I’ve no memory of the greatest loving of my existence, only an odd feeling of great loss, which I carry like gnarled bones. All these bones I heft through this strange life, dragging myself through the long process, yearning, trying my damnedest to create a pure peace, my tones. Know you’re out there somewhere, I see, find you anywhere, I believe, I’ll never stop searching, I’ll be a better man for the journey, just a good man for the journey. Some call me crazy, living with gnarled bones, bones in my music, bones in the very eyes of my exuberance; why do they appear when my will would grind them down like pumice stones? Then her spirit hints, a déjà vu, belies something I cannot grasp; she’s just a veneer. Know you’re out there somewhere, I see, find you anywhere, I believe, I’ll never stop searching, I’ll be a better man for the journey, just a good man for the journey. Glimpse her in the corner of a fresh girl’s eye, in the tilt of a waitress’ slender hand, Once I dreamt her say, “I fear you’ll never trust in death, but then can you trust one such as I?” She’s in the brown river of Time, I’m the sand; I’ve always known she’s the steel and I’m the rust. Know you’re out there somewhere, I see, find you anywhere, I believe, I’ll never stop searching, I’ll be a better man for the journey, just a good man for the journey. Artist’s note: Will and Ariel Durant (1885-1981 and 1898-1981) wrote in “The Story of Civilization,” that “When a Hindu is asked why we have no memory of our past incarnations, he answers that likewise we have no memory of our infancy; and as we presume our infancy to explain our maturity, so he presumes past existences to explain our place and fate in our present life.” Get Gnarled Bones Album Lyrics in a PDF format at http://ward-kelley.org/gnarledbones

Verse 1 I dreamt I stood below Jesus on the cross, He peered down, blood dripping, tears dropping, then cried, “You’re a lost little man, lost, lost, join the cross, come up here with me.” So I tried, and I died . . . held his bloody face; soldier’s spear rammed us both; we flew from Judah, He became the Buddha. Chorus If you take care of all others, then you’ll find you will often do, magically, fulfill you too. A mystery for me and you. Jesus & the Buddha Jesus & the Buddha Verse 2 The Buddha quoted Blackfoot tribe, who once said, “Life is not separate from death, it only looks that way.” We’re always both, alive and dead. Dreams are how we talk to both sides of ourselves. “Life is not separate from death, it only looks that way.” We’re always both, we’re two instead. Chorus If you take care of all others, then you’ll find you will often do, magically, fulfill you too. A mystery for me and you. Jesus & the Buddha Jesus & the Buddha Instrumental Chorus If you take care of all others, then you’ll find you will often do, magically, fulfill you too. A mystery for me and you. If you take care of all others, then you’ll find you will often do, magically, fulfill you too. A mystery for me and you. Jesus & the Buddha Jesus & the Buddha Jesus & the Buddha Jesus & the Buddha Get Gnarled Bones Album Lyrics in a PDF format at http://ward-kelley.org/gnarledbones

Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me. I soon saw I did not need breath, I need Eternity. There is a certain Slant of Light, Oppresses from afar on the look of Death, a dull might, where all the meanings are. Chorus Oh Emily, oh Emily, Oh how you brought me to see me, to look askance, is how to see. I tell the Truth, but tell it Slant, Success in Degrees lies, our biting at the Elephant, so Truth always belies. Dare you see a soul at white heat? Our world the finisher, forging us all, hot beat by beat, in the rock polisher. Chorus Oh Emily, oh Emily, Oh how you brought me to see me, to look askance, is how to see. I died for Beauty, but was scarce adjusted in the tomb, found one who died for Truth, a dareist, fighting return to the womb. I heard a fly buzz when I died, only a body I lack, all this talk of Hell, they just lied, it’s clear I am Called Back. Chorus Oh Emily, oh Emily, Oh how you brought me to see me, to look askance, is how to see. Artist’s note: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), New England poet, is one of the country’s greatest poets. Spending nearly all of her life in Amherst, Massachusetts, the last half in relative seclusion, Emily came to be known as eccentric. Besides rare contacts with people outside her immediate family, she wore only white dresses and sometimes referred to herself as a wayward nun. Regarding her poems – only eleven of 1,775 poems were published during her lifetime – she advocated the “propounded word.” Her word for herself as a poet was “gnome,” and the poems themselves she called, “bulletins from Immortality.” Her last communication was written the day before her death, a short letter sent to relatives: “Little cousins, — Called back. Emily.” Get Gnarled Bones Album Lyrics in a PDF format at http://ward-kelley.org/gnarledbones

I can’t believe I spend every free second with you, doing this for years, Mona Lisa, I need your presence, you always laugh away the time, I see you need me too, like two couplets and a rhyme, the two of us make sense. Chorus I need the beauty of you, the tilt of your laughing eyes, sound of your divine sighs, all sorrow brought there just dies, you’re where my soul always lies, I need the beauty of you. You’re always there by my side, the better part of my soul, beside you, I’m inside the truest core of my being. Past women always forced demands of my peace, paid their toll; you’re the blade to slice my edges away, someone freeing. Chorus I need the beauty of you, the tilt of your laughing eyes, sound of your divine sighs, all sorrow brought there just dies, you’re where my soul always lies, I need the beauty of you. Bridge I used to think I’m unreformable, I was a lost man on a lost journey, Beauty of you is we’re compatible, Beauty, you healed a worn, torn me. And all the time, Love means wanting to talk to you, you walk in sainted incense swirls of all my lives and deaths; Love is not letting it get old, no matter what we do, We’re both together through the clouds of all my lives of all my lives of all my lives and deaths. Chorus I need the beauty of you, the tilt of your laughing eyes, sound of your divine sighs, all sorrow brought there just dies, you’re where my soul always lies, I need the beauty of you. Get Gnarled Bones Album Lyrics in a PDF format at http://ward-kelley.org/gnarledbones

DEATH does not come humble, it arises, a lion, unsettles air, a condor, it springs from the ocean, canonizes, like a dolphin cutting the sea’s top door. Mount the back of this graceful, forgiving beast, for you are the greatest, for you are the least. Do not lay in fear, the Receptor, you can’t deny it, of this last expression of the breathing. Death does not come forward to humble you, It arises, an animal, freeing. Mount the back of this graceful, forgiving beast, for you are the greatest, for you are the least. Guitar solo Humble is not the stance for you to take, in front of this animal of great hope, only a lack of understanding makes you hesitate, a need to interlope. Mount the back of this graceful, forgiving beast, for you are the greatest, for you are the least. Mount the back of this graceful, forgiving beast, for you are the greatest, for you are the least. Artist’s note George Inness (1825-1894), American landscape painter, was largely responsible for introducing the French Barbizon style in the United States. The victim of epilepsy, he was also given to eccentric behavior and possessed a mystical personality. His son reported his father died viewing a particularly exquisite sunset; though weakened from his final illness, Inness threw his hands in the air while exclaiming, “My God! Ah, how beautiful!” then fell to the ground, dead. Get Gnarled Bones Album Lyrics in a PDF format at http://ward-kelley.org/gnarledbones

Verse 1 Stone frigid columns, pungent fumes, incense burning, biting breeze penetrates the acute night outside, pillars clammy, expressing my fear from learning invaders coming tomorrow for genocide. Chorus My children are safe at the coast, their mother spirited them down, with the slaves, my brother, and most; she left my sword . . . . but not her gown. Verse 2 Wind easily dispels incense and sacred smoke, I understand our gods have also left this place, perhaps they too are at the shore, beaten and broke into human pieces of themselves and our race. Chorus Why does a man stand firm after the very gods fled far from this place? I’ll always rail from the rafters, look unyielding fate in the face. Verse 3 Is the nature of gods to dissipate at whim? So man must stand while the gods are only smoke for the awe of future generations, brave him who does not flee, but is privy to the old joke. Chorus My children are safe at the coast, their mother spirited them down, with the slaves, my brother, and most; she left my sword . . . . but not her gown. Instrumental Verse 4 I cannot imagine this place without myself, but it’s better to believe in man than these cults, for any man can readily complete himself, while the gods can only cry at their results. You know it’s coming. You know it’s coming. God, you know it’s coming. Artist’s note: Xerxes I (circa 519 – 465 BCE), was a king of Persia. To punish the Greeks for their victory over the Persians at Marathon in 490 BCE, he invaded Greece, his vast army penetrating to Thrace, Thessaly, and Locris. Three hundred Spartans made a courageous but suicidal stand at Thermopylae; after ten days Xerxes broke through, and eventually burned Athens. Returning to Asia, Xerxes so disgusted his subjects with his debauchery that he was at last murdered by the captain of his own palace guard. Get Gnarled Bones Album Lyrics in a PDF format at http://ward-kelley.org/gnarledbones

Chorus I’m down in the raw part of town, with a mind to get free, I’m down in the raw part of town – how to keep you with me? Verse 1 I try to learn from my history, but it’s so hard to grow, I saw you wanting a mystery, I never learn, you know. A new woman is a dream indeed, they always have a glow, I think it was Nature who decreed, I latch on, then I fail slow. Chorus I’m down in the raw part of town, with a mind to get free, I’m down in the raw part of town – how to keep you with me? Instrumental Bridge Like Byron said, “I’m mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” Never know what I had, a man of frequent woe, with a mind to get free down in the raw part of town, with a mind to get free, how to keep you with me? Verse 2 She was a victim of her own heart; so am I, so are you. Souls who connect, sometimes come apart, so odd the way they do. Every life seems to choose a test, so odd the way they do. Ready to give it all a rest . . . so am I, but are you? Chorus I’m down in the raw part of town, with a mind to get free, I’m down in the raw part of town – how to keep you with me? Instrumental Chorus I’m down in the raw part of town, with a mind to get free, I’m down in the raw part of town – how to keep you with me? How to keep you with me? How to keep you with me? Get Gnarled Bones Album Lyrics in a PDF format at http://ward-kelley.org/gnarledbones

Canterbury Tales (The Nun’s Tale) The Nun’s Tale: She walks fresh in the waves, his love she forgave, Descending to her false grave, she must look brave, She says love’s a new life; his love’s the knife . . . Cut her an afterlife, she loves his strife, His bed will preach and show her each Kiss is only a way to beseech. It goes against her upbringing, In her end is her beginning, Get in line, you’re just one of the flock, My friend, Oh, how you’re mocked, How you’re mocked, Not a death-wisher, you’re just Like a rock, like a rock, in the big polisher. (The Friar’s Tale) The Friar’s Tale: Jesus became the king; loves us, we sing, But what do these humans bring, when they kiss the ring? He worries how ascension seems like detention . . . Never was God’s intention, all this attention, So in the end, how does He change? When you’re divine, there’s nothing to rearrange, His best gift to you, I contend, Is your beginning is your end, Get in line, you’re just one of the flock, My friend, Oh, how you’re mocked, How you’re mocked, Not a sacrificer, you’re just Like a rock, like a rock, in the big polisher. (The Merchant’s Tale) The Merchant’s Tale: Money is all you need, you must accede, Working folks you mislead, love to exceed, You manage to collude, maybe it’s lewd . . . All your thoughts are home brewed, your trade is crude, So in the end, what do you got? Your whole damn life went to rot, The best things you just can’t spend, In your beginning is your end, Get in line, you’re just one of the flock, My friend, Oh, how you’re mocked, How you’re mocked, Not a sacrificer, you’re just Like a rock, like a rock, in the big polisher. (The Knight’s Tale) The Knight’s Tale: War is necessary, my missionary, Evolutionary, my mercenary, The quick sacrificer, best polisher . . . The rocks polish faster, lives burnt faster, Someday you’ll learn you don’t need this knife, But now all you crave is strife, You’re all clinging, all wringing, In your end is your beginning, Get in line, you’re just one of the flock, My friend, Oh, how you’re mocked, How you’re mocked, Not a death-wisher, you’re just Like a rock, like a rock, Oh, how you’re mocked, How you’re mocked, Not a sacrificer, you’re just Like a rock, like a rock, in the big polisher. Artist’s note: Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?-1400), toward the end of his life, turned against his life’s work, including “The Canterbury Tales.” He begged Christ to forgive him for writing “worldly vanities . . . so that I may be one of those at the day of doom that shall be saved.” Get Gnarled Bones Album Lyrics in a PDF format at http://ward-kelley.org/gnarledbones