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Now! That's What I Call Wordsmith

by Stephen Wordsmith

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1.
Alex Klages - Greenstone Carver 04:15
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The Greenstone carver sits, a ghost Aside the river's western coast And all he has, a carver's mind A knife and chisel, sharpened fine Yet with these weapons firm in hand He leaves the next move to the land For should the river choose to starve Him of its bounty, he'll not carve The westerly wind Wanders in, and he shivers And waits for the slivers The river Delivers The writer sits, her scribbling self In front of books on every shelf Her tools and toys, all paper bound Her influence, her theory sound The bow window with lifted blind Cast open like her waiting mind In hope to catch a blown surprise Til then, the pen? It never dries The westerly wind Wanders in, and she shivers And waits for the slivers The river Delivers One day the wind blew to your door A something never seen before A gemstone unrefined and coarse Impossible to find the source Not for you now to sully, no But gently take in hand, and so You shape what no-one's ever known To something lovely on its own The westerly wind Wanders in, and you shiver And wait for the slivers The river Delivers
2.
Dutch Cassidy - Tiger 03:39
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I have a Bengal tiger His name is Roary Jack He's fur and teeth and muscle Made of orange, striped with black His smile is wide and pointy His coat is thick and coarse And he can kill the tallest man Without the least remorse I feel a little safer When he's inside his cage Where he can't tear a man to strips In just one fit of rage But life is not a fair thing In his cage, he cannot stay For I will die if I don't walk this tiger thrice a day Although when he's out on the leash There'll be all hell to pay But I will die if I don't walk this tiger thrice a day I have a wooden cabinet A box of buried treasure It's full of every spirit made In every single measure It's made of sweetest poison Laced with everything to thrill A drop or two can titillate A little more can kill I feel a little safer When all is locked inside Where it can't stab my heart Or bayonet my wounded pride But life is not a fair thing In their case, they cannot stay For I will die if I don't drink a bottle thrice a day Although each time the stopper's off There'll be all hell to pay I'll surely die if I don't drink a bottle thrice a day But what is there to do If there's but death if you deprive? When your sin is taking too much Of what keeps your soul alive Alive For life is not a fair thing In this skin, I cannot stay For I will die if I don't feed this demon thrice a day And though when tooth and morsel meet There'll be all hell to pay I'll surely die if I don't feed this demon thrice a day
3.
The Pannacotta Army - Partly Cloudy 02:25
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A sinew of a heaven blue Peeked out behind a hairline crack In nimbostratic fairy floss Of dark despair and dungeon black The four winds tossed all souls about Like some great mystic sport 'Another partly cloudy day In Wellington' I thought The winter rain fell upward Blessing undersides of hats and beards The sky-blue sky tore tiny rents In clouds, that quickly disappeared As trampolines flew soaring Like the butterflies that fluttered 'Another partly cloudy day In Wellington' I muttered 'Not brilliant' said the weather girl Each evening, 'But you'll cope - Abandon your umbrellas, friends But don't abandon hope' Another slip of hillside soil Another slip on roadside tile Another day, another cent Another inch, another mile Another working unemployed Another living dead 'Another partly cloudy day In Wellington' I said.
4.
Samuel Davis Jr. - Perspective 03:21
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Beneath the tree i lie and read A book by Gilgamesh But through his eyes, I taunt him With his family's shredded flesh This warm and gentle story Seems so innocent to me But it's another tale From the perspective of the tree Nearby, I built a great log cabin I am safe and warm within But to he, I shelter in a pile Of cut-down bodies of his kin This fond and steady dwelling Seems so innocent to me But it is no hearth or home From the perspective of the tree I throw another splitted branch Down upon the crackling flames To he, another desecrated corpse Burned to ashes in my name This gentle act of warming Seems to innocent to me But one more soul defiled From the perspective of the tree And what about a treehouse? The greatest sin of all To nail him to the twisted bones Of who'd before him fall And what a parting insult This last disdaining thing To sit upon this gruesome throne And look down on him like a king Beneath the tree i lie and read A book by Gilgamesh But through his eyes, I taunt him With his family's shredded flesh This warm and gentle story Seems so innocent to me But it's another tale From the perspective of the tree
5.
Resonance - Choose Your Own Adventure 02:53
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Pages, Pages Story's just begun anew Soon the choice will be in your hands Now's your chance to guide the hero through But every path that lies ahead is strange and costly Each no better than the last Paved with shards of all the chances squandered Every open doorway passed Choose your own adventure, you decide the hero's fate Go forth between hope and hopeless Trace your path to death, the road is long but never straight Changes, changes Are your only constant friend Paralysed by indecision Leap by faith until you reach "The End" And yet the fickle finger of your twisting fortune Never clings to your last page Pushing you until you find the passage To escape this mortal cage Choose your own adventure, you decide the hero's fate Go forth between hope and hopeless Trace your path to death, the road is long but never straight There's no way to go but onwards Choose your own adventure, take this tale and make it great Make it great Make it great
6.
Axl - Space Jam 03:41
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In a hundred years' time If not more soon John Brown will be really annoyed At having to get up And go to the moon For a meeting he cannot avoid And leave on his lonesome Far back at home Oswaldo, his faithful Alsatian With nothing to do But to chew on a bone While John's boarding at the Space Station CHORUS He'll be trapped in a space Jam Man can't manouevre Gridlocked in the great beyond Lost in a vacuum (not like a hoover) Deep inside this darkest pond He'll switch on a podcast For 96 hours And wish that he wasn't alive Construction delayed Due to meteor showers He's stuck on the Z-95 Another delay In the Transit to Mars Performing a maintenance check Sounds like an excuse To sell hamburger bars At the Burger King down on C Deck CHORUS And he sits, and he fumes And he thinks of his plight And he's sure he's forgotten To turn off the light And we'd pity this man Sitting idle in space If we still have a moon Or the old human race CHORUS x 2
7.
Moon Raccoon - Fifth World Problems 03:26
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I trim my beard with Occam's razor Occam's razor, Occam's razor Trim my beard with Occam's razor Nicked myself as hairs would crop I'm bleeding now, and cannot find Cannot find, I cannot find I'm bleeding now, and cannot find The simplest way to make it stop At five, I took a trip to Rome But all roads led me straight back there At ten, I threw a boomerang And now I live in constant fear Fifth world problems... I stepped inside my local diner Local diner, local diner Stepped inside my local diner Ordered milkshakes bottomless Every boy came to my yard To my yard, To my yard Yes, every boy came to my yard And carved an infinite abyss I miss my partner all the time And kiss the air around her cheek My new year resolution's low The world has been a blur all week Fifth world problems... I bottled up my loneliness My loneliness, my loneliness Bottled up my loneliness Until my loneliness fermented Now I have some fine champagne Such fine champagne, such fine champagne Now I have some fine champagne But none to drink with, I lamented You're trapped inside the second person Please help you, oh God, help you I broke the fifth wall, now my listeners Know that they're a fiction too
8.
Klaus - A Paradox in Paradise 03:59
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Inside a vast and timeless land There lies a single grain of sand Beside it, deep in lifeless sleep Are piled a thousand in a heap Then, on the east wind, flies a rook And takes a grain in talon's crook From off this sandy hillock's crown And by the hermit, lays it down CHORUS A grain of truth, a mound of lies A paradox in Paradise And with each thousand new years' tick The ageless rook repeats his trick Until, at last, upon the beach, Lies two sets of five hundred each CHORUS Til finally, his work now done The rook flies east into the sun A thousand grains could then be found That never did become a mound And by its side, a pile sits dumb Consisting of one single crumb CHORUS For one grain cannot make a mound But where a thousand more are found With every mote you take away The pinnacle remains to stay! From lofty peak to single grain, Just how long does the pile remain? CHORUS
9.
Nancy Rost - There's Nothing Quite As Comfortable 03:32
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There's nothing quite as comfortable There's nothing quite as soft If you're in a shack in Peckham or a trendy New York loft Or a starter home in Dublin Or a tent pegged on Mt. Acton Or a humpy up in Humpty Doo Oops, sorry, got distracted There's nothing quite as comfortable There's nothing quite as plush In a South Chicago duplex Or the streets of Bangladush Or a favela in Rio Or a chateaux in the Loire Or a mud hut in Djibouti Oops, once distracted once more, ha There's nothing quite as comfortable There's nothing quite as comfy If you're in the presidential suite Or shacked up in a gum tree Or a hammock in Barbados Or a palace in Iraq Or a floor in post-war Kosovo Oh dear, once more off track There's nothing quite as comfortable There's nothing quite as cozy If you're in the gentrifying 'burb of old Katakonozi Or a garage in South Auckland (Tories say 'what housing crisis?') Or a bomb shelter in Little Rock Sleep-talking about Isis There's nothing quite as comfortable There's nothing so sublime As your bed right at the moment When you're s'posed to rise and shine!
10.
Avgvstvs - Terracotta Bureaucrat 02:39
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Let's get back out of retirement Lazy Afro, Stephen Wordsmith Terracotta bureaucrat, a cataphract of admin matters Bamboo scroll in hand with knife For paperwork in afterlife Terracotta bureaucrat, a pen to scribe and ink to spatter Join your god-king child immortal Form his heaven's IT portal Terracotta bureaucrat Terracotta bureaucrat Terracotta bureaucrat, a jotter-down of admin chatter Pen held tight, more might than sword - To impress the emperor Terracotta bureaucrat, a secretary of despot patter Sponger of an undead army Work-death balance drives you barmy Terracotta bureaucrat Terracotta bureaucrat BRIDGE As hereafter's horde doth rise, Terracotta bureaucrat You cross the Ts and dot the Is, Terracotta bureaucrat O play your part in undeath's aims They kick the arse, you take the names - No life insurance left to claim O Terracotta bureaucrat! Terracotta bureaucrat Terracotta bureaucrat Terracotta bureaucrat, a ledger clogged as weapons clatter Corpses mounting, bodies counting God-king waits for your accounting! Terracotta bureaucrat Terracotta bureaucrat Terracotta bureaucrat
11.
Aquino - Teaspoon 02:12
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If ever you feel tiny Petty, little, insignificant Remember that you're made of stuff That's made of stuff and more A condescending Escher stairwell Built of organs, skin and cells Bacteria and Virii, DNA, Atoms galore There's seven billion billion billion (seven million million trillion) Atoms on your brilliant person And my understanding Is that in the great scheme of things That all diminish without finish Atoms aren't the bottom step They're merely the top landing! But even at the level where We delve from feet to nanometres Filing for the diamonds midst The nanoscopic rubble We find that in their adamance The utmost pusillanimous Of things upon this troubled world Can cause a world of trouble! Consider this: All the HIV that's circling In the bloodstream of the millions Upon millions of the victims Who're afflicted here on earth Could all fit inside a teaspoon Yes, a teaspoon, like the teaspoon That poured coffee in my teacup In my kitchen in West Perth Or Bloomfield, NJ And, quite frankly, I would rather That that hardy little virus Was all sitting in that millimetre Measuring device Than poisoning the veins Of half of Africa, subtracting Twenty years of life expectancy At best, I would surmise (Of course, I'd have to quarantine The caffeine in the coffee tea- spoon, sealed up for eternity Like some time capsule trinket Lest I stumble in the kitchen In a fit of this bewitchedness And fix a cataclysmic hit Of Instant, and then drink it)
12.
Mike Skliar - Parallel 02:52
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Out yonder in the dark of space There are, each in their special place Those planets, those unlucky ones Who muddle through without a sun Just think, what an horrific curse To hurtle on across the verse At speeds that frankly terrify Without a light to guide the eye To flee the astronomic scene And cross the cosmos, sight unseen No man bears witness to their flight The thief in this expanding night What skeletons lie on the shelf Of this world which abducts itself And takes it for a starlit ride? What does this dark world have to hide? --- Now close to home, before the pale Indeed on quite a smaller scale We see this very scene unfold On Friday nights of bitter cold A man of most uneven keel Ensconced behind a steering wheel Will beat a wavering retreat To home along a country street With liquor on his bated breath He flirts each twist and turn with death But fearing the policeman's wrath Shines no light on his winding path And so this body wends its way Through dark and silence, til the day The learned man sighs in despair And tell the world there's no life there
13.
Theresa Johnson - Felis Catus 04:00
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CHORUS Some people desire to be lions Some others prefer to be cats The mad little hatters, who'd opt for the latter? Just what do you make of all that? A lion's a king of the jungle The top of the lunchable chain A roar like Pat Benatar, teeth like a scimitar Wrapped in the bushiest mane And so full of grace is his dinner For everything 'round him is prey You're safe from your plight if he's sleeping tonight But the hunger's just a whim away a whim away, a whim away... CHORUS A kitty-cat's little-bit smaller A cute and adorable thing You're fine, baby bunting, his targets for hunting Are meeses and pieces of string But kitty-cats have the last chuckle Yes, they've got one up on the lion They get the most value from humans, I tell you And do it without even tryin' CHORUS BRIDGE For what's around this mortal bone? A dozen dozen pounds of flesh (Though slightly more in San Antone And slightly less in Bangladesh) A single snack for those in Prides But otherwise, a lifetime's source Of ready meals served tableside For felis catus kits, of course CHORUS EPILOGUE So all throughout their lives of two and seven Their owner sees to it that they've not fasted And when the owner shuffles off to heaven They'll eat them anyway - cause cats are bastards
14.
Roel van Veldt - The Hotel Ghost 03:33
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In darkest hours She stalks the hall Mascara tears Run down her face I'm trapped Forever trapped, she cries My dress won't fall My beau won't wake A nightmare stitched from all the shattered visions in her head A sharp and dashing body laid unmoving in the bed My beau won't wake My dress won't fall I'm trapped, Forever trapped, she calls And down her face Mascara tears She stalks the halls Her darkest years A half-drunk glass of water's ring upon the windowsill A man with ring on finger under covers, drunker still Her footsteps echo on the floor, her face a broken look She calls out for a stranger's hand to swift undo the hook My beau won't wake My dress won't fall I'm trapped, Forever trapped, she calls And down her face Mascara tears She stalks the halls Her darkest years Before the dear beloved, dear I take thee as you are To have and hold a drink in hand Til dead drunk do we part
15.
Pete Murphy - And I Listen 04:49
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When they call They are nameless And faceless And blameless On each word I hang On the edge And they speak with one nail On the cusp of a trigger Or one foot hung over A ledge And they talk And they talk And I listen As we edged Towards midnight She picked up the phone With her other hand Cradling the gun And she told me My voice Rang so strangely familiar In fact, almost like Her own son And she talked And she talked And I listened So I asked Should I lend you The ear of another If you feel you have told mine Enough But no, she replied You have my blessing It's like I'm confessing To someone I love I knew I'd heard that very voice Escaping from the very lips Of a soul I knew that wore that very name It sang a song of failure, sins Of loss of love and innocence And no-one else's shoulders for the blame It soft confessed to every fault As words and tears would flow and halt While nighttime slipped through shadows to the morn Til in the end, the song was sung Just she and I alone among A lifetime's burden ever-silent borne And she talked And I listened Til no words remained She said 'thank you' at last Then I heard The dull bray Of a cartridge Discarded, and fallen A click Then no further word Now nothing remains Of that night But an imprint Of something in dust In the shed And from That day on Not the tiniest mention Of what came to pass Will be said
16.
Pearl Manhattan - 88 Hours 04:06
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CHORUS 88 Hours 88 Hours He sat like a stone for 88 Hours Didn't shift a bone for 88 Hours Moved neither muscle Nor tiny corpuscle He sat like a stone for 88 Hours 88 Hours Late afternoon came the gnawing ache Pushed him through hell for his heaven's sake Stabbed in the throat by a toothsome menace Grabbed his old coat, headed off to the dentist CHORUS Swept through the lobby at 4:58 The dentist alone to determine his fate The anaesthetic angel gone for the night He sat in the chair and the doc strapped him tight CHORUS His drill firm in hand like an erstwhile dagger The dentist leaned in, then started to stagger Clutching with knuckles of white at his chest Collapsed to the floor with a cardiac arrest CHORUS BRIDGE And so they passed Friday night together This unlikely pair A dentist dead, a statue of a man His teeth in disrepair Thus passed the longest long weekend He'd ever suffered through before Until at last on Tuesday morning Heard a key turn in the door CHORUS The secretary gasped at this hierogylph A man now a stiffy, and one rather stiff She undid the fetters, the hero released A pity his toothache no morsel had ceased CHORUS
17.
Lori Citro - Dragon 05:49
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Dragon, Dragon Enemy mine Sleep in your cradle Of treasure fine Objects of pleasure Your edgeless shrine Dragon, Dragon Enemy mine Dragon, Dragon Enemy mine Weary world traveler Blazing your path Villages burn By the heat of your wrath Voyagers die By your talon's cold sting Continents touched By the shade of your wing CHORUS Haste to the banks Break through the vault The floor of your cavern These prizes to salt Tear the chests open! Savage the stores! Take what you wish What's theirs is now yours Dragon , dragon Enemy mine Dragon , dragon Enemy mine They called and I answered Sharpened my blade Polished my armor Settled my pay Journeyed for eons Through forest and glade To live off the spoils I gained on my way (CHORUS) A saddle cut gem From a foreigner's horse A scepter of bone From a skeleton's tomb The furs of a sabre-tooth Blocking my course Destined to rot In a chest in my room BRIDGE And moments from your cave, I pause, and sigh: My foe, we're not so different, you and I (CHORUS 2X)
18.
Tim Fatchen - Through Glass 05:31
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How strange, the world seen through a lens The light fantastic as it bends Around the titans far beyond The walls of this unstirring pond Who drift and glide with silent glee Across the rim where sky meets sea These ghosts and shadowed beasts that pass Before the eye that sees through glass Here on a voyage none can chart Through East and West, through dark and light As here and now approach and part To pass as ships within the night Their time in space now duly served One moment here, another gone The horizon line is curved, curved Curved as a glass stretching ever on Now set upon our steady course And never yet in sight of land Our minuscule and mighty force Equipped with all we have at hand To tear the sails and smash the hulls Of any foe to come my way But the skies ahead are clear, clear Clear as glass for another day And so, we journey ever on Our pathway clear and set in stone With shifting souls on every side And yet we cross the seas alone Beneath this great chaotic sky The strokes of colour in the grey But the seas ahead are calm, calm Still as glass for another day Before the eye that sees through glass These ghosts and shadowed beasts that pass Across the rim where sky meets sea Who drift and glide with silent glee The walls of this unstirring pond Around the titans far beyond The light fantastic as it bends How strange, the world seen through a lens

about

It's back, and better than ever! Now! That's What I Call Wordsmith, the 5th compilation album by Stephen Wordsmith and the artists of FAWM and 50/90!

18 Massive* hits, featuring artists from New Zealand, Australia, The US, UK, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and Finland.

Featuring genres such as acoustic rock, alt-folk, celtic rock, schoolhouse rap, spoken-word space opera, lateral-thinking-puzzle African chant and help-a-ghost-is-dragging-me-into-a-closet ethereal piano capella.

Discover how much evil can be packed into a teaspoon. See the connections between a sunless planet and a drunken country driver. Find out why it's the kitten who gets the lion's share out of humans. Dive into the internal monologue of a suicide prevention hotline worker when he fields a call from his mother. Sneak a peek at the log of the captain of a ship in a bottle.

It's all here, and all from the mind of Stephen Wordsmith, Wellington's fourth-most eminent Shower Philosopher*. Listen, and enjoy!

*Citation needed

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released October 7, 2019

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Stephen Wordsmith Wellington, New Zealand

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