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opening my hand

by david edward walker

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1.
here’s a way to go all that whispers how it will make you strong keep you awake all night long make you laugh like you belong rushing around from inside out emptiness that you should doubt make your loved ones cry and shout leave you flat broke down and out turn your dreams to iron and rust leave your skin an empty crust scraping floors for a bit more dust or baby’s feet because you must see a hag from a beauty queen change this home to a black latrine smurf your shops for ephedrine, a hungry ghost with a busted spleen methamphetamine here’s some dude with lots of dough selling out the people’s soul cording stove with heat on low, he don’t care what you don’t know hydrochloric and benzene, drano, flame, and gasoline pistols in a ripped blue jean bloody red on the dead street scene methamphetamine give me rocks and eightballed crank and tell me who I have to thank biker beer and prostitute, children I can rob or loot gravestone bankers buy me clean snorting tubes of magazine God just help me sleep and dream God just help me sleep and dream God just help me sleep and dream methamphetamine swear if I could stop you now long before you don’t know how stopping then it won’t allow addiction makes you bend and bow crystal ice and words enough always trying to be so tough God surrender and find love you are always worth that much you are always worth that much you are always worth that much methamphetamine
2.
If we were trees, we’d never be angry Rain or shine, we’d understand Go on growing when the season said to Or feel the cold with every outstretched hand. If we were trees, we’d go on living, Try to be healthy and grow up strong. I’ll bet a tree would be forgiving— The first to say ‘I may be wrong.’ If we were trees, I’d be a willow. I know a good one of a hundred years Behind the concrete and the power lines And the tall buildings made of mirrors. Rub a hand on the roughness, Feel the edges of the toughness The sensation lingers on. Can you hear that willow’s song? Will you come back to my willow? I’ll show you the moments we lost Trying to give our love out in fractions And then measuring the personal cost In the willow, I can reach deep inside my heart In the willow, I can accept who you are from the start Whether we hold on or fall apart Push me down with cold and thunder, Blow me back with fury and fire, Although I may still hurt and hunger To bend like that, I do aspire. Children play beneath my branches. Roots intertwine beneath their feet. Given that, what are the chances, If we were trees, we would feel complete? Beneath the peace of the rainy waters, Of the misty air that enters me, I mean to be the kind of person Who’d make a pretty good willow tree. (You got the time, we got the climb, C’mon and climb in my willow tree)
3.
In August, 1917, we were summoned To Fort Lewis, Washington Michael and Jacob and David and I All refused to put their dungarees on So they took us together to Alcatraz Island There they beat us with clubs Until we wished that we were dying Then each to his own private hole And in the filth I prayed for their souls Then the guard threw this uniform in He said “put it on and you’ll see home again.” He told us, “just stay quiet.” They put us on a starvation diet, Made us stay on our feat While our comrades were beaten And tied to a hook in the ceiling Soon we collapsed from their violent dealings They put me in this uniform for the hate That they were feeling Please take comfort in knowing In spite of our pain We die for them in God’s name Oh, forgive them, ‘though they know no shame I believe somehow we all are to blame Lay me down near the banks of the Missouri Lay me down near my kindred and friends Can you see where the currents run deeply? There, the soft Kansas rain meets its end Oh, Maria, do not cry ‘Though in uniform I lie We all suffer for their fear We must be brave, Maria dear Could it be wrong to hold no gun? We have been strong; we did not run. They spoke falsely but God still knows. They cut the oak tree but the seedling grows. They dam the river but the water flows. They kill the body, oh, but not the soul. Lay me down near the banks of the Missouri Lay me down near my kindred and friends Can you see where the currents run deeply? There, the soft Kansas rain meets its end
4.
The sun, deep in the western sky, Lending its alibi to the day And you, waving a sad goodbye, Wishing that you could fly Far away Listen to the waves upon the shore Hear them in your heart There’s nothing more Lost inside of what you want and need In the music, be the hollow reed One within you through the coming night One beside you in the morning light Have no fear Always near Run and hide Still locked inside It’s always your right to choose You’ve nothing left to lose You’ll never run out of love You’ll never run out of love Learn to stop in the stillness now Practicing to allow this love to come through Find there’s no longer be need of you, Stay only clear and true and renew Everything you do, a mystery. Everything you touch and all you see. Although the world keeps calling you back again, This is the place where sunsets never end. Not one drop of ocean without salt If you won’t understand, then who’s at fault? Have no fear Always near Run and hide Still locked inside It’s always your right to choose You’ve nothing left to lose You’ll never run out of love You’ll never run out of love
5.
I feel that life is so unfair- How can I get some rest? When her smile comes to me from somewhere Sparkling like a sequined dress She’s in every tender leaf that grows And everything that’s green Calling out from the Unseen— What will you make this mean? Chorus: The Ordinary Princess is never very far away Crossing by the doorway on the other side of the day She only wonders why we have to cry— “Have you never seen a caged bird fly, Finally free in an endless sky?” Then she laughs while we try I get so lost in this material life— Imaginings and delusion. All the subtle truths she liked to talk about Bring me only more confusion Living oneness, singing unity How I miss this spiritual girl Calling from where the galaxies swirl— Will you make a better world? From a sorrow-stricken shelter Turn your face toward the Everlasting Nest From this dark and narrow world To where the spirit birds go to rest Love Emily Love
6.
Sacred are these days we have ‘though we may know them not, they're like strangers who have passed our time with stories we forgot or seedlings we neglect to plant or waves that won’t subside who by their presence seem to say: be glad to be alive. And yet hunger drives us ever on Consumed by our desires. We feel the coldness at our backs more than the warming fire, lit by moments that are passing now impermanent as wind with flames so hot, we burn with fear of trying to begin. But oh to begin, begin, I’m feeling my hand open my friend with all that I was and all that I am I’m breaking away well before the rainbow’s end all the time I have left I’ve decided to spend just opening my hand. You can feel your heart exploding forth with blood fed by your breath. Each moment you are alive to now should contrast with your death. All that we love and seek dissolves yet forever are we born; between pleasures sought and peacefulness are wandering hearts are torn. So too this suffering yearning lost we may feel we have been tricked by the cruelties that are done to us or the cruelties we inflict. Competing for some golden ring or just one hour more with bitterness in our offering while these beggars pass our door.
7.
8.
I feel that life is so unfair- How can I get some rest? When her smile comes to me from somewhere Sparkling like a sequined dress She’s in every tender leaf that grows And everything that’s green Calling out from the Unseen— What will you make this mean? Chorus: The Ordinary Princess is never very far away Crossing by the doorway on the other side of the day She only wonders why we have to cry— “Have you never seen a caged bird fly, Finally free in an endless sky?” Then she laughs while we try I get so lost in this material life— Imaginings and delusion. All the subtle truths she liked to talk about Bring me only more confusion Living oneness, singing unity How I miss this spiritual girl Calling from where the galaxies swirl— Will you make a better world? From a sorrow-stricken shelter Turn your face toward the Everlasting Nest From this dark and narrow world To where the spirit birds go to rest Love Emily Love
9.
The Wounded Fawn My name is Will Daley And I hunt or I track Being accustomed To carrying my home on my back And for days at a time Am I out on my own My company kept In living alone It was late in the autumn When the moon hangs too deep And the rustling leaves Make one idle with sleep With wet scents abundant And the colors subdued When the chill hints of winter Bring a darkening mood I was in the West Country Where the wild trees rise And for days at a time No food met my eyes Then in stark desperation As the sunrise drew near I caught hints and signs Of a small herd of deer And being a hunter My arrow’s my tool So what I'm to tell you May seem to you cruel I aimed for a yearling In the first light of dawn But as the mist cleared I’d wounded the fawn The wound at her shoulder With red was imbued And there, in the meadow, My arrow lay skewed Astonished, ashamed I sought to just turn away But she spoke to me plainly "Stay and hear What I say . . . " "Now with this sin You have severed our trust Your curse be to wander Far from your blood lust And wherever you go Whether far away, near The cries of the children Forever you’ll hear." So I, William Daley, Run out of my grove Compelled by that angel To wander and rove Made mad with the weeping And the pain they endure The suffering children We’ve never heard. Each sob or moan, Of hurt or of dread Without knowing the source They all enter my head And I never can rest In this world that’s gone wrong Since the morning my aim failed And I wounded the fawn.

about

Composed, produced, arranged, and engineered by David Edward Walker (aka 'David Folks') except as noted.

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released February 13, 2023

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Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.

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david edward walker Indianola, Washington

"With a style that encompasses urban and rural images, rich metaphors, spiritual themes, moving ballads, and ambitious fingerstyle guitar work, David Edward Walker (aka 'David Folks') is a singer-songwriter with special ability to reach listeners on an emotional level."
~ Music Hound,
The Essential Folk Album Guide

"Spilled poetic love." ~ Dirty Linen

"Folk Hero."
~Detroit Monthly
... more

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