Sawdust & Diamonds

Capo on 3rd Fret 

Em7             C9   
From the top of the flight 
Em7             C9   
Of the wide white stairs 
Em7             C9   
Through the rest of my life 
Em7             C9   
Do you wait for me there? 

Em7             C9   
There's a bell in my ears 
Em7             C9   
There's the wide white roar 
Em7             C9   
Drop a bell down the stairs 
Em7             C9   
Hear it fall forever mor
Em7             C9   
Hear it fall forevermore 

G/D             Em7

G/D             Em7
Drop a bell off of the dock 
G/D             Em7
Blot it out in the sea 
G/D             Em7
Drowning mute as a rock 
G/D             Em7
sounding mutiny 

G/D                     
There's a light in the wings, hits this system of strings, 
                            Em7
from the side while they swing; 
See the wires, the wires, the wires. 



G/D     
And the articulation in our elbows and knees 
Em7
Makes us buckle and we couple in endless increase  
As the audience admires  

G/D 
And the little white dove 
Made with love, made with love 
Em7 
Made with glue and a glove and some pliers 

G/D 
Swings a low sickle arc from its perch in the dark 
Em7 
Settle down, settle down my desire 

D
And the moment I slept 
C                       G
I was swept up in a terrible tremor 
D                               C
Though no longer bereft, how I shook 
                 Em7
And i couldn't remember 
D
And then the furthermost shake 
Am
Drove a murdering stake in 
C               Em7             G
And cleft me right down through my center 
D
And I shouldn't say so 
C                       Em7
But I know that it was then or never 


G/D             Em7
Push me back into a tree 
G/D             Em7
Bind my buttons with salt 
G/D             Em7
Fill my long ears with bees 
G/D             
Braying 'please, please, please, 
                Em7
Oh you ought not! 
No you ought not!' 

G/D 
And then the system of strings tugs on the tip of my wings 
                             Em7
Cut from cardboard and old magazines 
Makes me warble and rise like a sparrow. 

G/D 
And in the place where I stood 
There is a circle of wood 
                         Em7
A quarter to which you chop and you stack in your barrow 

G/D 
And it is terribly good 
To carry water and chop wood 
                          Em7
Streaked with soot, heavy booted and wild-eyed 

G/D 
As I crash through the rafters 
And the ropes and the pulleys trail after 
                                        Em7
And the holiest, holiest belfry burns sky high 


D
And then a slow lip of fire 
C9                      G       
Moves across the prairie with precision 
D                                       C9
While somewhere with your pliers and glue 
                                     Em7        
You make your first incision 
D                       A
And in a moment of almost unbearable vision 
C9                      Em7                     G
Doubled over with the hunger of lions 
D
'Hold me close', cooed the dove 
          C9                            Em7
Who was stuffed now with sawdust and diamonds 

Em7             D                               G

A4      C       G
I wanted to say 'why the long face?' 
A4           C9                         G
Sparrow perch and play songs of long face 
A4        C9            G
Burro buck and bray songs of long face 
                     Am                 C9   
Sings 'i will swallow your sadness and eat your cold clay 
G
Just to lift your long face 
A4                              C9   
And though it may be madness, I will take to the grave 
G
Your precious long face 
A4                                      C9   
& though our bones they may break & our souls separate 
G
Why the long face?  
                        A4              C9   
And though our bodies recoil from the grip of the soil 
G
Why the long face? 


G/D                             Em7
In the trough of the waves 
G/D                             Em7
Which are pawing like dogs 
G/D                             Em7
Pitch we, pale-faced and grave 
G/D                             Em7
As I write in my log. 
G/D                             Em7
Then I hear a noise from the hull 
G/D                             Em7
Seven days out to sea 
G/D                             Em7
And it is the damnable bell 
G/D                             
And it tolls, I believe, that it tolls 
              Em7
It tolls for me!         
And it tolls for me! 

G/D                             
And though my wrists and my waist 
Seem so easy to break 
              Em7
Still my dear I would've walked you to the edge of the water 

G/D                             
And they will recognize all the lines of your face 
              Em7
In the face of the daughter, of the daughter, of my daughter 

G/D                             
And darling we will be fine 
But what was yours and mine 
Em7 
Appears to be a sandcastle that the gibbering wave takes 

G/D                             
But if it's all just the same 
Then say my name, say my name, 
Em7 
in the morning so that i know when the wave breaks 

D
I wasn't born of a whistle 
C                       G
Or milked from a thistle at twilight 
D
No, i was all horns and thorns 
                    C                                   Em7
Sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright 
D                       A4  
So enough of this terror we deserve to know light 
C               Em7             G
And grow evermore lighter and lighter 
D               
You would have seen me through 
C               Em7
But I could not undo that desire 

D       C       Em7
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh desire 
D       C       Em7
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh desire 
D       C       Em7
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh desire  

Em7             C9   
From the top of the flight 
Em7             C9   
Of the wide white stairs 
Em7             C9   
Through the rest of my life 
Em7             C9   
Do you wait for me there?