Lagoon Blues

 

Venice Shoes

Sweet Bergman unmasked

Does arabesques unasked

Melts into flight

She laughed in the face

Of this dusty traffic

 

Once she held

The golden east to fee

She laughed in the face

Laughed in the waves

Of a devious sea

 

Now unselfish love

Waves across

The impassable square

With nothing to lose

Nothing to choose

Just her Venice shoes

Once she  held

Once she held

The golden east to fee

 

Sweet Bergman unmasked

Does arabesques for us unasked

She melts into flight

With nothing to lose

Nothing to prove

Just her Venice shoes

Yet unselfish love

Yes unselfish love

Is ready to cross

This beautiful square

With nothing to lose

Nothing to prove

Just her Venice shoes


Gracefruit

Borne through the darkness

From the beach at St Ives

To the Northern shore

Of the Western Isles

Fruitgrace

Trumpets your tongue

When the Empress of hope

Finds you alone

 

Where can I find you?

I’ll push for a rose in the night

And I’ll seek you little gracefruit

Yes I’ll seek you little graceful one

Little Gracefruit of the heart

 

And Cupid revealed

I was under his wheels

And a swan song you sang

On the straw coast

And the red bow of Astarte

Ties the moon to the car

Down by Cape St Vincent

Under the stars

Can I find you?

Yes I’ll push for a rose in the night

Yes I’ll see you little gracefruit

Yes I’ll seek you little graceful one

Little gracefruit of the heart

Little gracefruit of the heart

 

Fruitgrace

Our street sweeps divine

Out of breath

Out of time

Any peaceful pose

Catches you up now...

 

Yes I’ll love you little gracefruit

Man I’ll push for some pearls

In the night

Yes I love you little graceful one

And I push for some pearls

In the night

A rose in the night...

 

If this could last forever

With the moon in the car

Down by Cape St Vincent

Underneath the stars

Underneath the stars


Fermina Fair

Bronze mistress sugar

Playful in design

Passion playing through her

Mysterious in time

 

Fermina in the garden

Wearing sunset shades

I seek her in the arbour

Bring her lemonade

 

Even as she smiles

Even as she sighs

Fermina of the angels

Diaphanous and wild

 

If you could see her now

Down a road so muddy

Through winds unclean

Love your confusion

Love her unseen

Fermina of the angels

Fermina of the dreams

 

Fermina of the Rich Coast

Fermina in the rye

Tall and flowering

In Dutch sailors eyes

 

Even as she smiles

Yes even as she sighs

Fermina of the angels

Fabulous and wild


Pissoir

Penned in a pissoir

The pursuit will end

For a poison flower

At rainbow’s end

 

And all along seven bays

Opium smiles

She’s crouched like a sphinx

On these indigo tiles

 

Listen for me

 

“Is this the face that launched

a thousand ships

And burnt the topless towers

of Ilium?

Sweet Helen make me immortal

with a kiss...”

 

Lost on a trip

On the streets of Brussels

In a heliotrope haze

You wear acacia blossoms

Forevermore

 

I saw her last

Up on Claremont pass

She came down to my door

She came for some more

Honey at the core

 

For a poison flower

Youth will die

Penned in a pissoir

As you cry “Do I believe in you

do I believe in myself?”


Never Too Late

Someday she’ll blow her trumpet

Someday she’ll ride the waves

Walkout blow out the candle

Just dismiss just misspell your name

 

For it’s never too late

No it’s never too late

If you’re ever to

Fly through the sunset

Over faraway lakes

In the morning devour the glory

 

She’ll follow on in your footsteps

Florentine in your footsteps

Fog I am in your footsteps

All the way

 

For it’s never too late

No it’s never too late

Like a sunset on a faraway lake

Never too late

If you’re ever to

Rise like a phoenix

Heady drive for the sun

Trade in the horses

For a home in the south

Where golden-eyed girls

Sway on the beach

And move through the sunset

On wings of desire

 

Just last night I checked it out

And I got word

I heard it was Amapola on foot

And Mahler had his Alma

You had me

I had you

 

It’s never too late

No it’s never too late

Like a sunset on a faraway lake

Never too late

If you’re ever to

Rise like a phoenix

Heady drive for the south

Trade in the horses

For a home in the sun

Where golden-eyed girls

Sway on the beach

They move through the sunset

On wings of desire


Easter - for Edda van Heemstra

Unchain the perfect

Fragrant moment

A fragrant moment

When Spring is calling

Deep in her purring past

A phantom tender

Young and Slender

Young and bold

 

We’ll see you sometimes

Hear your footsteps

Eating ice-cream

Below Spanish Steps

79th and Madison

Or rainbow’s end

 

Soft trumpets plead

Through Eden’s groves

Down Eden’s lanes

 

Oh Raphael

Take these wild cherries there

To the lost one of beauty

Subpoena the fair

 

See her as Natasha

Laughing on the screen

See her by the fountain

Seraphic and serene

Born in fragrant season

Under old confetti bowers

Shadows in the garden

Will fall on every flower

Furies in the mansions

Serpents in the wells

Her golden cloak her radiance

Broken like a spell

Forever young and slender

Forever young and bold

Forever young and bold


Thru’ The Old Holmwood

The harpies are flown

Can’t you see them move away

Flap their wings and sing

sha la la la

sha la la la

sha la la la la

 

Kiss some new dreams

In my tired mouth

Place your mystery

On my lips

Still you ask me

If I’m so alive

You must come with me

Thru’ the old Holmwood

 

Bird song ringing

Across the verdant route

And the trees so heavy

With the sweetest fruits

 

Kiss some new dreams

In my tired mouth

Place your mystery

On my lips

Hey now listen

You’re so alive

You must come with me

Thru’ the old Holmwood

 

Your eyes they glisten

In this wondrous night

The harpies missing

Blown or gone

Kiss some new dreams

Kiss some new dreams

We’ll find mystery

In the old Holmwood

In the old home


Lolita

Lolita

Light of my life

Fire of my loins

 

She drew her

Dancing fingertips

Across my swollen lip

Half in her yellow dress

Half in her mouthly caress

 

Yes there my brightling stood

Languidly finally nude

Laughing she turned to go

She said

“Me faire casser le pot”

 

Oh Lolita

Light of my life

Fire of my loins

Muri au soleil


Via D’Oro

Via D’Oro

Down beneath the law

Moonlight on your face

Cast this mystic coast

Highway your spell

Hired at sunset

Still you look at me

Laughing in the doorway

Like a promise all too sweet

 

Via D’Oro

Down beneath the law

Then you kiss me in your old way

“Will you always feel this way?

Will you always feel this way?

Yes I will

Yes I will

Yes I will

Yes I will

 

To shy like horses

A sky-wide tempest in blue

In dream bright garlands

Tiepolo blue

 

Moonlight on your face

Moonlight on your face

Burnbright at sunset

Misty coast spell

Misty coast spell

Languid in the doorway

A promise all too sweet

Down on Via D’Oro

Kiss me in your old way

Kiss me in your old way

Down beneath the law

Way down beneath the law

Kiss me in your old way

Down on Via D’Oro

Light up on sunset film

Light up on sunset film

Yes the feast of angels

Is going to fall someday

Someday


Ave The Leopards

Ave little mamma

Meet me at the fountain tonight

Bring your Egyptian pistols

And blast them in the cool of the night

 

Two Latin leopards

Moving on the shore of the bed

Wearing French Silver Fixtures

You shake them from

Your beautiful hair

 

Gone forever

Moving down on ghostly Maree

Yes she’s gone forever

Moving down on ghostly Maree

Then she threw open the shutters

And said “you used to smile like

you knew something....

like a rumrunner”

She swayed in pavane on the steps

And I kissed her on the face and said

......sometimes you love her

 

Ave little mamma

Make me choose you all night

Hear the daybreak rustling

Raising a smile in the teeth of the night

 

Ave little mamma

Run as Sophia can

Ave little mamma

Trust in Sophia again

Meet me when mischief befalls me

From the whispering drains

 

Two Latin leopards

Moving on the shore of the bed

Two Latin Leopards

Moving on the shore of the bed

Waving for us mamma

Waving for the lips and the dread

 

Ave Latin leopard

Mobile in the whispering rain

Ave Latin leopard

Mobile in the whispering rain

Mind me when mischief befalls me

From the cruel and the vain


Sweetheart Sessions

I knew a girl

In her sweetheart sessions

Amphetamine blown

Fogged at dawn

Who had me several years ago

Get in the groove and let

The good times roll

 

All the madder fruits

Of Italian Summers

Down on moonless sands

On limitless nights

In the rush of your delight

 

Too honeyed to move

Too smothered in pearls

Dance little star

Shine in the sky

Baby Baby

We’re going home tonight

 

In Grand Hotels

Grand delusions

Everybody wants to

Climb up and down our union

 

I knew a girl

In her sweetheart sessions

Mahogany brown

Fogged at dawn

On the moonless sands

Through limitless nights

A streetcar travels

In confusion through the night

 

In Grand hotels

In grand confusion

But Baby Baby

We’re going home tonight

Yes we’re going home tonight


Carnival

Night-time

We can’t lose

When we blindly tarantella

Bold enough to choose

Freedom’s angel is calling

In the winding violins

In the city night is falling

Can you let the music begin

 

These few dying coals

Cast the only light

In the room

And of your slender shoulders

Make gold

 

Play some tambourine

Like a Spartan girl

Promise me

Deeper in the lanes

Promise me

Promise not to change

 

Kiss me starface

Across celestial miles

From down the southern arbours

Way down the wooden aisles

Play some tambourine

Little French girl

Twist and shout

Lovers on the new bridge

Yes they call us with a shout

 

In sweep the swallows

Vital and sublime

Through the casino gardens

Underneath the vines

Play some freedom angel

Play for freedom

 

Let’s ride the streets imperious

Mile after mile after mile

And make the walls of Eden

Tumble beneath your smile

Kiss me sweetness

Vital and sublime

We’ll go down the casino gardens

Play underneath the vines

And bring your violin little French girl

Play me out of time

We’ll scale the walls of Eden

We’ll scale them every time


Easter Sorbonne

A stranger perfect

In every movement

In Paris singing

Your Easter song

You seek her purring past

A phantom tender

A phantom bold

 

Ornella you seemed to me

Bright with impossible

Light with impossible dreams