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...