out this straight walking way
And I hooked up a curtain
To sing behind, to work behind
To fall beneath the night behind
And fling back on a
Sunday
Tonight I'll regale other men
With tales that I'll be seeing you again,
Tonight
I read it in a book
Americans could fix it
So that they
could float a house
Down heavy rivers and control it
Then hoist it up on other land
And everything would be as quiet that first evening
As the steadiest before
But our house is made of quarry stones
And mortar rich as much
Brave block stones brought from Mayo in a truck
And it's not going sailing
It's far too well endeared
To this wet blowing field
And to all our neighbours' dreams
Tonight I'll regale other men
With tales that I'll be seeing you again,
Tonight.
Jetplane (official) My landlady is the sea
She keeps me and rolls me to where there is joy
Unfairly we offer our hearts to her
She'll keep them
And chuck them and high huck them
Good luck to them
My girl is a jetplane at night
A hot concentration of fast moving light
I think that when I hold her in evening time
Perhaps that her love demands more time
That perhaps for her love I should count to three hundred
And cast off my own needs till that time
Perhaps in her eyes there is happiness
Perhaps in her heart is a restful content
Perhaps in her family there was a great lawfulness
A healthy old record of love not duress
But I have not paid her in kind
A keepsake here and one there
For my sake more than for hers
US Coast (official) The pale man you're watching
Is calling down from the hill above this town
What did you think of these arms when they first held you
I know that they were welcome
This time the bedroom is a station for prayer
And over the weeks now
Another collision of our lost hearts
How are you making these years so beautiful
Who wants to see the US coast
From the inside of a pub
I do
We're coursing and learning
I'm watching your back as the weather catches hold
My world is having none of this
No offering help to keep us together
Not a patch on this dirty weather
Because I love the things I kept from you
And I'll keep the things you left me
Who wants to see the US coast
From the inside of a pub
I do
Lament For A Locksmith (official) I collected some things
And flew across the water
We decided to be happy
There's a house in old Clifden
Where I've spent many nights
And the men there are wise men
A few more years of this
And my life will be full
Full of untended upended stories
That straddle a decade of ruin
And the locksmith is sorry
That she can't unlock the door to his kindness
And so I'm in love
And so the world's turning
And so I become powerful and intrepid
Because I am next to you
I can understand the pulse of your blood
And since we are intimate
I know the honest appetite's aplomb
The cadence of your whisper
Fills my eyes with tears
And every time you kiss me
The locksmith frowns in despair
I grew up on the burly coast
And I fought throughout the years
I fought for every bit
Of this great cast-iron, self-preserving grit
I collected some things
And left the locksmith none the wiser
Causing everyone to laugh and laugh
And jump for joy
Fast as the morning train I tidied up the broken keys
I Can't Release You (official) At the start of something new I can't release you
A broken down bus on a black new bus lane
Jason's in the back
He's giving me a sermon that won't catch on
And my hand has ten things in it
One of them is always yours
At the start of something new I can't release you
And it's very hard to drive from the
south-side to the north-side
Biography, paint me later
Paint me true but paint me later
In it we can cough and ache through love
And no-one else can talk about my life
Because I can't release you at the start of something new
I can't release you at the start of something new for you
Stone On Stone (official) Stone on stone
We work in the evening
At least I know the work is meaningful
When we feel hope we feel like staying here
The idea of Dublin was to carry on something
The idea of together was never in doubt
Three short steps in a new suit
A piece of news in the daytime and calm at night
Close to the start of session
The idea of Dublin was to carry on something
The idea of together was never in doubt
The streets were empty and you and I were gone
Lonely Back (official) I knew before he even told me
The course he tore out across the county
And a face as sweet as that never lies
His footfalls ring like the cries of broken-hearted women
And knocked-out girls
As he strides into the pub
Both hands bare like swindled customers
Honest as he seems to say
Two beers, what have I done
Two years, my god what have I done
Ten beers, what have I done
Ten years, my god what have I done
Call me a tyrant, he says
But all I'm left with in this world
Is a sober lip now where once there was a drunken smile
And all they ever do is walk away from me
All they ever do is dance towards the door
Singing in the evening at my lonely back once more
A song I've heard for ten long years
Ten years, what have I done
Western towns, they lace his drinks with dreams
Of western women's hearths aglow, agleam
No rhyme or reason to the gait
That carries his old clothes from noon till late
From Clifden to Rosmuc in a
Liteace or a truck
The canvas on my back collects this trouble daily
Cast In Old Cast Iron (official) Cast in old cast iron that one man could break down
I prefer to be on fire than alone
I'm a sports hero on the
Midwest plain
A serviceman let go
I'm a traveller's best friend
Cast in old cast iron
Never needing fixing
No river leaves a furrow in my yard
A sunken prize no woman could breathe to
No river leaves a furrow in my yard
Cast in old cast iron
I prefer to be delivered than to carry anyone
I'd rather turn away than drive to
New York
Not afraid of New York
Just afraid of winter
Cast in old cast iron
Love can be an element
Time can be a force
Elbow deep in history
One man breaking down the iron shell
The lock of treasure
No river leaves a furrow in my back yard
Once I came to her and heard her
I heard her say it truly
All songs copyright control. Martin Finke (p)+(c) 1993-2003. | 
