SHORT SONGS
P.W. Elverum & Sun
Wind on Window / "Mt. Eerie"
Jobs
The Real Work
Untitled
Untitled
When I Walk Out of the Museum
Marriage
Untitled
Don’t Bring Your Bag / “Dinner”
Untitled
Dark Foundation / “Half-in-Shade
Untitled
No More Animal Shit (In Art)
This is the Same Ocean
Untitled
Untitled
Small House
Royalty
Warm House
Wind on Window / "Mt. Eerie"
Imagine me as an arching peak with oranges in it's belly
And the rest of the world rolling out in the flat black night.
Wind in the parking lots as over the seas and prairies
And I say: "I acknowledge you world,
But I am not moving."
Jobs
Trying not to take up too much space
Trying not to use up too much gas
Trying to be healthy so I can be good and generous
Trying to pay close attention to the panorama of things, and
Trying to remember the dignity of the infant at work
The Real Work
Disappointment and noise and all the struggles of human life
Sprawled out across the valleys like crowded farming
When I look into the world I feel like warning
But when I look into the eyes I just say nothing
This is how I decide to stand for surrender
And this is why "surrender", to me,
Means doing real work
Untitled
Although it feels like the war is just starting
We live in an aftermath too
So we can enjoy certain things
Like, for example, knowing
Untitiled
Waking up is something that needs reminding every day
When I Walk Out of the Museum
The smell of placenta
The broken water
And the snarl of the sky
Marriage
Like the way their 2 solitudes stand watch,
One over the other,
Is like the 2 edges of the canyon
Standing watch over the yawning gulf,
A marriage in the night
Makes 2 babies in the morning
With no parents
Untitled
"I came from brilliance
I return to brilliance
What is this?"
Don’t Bring Your Bag / “Dinner”
The feeling of walking with no bag, and maybe 1 thing in my hand,
My legs could keep going forever
So, having walked with nothing until dark,
How does the world look now?
And where is dinner hiding?
And why wasn't it hiding before?
And what can't I do with my bare limbs?
Untitled
Running barefoot
Dark Foundation / “Half-in-Shade
If you lean into the shadow and fall asleep with your head to the east
And with your feet to the last of the light as it is dying,
Coming day will pat your head while your legs are still behind curtains
And you will wake up like this, with a dark foundation
If you can go slow enough like this
And go through the day with shadowy legs,
You will know that this is how the world is
You will be standing on the dark foundation
Untitled
"Try to imagine a baby vulture."
No More Animal Shit (In Art)
How often do you see wild animals? (Never.)
You have never seen a real wolf, (You can't.)
You have never seen a real bear, (You can't.)
And this is how it should be
Only knowing they are out there
And not how they live and look
And certainly not how to paint one
The wild must be left unseen
This is the Same Ocean
This is the same ocean where blue whales dive
And this is the same ocean that fell on white mountains
And this is the same ocean as tomorrow's good coffee
(I am also the same ocean)
Untitled
At the ends of our lives
Instead of climbing
We have to go THROUGH the mountain
Untitled
What I find will be found easily and only when I'm not looking for it,
Without looking for the morning in the sunset
It's like this that my will to live hides, implied in my heart beating
Without looking for fulfillment but accepting it
Small House
Ever since I have been so involved
In loving the feeling of keeping a small house warm and clean,
I'm not always aware that there are stars above stars
Just above that ceiling
Or that the wind in the dark parking lot tonight
Holds a plastic bag to the metal fence
I remember the world, sort of,
But my small house is glowing
A car playing music drives by the window
While I'm washing dishes in the vast night
Royalty
Is it good or bad that we are always looking up?
It is bad because here we are wealthy in our way
And it is good because there is also the great void up there
Sunburning the royalty
(Magazines)
Warm House
What words could take us through here?
This is a bramble, a gauntlet, a warm house in the broad night
I am trying to say how there is a wilderness in staying put and silent
There is an ocean in our bedroom
An ocean that has no word in it
Ocean
Wind on Window / "Mt. Eerie"
Jobs
The Real Work
Untitled
Untitled
When I Walk Out of the Museum
Marriage
Untitled
Don’t Bring Your Bag / “Dinner”
Untitled
Dark Foundation / “Half-in-Shade
Untitled
No More Animal Shit (In Art)
This is the Same Ocean
Untitled
Untitled
Small House
Royalty
Warm House
Wind on Window / "Mt. Eerie"
Imagine me as an arching peak with oranges in it's belly
And the rest of the world rolling out in the flat black night.
Wind in the parking lots as over the seas and prairies
And I say: "I acknowledge you world,
But I am not moving."
Jobs
Trying not to take up too much space
Trying not to use up too much gas
Trying to be healthy so I can be good and generous
Trying to pay close attention to the panorama of things, and
Trying to remember the dignity of the infant at work
The Real Work
Disappointment and noise and all the struggles of human life
Sprawled out across the valleys like crowded farming
When I look into the world I feel like warning
But when I look into the eyes I just say nothing
This is how I decide to stand for surrender
And this is why "surrender", to me,
Means doing real work
Untitled
Although it feels like the war is just starting
We live in an aftermath too
So we can enjoy certain things
Like, for example, knowing
Untitiled
Waking up is something that needs reminding every day
When I Walk Out of the Museum
The smell of placenta
The broken water
And the snarl of the sky
Marriage
Like the way their 2 solitudes stand watch,
One over the other,
Is like the 2 edges of the canyon
Standing watch over the yawning gulf,
A marriage in the night
Makes 2 babies in the morning
With no parents
Untitled
"I came from brilliance
I return to brilliance
What is this?"
Don’t Bring Your Bag / “Dinner”
The feeling of walking with no bag, and maybe 1 thing in my hand,
My legs could keep going forever
So, having walked with nothing until dark,
How does the world look now?
And where is dinner hiding?
And why wasn't it hiding before?
And what can't I do with my bare limbs?
Untitled
Running barefoot
Dark Foundation / “Half-in-Shade
If you lean into the shadow and fall asleep with your head to the east
And with your feet to the last of the light as it is dying,
Coming day will pat your head while your legs are still behind curtains
And you will wake up like this, with a dark foundation
If you can go slow enough like this
And go through the day with shadowy legs,
You will know that this is how the world is
You will be standing on the dark foundation
Untitled
"Try to imagine a baby vulture."
No More Animal Shit (In Art)
How often do you see wild animals? (Never.)
You have never seen a real wolf, (You can't.)
You have never seen a real bear, (You can't.)
And this is how it should be
Only knowing they are out there
And not how they live and look
And certainly not how to paint one
The wild must be left unseen
This is the Same Ocean
This is the same ocean where blue whales dive
And this is the same ocean that fell on white mountains
And this is the same ocean as tomorrow's good coffee
(I am also the same ocean)
Untitled
At the ends of our lives
Instead of climbing
We have to go THROUGH the mountain
Untitled
What I find will be found easily and only when I'm not looking for it,
Without looking for the morning in the sunset
It's like this that my will to live hides, implied in my heart beating
Without looking for fulfillment but accepting it
Small House
Ever since I have been so involved
In loving the feeling of keeping a small house warm and clean,
I'm not always aware that there are stars above stars
Just above that ceiling
Or that the wind in the dark parking lot tonight
Holds a plastic bag to the metal fence
I remember the world, sort of,
But my small house is glowing
A car playing music drives by the window
While I'm washing dishes in the vast night
Royalty
Is it good or bad that we are always looking up?
It is bad because here we are wealthy in our way
And it is good because there is also the great void up there
Sunburning the royalty
(Magazines)
Warm House
What words could take us through here?
This is a bramble, a gauntlet, a warm house in the broad night
I am trying to say how there is a wilderness in staying put and silent
There is an ocean in our bedroom
An ocean that has no word in it
Ocean