Gavin's Woodpile
Bruce Cockburn

working out on Gavin's woodpile
safe within the harmony of kin
visions begin to crowd my eyes
like a meteor shower in the autumn skies
and the soil beneath me seems to moan
with a sound like the wind through a hollow bone
and my mind fills with figures like Lappish runes of power...
and log slams on rough-hewn log
and a voice from somewhere scolds a barking dog.

i remember a bleak-eyed prisoner
in the Stoney Mountain life-suspension home
you drink and fight and damage someone
and they throw you away for some years of boredom
one year done and five more to go --
no job waiting so no parole
and over and over they tell you that you're nothing...
and i toss another log on Gavin's woodpile
and wonder at the lamp-warm window's welcome smile.

i remember crackling embers
coloured windows shining through the rain
like the coloured slicks on the English River
death in the marrow and death in the liver
and some government gambler with his mouth full of steak
saying if you can't eat the fish, fish in some other lake.
To watch a people die -- it is no new thing.
and the stack of wood grows higher and higher
and a helpless rage seems to set my brain on fire.

and everywhere the free space fills
like a punctured diving suit and i'm
paralyzed in the face of it all
cursed with the curse of these modern times

distant mountains, blue and liquid,
luminous like a thickening of sky
flash in my mind like a stairway to life --
a train whistle cuts through the scene like a knife
three hawks wheel in a dazzling sky --
a slow motion jet makes them look like a lie
and i'm left to conclude there's no human answer near...
but there's a narrow path to a life to come
that explodes into sight with the power of the sun.

a mist rises as the sun goes down
and the light that's left forms a kind of crown
the earth is bread, the sun is wine
it's a sign of a hope that's ours for all time.

(Burritt's Rapids 17/11/75)

(* Lappish runes -- Lapp Shamans covered their drums with striking magical symbols, which were then used to divine, contact spirits, etc.)
(* English River -- river system in north-western Ontario, polluted with mercury for the next hundred years by the Reid paper company. Nobody is doing much about the fact that the native people who live along its course have lost both food and liveliho


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Lyrics by Bruce Cockburn

  12 String Warm-Up/The Trains Don't Run Here Anymor...   13th Mountain   A Dream Like Mine   A Life Story   A Long-Time Love Song   A Montreal Song   Actions Speak Louder   After The Rain   All Our Dark Tomorrows   All The Diamonds In The World   All The Ways I Want You   All's Quiet On The Inner City Front   All's Quiet On The Inner City Front   Always Look on the Bright Side of Life   And We Dance   Anything Anytime Anywhere   Anything Can Happen   Arrows Of Light   Avalon, My Home Town   Badlands Flashback   Badlands Flashback   Bearded Folksinger   Beautiful Creatures   Berlin Tonight   Bicycle Trip   Birmingham Shadows   Blueberry Hill   Bone In My Ear   Boundless   Bright Sky   Broken Wheel   Burden Of The Angel, Beast   Burn   Cader Idris [Instrumental]   Call It Democracy   Call Me Rose   Can I Go With You   Candy Man's Gone   Candy Man's Gone   Celestial Horses   Change Your Mind   Child of the Wind   Christmas Song   Civilization And Its Discontents   Clocks Don't Bring Tomorrow, Knives Don't Bring Go...   Closer To The Light   Creation Dream   Cry Of A Tiny Babe   Déjà Vu   Dancing In Paradise   Deep Lake   Deer Dancing Round a Broken Mirror [Instrumental]   Deja Vu   Dialogue With The Devil   Dialogue With The Devil (Or Why Don't We Celebrate...   Different When It Comes To You   Don't Feel Your Touch   Don't Forget About Delight   Don't Have To Tell You Why   Don't Feel Your Touch   Don't Forget About Delight   Don't Have To Tell You Why   Down Here Tonight   Down In Yon Forest   Down to the Delta   Driving Away   Dust And Diesel   Dweller By A Dark Stream   Early On One Christmas Morn   Embers of Eden   Embers Of Eden, The   Everywhere Dance   Facist Architecture   Fall   Fascist Architecture   Fascist Architecture [Architecture Fasciste]   Feast Of Fools   Feet Fall On The Road   Festival Of Friends   Five Fifty-One   For The Birds   Foxglove   Free To Be   Gavin's Woodpile   Get Up Jonah   Gifts   Go Tell It On The Mountain   God Bless The Children   God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen   God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen   God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen   Going To The Country   Going Up Against Chaos   Golden Serpent Blues   Gospel Of Bondage   Great Big Love   Grim Travellers   Grim Travellers [Live][*]   Grim Travellers [Sombres Voyageurs]   Guerilla Betrayed   Guerrilla Betrayed   Hand-Dancing   Happy Good Morning Blues   He Came From The Mountain   High Winds White Sky   Hills Of Morning   Homme Brulant   Hoop Dancer   How I Spent My Fall Vacation   I Saw Three Ships   I Wanna Dance With You   I'm Gonna Fly Some Day   I'm Gonna Fly Some Day   Iesus Ahatonnia (The Huron Carol)   If A Tree Falls   If I Had A Rocket Launcher   If I Had a Rocket Launcher [*]   In The Falling Dark   Incandescent Blue   Indian Wars   Islands in a Black Sky   Isn't That What Friends Are For?   Isn't That What Friends Are For?   It Came Upon a Midnight Clear   It Came Upon The Midnight Clear   It Come Upon The Midnight Clear   It Won't Be Long   It Won't Be Long   It's An Elephants World   It's Going Down Slow   It's Going Down Slow   January In The Halifax Airport Lounge   Joy to the World   Joy Will Find A Way   Justice   Keep It Open   Kit Carson   Lament For The Last Days   Last Night Of The World   Laughter   Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes   Let The Bad Air Out   Let Us Go Laughing   Life Short Call Now   Life Short Call Now [Ça Presse - Appele Tout D...   Life Will Open   Life's Mistress   Life's Mistress   Lily of the Midnight Sky   Listen For The Laugh   Little Seahorse   Live On My Mind   Loner   Look How Far   Lord Of The Starfields   Love Loves You Too   Love Song   Lovers In A Dangerous Time   Making Contact   Mama Just Wants To Barrelhouse All Night Long   Man of a Thousand Faces   Mango   Mary Had A Baby   Maybe The Poet   Messenger Wind   Mighty Trucks Of Midnight   Mistress of Storms   More Not More   More Not More [Encore/Moins]   Musical Friends   My Beat   My Lady And My Lord   My Lady And My Lord [Solo Version] [*][Version]   My Lady and My Lord [Solo Version][*]   Mystery   Mystery [Mystère]   Nanzen Ji   Never So Free   Nicaragua   Night Train   No Footprints   Northern Lights   Nude Descending a Staircase   O Little Town Of Bethlehem   One Day I Walk   One of the Best Ones   Open   Open [Ouvert]   Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand   Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand...   Pacing The Cage   Pangs Of Love   Patches   Peace March   Peggy's Kitchen Wall   Peggy's Kitchen Wall   People See Through You   Planet Of The Clowns   Postcards From Cambodia   Prenons La Mer   Put It In Your Heart   Put Our Hearts Together   Radiance   Radium Rain   Rainfall   Red Brother Red Sister   Rise and Fall   Riu Riu Chiu   Rouler Sa Bosse   Rumours Of Glory   Sahara Gold   Salt Sun and Time   Salt, Sun and Time   Santiago Dawn   Scanning These Crowds   See How I Miss You   See You Tomorrow   See You Tomorrow [À Demain]   Seeds on the Wind   Shepherds   Shining Mountain   Shipwrecked At The Stable Door   Silent Night   Silver Wheels   Skylarking   Slow Down Fast   Slow Down Fast [Modère Vite]   Somebody Touched Me   Someone I Used To Love   Soul of a Man   Southland of the Heart   Spring Song   Stained Glass   Starwheel   Stolen Land   Strange Waters   Strong Hand of Love   Sunrise on the Mississippi   Sunwheel Dance   Tell The Universe   The Bicycle Trip   The Blues Got The World   The Blues Got The World...   The Charity Of Night   The City Is Hungry   The Coldest Night Of The Year   The Coming Rains   The Gift   The Iris Of The World   The Light Goes On Forever   The Mines Of Mozambique   The Pipes. The Pipes. [Instrumental]   The Rose Above The Sky   The Rose Above the Sky [La Rose Au-Dessus du Ciel]   The Strong One   The Thirteenth Mountain   The Trouble With Normal   The Whole Night Sky   This Is Baghdad   Thoughts On A Rainy Afternoon   Tibetan Side Of Town   Tie Me At The Crossroads   To Fit In My Heart   To Raise The Morning Star   Together Alone   Tokyo   Totem Pole   Train in the Rain   Tramps In The Street   Trickle Down   Tried And Tested   Tried And Tested [Éprouvé Et SuréprouvÃ...   Tropic Moon   Understanding Nothing   Up On The Hillside   Use Me While You Can   Vagabondage   Wait No More   Waiting For A Miracle   Waiting For The Moon   Wanna Go Walking   What About The Bond   What About the Bond [et le Lien Alors]   What About The Bond?   When The Sun Falls   When The Sun Goes Nova   When You Give It Away   Where The Death Squad Lives   Wise Users   Wondering Where The Lions Are   World Of Wonders   Yanqui Go Home   You Don't Have To Play The Horses   You Don't Have To Play The Horses   You Get Bigger As You Go   You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chance   You Point To The Sky   You've Never Seen Everything   You've Never Seen Everything

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