He Who Guards the Fire

by Dennis Liu

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lyrics

I once knew a man who sang all my commands
I followed with eager conviction

'Push me on the swing
So I may return
My life, just an instant
Left to expire...'

His words had intent
That I could not see
A well, bottomless... and so sure
To a child like me


He gave me a gun for some harvest to hunt
But inquiry blossomed with the days

I found in his back
A key to unwind
And I turned it till the song unraveled
In my hands

Left with a voice
And half-written plans
So watershed borne upon river
As rain I'll assail the land


I raise a forest full of evergreen
So his scythe can't tell time or year
What a pity this perennial fire
Can't seize my expedient gaze

As it searches for forms in the clay


How did these lines become sacred so soon?
I'd like to change their direction

Pick up the pen
Draw your portrait again
Because now I see your face from another view

Valleys I'll climb
New tracks I shall find
For the land between our hearts
Is just time made for travellin'

And if the city folk decree
This pursuit of love a joke
I shall roam the earth until I discover
Laughter that I adore


Because it is you who taught me to aspire
To chase the tails of them comets in the sky
But what if the continent that I desire
Is just a part of you long drifted away?

A lark never meant to stay


The current, I'll do without
In silence, I must shout!
But the echoes are so much more frightening to me
Than the call of any beast
Or the shadows of deceased
Because I'm afraid of what they might reveal


I don't recall when the story began
But I am not ready to fire
For I am not much
A leader of men
Nor am I the most cavalier...

Once, you moved me to be still
Bird at my windowsill

The song, evergreen
Still sings
Without you in the room

And listening is a man that I do not know

He who guards the fire that burns without coal.

credits

released October 1, 2011
Music and Lyrics by Dennis Liu

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Dennis Liu Melbourne, Australia

Born in Taipei and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau, Naarm-based singer-songwriter Dennis Liu's music charts the journeys of the body as it traverses the valleys of grief and the rivers of gratitude, with each note attuned to the most subtle turns of the heart. Guided by a hypnotic baritone voice that soothes and soars, his songs are invocations that invite you to return home to yourself. ... more

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