Do Not See
| Pop/Rock
| © 1999, 2000
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I have listened to Leonard ever since my older brothers put him on the Victrola many, many years ago. He has etched places in my mind and I continue to actively listen to him.
I had read an unauthorized biography on Leonard Cohen. The biography was written in co-operation with Leonard. It detailed the many years of his life up to the near past. As I read I started to form a song. The song is different from my normal songs. Yes, I know, normal is pretty hard to find in my stuff. But the point is still valid.
One difference is a dance with darkness. Death. Shade. Graveyards. A room with no view. But this darkness is not treated negatively. I try to balance it with light. The shade it dances all around me - this really is an interpretation of perspective. Really both light and dark are dancing. The focus is given to the darkness. The darkness is friendly like the initial warmth of intoxication.
The next difference is a pre-conceived focus on song structure. The song would end the way it began. It would go out and come back the same way. I think it worked out very well. Very satisfying.
Finally, do not see. I think I am and we are always on the verge of the truth. At least our human ability to perceive the truth. Due to our humanness it is so close and yet so far away. I know it is right there! And I just do not see. |
I grew up in a room
That had no view
I grew up in a room
Overlooking a tomb
And I'd go down
And read the epitaph
It read: Do not see
Do not see
Do not see
Do not see the mountains
Do not see the sky
Do not see your lover in the dawn
Do not see the faces
Of the children that cry
Do not see
Do not see
Do not see
And I'd read the pages
Of the song she wrote
She said: My lover
Come back to me
I cry
And my tears
Fall on our child
Come back to me
Come back to me
Come back to me.
Come back to me my lover
I await you in the dawn
I am on this island that we love
And our child keeps staring
Down the path to our home
Come back to me
Come back to me
Come back to me
And I walk
Down the rows
Of those that are gone
I listen to them
And I hear their song
I listen
In the wind
I hear their voice
They sing: We are free
We are free
We are free
We are free to remember
Those that we love
Yes, we are free
To remember the times
That we lie down
With our lover in the dawn
We are free
We are free
We are free
I walk down the path
Between bough and blade
The shade it dances
All around me
I listen to the ones
Who visit here
They say: My lover
Come back to me
Come back to me
My lover I await you in the dawn
Come back to me
I cannot go on
But their words just fail
Like all who've come before
Come back to me
Come back to me
And I kneel
Before the image of
The one who is buried
In this tomb
I feel the hand
I hear the voice
It says: Do not see
Do not see
Do not see
Do not see
Do not see
Do not see
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