The SOFT PALACE

 

Flow face

 

love songs by

Pete Gioconda

 

Little Monkey (Gioconda)

Climbing inside the outside world
Dropping flowers as I go
Deeply breathing awakening air
Nearly knocks me out

When I meet you, I cannot see you
Clear in shape and full in view
There’s no clue what you’re up to
There’s something I can learn from you

What of me and what of you
What must we keep and what must we lose?
Drop a depth charge in your eyes
Before you slink away . . .

Little monkey is a dark beauty’s juggler
Her devilish charm strikes the balance
Little monkey is the love of my life
A child sublime and grown with presence

Teach me all your chaos theories
You always show your mischief face
Like a looking glass camouflaged
You are not afraid

Tearing down your railway line
The one they couldn’t privatise
While the businessman shakes his rattle
You’re one step ahead

See it through and come alive
Pull up the fences to let it spread
It’s easy to think that you’re no one at all
Be you instead . . .

Little monkey is her own dark beauty
She runs with harm lost in the balance
Little monkey lets me out of my cage
Escorts me down to her own wonderlands

Running round on circus horses
Shouting out silly problem names
An acrobat comes swinging through
It’s hard to fly or not to fly

The air might float me away from you
Virgin unexplored
What a risk is life, or not at all?
What a risk is life, or not at all . . .

Little monkey is a dark beauty’s juggler
While the world hangs in the balance
Little monkey is her own dark beauty
She shrugs it off with nonchalance

“Little monkey . . .”
Darkened Images (Gioconda)

She wears her love just like a mask
     as brittle as candy
She hides her face from all who ask
     how she holds her art ~
In a high up zenith
     dark summer ending

The burning of love’s desires smears my eyes
     with impalpable kisses
Darkened images fill my mind
     with smoke of another time ~
Chimerical it seems to me
     impossible dreams to wade in

She spreads her candyfloss hands
     on a sacrificial stake
She sticks her eyes hard and fast
     faking out countless pasts ~
And won’t bat her false eyelashes
     at hell fires of burning desires

Oh yeah . . . Oh . . .

Though I may regret having worn my
     sacrificial mask like love
She states her art clear and bold
     and well designed to hold ~
Onto darkened images of burning desires
     in a dark summer ending

Serenade (Gioconda)

Coming through the rye
     I see you;
the wafting, skinlike breeze
raises the hem of your eyes ~
in the midst of blind absurdity
the clear innocence of you
has come to laugh and cry
     and all but die
at the base station where
the unhappy multitude divides.

The plains of heaven
have woven an eternal fuel
in the beating wings of your smile:
you lost your pirate look
in the gentle climate when
I fell in love with you.

Hands above the sky, with wide blue open eyes,
you were so blooming gorgeous
that night on my birthday
I got onto this trip (but I wouldn’t
     let you know!) pretending
I was too much alone to get very close.
(I guess I didn’t feel good about myself:
     it was two lovebirds shiftily avoiding
     one another.)

Message from beyond the grave:
“Be very careful what you do with life
but not so careful that
a strangler marries your wife.”


B
ut now that’s all over
the tales of seasons past
fall like lizards at our feet
where the grass grows wildly,
re-written anew like caressing darts.

Simple things I say to you
in time with our hearts as they beat ~
now that your name is Summer
the stars all leap from their seat,
sending me shivers to discover,
and colours run down my spine,
and we’re at the heart of life’s creation
 . . .

The trees are pleased to be sleeping
embalmed in their primitive song.


Peace and quiet on the edge of night ~
we watch the stars from our sacred grove.

Naughty Little Lemon (Gioconda)

Naughty little lemon
I want to kiss your legs
Don’t you stand like that
Won’t melt me in your mouth

So much later on
I fall beneath your gaze
Naughty little lemon
Make me sad, you never speak

Oh, my eyes would have her
But my sighs will miss her;
Catch my sleepy stare
Stroking her mousy hair

Naughty little lemon
I ’m going to go mad, all for you

I’m mad, I’m a fool!
There’s nothing I can do
Your laughter is a hoot
Your face a fairy flute
The earth dissolves its roots
Green again in birthday suits

I can’t count the days
Falling down & whispering beneath
Naughty little lemon
Make me sad, you never speak

So much later on
I fall beneath your gaze

Naughty little lemon

Union True (Words: Gioconda / Music: Cullen)

I’ll fall for you under the broken
Whispering gasps of silence
When darkness blooms in outside rooms
And the birds await the rain

I’ll sow my seeds in your field
The softest form of glue
Union true

I’ll crawl across the faded heather
Call your snaking flesh together
Molecules of your wild sea skin
Embrace my lonely particles

I’ll sow my seeds in your field
The softest form of glue
Union true

I’ll stand for you in the shards of death
My skinny girl climbs on trembling legs
Prickling beads of drenching dew
Light up the shadow fields

She’s the one I’m hoping for
She’s astonished by the stars
She’s blown away the years
The years of tears and scars

I’ll sow my seeds in your field
The softest form of glue
Union true

In a climate of thunder
And an aching rain
Union true
Molly G (Gioconda)

I heard a thought, and I’ll have to laugh
I’ll have to laugh the smile of you off
It’s cold inside these aching bones
Lusting after ghosts gone past
Many a night I spent alone
After your special eyes were gone
Racing the heels of a vanishing sun
When everything was done

The ash of my desire, full of latent fire
Ankles on a fairground wheel
To possess your youthful body
Now faded and gone away
To a secret life beyond the sway
Where the hard smile of heaven burns me out
Dust in the breeze, free as disease
Do as you please, still in the trees

Molly G, you little naughty
Free in the dream of you and me
Molly G, not even you can be

You practised ballet on the hard shoulder
That summer as we hitched
Stuck your tongue out at soldiers
Your hair up in wisps
Lorry drivers blew you kisses
I honoured them on your cheek
Hugged you in the heather beneath a paper moon
We would never grow old or learn solemn things
Yet the world intervened and you had to go
My heart climbed a rainbow and shattered in mid-air
Hung up on your legs, with the wind at my heels
And your melting flesh now dust like all the rest


Molly G, you little naughty
Free in the dream of you and me
Molly G, not even you can be


Does anyone ever find the child inside that cries
Whose play will never die but falls asleep somehow
Saddened to a shadow, backdrop in the underflow
The child in the hollow never growing known;
Slowly serving time in the world’s undergrowth
Although the essence holds when all is told
Skinny urchin bold

Molly G, you little naughty
Free in the dream of you and me
Molly G, not even you can be


Fantastic visitation, heart of creation
Your spirit like wine is sound
Your spirit like mine
Still blows on the phoenix flames
Of our forgotten games
Jasmine Gold (Gioconda)

I’ll go to sleep
Think no more of you
Puff away streams
In my wilderness dreams

Jasmine gold

Oh, there’s no escape
In counting sheep
This summer’s festival
Bleats out the lack of you

Jasmine gold

I’ll come up and see you
Claw colours from your flesh
Your cool face and tomboy legs
Run rings around my fence

They sold out the ’60s
Mean spirits thought only of themselves
Running into blackness
As the road dissolves
Where are your happy feet
Jasmine gold?

Was it all a ploy
Are you someone’s toy?
Did you turn back without me
Wasted and annoyed?

I’m running into thin air
Always on my own
As your youth slips into shadow
Endless romance of me
Still chasing your rainbow

Jasmine gold
Never grow old
Jasmine gold
Laughter for Lovers (Words: Gioconda / Music: Chapman)

Standing naked in the spectral heat
Lapping up your baby sideshow
Remember I was the one who said
“Laughter is for lovers”
And you who gave me
All you did not know how to give

One, two, fancy you!
My bubble blew out and burst on you
What got me was
It was too very wonderful
I’d live it all through and through
I’d live it all through and through
Live it all through and through

In the void that’s left without you
I’ve been seeing the strangest things
Who wants to see the sea
Leaking through the sky?
Or a dinosaur’s blue rinse
Yeah, head down the loo?

One, two, fancy you!
My bubble blew out and burst on you
What got me was
It was too very wonderful
I’d live it all through and through
I’d live it all through and through
Live it all through and through


Your new boyfriend you’ve known for a while
And when I met you some way down the road
You said he beat up your Careers Officer
Because you asked him to
And now you’ve got your baby
What a joke it was to be free!

Now I doubt if you’d believe me
I don’t take life too seriously
Finding it all so very funny
Oh, all the blessèd time
But even if laughter is for lovers
I don’t think I’ll split my sides

One, two, fancy you!
My bubble blew out and burst on you
What got me was
It was too very wonderful
I’d live it all through and through
I’d live it all through and through
Live it all through and through

Night in the Sky (Gioconda)

Twinkle eyes, all forlorn
Many times you sleep and yawn
While I lie and burn
So sadly lying in vain
Wishing my poor life away
Driven from the feast
Like Beauty and the Beast

I never felt so alone
My memories are like mud slides
Against a rising tide
O love in the night sky
Won’t you bring me down?
Won’t you heal my bleeding?
Ah, hear my pleading

I try so hard to see her
The way she wants to be
She turns her back to me
Girl from another lifetime
Caught in the grip of disdain
One more failed soulmate
Leaving it too late

I am happy in my thoughts
Of you and me and long lost walks
On his slate a madman chalks . . .
O love in the night sky
Won’t you bring me down?
Won’t you heal my bleeding?
Ah, hear my pleading

I blow kisses through her heart
But she does not feel them
I breathe bliss from her hair
But she does not care
Oh dear ~ so there


End of Story (Gioconda)

Felt like starting our adventures all over again
Child adventures
You wanted to have a baby
I wanted adventures
I wanted the children we were
The child inside ~ endless adventures

I stumbled across you in town today
You were with your newest little one
Your voice went husky as you showed him proudly
I was leaving town and you were in a hurry
One last chance to show me
It was truly end of story

I wanted to tell you of magic come true
Of my wish to hear what became of you
Perhaps in another life
We’ll wake up where we left off
But your feet were shifting
Off to meet your mother, you said

One last chance to show me
It was truly end of story

I remembered it was your dad’s birthday ~
That look of surprise you gave me
It was our long-gone anniversary
But you never mentioned it
Last chance to show me
It was truly end of story

I stumbled across you in town today
I could hardly believe the magic of it
I must have wished it one last time
I knew it was to say goodbye
One last chance to show me
It was truly end of story

Just to tidy the grave away
And wish you on your way

Alien Cat Lover (Gioconda)

I gently stroke your hair
My feelings paw right through me
You stretch your feline body
You make me feel tired like you
Affected by your sulky moods
There’s nothing worse to worry

Alien cat lover turn my nights blue
As you yawn by the fireside
Alien cat lover

You lounge in a muted stronghold
I play a siege at your door
Prowling around in your eyes like before
Fairy tales riddled with cold

Running through the autumn smoke
Starting with some troubled showers
I lost my health for you
While you just put on weight
Left me beneath the moon
Where you put me to sleep too soon

Alien cat lover turn my nights blue
As you yawn by the fireside
Alien cat lover

I could keep cynically doubting
But it wouldn’t really be fair
Confusion lurks in cracks everywhere
You took a greedy helping

Alien cat lover turn my nights blue
As you yawn by the fireside
Alien cat lover

Sunk inside with cries to hide

Queen of the Future (Gioconda)

The sun resigns
The smile still shines
Words dissemble, clouds be quick
Love will flick a trick
The clock still ticks
My eyes now twitch
Turning slyly to wave goodbye

I want to see her
I want to be her
She is, she is
Queen of the future

Spasmic distortion
I’m twisted to be with you
Epic proportion calling up
My ounce of shreds
I’ve got to go to bed with you

I want to see her
I want to be her
She is, she is
Queen of the future


Together we will drink the sea
You will be a future queen
Together we’ll breathe the sky
And live off the earth we eat
Queen of the Future
We’ll burn and turn the sun
Our day will come

La mer nous servira à boire
Tu seras la reine du coeur
La flamme éternelle qui tourne
Nous laissera bien vivre de nos terres
— Qu'elle vienne, la Reine du Futur


Where the circuits are spun
When the world is undone
But done with confusion
Done with confusion
With your lady
Bathe in the pool of union
And dry her hair under the sun

I want to see her
I want to be her
She is, she is
Queen of the future


The sun resigns
The smile still shines
My Ageless Wonderfriend (Gioconda)

In all the vastness of this world
And the terrifying expanse of time
Will there be one, how could there be
To live and marvel and let it be?
Yet sincere belief has made it so
Eternity has you in an envelope:
Out of all time, charmed in wizardry
Prove my existence in this world

Raise me
Raise me to the saviour of your grace
Say where I could be your plaything
And hold me in the pureness of intent

I send my life in a loveletter to you
I want you to come and visit me when we’re dead
I’d hold a party now if I could
For all the ones I ever loved
But ah you, my starchild, could never come
For what’s between, that’s the world
And that’s a tinker’s cuss
That caused my wonderloss

Big Bang — Black Hole
“Oh my God, it’s full of stars . . .”


Raise me
Raise me to the saviour of your grace
Say where I could be your plaything
And hold me in the pureness of intent


“Anywhere!”
You would smile and laugh
As I, beneath “wisdom”
Account myself to joy

A kiss on her forehead ~
I can smell my way in

Accidental Sweetheart (Gioconda)

In the silence dark as this night
I watch you pinned back in your dream
I hear you chatter nonsense as you breathe
My light shows how smooth you are
Your eyelids drawn shut and your skin pulled tight
Breathing loud and smacking your lips for water

Accidental Sweetheart
Asleep, she has to be kissed
Accidental Sweetheart
One more blink and she’s missed

You are trusting to the utmost degree
Here in the limelight of my love
How soft your bare and tender arms
I must kiss you now . . .
Will you soon forget
And dream my kiss was someone else?

Accidental Sweetheart
Asleep, she has to be kissed
Accidental Sweetheart
One more blink and she’s missed


Going down little lanes together
Next day wondering why
Once only ever
Never to be so close again
Like two sticks in the river
Caught for an instant in the flow
Two sticks in the river
Ah aah aaah . . .

Subdued as your music is
I can’t share your torments and bliss
I can’t unlock the secrets of your deep
As I fear I see you far, far away
Can our love reach right through your sleep?
Unconsciously, does it even exist?

Accidental Sweetheart
Asleep, she has to be kissed
Accidental Sweetheart
One more blink and she’s missed

She had an Air (Gioconda)

She had an air of infinite mystery
Like a wild child of the sea
Coming in and ending
Almost everywhere

Told my girl I liked her belly
“You’re the place I love ~ the best”
We talked of hopes and picnic rainbows
She looked into the sunset and said:
“Will your love last, if I put it to the test?”

She had an air of infinite mystery

She went off, I found her hiding
Immediately crying
I lit a fire to warm her up
She said: “I do love you, but ~
You can’t have me, if you want me”

She had an air of infinite mystery
Like a wild child of the sea
Coming in and ending
Almost everywhere

Blessèd in spirit like the trees
Celestial cobwebs in the leaves
A ghostly ash in her hair
That all the years put there

She had an air of infinite mystery
Coming in and ending

 

All lyrics © 2023 Pete Gioconda & Three Face Music

Drawings by Pete Gioconda © 2023 Black Cat Communications



3 face music