Joanna Newsom - Emily lyrics

The meadowlark and the chim-choo
Ree and the sparrow
Set to the sky in a flying spree
For the sport of the pharaoh
Little while later the Pharisees dragged
A comb through the meadow
Do you remember what they called
Up to you and me, in our window?

There is a rusty light on the pines tonight
Sun pouring wine, lord, or marrow, into the
Bones of the birches, and the
Spires of the churches
Jutting out from the shadows
The yoke, and the axe, and the
Old smokestacks, and the bale
And the barrow
And everything sloped, like it was
Dragged from a rope
In the mouth of the south below
We've seen those mountains kneeling


Felten and grey
We thought our very hearts would
Up and melt away

From that snow in the nighttime
Just going and going

And the stirring of wind chimes
In the morning in the morning

Helps me find my way back in
From the place where I have been

And, Emily, I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones
Across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost
And slipped under forever
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled
Like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror

Anyhow, I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names
Of the stars overhead
That I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the
Rote universe were those Pleiades
Loosed in December
I promised you I'd set them to
Verse so I'd always remember

That the meteorite is the source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of
The fire that propelled it to thee
And the meteorite’s just what
Causes the light
And the meteor’s how it’s perceived
And the meteoroid’s a bone
Thrown from the void
That lies quiet in offering to thee

You came and lay a cold compress
Upon the mess I'm in
Threw the windows wide and cried
"Amen! Amen! Amen!"
The whole world stopped to hear you hollering
You looked down, and saw, now
What was happening:

The lines are fading in my kingdom
(Though I have never known the
Way to border them in)
So the muddy mouths of baboons and sows
And the grouse, and the horse, and the hen
Grope at the gate of the looming lake
That was once a tidy pen
And the mail is late
And the great estates are not lit from within
The talk in town's
Becoming downright sickening

In due time we will see the
Far buttes lit by a flare
I've seen your bravery
And I will follow you there

And row through the nighttime so healthy
Gone healthy all of a sudden

In search of a midwife who can help me
Who can help me

Help me find my way back in
And there are worries where I've been
And say, say, say, in the lee of the bay
Don't be bothered leave your troubles here
Where the tugboats shear the
Water from the water
(Flanked by furrows, curling back
Like a match held up to a newspaper)

Emily, they'll follow your lead by the letter
And I make this claim
And I'm not ashamed to say I knew you better
What they've seen is just a beam
Of your sun that banishes winter

Let us go! Though we know
It's a hopeless endeavor
The ties that bind, they
Are barbed and spined
And hold us close forever

Though there is nothing would help
Me come to grips with
A sky that is gaping and yawning
There is a song I woke with on my lips
As you sailed your great
Ship towards the morning

Come on home the poppies are all
Grown knee deep by now
Blossoms all have fallen
And the pollen ruins the plow
Peonies nod in the breeze
And while they wetly bow
With hydrocephalitic listlessness
Ants mop up their brow

And everything with wings
Is restless, aimless, drunk and dour
The butterflies and birds collide at hot
Ungodly hours
And my clay-colored motherlessness
Rangily reclines come on home
Now! All my bones are dolorous with vines

Pa pointed out to me
For the hundredth time tonight
The way the ladle leads to
A dirt-red bullet of light

Squint skyward and listen
Loving him, we move within his borders:
Just asterisms in the stars' set order

We could stand for a century staring
With our heads cocked
In the broad daylight at this thing:

Joy landlocked in bodies that don’t keep
Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being
Till we don’t be told: take this eat this

Told: the meteorite is the
Source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of
The fire that propelled it to thee

And the meteorite’s just what
Causes the light
And the meteor’s how it’s perceived
And the meteoroid’s a bone
Thrown from the void
That lies quiet in offering to thee