Catherine Warner is a songwriter, lyricist, singer and cellist whose lyrics have appeared on albums selling over one million copies.
Loss and Found
Compass
Can you feel it
as you fail to fall asleep,
The fluttering near your ears
whispers "fait accompli"
Do you notice how your thirst
will not let you be?
The desert is parted
only by drinking from me
I’m circling you
in the blanched afternoons
The only direction is me
Surrender, honey
I'm all that is left
Thundering hooves trample
only the deaf
The sand in your hand
sifts into drifts of my name
It's getting closer
the stake of my claim
I will roll your thoughts
and smoke them to ashes
Your best seduction
just sputters and thrashes
I’m circling you
in the blanched afternoons
The only direction is me
Surrender, honey
I'm all that is left
Thundering hooves trample
only the deaf.
Maybe
Could be close --- Could be near
From out of nowhere... Nowhere is here.
One misstep, one false move...
But there's nothing and no one
I've got to pursue
so why do I let Nothing chase me?
Maybe everything is ok
It's almost possible everything is ok
Is it allowed, this beautiful day?
Maybe....
If I burn then I'm pure
I turn threat to allure
Vigilance at high speed
Oh the Past loves the Past
and I'm running so fast, if I stopped
would it still be behind me?
Maybe everything is ok
It's almost possible everything is ok
Is it allowed, this beautiful day?
Maybe....
What makes you feel this way?
This crazy will run you right down.
I can't make a move
without thorough approval
from ghosts who have nothing to say.
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine,
and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me,
and bend Your force to break, blow, burn,
and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me,
me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me,
never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
- John Donne c.1609
Maybe everything is ok
It's almost possible everything is ok
Is it allowed, this beautiful day?
Maybe….
Full Disaster
raving the streets
Raskolnikov numb
laying in cuts to survive
flailing the sweetest hope
being dumb will keep you alive
I’m in full disaster
I’m in full disaster
What would you say comes after?
Full Disaster
fire and logic
are weaving me chains
do you belong? all wrong
clutching at iron and rain
giving up then going on
I’m in full disaster
I’m in full disaster
What would you say comes after?
Full Disaster
she tried, I tried
suffocating,
and plans for escape
finding dead birds on the porch
self-portraits drawn
with the lens cap on
refusal is taken by force
I’m in full disaster
I’m in full disaster
What would you say comes after?
Full Disaster
I Never Lose
car keys, track of time
innocence, my place in line
self-control, a glove, a sock
luggage, or my train of thought
Not me
patience, the extra weight
sunglasses, the war, the faith
all respect, my phone, the fight
my head, my way, my appetite
Not me, I never lose
Not me, I never lose
If beggars can't be choosers
winners can't be losers
So how could you slip away?
I'm looking for a lost and found
suddenly I'm losing ground --
It's not supposed to be this way
the will to live,
some way to cope
how I dream, if I hope
a way to breath, an alibi
everything, all I desire
Not me, I never lose
Not me, I never lose
There's just one thing
just one thing
Where are you?
The Moon is Ours
What shall we do today?
The rain on the mangoes
seems to say,
"You can forget the heat
Stay in these tangled sheets"
Tomorrow will make its way
whether or not we go or stay
Nighttime melts into day
Daylight just floats away
We share the stars
The moon is ours completely
We share the stars
The moon is ours to hold onto
Swim in a deep blue dream
I follow you You follow me
A room and a bed and a breeze
Eat from the mango trees
We share the stars
The moon is ours completely
We share the stars
The moon is ours
We share the stars
The moon is ours completely
We share the stars
The moon is ours to hold onto
Not Much
I gave you more than what I owed
Girls capture rapture in thin air
When I gave up
called your bluff,
there was no one there.
It seems we both agreed to believe
you were the man you ought to be
When I stepped back
let go the slack,
I learned what hollow means.
It wouldn't take much
It would not have taken much
For you to not break my heart
It wouldn't take much
It would not have taken much
For you to not break my heart
Viewing you
as though you'd come through
And in my blind-eyed years,
you limped along
'til things went wrong,
then you disappeared.
It wouldn't take much
It would not have taken much
For you to not break my heart
It wouldn't take much
It would not have taken much
For you to not break my heart
Sundown
Here are my lipstick
and colored clothes
Here are my dancing
and painted toes.
You tell me what
You tell me how
I'm too tired
for now
Here is the winding,
the second hand
Here are the lists
of all I'd planned.
You tell me what
You tell me how
I'm too tired
for now
A bird stole my voice
A death took my choice
The sky is empty now.
The sun goes where it will
I can not keep it still
down and
down and
down
Here is the memory
I thought would stay,
The hole at the center
of every damn day
You tell me what
You tell me how
Cocktail Hour
I like to be in the cocktail time
With the cocktail rhythm
and the cocktail rhyme
Pour me a gin,
squeeze me a lime
Add a tonic,
unironic
'cause it's so damn fine
Let me introduce
a vermouthy Houdini
Call him Mr. Olive
in a dry martini
Call me Duchess Satin,
Duke and me
are speakin' Latin
I take three cherries
in my rye Manhattan
Cocktail Hour sip from a glass
Hoping that Brubeck
will make it all last
Cocktail Hour slips away fast
Hoping that Jobim
will make it all last
Potent potable arena,
cocktail waitress -
have ya seen her?
I'm a caipirinha ballerina
servin' you a soul subpoena
Despair repair
earnin' me a Croix de Guerre
Conversation elevatin'
bringin' in the debonair
Absinthe bushwhack
tracking back a Sazerac
Napoleon Cognac
warmin' up the Cossacks
Shake a White Lady,
provoke a 180
Keeping swell? I tell you well
I'm self-regulating
Cocktail Hour sip from a glass
Hoping that Brubeck
will make it all last
Cocktail Hour slips away fast
Hoping that Jobim
will make it all last
Plane
I get it
I get it
I just don't understand
how a plane stays up in the air
I know it
I learned it
I just can't understand
how it is that you're no longer here.
The world
was not meant to hold this shape,
with a hole gouged out of its side.
An unexplainable loss
I can't see across
the invisible length of your life
I try to remember
and all I can see
are some outlines and colors
I cannot perceive.
Your laugh falls away,
your urgencies fade
goddamn it I need you to stay
I get it
I get it
I just don't understand
how a plane stays up in the air
I know it
I learned it
I just can't understand
how it is that you're no longer here.
This is not right,
that's all I can tell you
The day and the night all agree.
So the world moves along
Its movement is wrong
You shouldn't be here in my song
All lyrics written by Catherine Warner, Catherine Warner Music (ASCAP)
© Catherine Warner Music. All rights reserved.
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