These are the lyrics to a song that is part of an unpublished musical I wrote back in the early 1970's. It was published several times, the first in the magazine "Space and Time". It has also been recorded with actor William Windom speaking the bridge; this is available on my second audio CD of Light's End stories. If you wish to read this, hit the "All Sizes" button. Literary license allows me to attribute it to Schlomo Nantier.

Tags:   Poetry SF Science-Fiction monsters future End of the World

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When I wrote lyrics, I kept the words in a large notebook and drew little doodles to go with the songs. This is from the winter of 1971. Here's what the 'picture' says:

The Murmur of the Magi Worm
Lyrics by Michael Vance

In the beginning, before the light
I was here, waiting

Friends
Lyrics by Michael Vance
Music by Greg Swyden

Let us be friends
Through the pain of it sometimes may drag us down
Let us be friends
Two sometimes one
When the joy in our sharing turns u around
We must be friends
So I could not rant and rave, silence my eternal grave
Don’t cheat yourself by turning us down, I will be found
Let us be friends

(Friends we’ll be) The passing of bright flowers
(Great as sea) and rains of constant hours
(Heavy with need) of thoughts of ‘might, but were not’
(Burning to be…one) dead leaves that, yellowed, burn so hot

Let us be lovers
Without touching shadows of what went before
Let us be friends
Let us be lovers of silly and sadness and peppermint stores
We must be friends
Now I would not end the change, knowing what will still remain
Can’t cheat myself by turning us down
We will be found, let us be lovers

(Friends we’ll be) The passing of bright flowers
(Great as sea) and rains of constant hours
(Heavy with need) of thoughts of ‘might, but were not’
(Burning to be…one) dead leaves that, yellowed, burn so hot

(Friends we’ll be) colors of sunsets yawning
(Heavy as sea) ‘not quite, but might’ just dawning
(Great with need) melting into freezing
(Burning to be…one) of unborn child first breathing

Tags:   song lyrics lyrics friends worm

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Without You

“My Carol, sing you day and night
It’s not right to love you more than
Sea, fire, sky, earth or birth
Or fear you more than death
It’s the best I can do to breathe
Without You.”

See the tinkling, tinny soldiers
Two abreast, seven rows behind
Marching to the four, all in shiny line
Bang the cow gut drums,
Smash the smeared cymbals
Pump the leg to the beat
Of two time eight tinny feet
And “we have come to overcome”
And “we hare overcome to come.”

“And the rest of living is a lying
Without You
And the All of meaning is in dying
Without You.”

“My Carol, sing you soft and low
You my heat, and need you more
Than bread, warm, dry, light, or sleep
Fear you more than death
It’s the best I can do to breathe
Without You.”

Me the tinkling, tinny soldiers
Two abreast, seven rows behind
Marching to the war, all in shimmy line
Bang the cow gut drums,
Smash the smeared cymbals
Pump the leg to the beat
Of two time eight tinny feet
And “we have come to overcome”
And “we hare overcome to come.”

“And the rest of living is a lying
Without You
And the All of meaning is in dying
Without You.”

written in the early part of 1971
I was in love with Carol, and facing the draft for Viet Nam.

Tags:   Song song lyric lyrics love song

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Art by Charles T. Smith

X: Effervescent #5 (The Baby Airman Waltz)
Lyrics by Michael Vance

The old vaudeville exit. He owed off stage in free fall flight
missing the orchestra pit and burning out in the theatre lights
by such a thin line. Destroyed by his rage
at the superstar bit, the critic’s page,
the general condition of human wit.

Between a carpenter and a dancer: a statement and an answer:
The dancer: “I wish I could die, evaporate into sky
lie down in sleep and seep into earth
sift into sand, begin a new birth
in death.
I wish the first had been my last breath.”
Answer: “He that loses life for my sake shall never die in death.”

His old slapstick foiled, he fended off fear with his frantic dance
splitting his marionette’s vest and burning out in his suicide stance
‘till all his brains boiled. Shipwrecking his best
he then demolished the rest, the honors earned,
his earlier biography he solemnly burned
and he turned.

Between a carpenter and a prancer: a statement and an answer:
The dancer: “I wish I could die, evaporate into sky
lie down in sleep and weep into earth
sift into sand, begin a new birth
in death.
I wish the first had been my last breath.”
Answer: “He that loses life for my sake shall never die in death.”

The old hairbreadth escape. I swore off earth and stepped up higher
missing the bottomless pit and burning out in the infernal fires
by such a thin line…destroyed by my love
of the theatre cape, the actor’s glove,
the general condition of the human ape.
So I split!

Between a carpenter and a prancer: a statement and an answer:
The dancer: “I wish I could die, evaporate into sky
lie down in sleep and weep into earth
sift into sand, begin a new birth
in death.
I wish the first had been my last breath.”
Answer: “He that loses life for my sake shall never die in death.”

Tags:   song song lyric

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The picture (from 1967) is of the first girl I ever loved, Haldeen Minnis. She died in her mid-40's. I wrote the lyrics to this song for her:

Rainy Woman
Lyrics by Michael Vance, music by Greg Swyden

Someone somewhere heard her crying
In the falling rain
In the silence, lightening dying
Can you call her?
Girl, can you hear me
Girl, will you find me lost
Within the blur of my dreaming

One day, someway missed her misting
Wandering in the clouds
On my rooftop, rainballs hissing
Could not call her back, could not hear me
Girl, could not find me froze
Within the blur of the dreaming

Stumble over flowers, dripping off slick water towers
Everywhere the rain falls
Running hot and cold, impossible for me to hold, ‘cept
Captured in a glass

Somewhere between night and day
Flat behind her eyes
Somehow lost our sometime way
In the falling
Girl, can you hear me
Girl, can you find me small
Within the blur of my dreaming

Lydia, Rainy Woman, sleeps in rain pools
Running rainbows in her hair
Lydia, Rainy Woman, when the sun breaks
One cool tear is all you’ll share with me

Tags:   girlfriend song song lyric love song friend

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