Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax

Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax
Lyric Sheet

All music and lyrics by Mark Roberts except where indicated

    

Watertown

I can feel your arms around me
Even though you're nowhere near
And when I think I can't continue
The memory helps me persevere

I sometimes run out of answers
And have nowhere left to go
And the waves keep washing over me
Out of my control

Too tired to keep on swimming
And afraid that I might drown
I just hold on out of habit
To a little hope I've found

    A place of shelter
    On a stormy sea
    Was I helping you or were you rescuing me
    A gentle touch
    Can help to bring me round
    When I feel as if I'm drowning on dry land in Watertown

Whenever I feel lonely
I can hear somebody cry
And whenever I stop moving
I feel something start to die

But with just the wind around me
What the silence speaks is clear
Although you held me long ago
I will always hold you dear

    A place of shelter
    On a stormy sea
    Was I helping you or were you rescuing me
    A gentle touch
    Can help to bring you round
    When you feel as if you're drowning on dry land in Watertown
    When I feel as if I'm drowning on dry land in Watertown

    

The Poet's Fulcrum

Tell me a story of words and wonder
That I and no one else
Can really understand
About the path between fear and fantasy
That I and no one else
Can really understand

Sounds and vision, ideas and actions
Keep me from sleeping
In the middle of the night
Pathos and passion, desire and daring
Are caught beneath my moving pen
And brought into the light

    All I need's a place to stand
    And I can move the Earth
    The poet's fulcrum, you, my love
    Give all my strength its worth

For just a moment, a phrase or fleeting look
Reveals a truth that
You would rather keep concealed
Exposed in honesty, intact and innocent
A window through which
Our true selves are revealed

    All I need's a place to stand
    And I can move the Earth
    The poet's fulcrum, you, my love
    Give all my strength its worth

    

Dancin' Big

Your only limits, he said
Are those you set yourself
Nothing ventured, nothing gained
And when I arrive at where I'm going
I'll go one step further
I'll be dancin' big

Whatever he did
He tried to do more
Anything worth doing is worth overdoing
Whatever was good was meant to be better
Taken one step further
He was dancin' big

Making his motions
In a space of his own
Setting the pace off the beaten path
Pushing the boundaries beyond the extreme
He went one step further
He was dancin' big

    

Persistence of Vision

Like smoke through candlelight memories come
Ghosts who now ask me what I might have done
In all the paths chosen and all those declined
Seems one of us left the other behind

And even though our lips never met
I kiss you dearly with every breath
For all of the words that we never exchanged
Somehow my life has been forever changed

    Everything that I am
    And all that I do
    Little by little, with each note I sing
    Is given away to you

Sometimes I feel just a little more strong
When I feel I've put all of myself in the song
But then when I sing it I can't help but see
It takes just a little bit more out of me

It seems now that hope is in such short supply
I can't help but cling to what little I find
When doubt falls upon what I thought to be true
What haunts me is always the memory of you

    Everything that I am
    And all that I do
    Little by little, with each note I sing
    Is given away to you

I think of the times when you saw so clearly
What I thought was hidden in me
And you still miss what is plainly before you
If it's not what you want be

Like smoke through candlelight memories come
Ghosts who now ask me what I might have done
In all the paths chosen and all those declined
Seems one of us left the other behind

    

Black Velvet Blues

Won't you help our starving artists?
You know that you deserve the best
Genuine oil on real black velvet
All for twenty bucks or less

Though you might think that some look similar
No two of them are quite the same
True art's test is in the details
And yes that price includes the frame

    Matadors and ocean sunsets
    Each one a beauty to behold
    Down at the gas station on the corner
    Where the prince of peace meets the king of rock and roll

Who couldn't use as little color
In a world so full of gray?
It's hides that patch of cracking plaster
Brings a little culture to your day

No home's complete without some art work
Doesn't have to be a lot
If you can't afford a Monet
You just make do with what you've got

    Puppy dogs and wide-eyed children
    Each one a beauty to behold
    Down at the gas station on the corner
    Where the prince of peace meets the king of rock and roll

You see that guy there on the corner?
Gets two bucks for each pi cure he can sell
The artist in Korea gets a quarter
What's wrong with this picture, can you tell?

You have to wonder what's going on here
Obnoxious trash or merely harmless kitsch?
Though each one costs only twenty dollars
I think that someone somewhere's getting rich

    Anything that anybody values
    A cheaper copy somewhere will be sold
    Down at the gas station on the corner
    Where the prince of peace meets the king of rock and roll

    

Putting Up A Front

By Alistair Roberts

What do you want me to be, I'll be it
What do you want me to say, I'll say it
What do you want me to see, I'll see it
And all I ask for you to do is just believe it

I've learned enough to know what you want
I've learned enough to know how to say it
I've played this game long enough now
I think I know how to play it somehow

    Do you believe me, even though I don't believe myself?
    Can you trust me even though I trust no one else?
    This mask I wear, I wear it just for you
    Take stock in all my lies, accept them as being true
    I'm putting up a front
    I'm putting up a front

I built this wall up all around me
To keep out all the feelings that surround me
I built it strong, day by day
I don't want you to know me, I built it to keep you away

    Do you believe me, even though I don't believe myself?
    Can you trust me even though I trust no one else?
    This mask I wear, I wear it just for you
    Take stock in all my lies, accept them as being true
    I'm putting up a front
    I'm putting up a front

    

I Am the Way

I am the way the wind so gently moves across your face
I am the way the sunlight warms you on a summer's day
I am the way the tear you cry rolls softly down your cheek
I am the way you see your fear, I'm strength when you are weak

    I am the eyes in your reflection
    You're each beat of my heart
    We never meet or separate
    Together yet apart

I am the way each drop of rain caresses arid ground
I am the way the tides reach for the moon as it goes round
I am the way each note so fragile vibrates on the air
I am the way that fate sometimes rewards the ones who dare

    I am the dream you can't remember
    Each morning when you rise
    Your name is ringing in my ear
    It fades but never dies

I am the way the lonely runner continues through his pain
I am the way the one survives whose love is all in vain
I am the way that beauty can be found in any one
I am the way that hope continues when all hope is gone

    I'm present in the faintest sound
    And every breath of air
    You'll never really be alone
    I always will be there

    

(This Song's Title) Includes Parentheses

A fish in a barrel or a finger in a dike
I never metaphor that I didn't like
My half-empty glass just got a little bit fuller
But that's a Trojan horse of a different color

    The message is deep, causes grown men to weep
    And it's hard to convey the work that goes into this
    The words that I've found, you can tell they're profound
    Because this song's title includes parentheses

You can break a few eggs leading horses to water
Knowing Schrodinger's cat takes the lambs to their slaughter
A stitch in space-time beats a bird in the bush
But you don't count your chickens until shove comes to push

    Heartbreaking emotions, extravagant notions
    Fantastical fairy tales with castles and princesses
    But they're all Mickey Mouses who live in glass houses
    And this song's title includes parentheses

With an ounce of pretension and a pound of manure
The road to good intentions is worse than the cure
You can turn on the charm, you can turn on a dime
But you're just putting on airs, one leg at a time

    You can all sing along with the words of this song
    You can do it in French or Italian or Cantonese
    Still you don't understand - that's the way it was planned
    Because this song's title includes parentheses

Copyright © Mark Roberts

    

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