The defective machine
Pondered the high beams
Of the building that stood
Thru years of heavy rain and shine

It still breathed and felt
And had care for
Everything that was there

Was there a part in you
Defective too?
I'm not talking about the endless
Madness of mankind
Or maybe I am

But when I shine a light thru
This stencil, what pattern comes up?
It's important that I shine
I may be a defective machine, but even if it
Is only for me to see, to feel, to inhibit

The cogs of time and eternity turn together
But not simultaneously
Endless resources are at my disposal
Networks of underground cables

Signing off
Etching the rock

The world will look to Australia one day
That Antipodean dream
Will be bigger than it's ever seemed

With a first nations Prime Minister
To lead the way
With a new view
For a new day

Hear what I say
The world will look to Australia one day
When she grows into her own
One day, one day

A new anthem
Deep and rich
With a breath of spirit
For all our living souls

The world will listen to her speak
A new language
That will go straight to your heart
Giving you life
Turning your world upside down

Hear what I say
The world will look to Australia one day
When she grows into her own
One day, one day

This is the first day
This is the Monday  
Of my love, my love, my love
Of my love, my love, my love

Signs that meant a little
And signs that meant a lot

Turn them into everything, everything I got

We chased the night
Chased him down
Made a ceremony
In a room in a town

Signs that meant a little
And signs that meant a lot

Turn them into everything, everything I got

Outside, the emergency services are calling in the morning light
And no story of love of heartbreak I can recite
I can turn around, another day
But that wouldn't feel right

This is the first day
This is the Monday  
Of my love, my love, my love
Of my love, my love, my love
Of my love, my love, my love
Of my love, my love, my love

We heard you got out
We heard you got free
In your overall jeans
So suddenly

Above the wall that stood so high
And the barbed wire that cried and cried

Like a kite, like a plane
That feeling, they can't take away

We heard you got out
We heard you got free
In your overall jeans
So suddenly

Today's magic word was God
As I set off for work at the pool
The moon showing the beginnings of a smile

I looked at all these people
And what was it?
Day in day out?

When we were young,
I saw God in everyone
Then he/she/it, slipped away from me

Today I thought about the workers
The parents
The world and the heartlessness

And I thought that God must be dedicated
God must be dedication
To something
Day in day out

There were goals,
And then there were goals

God must be dedicated
I thought to myself
As I looked and thought about us all
The moon smiling still

God must be dedicated
And so I thought
I dedicate myself
To this
To what I do and how I live

And somewhere in it
God would be visible

My biggest regret

It wasn't paying for ***
The shame and disappointment

It wasn't hurting myself as a teenager
Causing pain, leaving unsightly scars

It wasn't staying drunk and or high
For a decade or more

It wasn't alienating myself
From everyone

It was that time at the shopping centre
When I said I'd be there to catch you
And I watched my sister close her eyes
And fall backwards
While I laughed as she hit the floor

I'm trying to fix that
That important leak in my person
I'd concrete the world's surface if I had to

I ran up Friday hill in the early morning
In the faith that it would do me good
Like I'd discovered a lifetime ago

I had a dream
It was of my mother
And I remembered the sadness in my heart
I was running to find it

All us heartbroken people
We kept each other company
For a time
Like a short film
We wrapped over ourselves

But how can I heal the world, if not myself
Make it happy, if I'm not

I was running to find it

How timid and elusive it is in this world
How quiet
Unheard, yet underestimated

My heart

I was running to find it
My sad heart
The happiest too
Running in the morning
Mourning no longer
Smiling like sunrise

I had a strange dream the other night
It was about a talking horse
Who was very musical
She was dark, black, and she talked like it was the most normal thing

There was a scene of her clapping to the waves of the ocean while she sat on a cliff
And she spoke of music's connection to God
Just simply and truthfully

She was shot by a group of boys
When she jumped into a swimming pool
16 shots in total

Up the hill
Friday Hill
To the top
Higher and higher
And then Faith
Or I'd be too late

Nature, nature, human nature

I scrolled down my news feed
There was a play of hate
The warring
Never ceased

It hits home
As it always does
You listen to the sounds of children playing in the pool
Watch them walking to school

And you think
What have I done with my hands and feet
In this great machine
Substituting someone
Close to me

Nature, nature, human nature
Tell me something about peace
Tell me something new
I haven't moved for a thousand years

The rivers are full of tears
I feel so lost
The God's are arguing in the sky
So loud
They can't hear me cry

Nature, nature, human nature
Tell me about yourself
Tell me about harmony
Tenderness and care
Because I can't find them written down anywhere

Nature, nature, human nature
Bring us together
From the day until night
Take me in your arms
Wake me up and put me to sleep

Nature, nature, human nature
I know you are there
I know you are everywhere
Is there a chord I can play
So that you can hear me?

After about a thousand days
It's not that they are all the same
But they are
So you have to put your best foot forward
With as much friendship and love
As you ever will have

The young cat at my foot sleeping
So innocent
He doesn't know
That tomorrow
I could get up, disappear and go

Juliet is at the door
Juliet wants to know more
She wants the details of the house
What's inside
Behind the windows

She has a lovely smile
I was a singing a wonderful song
And there she was a listening
All curious
With her bag over her shoulder
And her hair behind her ear

She tells me about her spouse
I tell her about the house
Every inch, every detail
Every secret a man can keep

She says she'll be back
It was nice to meet
She lives next door
But I never did see her anymore

Just a letter from the land lord
About his many eyes
And how our tenancy had shortened
To one week
No more

I see what you have there
You said you were so different
But not so

It shows
What are you doing what that anyway?
I'm not sure you really know

All I can say is to keep going
To the very end
Till its all out
All out in the open

And then you'll know



You ask yourself where freedom went
On making some, you're hell bent
Cavemen walk the earth tomorrow
Not yesterday
Didn't you know?


All I can say is to keep going
To the very end
Till its all out
All out in the open

And then you'll know


You said you could get us out of this mess
But there you were covered in it
There it was under your car
As you drove along, in clear view
How much gas do you have?

All I can say is to keep going
To the very end
Till its all out
All out in the open

And then you'll know

I’m at a party,  I have a party hat on and a sparkler in my hand, popping and bright
And everyone is deliberately not making eye contact with me

4 boys in the pool, wrestling
And beside them a family of three
Dad, mum and girl of about 6

Getting into the raucousness of it
The family are wresting and swimming around
A pink ball between the three

Later the girl is just away from mum and dad, rubbing her eyes
And dad tackles mum a little
Overexcited

And mum says don't hold me like that
And affectionate dad comes round behind her

The 3 unite, mum checks on daughter

Some other mum saw me
As I went daydreaming
"That's what you want!"

I didn't look directly at the family as they left the pool
Just in the corner of my eye
As mum put on her slippers and walked away

Is there a song
to right my wrongs
To set todays foot
Strong?

Cos I will be back
Where nothing matters again
I forgot, again
And again

Is there a song
To say that I care?
That I will be there
That I won't disappear
Like the way of things
Like flesh
Holding things too wide and heavy?

Am I wrong to think there is?
What about now?

I give to it the truth of my own freedom
My eternal reach for it

Cos I know I'll be back here
Where we know
Black inside and out
No-one to believe in
Only hard truths
Weak arms
Weak legs

Lady Bird


We got home in the early morning
The after party on the boat was pretty pathetic
But the night, venue and music itself was tip-top
It's been a long time since I've been out on drugs
And it won't be the last

I went with Ahmet, my legend of a friend and housemate
We've booked ourselves for another next month, but that's the last one ever! I promise!

So I was sitting in the conservatory alone
In the morning sun
And I notice a Grand Lady Bird singing
I close my eyes and listen
We are all listening to her

They are definite phrases
Eloquent and heavy with her touch and emotion
Sighs of praise from the older women next door
I don't even speak her language
But she is singing her best, her most beautiful
And we are all pinned on her

Crash BANG!
The noisy big bird of a ***** crashed into the conservatory ceiling
And squarks like a rude fat idiot
Quiet, settle
He better not make another noise, fat ****

Lady Bird begins out of no-where
3 notes
She stops

We are all supporting her on, in our minds

The not such a good singing little supporter breaks into his best song
No, no, no, no says Elegant loving Lady bird
It carries on a bit, this back and forth, a bit of comedy
No, ahhh, no, ahhhh, no...

Somewhere in this I'd forgot to mention
Lady Bird was angry at me
I'd somehow, unknowingly got her attention
And she was reproaching me
I picked myself out of all the surrounds to be the one that Lady Bird was getting angry at
And I was listening so intently to her song
So you can imagine how quickly I wanted to sink and hide from her view

But later I did get to speak with her
I asked her if I should continue singing
She said yes it was good, and this is from her!
To go for it
But be smart......

So this is the story about Lady Bird in our back yard
I'll try to play with her next time, on the guitar
Let's see, she is out there

I'll run the day down
The one day that separates life and death

I'll chase the sun across the sky
And smoke all the stars in my pipe

It's one day
That separates life and death

One Day

One Day

One Day

On her arm is written
"A longing for home"
In her native tongue
Like an amber coloured sun

But she has big soft eyes
And everything else
And big lips I've got to kiss

One night, tonight
In a road of many nights
How many?
We don't know

So let's smile and touch
Warm and close
Hot and most

She lets it all hang out
Throwing her hair everywhere
There's no time to lose
No time to waste

The amber coloured sun
Watching over us, having fun
That longing for home
Ready as the air when you wake up
On the minds of everyone

A bird flew into the shed
While I was exercising

It must have been curious
Wanting warmth

So I let him stay

I went inside had lunch
Then thought to make him a warm box

Bought some worms
Delivered tomorrow

I put him in the box
Maybe I was careless

I left him there
It's not yet summer,

It's still cold

So I went back to check later
Turned on the lights

And found him in the corner
He was wet

I dropped him, reacting
Checking my hands for blood

It must have been wee
Or tears

He was dead

I buried him
With my pick axe

In the near dark
The cold backyard

Alive and Dead in a day

If that ever happens again
I'll bring it inside

I'm getting my life together

Almost cruising after the bumpy road

Tomorrow I don't know



Sometimes I think I can't do it

A feeling of helplessness

But I see thru it


I'm calmer or smarter these days

But I can't be sure

And the last few nights I've dreamt of fighting and women

Soft, loud


So even my dreams are noisy and restless

As I try to focus

To see it thru



I'm finally able, able as I'll ever be, consistently

My imagination is for these days

This new shell
I've made, made as big as the world

It feels hollow inside
I try to fill it up with words, songs
And pictures

It shines, gets bigger everytime

Where will I take it?

She stands beside the wheel, it is the wheel of life  
She has the same face as my mother

Dress
Seeds
That place I ran from

A sullen voice, a lonely swift
Who's time is it now
To sing for joy?

I see you everywhere
Every coloured skin
In tenderness and care

I've found a den to hibernate
I want to tell you what I see
Before it's too late again

The light of God
It's true
True as the sky is blue

Funny how these bridges hold
With no-where to plant the otherside
Building into the sky
An open road
The only way I've got to go

Over the lavender fields
The lavender dreams
The lavender bandages
Removed and healed

I used to be beautiful

I remember magic everywhere
As if the earth were newly cut open

I used to not think twice
But these things you can lose overnight

I used to be brave
But had no idea

There was so much love
But I was just letting go

Spring you mighty thing
I'm down here looking up at you

I want to evaporate into your blue
And rain again
Good as new

What a beautiful memory
She'd come to find me
To sort that out
Her little boy storming off in anger
That terracotta courtyard
Under a blue sky
Just to laugh and smile
And set the day right

Dry your eyes
I'm coming home
Fly your fabric soul
I'm running down the road

All your worry
And the things you can't change
Don't be afraid
I'm coming home

You thought I'd disappeared
But faith wants me here
You thought I didn't care
But I was always there

Tie your hair to the side
I'm coming home
Let Spring arrive
I'm running fast thru the cold

New jealousy, new grace
A new truth and place
Open your heart
I'm coming home

Each day the animal bites
He wants to hold me down tight
But I'm music now
Dancing like a brave kite

Dry your eyes
I'm coming home
Fly your fabric soul
I'm running down the road

Nothing's going to stop me
I'm coming home
I'm coming home

There are few places left
Said the gardener
As she swept leaves under the apple tree

But no-one is in control of mystery
It stands here
Just like you and me

Bring your love to me
Said the heart
With it I become visible
I go from being lost to being found
Bring your love to me
Don't turn around

The world moves on stagnant water and breathes stale air
We are tied down to it
There is no rest
And even less

And before you know it
The people you love
Will be gone

Bring your love to me
Said the body
I want to tell you
How grateful I am
Bring your love to me
I don't want to miss my chance

Bring your love to me
Said the mind
I need it to grow
I need it to climb
It is the key ingredient, every time
Bring your love to me
Don't leave me behind

Bring your love to me
The only gift
And true mechanism
Bring it to me first
Bring your love to me

Melbourne to London
Taking the flight again
For singing and songs
And to see where life takes me


The first time I did this flight
Would have been when I was a child
My twin sisters still babies
My parents setting up our lives in Australia
Finding work as nurses

I remember the simple housing
Playing army figurines with my mother on the old carpet
And the Golden retriever who jumped the fence and played with dad



Melbourne to London
Taking the flight again
For singing and songs
And to see where life takes me



School and growing up was hard
There was always a bit of turmoil and fighting in the house
Dad got me a bass
Chris got me a guitar
I sang because I needed it

I never finished university
I wanted to play in bands

I met people who were my friends
But there were some jealousies
I kept on in a rage
Pride and self respect wouldn't come till later in life



Melbourne to London
Taking the flight again
For singing and songs
And to see where life takes me



Where I grew up is beautiful
The surrounding bush
The way my mum keeps the garden
Full of flowers, kumquat and apple trees
It's a paradise I don't want to leave
I don't want her to leave

My sisters are young beautiful mother's now
The cutest kids with a head start in life
I'm largely silent around them
My guitar stays in it's case
I still need to find my place
I still want to surprise everyone as Uncle James



Wide expanses, yellow fields in the sun
Across the ocean
Time differences
To smaller plots of land
And the spill of industry
I've come here to make the puzzle of my life fit together
With a belief I've always had in myself
That only used to be an idea

Each day a year

Away from you

The love that brought me back



Outsaw me

Ran me out

Gave to me

More than I could myself



It's snowing this morning

Primavera is on my lips

The new day

And magic


I'm laughing

Creeping across the dark

I'm forever grateful

Now I can see


Each day a year

Away from you

The love that brought me back



Outsaw me

Ran me out

Gave to me

More than I could myself

I've broken down like a little girl

But there's another girl flying high thru the sky
Wielding her sword of freedom
The one she fought every day for

And another who has set up a house
With two more girls in it
Each of them
With an executive mark

But I've broken down like a little girl
Looking and feeling all sad

And all my sadness is in my feet
and I can't move
In my head and I can't think

But the minute it stops
I'll be a man again

And I'll please that little girl

I know at some point
We have to stop

Stop in the body
And let our imaginations take flight

Inhabiting eternities
Endlessnesses

But I want to get as close as possible

Music will save everyone

Because my dear child
There will always be a war somewhere

And it may even come close one day
Who knows which route insanity takes

But music will be there too

There will still be celebrations
Festivals and a reason to get together


War will always be there
The way the world is made to sustain it may never change
It has and will always affect us

But music will always be there

And it will save everyone

It will go unexpected
And underestimated
But you shouldn't

Because music will save everyone

Eternal
Crush my tree
Fantasy
Will you marry me
Or just kiss me?

In love every time
Doesn't grow old
Been all this time

Everytime
A surprise
I'm scared to look into her eyes
Are you there?

Friends for life
The way she cares
Her eyes, nature, body and hair
It's all there

Look at the sky
She said that morning of the afterparty
God made the skies, said the song
To reach for
It could be freedom,
but she is cute too

Eternal
Crush my tree
Fantasy
Will you marry me
Or just kiss me?

Desire went walking down the street
Open sandals around bare feet


The chains and bolts snapped and buckled
Ropes tore exploding tiny explosions
The lawmaker looked on keenly
Invoking words of power that stood fixed into the cold stone


Desire moved with a steady intent
Like the sun rising under the sea


I want to kiss you inside of your mind
On this happening of you and I


We all watched, taking into account the circumstance
Thought of the children of tomorrow
The way we came and what it made


Taboo and touch
Gathered invisible words and sounds
Making themselves heard
Desire would come to stay
The bed was already made


I want to kiss you inside of your mind
On this happening of you and I

Her name was Serenity
She's a recurring theme
She drew everyone's attention
Because she walked around completely naked


I saw her first at university
Studying poetry

Then around the people and the music
The warehouses and the art



I saw her in the red light district too
Like me, she must have been two people too

She must have worked her way up, it seemed
And didn't have to take her clothes off
She was all clad in black
We said hello, making eye contact



Her name was Serenity
She's a recurring theme


I saw her at a festival, we kissed and she showed me things for free
It was like a bad dream





Her name was Serenity
She's a recurring theme

And there she is again
Smiling, she's in a good place
And I'm here too
Who was it? Who did that to us?
It was anybody's game

Like all artistic hearts, we felt that responsibility


Her name was Serenity
She's a recurring theme

I want some honesty, some success
I see pictures of a girl who smiled at me 20 years ago
She looks like success
Did I get lost?
Trying to make it?
I feel I haven't sung before,
Never written a song
Never played guitar
I feel like all the things that have put me together
Have just fallen like a stack of sticks

Everyone looks so successful around me
Cars and babies, books and music recordings

I just prayed for help
I could run around the city
Just one more time

When will I land?
I thought life got easier
The steam train of my mind
Is running hot

I must be like a box of fireworks
There's only so much preparation you can do
Before you explode

Round and round I go

I am
As I am
No more
No less
And today
It will do

Clouds pass each other
Kissing like Venn diagrams

Pin his tail
The butterfly too
Use what they were saying
the both of them too

Buildings touch the sky
But 10 times more stand behind the eye
The paths shine
I've walk them a million times

Try to catch me
Locate me
Fascinate and dissect me
Put me on display
For the crowds of imagined friends
Who aren't there

I'll collapse by the end of this bleep
Something immortal
Better than sleep

Hot day, cooling down
Cold shower
Chill

Wordless, the cooking's all done
Rested
Good to be sitting
Curtains partially open
Shadowy lighted room
Clouds behind curtains
It's like what siesta time would be
A time for talking, no
A time where no talking is ok
The peaceful coming of day's end
Mum's quietly moving around the cupboards in the kitchen
The hard-drive is humming away
A car just drive down the court
My feet warm against the touch of wood
No disruptions

Love is in the mind
Love is the only essential ingredient for growth

Maybe something of the old dreams have died
It's the end
And we are on the other side
Now we can be free
Not a moment too soon

Bloom without ropes that bind
But with dance
With water
With being
With truth

Maybe something of the old dreams have died
The cavernous shell
Is cast aside
The world is bigger still
It didn't wait
And it wont

Your memories have tied you in remembrance
You can't deny the hollowness of your life
The distance of it

It's time to find your truth
To be selfish
To not want to be the world
But to be here

Maybe something of the old dreams have died
And die they will again
Like they are meant to

I'm peering with a new silence
A discerning silence
I wait for sound

Dreams are coming and going
Up and down the shore

What's wrong is right
It's life
If it's alright, it's alright

Let me take your mind off the storm
And the flood that's come thru the room
Left everything in a mess


One light
In a crowded room
And I wasn't so frightened, I wasn't so lost

One day
I won't be here to play this guitar
The rain I will no longer hear
The people I love will have come and gone

The churches
The tribes
The great tomes of mankind
Can't tell me where

And there will be a hole in my heart
There will be a hole in yours

There's a pink elephant
Walking across the continents
He's bigger than the sun
And all the stars that peer like newborn children

He's got places he likes to visit
Places he likes to drink and eat

Songs he likes to sing
And people he likes to meet

I look at him
His trunk like a question mark
He is there at every breath
Walking across the continent
Visible thru every window

But for the skies there are no fences facing
The crow speaks into the blue openness
I don't have to be anybody else here

Eucalypts hang lazily
This part of the earth bends into the sun
Its natural inclination

There are no labels
The cupped hands that held the rains are still there
They can't be bought or sold

I feel the press and the crowd
The roof-blown churches
The new religion loud
Where to now?

Well, just as you are

Into this landscape
Changing with the seasons
Falling and rising

When I'm in the atelier of my mind
I return to that feeling
Of not being able to run away and escape

I could be in the middle of a fair in Buenos Aires

It could be a National day of Thanks

There could be sunlight pouring through the house

And there I am

So a lament for that which always struck me
about singers of songs

Why so sad? So serious? I'd ask

A Lament, and lamentable sounds
And willow trees swaying lugubriously

A Lament, no smiling allowed
We wouldn't want to cheapen something so profound

I feel I'm moving against the current
Time and his characters
Fate and her fire
Trying to be infinity in a spot

Trying to make someone
With character
With fire
Who will stand the test of time

There is no button for me
Fast-forward, rewind
I'm yet to sing a song
By the campfire

The one that keeps burning
With stories and wonder
The one that can't be put out
The one I know is there

When I'm stuck in the train door
With my guitar
You're there running to help
Pulling at the doors
I look for you in the crowd
I look for you in a new town
And I know you're there behind me
I can hear your braided hair
Thankyou

Cool calm killer
Calm and considered
But everyone's got a knife
To carve a smile into this black
Where's your's?

The weight of it
Dropping like a dead planet
Find it
Find it
Test it, try it

One good **** is a **** for us all!