The Boatma

Now that mountains of meaningless words
And oceans divide us
And we each have our own set of stars
To comfort and guide us
Come into my sleep
Come into my sleep, oh yeah
Dry your eyes and do not weep
Come into my sleep


Swim to me through the deep blue sea
Upon the scattered stars set sail
Fly to me through this love-lit night
From one thousand miles away
And come into my sleep
Come into my sleep oh yeah
As midnight nears and shadows creep
Come into my sleep


Bind my dreams up in your tangled hair
For i am sick at heart, my dear
Bind my dreams up in your tangled hair
For all the sorrow it will pass, my dear


Take your accusation, your recriminations
And toss them into the ocean blue
Leave your regrets and impossible longings
And scatter them across the sky behind you
And come into my sleep
Come into my sleep
For my soul to comfort and keep
Come into my sleep


For my soul to comfort and keep - my sleep


Come on,
Come on,
Come on,
(repeat and fade)

For you dear, i was born
For you i was raised up
For you i've lived and for you i will die
For you i am dying now
You were my mad little lover
In a world where everybody fucks everybody else over
You who are so far from me
Far from me
So far from me
Way across some cold neurotic sea
Far from me


I would talk to you of all matter of things
With a smile you would reply
Then the sun would leave your pretty face
And you'd retreat from the front of your eyes
I keep hearing that you're doing best
I hope your heart beats happy in your infant breast
You are so far from me
Far from me
Far from me


There is no knowledge but i know it
There's nothing to learn from that vacant voice
That sails to me across the line
From the ridiculous to the sublime
It's good to hear you're doing so well
But really can't you find somebody else that you can ring and tell
Did you ever
Care for me?
Were you ever
There for me?
So far from me


You told me you'd stick by me
Through the thick and through the thin
Those were your very words
My fair-weather friend
You were my brave-hearted lover
At the first taste of trouble went running back to mother
So far from me
Far from me
Suspended in your bleak and fishless sea
Far from me
Far from me

I don't believe in an interventionist god
But i know, darling, that you do
But if i did i would kneel down and ask him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Not to touch a hair on your head
To leave you as you are
And if he felt he had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms


Into my arms, o lord
Into my arms, o lord
Into my arms, o lord
Into my arms


And i don't believe in the existence of angels
But looking at you i wonder if that's true
But if i did i would summon them together
And ask them to watch over you
To each burn a candle for you
To make bright and clear your path
And to walk, like christ, in grace and love
And guide you into my arms


Into my arms, o lord
Into my arms, o lord
Into my arms, o lord
Into my arms


And i believe in love
And i know that you do too
And i believe in some kind of path
That we can walk down, me and you
So keep your candlew burning
And make her journey bright and pure
That she will keep returning
Always and evermore

Into my arms, o lord
Into my arms, o lord
Into my arms, o lord
Into my arms

Last night my kisses were banked in black hair
And in my bed, my lover, her hair was midnight black
And all her mystery dwelled within her black hair
And her black hair framed a happy heart-shaped face


And heavy-hooded eyes inside her black hair
Shined at me frome the depths of her hair of deepest black
While my fingers pushed into her straight black hair
Pulling her black hair back from her happy heart-shaped face


To kiss her milk-white throat, a dark curtain of black hair
Smothered me, my lover with her beautiful black hair
The smell of it is heavy. it is charged with life
On my fingers the smell of her deep black hair


Full of all my whispered words, her black hair
And wet with tears and good-byes, her hair of deepest black
All my tears cried against her milk-white throat
Hidden behind the curtain of her beautiful black hair


As deep as ink and black, black as the deepest sea
The smell of her black hair upon my pillow
Where her head and all its black hair did rest
Today she took a train to the west
Today she took a train to the west
Today she took a train to the west

With a crooked smile and a heart-shaped face
Comes from the west country where the birds sing bass
She's got a house-big heart where we all live
And plead and council and forgive
Her widow's peak, her lips i've kissed
Her glove of bones at her wrist
That i have held in my hand
Her spanish fly and her monkey gland
Her godly body and its fourteen stations
That i have embraced, her palpitations
Her unborn baby crying, "mummy"
Amongst the rubble of her body
Her lovely lidded eyes i've sipped
Her fingernails, all pink and chipped
Her accent which i'm told is "broad"
That i have heard and has been poured
Into my human heart and filled me
With love, up to the brim, and killed me
And rebuilt me back anew
With something to look forward to
Well, who could ask much more than that?
A west country girl with a big fat cat
That looks into her eyes of green
And meows, "he loves you", then meows again

Up those stone steps i climb
Hail this joyful day's return
Into its great shadowed vault i go
Hail the pentecostal morn


The reading is from luke 24
Where christ returns to his loved ones
I look at the stone apostles
Think that it's alright for some


And i wish that i was made of stone
So that i would not have to see
A beauty impossible to define
A beauty impossible to believe


A beauty impossible to endure
The blood imparted in little sips
The smell of you still on my hands
As i bring the cup up to my lips


No god up in the sky
No devil beneath the sea
Could do the job that you did, baby
Of bringing me to my knees


Outside i sit on the stone steps
With nothing much to do
Forlorn and exhausted, baby
By the absence of you

People just ain't no good
I think that's welll understood
You can see it everywhere you look
People just ain't no good


We were married under cherry trees
Under blossom we made pour vows
All the blossoms come sailing down
Through the streets and through the playgrounds


The sun would stream on the sheets
Awoken by the morning bird
We'd buy the sunday newspapers
And never read a single word


People they ain't no good
People they ain't no good
People they ain't no good


Seasons came, seasons went
The winter stripped the blossoms bare
A different tree now lines the streets
Shaking its fists in the air
The winter slammed us like a fist
The windows rattling in the gales
To which she drew the curtains
Made out of her wedding veils


People they ain't no good
People they ain't no good
People they ain't no good at all


To our love send a dozen white lilies
To our love send a coffin of wood
To our love let aal the pink-eyed pigeons coo
That people they just ain't no good
To our love send back all the letters
To our love a valentine of blood
To our love let all the jilted lovers cry
That people they just ain't no good


It ain't that in their hearts they're bad
They can comfort you, some even try
They nurse you when you're ill of health
They bury you when you go and die
It ain't that in their hearts they're bad
They'd stick by you if they could
But that's just bullshit
People just ain't no good


People they ain't no good
People they ain't no good
People they ain't no good
People they ain't no good at all

I've felt you coming girl, as you drew near
I knew you'd find me, cause i longed you here
Are you my desitiny? is this how you'll appear?
Wrapped in a coat with tears in your eyes?
Well take that coat babe, and throw it on the floor
Are you the one that i've been waiting for?


As you've been moving surely toward me
My soul has comforted and assured me
That in time my heart it will reward me
And that all will be revealed
So i've sat and i've watched an ice-age thaw
Are you the one that i've been waiting for?


Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built
Out of longing great wonders have been willed
They're only little tears, darling, let them spill
And lay your head upon my shoulder
Outside my window the world has gone to war
Are you the one that i've been waiting for?


O we will know, won't we?
The stars will explode in the sky
O but they don't, do they?
Stars have their moment and then they die


There's a man who spoke wonders though i've never met him
He said, "he who seeks finds and who knocks will be let in"
I think of you in motion and just how close you are getting
And how every little thing anticipates you
All down my veins my heart-strings call
Are you the one that i've been waiting for?