All lyrics by Stephenie Halpert McWalters


The Winter Room

The shadows move like water
Reflecting on a wall
The air about the shoulders
Of this place

Cold and remembering
Cold but relenting
Half blind with intention
A tragic invention
Cold but remembering

In it comes—the frost
To cause our breath like clouds
And hands held tight
In their sleeves

This cause and consequence
Of iron and of ice —
So worth the cost
For the promise of light

 

Dark Western

Lone Ranger, get off of your horse
Tonto left for home long ago
I guess he knows when to call it quits
To call it quits

The desert’s not the best place in the world, but it’ll do, it will do
The prairie’s not the best place in the world, but it’ll do, now, it will do

Hey Rifleman, what happened to you?
Your eye was sharp, and your aim, it was true
Did those outlaws finally catch up to you and overrun this town?

The desert’s not the best place in the world, but it’ll do, it will do
The prairie’s not the best place in the world, but it’ll do, now, it will do

Hey Sheriff, I’ve heard of your loss—the deputy was a good man
Guess we’ve all got our deserts to cross
I say start walking while you still can

 

The World is Too Much With Us

Until we’re pulled apart

A world undone
Half-crushed into the tide
A race un-run

For this, for everything
We’ve chased too long
Abandon
I’d rather be
The simplest son

Outside immensity
Of lives and lies
To turn, to turn will be
The quiet side

 

Art of Film

Flickering light
Can sweep us away
Drawn till the end
Where there are only names

Fragile world inside
(Suspended)
Of echoes and of eyes
(Suspended)
Of virtue and of vice
(Suspended)
That temperamental “night’

It ended with a twist
And started with a fight
A killer and a kiss
A lone secret flight

 

Genius of Escape Who Will Startle & Amaze

That night, the chandeliers
Of The Majestic
Low-lit as you bowed--

The papers all said
It was your most brilliant yet
Your most brilliant now

You sank from the surface,
Closing your eyes
Hair streaming out

Under the water,
Padlock and chain
Moving like a dream,
Twisting to escape

They held their breath with you,
Then you finally emerged
To thunderous applause

One last time death defied
And, dripping, you bowed
A little hesitant because

You must have known
Something was wrong
Everything was wrong

Under the water,
Padlock and chain
Moving like a dream
Twisting to escape

Even past the finale,
You were subtly drowning
Slow and unaware

After all the risks
And brushes with death
It ended quietly in bed

You must have known
Something was wrong
Everything was wrong

Under the water,
Padlock and chain
Moving like that dream
That you needed to escape

 

The Key

They say if you can find the end of it,
There’s a gold key
Leading you up through the shadowlands – like a memory

Oh the way, the way oh the way of it
Is a mystery
Oh the way, the way oh the way of it
So dear to me

They say in the arms of the shadowlands,
‘Neath the gathering dark
Creatures both lovely and frightening are
Shown to be what they really are

Oh the way, the way oh the way of it
Is a mystery
The shimmering, shattering light of it
So dear to me

 

Maps of the Sky

Can you reach me,
Will you bring me
Full circle

From the outside
Pulling inward
Full circle

The infinite depth
And chorus of light
The anchoring earth
And the width of the night


How silent their song
In circling arcs
And weight of the air
Its lights through the dark

Turning to make
The symbols and shapes
Of ages past
That show us the way
….to home


The compass’ course
In the wake of true north
Shows us our passage
In spheres and lines

The unending sky
And our lights in the dark
Moving silent and small
Across the snow...

 

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