This Side Of The Blue - Joanna Newsom

Svetlana sucks lemons across from me

And I am progressing abominably

And I do not know my own way to the sea

But the saltiest sea knows its own way to me

And the city that turns, turns protracted and slow

And I find myself toeing th’Embarcadero

And I find myself knowing

The things that I knew

Which is all that you can know

On this side of the blue

And Jaime has eyes

Black and shiny as boots

And they march at you two-by-two

(re-loo re-loo);

When she looks at you

You know she’s nowhere near through:

It’s the kindest heart beating

This side of the blue

And the signifieds butt heads

With the signifiers

And we all fall down slack-jawed

To marvel at words!

When across the sky sheet the

Impossible birds, in a steady

Illiterate movement homewards

And Gabriel stands beneath forest and moon

See them rattle & boo

See them shake, and see them loom

See him fashion a cap from a page of Camus;

And see him navigate deftly this side of the blue

And the rest of our lives

Will the moments accrue

When the shape of their goneness

Will flare up anew

Then we do what we have to do

(re-loo re-loo)

Which is all that you can do

On this side of the blue

Oh, it’s all that you can do

On this side of the blue