First there were feathers...
 then a whispered word
 I knelt next to something
 It was strange and it sang subversion I rose out of something It was wild
 like a resurrection
 I failed to roam today I failed to roam...

It’s deeper than a fairytale in Europe and in Asia North and South America the Arctic and Australia They walked with them in Dreamtime They softened and were led
 Through the long call of creation and the echoes of the dead They learned the language of the water
 They learned the language of the earth
 They learned the language of the feathered ones How they could cure or curse May be...maybe So they called it out
 And when they called it out
 They shaped the message into words When they called it out
 A symbiotic shout
 Connected the last with the first When they called it out
 The stories brought about
 A wild wisdom wrapped in verse
 But then a falling out
 Division cutting out The language 
 The language of the birds
 The language
 The language of the birds...
 What can cure can curse- but it could be the reverse What can cure can curse- but it could be the reverse

Is there anyone out there?
 Once in awhile things line up just right the time, the speed, the light
 and I hear a sound that will stick with me for the rest of my life
 But those voices are everywhere
 all the time- the more than human
 Some say that if we could perceive
 even a fraction of these conversations we’d never feel lonely again
 We’d never feel lonely again

so much of us you can’t understand
 even if you held us in your hand
 a monomorphic anomaly
 shades of black and brown is all you’d see yes, your vision is poor and your heart is slow you're featherless- yet you think you know what freedom is- so on you go
 only yours- the tale worth telling while I live on the wing and die on the wing
 as one designed for flying to eat on the wing
 to sleep on the wing
 and while I sleep- I’m dreaming 
 of parties where we feasted well above deltas, lakes and through tails of storms much higher than the martins go
 2000 strong- we soared and dove to play on the wing to mate on the wing as ones designed for flying we drop our feathers one by one
 a slow renewal is preferred by some
 a full moult would leave us too undone even we- those nearest to the sun
 we pair for life- this you may know
 but once we raise our young we go our separate ways- subsaharan days 10 months of 12 are travelling to live on the wing to thrive on the wing
 as ones designed for flying to drink on the wing
 to sleep on the wing
 and while I sleep-
 I’m dreaming a unihemispheric sleep
 fuelled by light and acetylcholine a slow wave stream of things I’ve seen
 and all the things worth having I’ve lived longer now than most I’m growing tired but I can boast if all the miles were added up
 I’d have been 6 times to the moon and back I’ve lived on the wing
 I’ll die on the wing
 as one designed for flying I sing on the wing
 I dream on the wing
 and while I dream
 I’m flying...

a man with a message stumbled into town clutched at the arm of the first soul he found his face was haggard and his eyes half crazed and his voice like a chilled growl from the grave he said: I can’t go back to make the change
 I see that angel fall- again and again as the arrow from my crossbow tore through its chest can you see this albatross around my neck? he said: will my fall down bring in a new light? will my fall down bring in a new light? each drop of blood from that feathered coat was the beat of a drum- a musical note
 then I was pierced by a force I had failed to see
 as that creature’s story soaked into me she said: will my fall down bring in a new light? will my fall down bring in a new light? for 60 years she had soared with the winds around the Southern globe- again and again below 40 degrees where there is no law below 50 degrees where there is no god she said: will my fall down bring in a new light? will my fall down bring in a new light? 200,000 years your kind have been
 while 50 million marks the years we’ve seen
 your time here is just a drop in the bucket
 while mine is the ocean and the clouds above it
 your kind try to harness everything
 why must you be so reckless with the thirst you bring? when we lower our heads in disbelief
 you think it’s cuz you’re a master- but it’s cuz you’re a thief she said: will my fall down bring in a new light? will my fall down bring in a new light? some say those birds carry lost souls home
 I still can’t explain my need to shoot it down but everyday since- her questions- cursed I am ‘what moves you to take just because you can ?’

Prometheus, please- what were you thinking? Prometheus, please As the flames know - grief can be deeper
 If you take till you choke, yes, grief can be deeper Ghosts in the forms of glaciers and seabirds
 Calls from coral to coal: fire, you’ve done me wrong, why? Prometheus, please- what were you thinking? Prometheus, please As the waves roll- lost languages keeper
 As the vultures they coast on winds that are meagre Fed by what’s left- not killers but seekers
 Through our failed tests- fire- we’ve done you wrong, why? Prometheus, please- what were you thinking? Prometheus, please Oh Prometheus, please- what were you thinking?
 Yes, your gift could ease, but also bring suffering When we took the lead- you know
 We would take everything
 Could you not see that
 We’d fuel our own ending? Fire-what were you thinking?
 Fire-what were you thinking? Prometheus, please (could it be easy?) What were you thinking? 
 Prometheus, please (could you let deeper in?)
 Prometheus, please (could you go easy?) What were you thinking? Prometheus, please (hear what we’re offering?) As the flames roll What were you thinking? As the flames know As the waves roll What were you thinking? As the flames know Please...please...please...

‘one night as I went strolling out I sat down by a white washed door a tear comes roaming to my eye when I thought of my poor mother dear’

Beneath the birch trees and the dappled light
 Blacker than the bears on a moonless night
 Millions of years in the making if conditions were right Call it coal- peat, heat and pressure A new system ignites- alright Dynamite, flash of light, rumble and roar
 Life is tough, so dig it up, tunnel and bore
 My father spoke to ravens and my mother to stones That’s how I overheard their childhood secrets Hunger and cold
 Get back Dynamite, flash of light, rumble and roar Life is tough, so dig it up, tunnel and bore Dynamite, flash of light, rumble and roar Life is tough, so dig it up, tunnel and bore Two Catholic mothers birthed 26 souls No heat or running water
 Just wood for the stove
 When you give, give, give You expect you might get
 And if it weighs on your conscience Then you pray to forget
 Get back Dynamite, flash of light, rumble and roar
 Send them down in the ground- digging for more Husbands and sons all black lunged and soar
 But winters are long and hunger’s a whore Get back Dynamite, flash of light, rumble an roar Life is tough, so dig it up, tunnel and bore Dynamite, flash of light, rumble an roar Life is tough, so dig it up, tunnel and bore The end justifies the means
 Is an argument that always left me queasy
 Just like the sound of machinery has always made me uneasy

there’s a trick I learned as a child, when all of my difficult emotions lessened as I imagined how the press of cooling air might feel against a bird’s wings. But my deepest relief doesn’t come from imagining I can feel what the rook feels, know what the rook knows- instead, it’s slow delight in knowing I cannot * (shaped from pg 258 of Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald) more ways to listen more ways to try more ways to witness more ways to fly...

it could have been their voices
 like trails from a star
 you know they have to sing through darkness to hold course and avoid harm could have been the ache of freedom the push and pull of tired wings
 could have been the warm pulse beating twice the sugar through their veins four chambered heart less efficient but more art four chambered hearts not born the way of mammals
 hard shell chipped by trembling beak but when the light and hunger hit you you met a Mother’s need to feed then the thought of flying
 and a map that others owned hundreds of millions of years trying and the hollowing of bones through those
 four chambered hearts
 we’re so different- but not this part four chambered hearts alright, alright
 four chambered hearts another vision- another spark four chambered hearts

Snow floats around a swirl of flakes that sting my skin close my eyes and draw the iced air in strange lifelines a million whispers in this wind I exhale a cloud and the next tale begins The roots are shallow on the taiga trees because the soil is so thin to survive the cold they alter themselves with a thing called hardening reminds me how I’ve cloaked me heart and the different ways of living of stone eyed souls trading glory for gold because we’re void of our true story Ice-fire-bone- birch antler- root- stone- church Fur rippled like river water over the muscles of the running mother as her hooves pounded the ground soon her muscle was meat and her skin a sheet and her soul horizon bound Part of the river, part of the river Marvelling over how much one is like another The give and take as we shift into each other The melody of the melody of One

on and on and on the sparrow goes on and on an on our histories linked- they follow but even they it seems will have to go
 that tough and tiny sentinel what will it take? it’s astonishing what will it take? the growth- the vanishing what will it take? such force- then nothing what will it take? consequence-commodity- dominion over all we see take, take, take
 take, take, take
 take, take, take....take, take, take she said: you have to be the voice for those that haven’t got one for the fading and the gone
 it’s not solutions that you lack here
 it’s the will to get them done see me, feel me...... step by step through the footprint of our great acceleration
 is the great cost- the great loss-
 the silence- and the thinning
 in just 50 years almost 70% of the planets wild vertebrates have disappeared fish, reptiles, mammals, birds, even that dear little sparrow that been following us into villages and cities for 10,000yrs serpent, spectre, sparrow, spy
 calling from the earth and sky
 raise your voices- 'hit the brake
 for hell is a truth that is learned too late' chimera, griffin, shisa, sphinx
 you are more lion than you think your pulse a puzzle with hidden links much deeper than convention the scale is tipping- soon comes the jolt the feather forced to drift and float
 as the heart falls further toward the throat of the crocodile .... extinction

Who shall bell ? Who shall bell ? Who shall bell the cat? I wonder, is it you?

It made such a sweet sound
 It was sun kissed like a seraph
 as it fluttered to the ground
 But in a flash- the cat upon it Broke its wing and tossed it round Blind thrill- no glory That bird had come so far From the heart of Scandinavia on its way to Africa
 Now stone eyed and mute
 A mangled lifeless toy
 for some fat cat to enjoy I thought about the wild things The battles and the might have beens Free will versus hard wiring Are we a soul’s call for better
 or just instinct grasping feathers? Are we a soul’s call for better or just instinct? If science proves what prophets and the poets put in rhyme Beyond the boundaries of our knowing and the limits of our time Would we say the system’s broken?
 Would we recognize our crimes?
 Would we step outside our notions?
 Would we cast aside our pride? Are we a soul’s call for something better or just instinct grasping feathers? Are we a soul’s call for better or just instinct? Her voice was such a sweet sound
 The sun shone in her eyes- causing her to frown
 She said: you know folks won’t save what they don’t love and now that’s all I’m thinking of as...as I... as I fall in love with everything I fall in love with everything I fall in love with everything and the alarm bells are ringing and the songbirds have stopped singing

The sun awakes another day And I am given reasons A feather found by mirrored ground A song- a quenched thirst- freedom Heart parched and broken like the clay For each one now gone or leaving My rage grew heavy like the rain Now dry river beds are heaving Washed past the race to know The need to claim tomorrow I call it back to me All the pointless beauty And I breath Easy Breath easy Breath easy Breath

She was a traveller- sharp tail and wings
 Delayed from her voyage- by the gifts that love brings Ignoring the cool and diminishing light
 and the calls from the shadows- as her family took flight Swallow dear swallow- don’t waste too much time There’s a high price to freedom if the winds are not right Swallow dear swallow she pushed and she tried
 But fresh into her journey had to rest for the night The roof tops were grey and dusted with snow.
 All the sheltered spots taken by pigeons and sparrows
 ‘Over here’ cried a voice- she arced back to see a glimmering statue with a tear on his cheek Swallow dear swallow- you can stay here tonight , I’ll be your shelter and the view is alright Swallow dear swallow fell in love at first sight Nestled into his neck and asked- ‘why do you cry?’ It’s all that I see, lovely -such heart- that it breaks mine, lovely I see them working through the night and the day
 Trying to scrape out a living on the pennies they’re paid Down there is a seamstress sowing ribbons and bows
 While she and that child in the corner are so hungry and cold Swallow dear swallow, shall we launch a plan? Pluck out this ruby and fly fast as you can? Down through her chimney- she can’t afford fire
 This jewel red as her fingers should keep them safe for awhile Soon back from the errand the bird shook a bit From the joy in the giving and the effort of it The statue was smiling- looked deep in her eyes
 Said, perhaps we can do the same with these sapphires the next couple of nights? But how will you see, lovely?
 Such heart- how you break mine lovely But swallow dear swallow- she couldn’t resist
 Without his beautiful eyes- she could still have his lips So swallow dear swallow delivered each prize
 First to a young girl then a poet- saving their lives Swallow dear swallow- it’s past time you should go
 I feel that you’re shaking and winter is long
 But swallow dear swallow had made up her mind
 There’s no way she was leaving- when she could be his eyes All that I see, lovely I’ll share with you now, my lovely So over the city she fluttered and flew
 Gathering stories and tips on where to bring his gold to Many spirits where lifted with the help of their gifts While statue’s finish grew dull and swallow grew thin Now fly, my dear lovely - you’ll die if you stay here, lovely Swallow dear swallow knew this was no lie
 Rested on statue’s shoulder and whispered goodbye
 Oh swallow dear swallow I’m glad that you’ve changed your mind I know I’ve kept you too long from your path to sunshine But she didn’t answer- just fell to his feet
 And at that sickening sound- his heart skipped a beat Then broke with such force it knocked them both toward the street But the angels take pity on dreamers and fools
 And the ones that share treasures they’ve stumbled into
 A chorus of voices soon filled up the night
 And a warm summer breeze bathed them in a strange light It’s all that I see, lovely, such heart- that it breaks mine lovely City workers took statue and the swallow they found Tossed her into the rubbish, and melted him down but his cracked heart stayed solid, so they threw it away into the very same pail where dear swallow was laying Swallow dear swallow, I’ll no longer weep
 I know death is just the wise older brother of sleep Swallow dear swallow- sweet lover of life
 Let’s go sing with the angels of how hard we tried