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Four Demos for a New Year of Intense Energy

by Helene Augustine

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1.
The diplomat with no country The robber with no store The one-eyed entertainer (undertaker) keeping score With the dice in the palm of their hand Shaking it around, afraid to let it land Chorus: For what will happen if it lands on Snake Eyes? What will happen, what will happen? We will all be called to rise, we will all be called to rise Snake Eyes X 2 And the gymnast at the cinema She launched a thousand ships With her cast of entertainers All of them were doing tricks The worn out skull The peace patrol The emptiness in the looking glass And the gun still warm has no soul Has no soul But you and I we know The ones with soul Chorus Snake Eyes is a Whale Number 45810,001-00 Came upon the shore of Coney Island, Jones Beach One of those places where my little feet used to run as a child Baby on the beach I was born half wild Baby on the beach I was running playing on the beach That 30 years later Snake Eyes would die on The big whale How did she die? Oh big whale I see you eye to eye This is part of my religion I call you god You are flying in my heart of gold of your love Everything you do is gold of the sea holy Holy sunlight Carry me Holy holy Whale as my god That is what guides me And what keeps me up at night Cuz what have you done to my whale? What have you done to my whale? You let it get all undone Snake Eyes Chorus, variation: The undertaker with the dice in the palm of her hand Shakes it around, afraid to let it land For what will happen if it lands on Snake Eyes We will all be called to rise We will all be forced to rise Snake Eyes Stand one with the whale, stand one with the Earth Snake Eyes Come gather with me at the ocean side Where we must hold a funeral and a ritual of reclamation In the name of Snake Eyes The diplomat has no country in the dystopia of Planet Earth The diplomat has no country in the name of god and country and dirt The diplomat is lost in the cornfield looking for a sign That he'd read that morning on his long bike ride And the high priestess On the bicycle she passes me (a skull) And I call out - "Please turn around I have something to give you A rosary: Queer and jeweled and poetry" "I'm going north" she says "I'm going north, I'm going to DC Going to march in the streets Cuz they dont give us what we need. Gonna march in the street Wanna join me?" I say "Next time, Please forgive me I am in the middle of writing a song And I feel like it's gonna take a little long Gotta finish this 1-2-3 This is ancient contemporary poetry" And I'm singing my songs to the wind Cuz that's who I want to win Earth Divine If we cared for Earth Divine Carry Care for Earth Divine It will land on Snake Eyes If it lands on Snake Eyes When it lands on Snake Eyes It will land on Snake Eyes
2.
This is a song for my people The ones who dance and sing The ones who go by the name Human Humane Whatever happened to our dignity? That we carried like a flame We were proud to be part of the Harmon-Eeee You see human humane If you add an E you get something Human Humane You add the E you get Harmon-Eeee Human Humane take the train downtown Human Humane play a show downtown Human Humane make it all seem like a party Human Humane plant the garden so pretty This song is for my people The ones who dance and sing The ones who make such poetry With their rainbow leaves Human Humane I gotta keep calling out your name Cuz otherwise we get human insane If you dont add an E to the human You get insane / What was going in his brain When he took that plane And went up into the sky So high He broke through the atmosphere One night, one night, one night I was dancing with myself Pouring sage tea And we were all just running scared Because of reality Because of the way we made the world Falling apart Boy boy boy girl We are spinning something fierce And we are taking the street of pearls And I never wanna tell you again that I'm sorry For all the terrible things I've done Now I know the word for that and it's gaslighting You're gonna tell me it was me I was the one When you set the whole world on fire You cooked the oil right into the bone And I want you to now go retire Go find a better happy home On some other planet Please go now Cant handle you no way no how There's a long distance runner asleep in the vineyard And the sun's going down on the herd of sheep Just in the farther meadow from where I do right now speak Wine and goats and sheep and horses, horses, horses Horses jumping real high Real high Sometimes they jump into the sky But usually only at night and with their third eye This is an old ritual for me It is so sacred I can see It lets me speak in poetry Which is all I wanna do Cuz it's the only language that is blue and green and yellow and blue and green and yellow and blue and green and yellow and blue and green and black and white and all the colors of the day and the night and the earth and the strand upon the sea... I am watching the wave take me It takes me down Takes me down but then I am up And then I go higher And higher Into the cloud Into the sky
3.
Take it easy Go slow Slow it down Go easy There's no need To act the clown We're all racing to the end But there's no end There's no end So we're all racing in a line That gets crossed every time Take it easy Go slow There's no need to go so fast Where you going Don't you see you're already living in the past Going so fast Can't ever slow down Don't act the clown Take it easy Go slow Maybe then you will know The method of getting off of the ratwheel After you feel like it's time to get off of that bumpy bumpy ride Going in circles upside down It's hard to sit down when you're strapped into a seat That's going 40 miles an hour Or maybe you're going 8000 miles a minute I dont know anymore I dont feel like I belong in it Whatever the hell We have done I think we all need to stop the run, the run, the run And take it easy Go slow Nowhere we need to go It can all get so much Carole sang about it too It can all get so much Dolly knows it's so true It can all get so much Where we gonna lay our head I understand the burning questions And I know I don't have answers but instead I can offer you a song That reminds you To go easy Slow down No need to play their game of clown, clown, clown It's all in the math It's all in the sun It's all in the tree It's all on the run Don't you see how unsettling this can be For all of us who are sensitive beings Human Humane Take it easy Go slow This is permission for you to just go easy Stare up at the sky for as long as you need Go and sit beneath the tall tree Go and sit beneath the small tree Go and sit with any tree I am begging you, I am begging you Go easy Slow it down
4.
Come come and let me see The beauty of what needs to be free Come come and I will show you things That sparkle more than diamond rings Come come I see a star Beckons to me from afar I have been a pilgrim My mind comes undone Tired feet always on the run Hey hey come sit with me I am down on my wounded knee The stories that i tell thee Were once upon ancient poetry That now blooms in tree Sacred in infinity But broken in half Like a cloud without a sky I am the wind and my breath is the night Come come and let me see the beauty of what needs to be free In spoken word In poetry No labels here, nothing severe Only love Only care Only ways to make our sweetness dare Dare dare For more sweet More sweet For we are such flowers in the garden during the war

about

Songs live inside of me. Most live as fragments until they are finished and sometimes that takes years. Improvisation is the root, then writing, then practice. Songs exist first to comfort and inspire me, a form of medicine. I hope after they help me they can also inspire and nourish you.

On January 8 2022 after a long absence from the piano I sat down and these all came out in one session. It was a terrible day in a very hard week but I was carving out a few good hours. The year started out beautiful, then crashed on the third day. I was on my crappy Casio, not even my nicer Yamaha keyboard. I recorded them on my iPhone with a simple headphones mic and then lightly edited them to only roughly polish them. I want them to live in the world, here they are. They are demos. We are in the garden during the war. If you are inspired by them and want to go further with me on them, or future ones, please reach out.

A little background on Snake Eyes. S/he was a real whale, a North Atlantic Right Whale, that was found dead on Jones Beach not too long ago from entanglement. I have always sung for the whales, because they guide me and are my gods.

credits

released January 13, 2001

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about

Helene Augustine Virginia

A way to channel the never-ending rush of rhyme and melody. A musical project for the visual artist Jennifer Nagle Myers. Explorations following the continuous line from ancient to future, our own inherent collective and personal queerness, liberation, voice, piano, communication, communing. Good spirit. Look for all ways to express love and sending out the signal that art is all this and more. ... more

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