as i was saying some people never climb back out

the ravine claims em and destroys em each in their own way

fallen into perpetual night fallen into its darknesses

fallen through the crack into some other world

some futile dream of escape

cause and effect

you can simply not escape cause and effect

yes i believe in all possible things

yes ive done everything you could ever imagine and even more

yeah  i imagined more than you ever did

i have lived it right up to the hilton

and i have paid for my knowledge and my luck in sorrow n misery

everything i gained i lost

every time i win i lose

we are paradoxes

so much good so much wickedness

so clever so stupid

charisma until its repulsive

they love  they hate

they whisper they taunt

they use trickery to delude but it doesnt stand actual daylight

none of it means much in the sun and in the sea

or  standing on some stage somewhere singing magic songs

or when  hurtling along in this world in a bus with the boys

plucking a fucking bass guitar which resonates through a million watts of sound

i dream it all up and even if ya could take it away i just dream up some more

i practise generosity now where i was only before selfish

life hammered me down it beat me into shape

oh how they love my face because every battle is now etched on there

oh how they (exone)rate a man who can crawl out of the ravine

oh how they love my old silky voice singing to em in the blackest night

holding their hand throughout their life

i was made to do all this and something greater has sustained me

i return to this earth time after time to do whatever service i can

sometimes a lowly minstrel sometimes a dispossessed king

sometimes a boy i eat turkish delight with a witch who brings winter

sometimes i search through the ruins of troy for a fragment of a vase

i get hit and hit on and hit up as i stumble mumbling down the high street

i amaze myself i bore myself i am ugly i am handsome weak and strong

i pray and do more yoga and the secret and confidential transmission continues

incessantly exercising

a natural speed accelerates me into their minds

i am real you can trust me i am honest now

vote for me i am the 13 of hearts

watch out for me once i am in i am in

one day i will play you my best song

i will use it to harpoon em when theyre least ‘specting it

parrying and thrusting

i just laugh when my money flies off into the ether

sure i wouldnt mind some more

and some more and some more

you never know who or what is just beyond your door

i will in any case prevail as surely as i will fail

i will get what i wanted as the stuff i had gets washed away

alone or love locked its all the same

they all get in the way of what i’m trying to give em

and then they give it all back so i can give even more

life goes round and round

i am willfuly naive i want to believe in everything they all tell me

i see them burning themselves and i try to quench the flames with my tears of salty compassion

i burnt too

i lost too

i hurt too

as a ghost i watch on and you dont know it but i will you to succeed

all of you all of you

forgiveness dispensed

mercy included

i used to hide in a room

now i sit in the rain with a lovely daughter  watching an angry sea

i walk in the wind i travel the world

i consult with the people

i meet the big ones the small ones the angels the monsters

i live and i learn and i learn to live

dont deny my shortcomings

dont blame any of them for my spectacular disasters

dont sell my friends out for pieces of silver

try to make peace with a universe probably only i apprehend

someone up there likes me but it dont stop em fucking with me

when its all inevitably over this energy will re-coalesce as another me

and all the players will take up their positions

and the whole damned thing will start up all over again

take it or leave it

i hope i can remember at least some of it