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Lyrics: Below the Waves

(Album - all songs)

Words, music Heidi Berry 1989.  © Universal Music Publishing Group

 

RIBBONS

 

Let me take you by the hand

Let me hold your attention

And look in your eyes

Take the ribbons out of my hair

Shake it loose and let them blow away on the wind

On the wind

 

When I saw you standing there

I felt so moved that I pretended I didn’t care

In the half-light your smile said “stay”

But I couldn’t be sure

So I ran away

Ran away

 

Did I ever tell you the reason why

Did I ever say it’s just that I was shy

Did I ever tell you that you made me smile

 

Did I ever tell you the reason why

Did I ever say it’s just that I was shy

Did I ever tell you that you made me smile.

 

Let me take you by the hand

Let me hold your attention

And look in your eyes

Take the ribbons out of my hair

Shake it loose and let them blow away on the wind

On the wind

On the wind

 

 

BELOW THE WAVES

 

It’s quiet here

It’s warm here

It’s peaceful it’s dark

I am not lost

Not the way it was

Not the way you said

I am waiting

Far below the waves

 

I’m turning and turning

I roll with the tides

I am alone

I am all alone

I am whole

I am breathing

Far below the waves

 

I’m spark and I’m ember

And some kind of communion

I am not lost

This is all there is

This is all I am

I am waiting

Far below the waves

 

 

LITTLE TRAGEDY

 

Oh my dear what have you done

There’s blood upon your hands

Be quiet come in and shut the door

And I will wash you down

Be careful not to tell no one

Don’t want them all to know

About the little tragedy

That’s happening below

 

You put them to a trial

And you put them to a test

You’ve taken with your right hand

As you’re giving with your left

And now you come in dead of night

Like a lost Lady Macbeth

Looking for an absolution

And a place to rest

 

Oh my dear what have you done

There’s blood upon your hands

Be quiet come in and shut the door

And I will wash you down

Be careful not to tell no one

Don’t want them all to know

About the little tragedy

That’s happening below

 

 

LEGACY

 

Abandoned child, deserted room

In the dark smelling those dresses

Full of fading perfume

In the dead of night

The stumbling in the hall

The sound of breaking glass

As someone falls

 

See the child cry in shame

Turn her face to the wall

And be somehow made to feel that she’s to blame

 

It seems to me a legacy

Born of heartbreak and sorrow

Should never more be handed down

And taking it up in both your hands

You can dash it to the ground

 

Night rolls in, the ghosts come down

They wave their arms, in their long white gowns

(Their long white gowns)

 

In the dead of night they call to you

And I have heard their voices to

They say, “All is lost”

They say, “All is pain”

And if I can have my way, they’ll be calling in vain

 

It seems to me a legacy

Born of heartbreak and sorrow

Should never more be handed down

And taking it up in both your hands

You can dash it to the ground

 

In the dead of night

You run along the shore

And test your voice against the ocean’s roar

Let it roll away with the tide

Bringing back all you ever were denied

When you’ve nothing more to fear

You’ve nothing to hide

 

It seems to me a legacy

Born of heartbreak and sorrow

Should never more be handed down

And taking it up in both your hands

You can dash it to the ground

 

NORTHSHORE TRAIN

 

Pale in the morning sunlight, the seabirds fly by the factories. The electric towers stand in lines on the water's edge. Silhouetted cormorant arched it's wings to dry them at low tide, yesterday afternoon. In the mist of morning, 5 o' clock, sister drives me to the station.

We talk and laugh as we wait, then embrace, then say goodbye.

In silent, slow motion I ride the train beside the ocean.

In silent, slow motion I ride the train beside the sea.

 

Many words are in my heart I'll never say and feeling incomplete I'm bound away, and a deep red is the colour of the air today. So, we're riding through the hill town, watch the railway from your garden. Rollercoaster river train - now I look to see if I see her, from my window find the garden.

We're sailing past your house now, but I see the blinds are down.

In silent, slow motion I ride the train beside the ocean.

In silent, slow motion I ride the train beside the sea.

 

I am a lonely traveller in time, I'm counting out the years I'll never find.

And so sad and heavy is this heart of mine.

Well, we come at last to the city, you can feel its weight upon the ground. You wonder how to breath in an atmosphere of oil and noise.

This is where my father lives, though he was born beside the sea.

In silent, slow motion I ride the train beside the ocean.

In silent, slow motion I ride the train beside the sea.

 

 

GATHER ALL THE HOURS

 

One door opens, another closes

Frankincense and yellow roses

In a circle, I will lay them

And I will dress in a gown of white linen

Bring me roses

Bring me flowers

Gather all the hours

 

First will come the golden-haired child

Then the silver bird

Stand aside as the dark one follows

Who looks a lot like me

One day I walked through a hailstorm

The ice was falling on the ground

And when it all had come down

Then I knew what was lost and was found

 

In the moonlight, rise before me

Heal me with your hands, restore me

Sorry sail on salty ocean

With hollow words for dead and buried emotion

Bring me roses

Bring me flowers

Gather all the hours

 

First will come the golden-haired child

Then the silver bird

Stand aside as the dark one follows

Who looks a lot like me

One day I walked through a hailstorm

The ice was falling on the ground

And when it all had come down

Then I knew what was lost and was found

 

Bring me roses, bring me flowers

Gather all the tender hours

Bring me roses, bring me flowers

Gather all the tender hours

Bring me – roses.

 

 

RIVERSONG

 

You said that you don’t like walking in the rain

And talking to yourself

So you walk beside the river

Floating in the water with my head

I hear the fishes sing

This is what they say

“The water may be deep, but you’ve got to jump in

You know there’s no other way to learn to swim”

In the river

 

People are your sailing boats, your steppingstones

To keep your perfect feet dry as you cross the river

But you see you take more than you give

And get much more than you deserve

From the river

The water may be deep, but you’ve got to jump in

You know there’s no other way to learn to swim

In the river

 

ALL FOR YOU

 

It could be in your time

For it’s all within your reach

Take it all in your stride

And it’s for you

 

I see it there in your eyes

Like a splinter of the sky

You should never hide your light

‘cause it’s for you

 

I’m taking it slowly for now

Taking it slow for now

 

Was a time of dark days 

Closed the curtains on the day

And you said it could never change 

Yes, you did

 

Come the day when you find

You can leave all that behind

Then your light will truly shine

‘cause it’s for you

 

I’m taking it slowly for now

Taking it slow for now

 

And it’s all for you

Oh it’s all for you

Yes it’s all – oh it’s all for you

 

 

LIVING MEMORY

 

How you ask me to believe you

When I know that you have lied

You tell me the road is safe and even

But we

We’ve never come this way before

Does anyone really know

How far we can go

Does anyone really know

 

In the name of human progress

You conspire to hide your greed

You are the bird who fouls the nest

As you take more than you need

You and me

We’ve no place else to be

Does anyone really know

How far we can go

Does anyone really know

 

I have often wondered how it could ever come to be

We’ve seen the world get spoiled and poisoned

In living memory

Does anyone really know

How far we can go

Does anyone really know

 

 

DANCER

 

Wings of moths and robin’s nests

Watercolours of the sea

All things treasured, beautiful, but all decayed

Faded china dancer, paper skirts and painted curls

Close the curtains on the window of your room

Welcome to your madness

Welcome to your Lost Domain

Perform your music box ballet

In the cobweb and debris

Of your dream

 

Every injustice you’ve imagined or was real

You have catalogued and effigied and enshrined

Your making small wax dollies

Carefully modelled

With a kind of emotion somehow very close to love

We talk a walk in the sunshine

You stayed in the shade

And danced your music-box ballet

In the cobweb and the debris

Of your dream

 

Rockabye baby

Keep your eyes closed tight

Listen for the mermaids singing

In the cold and lonely oceans

Of the night

 

Blue and green glass bottles

Lying shattered on the floor

Violets falling from your diary page

Faded, rotting damask silk

The colour of the sky

Crumbles all away to powder

Under your touch

Deep inside your madness

As you rock yourself to sleep

The music-box goes around and around

In the cobweb and the debris

Of your dream

© 2023 Heidi Berry

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