This was sent to me from Bruce by email on April 8, 2021 -DK
FOUR NEW SONGS
FOUR NEW SONGS is a video demo, made in January and February of 2021. Recording was done at Yahiro Barn Studio in San Francisco. The expectation is that in the fullness of time there will be an album containing these songs and others yet to be written. If live shows were possible they would be showing up in the repertoire. Since that isn’t happening, here they are...
All songs by Bruce Cockburn, c 2020 Holy Drone Corp
Video and audio recording by Mark Yahiro
ON A ROLL
Howl of anger — howl of grief
Here comes the heat — there’s no relief
Social behavior beyond belief
Throw those punches — drop that ball
Commit to nothing — excuse it all
Here comes the future — here comes the fall
Time takes its toll
But in my soul
I’m on a roll
The wolf has fixed you with its stare
Finality is hard to bear
Continue breathing — and beware
Eat what’s before you — pay the bill
There goes your bonehouse right down that hill
Time waits for no one and never will
Time takes its toll
But in my soul
I’m on a roll
I had a dream — there was a storm
And all the earth was without form
The sun was cold — the ether warm
Pressure building left and right
Timer ticking just out of sight
I’m taking shelter in the light
Time takes its toll
But in my soul
I’m on a roll.
SF. 07/27/20
ORDERS
The just the merciful the cruel
The stumbling well-intentioned fool
The deft the oaf the witless pawn
The golden one life smiles upon
The squalling infant in mid-squall
The neighbors fighting down the hall
The list is long; as I recall
Our orders said to love them all
The cynic and the crooked priest
The woman wise the sullen beast
The enemy outside the gate
The friend who leaves it all to fate
The drunk who tags the bathroom stall
Proud Boy rushing to his fall,
The list is long; as I recall
Our orders said to love them all
The pastor preaching shades of hate
The self-inflating head of state
The black the blue the starved for bread
The dread the red the better dead
The sweet the vile the small the tall
The one who rises to the call
The list is long but as I recall
Our orders said to love them all
The one who lets his demons win
The one we think we’re better than
A challenge great—but as I recall
Our orders said to love them all
SF 12/07/20
WHEN YOU ARRIVE
Breakfast was Mahler and coffee
Dinner’s Lightnin’ Hopkins and rye
Everything you say comes back to bite you
But these days only beauty makes you cry
The chapel is closed for the COVID
Black mold owns the city by the sea
Dew-beaded cobweb in the moonlight
Halo for a saint who’s yet to be
The dead shall sing
To the living and the semi-alive
Bells will ring
When you arrive
Limping like a three-legged canine
Backbone creaking like a cheap shoe
Dragging the accretions of a lifetime
But you oughta make another mile or two...
The dead shall sing
To the living and the semi-alive
Bells will ring
When you arrive
SF. 07/27/20
US ALL
Here we are, faced with choice
Secrets and walls or open embrace
Like it or not, the human race
Is us all
History is what it is
Scars we inflict on each other don’t die
But slowly soak into the DNA
Of us all
Us all
I pray we not fear to love
I pray we be free from judgement and shame
Open the vein, let kindness rain
O’er us all
Us all
SF. 08/29/20