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The meadowlark and the chim-choo-ree and the sparrow
Set to the sky in a flying spree, for the sport over the pharaoh
A little while later the Pharisees dragged comb through the meadow
Do you remember what they called up to you and me, in our window?
There is a rusty light on the pines tonight
Sun pouring wine, lord, or marrow
Down into the bones of the birches
And the spires of the churches
Jutting out from the shadows
The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks and the bale and the barrow
And everything sloped like it was dragged from a rope
In the mouth of the south below
We've seen those mountains kneeling, felten and grey
We thought our very hearts would up and melt away
From that snow in the nighttime
Just going
And going
And the stirring of wind chimes
In the morning
In the morning
Helps me find my way back in
From the place where I have been
And, Emily - I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror
Anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Thoough all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades loosed in December
I promised you I'd set them to verse so I'd always remember
That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
You came and lay a cold compress upon the mess I'm in
Threw the window wide and cried, "Amen! Amen! Amen!"
The whole world stopped to hear you hollering
You looked down and saw now what was happening
The lines are fading in my kingdom
(Though I have never known the way to border them in)
So the muddy mouths of baboons and sows and the grouse and the horse and the hen
Grope at the gate of the looming lake that was once a tidy pen
And the mail is late and the great estates are not lit from within
The talk in town's becoming downright sickening
In due time we will see the far butte lit by a flare
I've seen your bravery, and I will follow you there
And row through the nighttime
Gone healthy
Gone healthy all of a sudden
In search of the midwife
Who could help me
Who could help me
Help me find my way back in
There are worries where I've been
Say, say, say in the lee of the bay; don't be bothered
Leave your troubles here where the tugboats shear the water from the water
(Flanked by furrows, curling back, like a match held up to a newspaper)
Emily, they'll follow your lead by the letter
And I make this claim, and I'm not ashamed to say I know you better
What they've seen is just a beam of your sun that banishes winter
Let us go! Though we know it's a hopeless endeavor
The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined and hold us close forever
Though there is nothing would help me come to grips with a sky that is gaping and yawning
There is a song I woke with on my lips as you sailed your great ship towards the morning
Come on home, the poppies are all grown knee-deep by now
Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow
Peonies nod in the breeze and while they wetly bow
With hydrocephalitic listlessness ants mop up-a their brow
And everything with wings is restless, aimless, drunk and dour
The butterflies and birds collide at hot, ungodly hours
And my clay-colored motherlessness rangily reclines
Come on home, now! All my bones are dolorous with vines
Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight
The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light
Squint skyward and listen
Loving him, we move within his borders
Just asterisms in the stars' set order
We could stand for a century
Staring
With our heads cocked
In the broad daylight at this thing
Joy
Landlocked
In bodies that don't keep
Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being
Until we don't be told
Take this
Eat this
Told
The meteorite is the source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
Set to the sky in a flying spree, for the sport over the pharaoh
A little while later the Pharisees dragged comb through the meadow
Do you remember what they called up to you and me, in our window?
There is a rusty light on the pines tonight
Sun pouring wine, lord, or marrow
Down into the bones of the birches
And the spires of the churches
Jutting out from the shadows
The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks and the bale and the barrow
And everything sloped like it was dragged from a rope
In the mouth of the south below
We've seen those mountains kneeling, felten and grey
We thought our very hearts would up and melt away
From that snow in the nighttime
Just going
And going
And the stirring of wind chimes
In the morning
In the morning
Helps me find my way back in
From the place where I have been
And, Emily - I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror
Anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Thoough all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades loosed in December
I promised you I'd set them to verse so I'd always remember
That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
You came and lay a cold compress upon the mess I'm in
Threw the window wide and cried, "Amen! Amen! Amen!"
The whole world stopped to hear you hollering
You looked down and saw now what was happening
The lines are fading in my kingdom
(Though I have never known the way to border them in)
So the muddy mouths of baboons and sows and the grouse and the horse and the hen
Grope at the gate of the looming lake that was once a tidy pen
And the mail is late and the great estates are not lit from within
The talk in town's becoming downright sickening
In due time we will see the far butte lit by a flare
I've seen your bravery, and I will follow you there
And row through the nighttime
Gone healthy
Gone healthy all of a sudden
In search of the midwife
Who could help me
Who could help me
Help me find my way back in
There are worries where I've been
Say, say, say in the lee of the bay; don't be bothered
Leave your troubles here where the tugboats shear the water from the water
(Flanked by furrows, curling back, like a match held up to a newspaper)
Emily, they'll follow your lead by the letter
And I make this claim, and I'm not ashamed to say I know you better
What they've seen is just a beam of your sun that banishes winter
Let us go! Though we know it's a hopeless endeavor
The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined and hold us close forever
Though there is nothing would help me come to grips with a sky that is gaping and yawning
There is a song I woke with on my lips as you sailed your great ship towards the morning
Come on home, the poppies are all grown knee-deep by now
Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow
Peonies nod in the breeze and while they wetly bow
With hydrocephalitic listlessness ants mop up-a their brow
And everything with wings is restless, aimless, drunk and dour
The butterflies and birds collide at hot, ungodly hours
And my clay-colored motherlessness rangily reclines
Come on home, now! All my bones are dolorous with vines
Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight
The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light
Squint skyward and listen
Loving him, we move within his borders
Just asterisms in the stars' set order
We could stand for a century
Staring
With our heads cocked
In the broad daylight at this thing
Joy
Landlocked
In bodies that don't keep
Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being
Until we don't be told
Take this
Eat this
Told
The meteorite is the source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
Lyrics submitted by delial
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I see the meteor verses as poetic way of describing the duality between our bodies and our souls. We are all meteoroids - lumps of matter from the universe - but what we see of each other is the flame of our souls as we fly through our brief moment of existence.
For what it's worth, I think the 'Meteor/rite/roid' lyrics are basically correct and sound to me like a mnemonic device. Any meteorite (something that survives it's transit through earth's atmosphere) would flair up - be a 'source of the light.' We may not know if it made it or not to the Earth's surface, so all we see is a meteor. And, before it was ever either of these things, it was a meteoroid.
If you really want to call any of those lyrics into question, it would be 'the fire that propelled it to thee.' Of course, no fire propels meteoroids toward us. Unless, perhaps, someone blows up an asteroid.
Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight
The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light
Squint skyward and listen
Loving him, we move within his borders
Just asterisms in the stars' set order
We could stand for a century
Staring
With our heads cocked
In the broad daylight at this thing
Joy
Landlocked
In bodies that don't keep
Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being
Such undeniable afflatus in both Joanna and Whit, inviting us to the sublime mysteries and giving their poetry such great berth that we can bring all we are into their verse. I just wanted to post this as an outlet of my great appreciation.
At the beginning of the poem, Joanna recalls a memory from her childhood, a time when her sister, Emily, and she were spying on bullies ("Pharisees") up to no good in the nearby grasslands of her home. In present tense, she sees the "rusty light" casting deep shadows on the life that surrounds her, the woods and rural landscapes, the shadows are steeply sloping like everything's warped, perhaps the way she currently sees life.
So she’d rather think about the sweet memories of her childhood with her sister, those that bring her comfort from the current state of despair she is in. Joanna reminisces on a day by the river where her sister, who is scientific in nature, was trying to figure out the physics of skipping stones. She remembers her sister teaching her the names of the stars and her promising to remember. But she doesn't. She remembers it wrong, because she's not a scientist and it was a long time ago, and perhaps didn’t take it so seriously. Now, straining, desperate to hold on to her sister and what they had, she recalls those definitions taught so long ago, a sweet homage to her scientist sister. And as previously analyzed, the definitions are likely a metaphor for their tumultuous relationship.
Joanna also remembers how Emily helped comfort her through a traumatic experience, which I respectfully think it is an ill-fated pregnancy and loss. This seems to be one of the many themes mentioned in several songs (Sawdust and Diamonds, Baby Birch, On a Good Day, etc.) and while controversial, it is simply heart-wrenching because it seems to have deeply affected her--and I respect her the more for it. Joanna calls attention to how everyone respects Emily, how “they’ll follow your lead”, or how she's this "great ship" or powerful sunlight that "banishes winter" (which is very interesting because Joanna speaks of the current "rusty light" in her life above). From the lines "threw the window wide and cried, 'Amen! Amen! Amen!'/the whole world stopped to hear you hollering"), I can’t help but think that Emily somehow divulged the secret, but it must have been by accident, because "you looked down and saw now what was happening," as she realized what she had done.
These traumatic events (including the accidental deceit) were devastating to Joanna who admires Emily so much. It spirals Joanna into depression, turning her whole world upside down. She was a mess both physically and mentally ("the lines are fading in my kingdom/...looming lake that was once a tidy pen/and the mail is late and the great estates are not lit from within").
Yet Emily helped Joanna when she had "gone healthy all of a sudden", which makes me think of loss of a baby (when you don’t feel sick during pregnancy, that sometimes means the baby aborted), although it could also be interpreted as the pregnancy itself, when you stop consuming alcohol/caffeine/etc. Whatever the case, needing a "midwife who could help me find my way back in," could be interpreted as Joanna literally or figuratively needing help or guidance to deal with the situation, help so she could find comfort in her despair.
So Emily tried to comfort her, encouraged Joanna not to let it bother her, but I get the feeling it was superficial in nature. By telling Joanna to “leave her troubles here where the tugboats shear the water from the water (flanked by furrows, curling back, like a match held up to a newspaper),” it makes me think that the comfort was shallow in nature. And it makes sense that Joanna was “not ashamed to say I know you better" as this falls in line with how Emily handled the situation.
Joanna realizes that there is no hope of letting go of what happened (“we know it’s a hopeless endeavor”), but yet they're still tied together as sisters, no matter how painful it is (“The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined and hold us close forever”). But just as Joanna starts to heal/forgive by writing a song (this one) about her ordeal, Emily leaves her to live across the ocean, likely Argentina or New Zealand, as stated in previous interviews (“There is a song I woke with on my lips as you sailed your great ship towards the morning”).
Joanna just wants her sister to come home now. She's restless and distracted after her loss, just like the listless wildlife in the dead of summer. Her "clay-colored motherlessness rangily reclines," makes me think she's restless while her roomy and malleable body heals. By the way, I love her imagery of clay throughout so many songs (Bridges and Balloons, Only Skin, Sawdust and Diamonds, Emily); it’s earthy, moldable, raw, and organic, a perfect symbol for a young woman’s vulnerable life that’s in tune with nature. Anyway, she's terribly sad ("bones are dolorous with vines") and misses her sister.
During this time at home, Joanna ponders over the starry sky with her dad. She thinks how we are all like meteors moving within God's universe ("we move within his borders"). "Just asterisms in the stars' set order" is actually one of my favorite lines. Asterisms are patterns of stars that are visible from a certain vantage point on Earth, but the stars of which are not always physically related and are often at varying distances from Earth. Knowing this, I love the interpretation that we're all just different patterns or perspectives in God's set design. I'm not very religious, but can't help but see so much of her writing as spiritual. Joanna thinks she could contemplate this, the meaning of life, of eternity or God for a "century, staring with our heads cocked" and "dumbstruck with the sweetness of being until we don’t be." She could philosophize the meaning of it all until the day she dies; but then again, her sister already told her what it all meant so long ago. She then remembers those sweet celestial definitions that are the aching allusion to their fiery relationship.
Delicate. Haunting. Genius. Thank you, Joanna, for your bittersweet, honest words, the tender morsels of which I eat up every day.
"Mika-spangled, like the sky had been breathing on a mirror".
Has anyone come close to such beautiful, timeless, imagery? This album is void of life expectancy. It will grow with the Earth and its people. She will, indeed, be celebrated on a global level.
I might be wrong though.
I think Emily Newsom is in Joanna Newsom's real life - not her dreamworld, not her world as a celebrity, but the actual lived world, and she's the one who can throw the windows wide open and let the sun in. That's what it's like to have a sister too.
I think too, though, that this song refers to a significant traumatic event that she (the narrator of the song) experienced as a kid that her sister helped her through. And that's part of the closeness that they had. Here's the lyric that makes me think that:
"The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined and hold us close forever" - the barbed and spined ties she's talking about are the difficult and sad events that people experience together that make them closer.
Personally, I read it as teenage pregnancy and abortion but I could see how it could also read it as other things. By the way, I know nothing of Joanna Newsom's personal life and am not intending to start any rumors. This is just my read of her lyrics.
Key lyrics/words that got me there:
"The mess I'm in" - obvious
"Grope at the gate of the looming lake that was once a tidy pen" - her body changing
"Gone healthy" - euphemism for pregnancy
"In search of a midwife" - maybe she thought she'd keep it initially
"The talk in town's been sickening" - pregnant teenage girls in a small town is a big scandal
"Motherlessness" - allusion to the fact that she could've been a mother but chose not to be and is having some sadness or longing because of that
anyhow, i could go on but i need to go back to work. I just had this epiphany and thought i'd share.
The Meteorite is that source of the bond she shares with her sister. Not specifically but she, her father, and her sister all bonded over astronomy and she feels connected to them through this subject. Its only after the meteor has landed that people and look at it and feel it and touch and just become in true all by the journey its made, so i see it as the beginning of a persons interest in the subject and the subject is what bonds them.
The Meteor i think is her bridge between her playing with these words and their literally meaning. The source of the light is the same object but in a sort of glass half empty or half full thing do you see it as coming from the meteoroid or the meteorite.
The Meteoroid, in her interpretation, is a dead rock that's only given life after its ignited by our atmosphere. It only causes us wonder and peaks our interest after its burns and comes to us. In the same way that it literally isn't ignited yet i think she also means to say that it isn't yet imbued with the fire that helps bond their relationship. As a child who may not yet be interested in the subject of astronomy the Meteoroid only becomes of interest when you see it burning as a shooting star. That's really the only time you even know its there. So its a gift waiting to be sparked to ignite something that they all bond over.
thats just what i was able to interpret from everything i've read and my own musings over the lyrics.