Get all 10 Steven Lambke releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Frenzy of Our Dreams - reconstructions, versions, dialogues, Volcano Volcano, Sea Level / Acorns And Beach Stones, Every Lover Knows / Deep Water, dub.tape, Former Firsts, Dark Blue, Revolution C, and 2 more.
1. |
Volcano Volcano
02:45
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The rain will raise the mint.
The night will raise the moon.
Rat-bit fence like a rotten tooth.
The world is reordered from below.
There’s floating lights behind your eyes,
battleships and jellyfish.
From the ditch of fiction truth will rise.
The world is reordered from below.
Third floor window,
curtains raised.
Raise the window,
call my name:
Volcano
Volcano
Smash the plate and disappear.
Distant thunder coming near.
The stutter raised the truth to ear.
The world is reordered from below.
Every heart is laboring.
Eternal clatter of the broken things.
All together we softly sing
the world is reordered from below.
Third floor window,
curtains raised.
Raise the window,
call my name:
Volcano
Volcano
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2. |
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High tide. The world filled to the brim.
The water is filled with floating things that look like faces.
A faded old photo of an old brass band.
A young man, just like me, but younger.
Running wild where the wild winds blow.
Naked as a shaking bough in the morning.
Crown of rosemary, and a rosemary gown.
I set myself in the mirror.
A cold dark night. A waning moon.
A shooting star. Some wounds heal too quickly.
A shooting star. A passing flame.
My hunger is just the same. It’s like a spider.
Running wild where the wild winds blow.
Naked as a shaking bough in the morning.
Crown of rosemary and a rosemary gown.
I set myself in the mirror.
Raspberry lipstick. Blackberry shade.
I’ve seen everything in the mirror.
High tide. The world filled to the brim.
The water’s filled with floating things that look like faces.
Running wild where the wild winds blow.
Naked as a shaking bough in the morning.
Crown of rosemary, and a rosemary gown.
I see myself in the mirror.
I’ve seen everything in the mirror.
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3. |
April, May, and June
02:20
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Full moon, four nights running,
must mean something big is coming,
and everywhere that I’ve been running,
you’ve been running too.
Naked in the moonlight,
bloodied by a spoon fight,
April, May, and June, right?
Time is running too.
April, May, and June.
Lucky stars, a golden grommet.
Vomit in the garden bucket.
“Look out! Snakes!” a voice shouted,
and there’s spiders too.
Hey, hey could that be you,
whistling my favourite tune?
Midnight to the morning dew,
I’ll keep whistling through
April, May and June.
All my joys have multiplied,
numbered like the coffee grinds,
and everything that can shine, shines,
and time, always circling, circles wide.
Hey, hey could that be you,
whistling my favourite tune?
Midnight to the morning dew,
we’ll keep whistling through
April, May and June
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4. |
Brave Thoughts
02:49
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What brave thoughts the sky reveals,
the pink scraped sky,
faded blue bruise
bandaged red.
In that joy of atoms pulsing,
the colours all aligned,
faded blue bruise
bandaged red.
We are fear-filled dreamers,
joyful, tall, and brave,
long shadows bending
at the knees.
Long-legged spider
standing tall above the water,
reflected blue bruise
bandaged red.
What brave thoughts might bind us now
where fear and property divide?
What common cause will honour,
what common dreams will hold?
The evening sky is scoured blue,
smoke-shined pink and orange,
storm-beaten, free-hearted,
and bold.
A climbing black bear,
in a bare, black tree,
on a thin branch,
bending low.
Bends low,
but holds.
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5. |
Bats In Blue Twilight
02:34
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It’s a tight fit.
Every margin measured
to the thousandth inch.
Rag soaked in solvent.
A valve knocking out of sync.
Thick stink of oil.
Spinning stones
and sparks and spiders
lay their burning poisons
in your ear.
Windshield smashed with insects.
Frogs pitched through dust and distance.
A body lost between the highway and the river.
Tape deck on the seat beside me
squealing codes and signals,
like leaning diamond into metal.
Spinning stones
and sparks and spiders
lay their burning poisons
in your ear.
I was acting on the license,
believing in the perfect
silence of the moment.
It’s a sound that shapes the world.
My father deaf.
My own ears ringing.
Bats in blue twilight,
in the violent grinding
less of everything.
Spinning stones
and sparks and spiders
lay their burning poisons
in your ear.
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6. |
Every Lover Knows
02:53
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Every step returning
is just as sorely made
as those departing,
and the same quickening pace
that every lover knows
that every lover knows
that every lover knows
The truth is
every truth is tested
by the world
until it’s busted, twisted, or frayed,
as every lover knows
as every lover knows
as every lover knows
Love is just a witness to this
century of reckoning and pain.
Eternity is here
and home is far away.
Landowner,
at the hardware store,
will be defeated by the summer
and the days of heavy storm
that every lover knows
that every lover knows
that every lover knows
Love is just a witness to this
century of reckoning and pain.
Eternity is here
and home is far away.
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7. |
Truth Marks
02:48
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Surprising flowers springing forth from every crack and crevice.
I never noticed, of course, the chorus of sparrows singing.
I did not speak the language, this debate of angels maybe
flashing quickly in the corner of my mind.
Where every surprising moment
is surprisingly rhyming with me,
every surprising moment
arriving unexpectedly.
Sunrise in Toronto, black butterflies fluttering.
I’m limping now, and stuttering, my face disguised.
Lilac bloom, hanging fruit, laughter makes a squealing tune,
a streetcar grinding sharply at the brakes.
And every surprising moment
is surprisingly rhyming with me,
every surprising moment
arriving unexpectedly.
Another hour shakes with wonder and it’s looking like the summer soon
will break its pounding heart across the sky,
and mostly I’m just hoping that no one here has noticed
I’m looking a little older around the eyes.
And every surprising moment
is surprisingly rhyming with me,
every surprising moment
arriving unexpectedly.
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8. |
Sea Level
02:39
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Eye level
Sea level
Evil all around me
(I see evil all around me)
You know what I’m after
You know what I need
Honey water when I’m thirsty
(I see evil all around me)
Sweet water
Maple tree
Hang on tight climbing bean!
(I see evil all around me)
Life among the ruins
Life among the weeds
Honey water, bumble bee
(I see evil all around me)
Blackberry bushes
Falling leaves
I see evil all around me
(I see evil all around me)
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9. |
Turn The Planet Over
03:42
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What a mess we’ve made.
Shattered glass, broken frame.
The moon is in the ocean.
Waving. Wavering. Turning over.
How will I sleep tonight?
Imagine yourself some months younger.
An impossible hunger returning to your veins
like the tide.
Crabs crawling under every stone.
How will I sleep tonight?
Sky below. Stone above.
If your lips are sewn shut,
if your mind is a serpent, turned inside out,
turn the planet over.
How will I sleep tonight?
Turn the planet over.
Turn the planet over.
Turn the planet over,
and turn out the light.
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10. |
Sorrow And Doubt
03:14
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I am not alone.
Alone or unadorned.
No! Wherever I go,
sorrow and doubt follow me.
My pockets filled with polished stones
and polished shells swing from my belt.
Oh! Wherever I go,
there’s a jingle jangle that follows me!
Through the scratch and golden hay.
Through the brambled bush and mountain scree.
Oh! I’m not alone!
Bow-legged shadows follow me.
Across the gleaming river,
the shivering river, to my lover’s shinning bed.
Oh! Wherever I go
sorrow and doubt follow me!
The trumpet player climbs from the pit.
The player then salutes the day.
Lo! Wherever they go,
with naked poets following.
At the distant shimmering edge,
the water’s edge, at the end of day.
Oh! I’m not alone!
Sorrow and doubt follow me.
Oh! Wherever I go,
some kind of shimmering light surrounds me.
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11. |
Dream With Me
02:34
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The water is perfect calm.
The moon is nearly doubled, a rise and then a fall,
and everyone in town is sleeping.
The branches are bent low.
The sky has turned a blacker blue, and darker still below
where my green eyes are shining.
The poet’s crown is torn,
and all the ripened fruit imprisoned by the thorn,
but justice, in the night, is watching.
So make no apology for the frenzy of your dreams.
And dream with me, dream with me, dream with me
tonight, and dream eternally.
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Steven Lambke Toronto, Ontario
Folded ticket. Lucky Numbers.
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