Brilliant Trees (2008 Japanese re-issue mini LP)

Pulling Punches

If heaven watches over me
Sowing seeds back in the soil
With eyes that see, hands that feel
Why am I the last to know

Sheltered lives spent partially breathing
Are gathered together under new religion

Pulling punches, moving, sleeping on our feet
Pulling punches, I needed someone to comfort me
Raised in summer days of splendour
Who would've dreamed of love never ending?

A better world lies in front of me
A sketch of life in the books I read
Then as I walk where heaven leads
Why am I the last to know?

Simple lives spent partially breathing
Are gathered together under new religion

Pulling punches, moving, sleeping on our feet
Pulling punches, I needed someone to comfort me
Raised in summer days of splendour
Who would've dreamed of love never ending?

Nature feeds this nausea
Deep inside the heart of me

The Ink In The Well

The lights of the ashes smoulder through hills and vales
Nostalgia burns in the hearts of the strongest
Picasso is painting the ships in the harbour
The wind and sails
These are years with a genius for living

The rope is cut, the rabbit is loose
(Fire at will in this open season)
The blood of a poet, the ink in the well
(It's all written down in this age of reason)

The animals run through harvested fields of fire
The bitterness shown on the face of the homeless
Picasso is painting the flames from the houses
The sudden rain
These are years with a genius for living

The rope has been cut, the rabbit is loose
(Fire at will in this open season)
The blood of a poet, the ink in the well
(It's all written down in this age of reason)

Fire at will

Nostalgia

Voices heard in fields of green
Their joy their calm and luxury
Are lost within the wanderings of my mind

I'm cutting branches from the trees
Shaped by years of memories
To exorcise their ghosts from inside of me

The sound of waves in a pool of water
I'm drowning in my nostalgia

Red Guitar

I recognise no method of living that I know
I see only the basic materials I may use

If you ask me, I may tell you
It's been this way for years

I play my red guitar
It's the devil in the flesh
It's the iron in my soul

I understand you're facing problems inside you
A certain difficulty of being that I know too

You may ask me why do I fail
Just when I'm needed

I play my red guitar
It's the devil in the flesh
It's the iron in my soul

If you ask me, I may tell you
It's been this way for years

Weathered Wall

You were someone to believe in
A place for hope in a changing world
Feeling every moment
Every one of the years spent in your arms

After a lifetime of living
These soiled hands show no life at all
Working at all hours
Never facing the fears here in my heart

Grieving for the loss of heaven
Weeping for the loss of heaven
By the wailing wall

You were someone to believe in
Giving life where there was a will to learn
But it's the nature of living
To count only the years left in your heart

Backwaters

Once again I'm hiding in backwaters
Running this way and that
Trying so very hard to please

(Beware of hidden snares)

Rushing to bite the hand that feeds me
Running this way and that

(There are always other possibilities)

This way and that

Brilliant Trees

When you come to me
I'll question myself again
Is this grip on life still my own

When every step I take
Leads me so far away
Every thought should bring me closer home

And there you stand
Making my life possible
Raise my hands up to heaven
But only you could know

My whole world stands in front of me
By the look in your eyes
By the look in your eyes
My whole life stretches in front of me
Reaching up like a flower
Leading my life back to the soil

Every plan I've made's
Lost in the scheme of things
Within each lesson lies the price to learn

A reason to believe
Divorces itself from me
Every hope I hold lies in my arms

And there you stand
Making my life possible
Raise my hands up to heaven
But only you could know

My whole world stands in front of me
By the look in your eyes
By the look in your eyes
My whole life stretches in front of me
Reaching up like a flower
Leading my life back to the soil