To hold
First oneself
Hold onto dreams
Embrace them
To hold
Their memory
Always there
Without them
To hold
Light horizon
Moving forward
Never alone
To hold
Knowledge is sure
Love held lightly
Never owned

To hold
First oneself
Hold onto dreams
Embrace them
To hold
Their memory
Always there
Without them
To hold
Light horizon
Moving forward
Never alone
To hold
Knowledge is sure
Love held lightly
Never owned

Love small waving hands
Pointing up to the sun
Lime coloured ones
Delicate fronds
Every year heralding
New growth has begun
Resisting prunings
Wilting of winter
Hope for another year
Even when caretaker
Seemingly ignores
Their every need
Giving, as if
Love is enough


“Well, I’ve walked these streets
A virtual stage, it seemed to me
Makeup on their faces
Actors took their places next to me
Well, I’ve walked these streets
In a carnival, of sights to see
All the cheap thrill seekers vendors and the dealers
They crowded around me
Have I been blind have I been lost
Inside myself and my own mind
Hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have seen?
Well, I’ve walked these streets
In a spectacle of wealth and poverty
In the diamond markets the scarlet welcome carpet
That they just rolled out for me
And I’ve walked these streets
In the madhouse asylum they can be
Where a wild-eyed misfit prophet
On a traffic island stopped and he raved of saving me
Have I been blind, have I been lost
Have I been wrong
Have I been wise
Have I been strong
Inside myself and my own mind…?”
‘Carnival’ – Natalie Merchant
Songwriters: Peter Anders Svensson / Magnus Sveningsson / Nina Persson
Carnival lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Downtown Music Publishing
No other way to be
Let it all out
Circumambient sweet
No need to fight it
Grown in goodness
From a seed
Abundance for me
Surreal reality
Let it be

A certain spell
Grips tightly
Wrapping fondly
Cocooned
Feeling creeps in
Never felt before
Never again?
Flying free now
To joyful end
On the wind
Homeward bound
Life is won
Paths unknown
Finding a way
With love

There was an elder
Of mine own
Who spoke of rights
Assured of tone
He longed for pride
Of place on stone
Of pulpit
Matrimonium
To look over
Young ones
In their finery
Decry the love
Of Others
Unauthorized
When facing our
Mortality
Tongues are loose
Unconformity
Daze has come
and gone for me
When will again
A mystery
I'll sit in a grove
And speak the truth
With love that even
Forests approve
All may gather
And stories be heard
To embrace the days
Love covered
The earth

Woman, when you believe My story and my song No word or note Need emanate again You nod resignation Soothe cracked lips Silence creeps in Swiftly by morning No badge of bravery Be worn out and down I am changeable As the tide In ancient forests You heal me As I lie in wait For another dawn song Settling within To begin again
