Sawdust And Diamonds Lyrics - Ys - Joanna Newsom

Sawdust And Diamonds 

From the top of the flight 

Of the wide, white stairs 

Through the rest of my life 

Do you wait for me there? 

There's a bell in my ears 

There's a wide white roar 

Drop a bell down the stairs 

Hear it fall forevermore 

Hear it fall forevermore 

Drop a bell off of the dock 

Blot it out in the sea 

Drowning mute as a rock; 

And sounding mutiny 

There's a light in the wings 

Hits this system of strings 

From the side while they swing; 

See the wires, the wires, the wires 

And the articulation 

In our elbows and knees 

Makes us buckle as we couple in endless increase 

As the audience admires 

And the little white dove 

Made with love, made with love: 

Made with glue, and a glove, and some pliers 

Swings a low sickle arc 

From its perch in the dark 

Settle down 

Settle down my desire 

And the moment I slept I was swept up in a terrible tremor 

Though no longer bereft, how I shook and I couldn't remember 

Then the furthermost shake drove a murthering stake in 

And cleft me right down through my center 

And I shouldn't say so, but I know that it was then, or never 

Push me back into a tree 

Bind my buttons with salt 

And fill my long ears with bees 

Praying: please, please, please, 

Love, you ought not! 

No you ought not! 

Then the system of strings tugs on the tip of my wings 

(cut from cardboard and old magazines) 

Makes me warble and rise like a sparrow 

And in the place where I stood, there is a circle of wood 

A cord or two, which you chop and you stack in your barrow 

It is terribly good to carry water and chop wood 

Streaked with soot, heavy booted and wild-eyed; 

As I crash through the rafters 

And the ropes and pulleys trail after 

And the holiest belfry burns sky-high 

Then the slow lip of fire moves across the prairie with precision 

While, somewhere, with your pliers and glue you make your first incision 

And in a moment of almost-unbearable vision 

Doubled over with the hunger of lions 

'Hold me close', cooed the dove 

Who was stuffed, now, with sawdust and diamonds 

I wanted to say: why the long face? 

Sparrow, perch and play songs of long face 

Burro, buck and bray songs of long face! 

Sing: I will swallow your sadness and eat your cold clay 

Just to lift your long face 

And though it may be madness, I will take to the grave 

Your precious longface 

And though our bones they may break, and our souls separate 

- why the long face? 

And though our bodies recoil from the grip of the soil 

- why the long face? 

In the trough of the waves 

Which are pawing like dogs 

Pitch we, pale-faced and grave, 

As I write in my log 

Then I hear a noise from the hull 

Seven days out to sea 

And it is the damnable bell! 

And it tolls - well, I believe, that it tolls - for me! 

It tolls for me! 

And though my wrists and my waist seemed so easy to break 

Still, my dear, I would have walked you to the very edge of the water 

And they will recognise all the lines of your face 

In the face of the daughter of the daughter of my daughter 

and darling, we will be fine, but what was yours and mine 

Appears to be a sandcastle that the gibbering wave takes 

But if it's all just the same, then will you say my name: 

Say my name in the morning, so I know when the wave breaks? 

I wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight 

No, I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright 

So: enough of this terror 

We deserve to know light 

And grow evermore lighter and lighter 

You would have seen me through 

But I could not undo that desire 

Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh desire 

Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh desire 

Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh desire 

From the top of the flight 

Of the wide, white stairs 

Through the rest of my life 

Do you wait for me there