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Affirmation Cities

by WAYNE HALFPENNY

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1.
Second Life 01:48
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Second Life -------------------- Always try to build a second life Why have one when two can be created Take the raw materials of the first Construct monuments to the profound beauty hidden within the cocoon And while you'll never see it blossom, live or bloom Shape a fitting legacy for all those things you cherish Let all humanity rejoice in the opportunity you corralled Be so much more than a bower bird collecting pretty things The here and now will pass and be forgotten history Grab today by the scruff Turn it into tomorrow's inspiration perspiration elation Just do it with gladness and goodness in your heart But above the rest and your time to go Just do that thing that thing of wonderment today Will soon be commonplace and vernacular yet always spectacular And not one wit will it matter if they call your name off the honour roll The effect of what you did is too profound and huge It dwarfs the artist of the action Brush strokes matter more its light shines across the shadows and corners history has room for it Start your second life vigorously Do it now Do it always
2.
The Golden Bowl 02:08
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The Golden Bowl ------------------------ Second-hand shops contain eternal mysteries I love to pick over life's leftovers and wonder about the permanence of ownership So where did it come from? A happy home laughter lorn? or something sinisterly? Do we ever really own anything or anyone or are we just memory custodians? Keepers of the key for a little time Perhaps it's all a pretty deceit like falling in love or homecoming joy or taking hour long baths scented candles (from the shop) puffing up our deflated selves for a little time Who owned this Knick knack? this wigwam for a goose's bridle? Must have been useful once Never know where or when I might need it It will look cool and I have just the spot And the price? well what is the price of happiness? The golden bowl with the tiny crack Is as useful as what you put in it Flowers Fruit Christmas lollies Ephemeral but sweet Kind of like our petty lives The world around us has its trials My father once said, "you only get out what you put in" The bough of the heavens can cover us with God given light or drown our homes with sin ... But I never choose perfection anyway The golden bowl with the tiny crack is coming back home with me
3.
I snatched myself back 03:11
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I Snatched Myself Back ------------------------------ I snatched myself back from the jaws of death I didn't want to go there just yet Maybe tomorrow I could put it off Tell him to come back another day When my fridge was well and truly stocked With the promises and kisses of another day Come back then, Old man And we'll play chess in the mall You can be black and I'll be white And I'll wipe the board clean with one lonely knight We'll discuss the weather and sad state of political nonsense Then When my mind is in the right place Any place other than now I snatched myself back from the jaws of leaving I had far too much to say and too little time for grieving Let's way lay the plans and put those wilting flowers on the shelf In fact, throw them away They've had their time Best not remind me of this past beautiful summer Just say it's been nice knowing you and all that jazz And bugger off Leave me alone I know you've been cheating all along There's the door Old man And take your shovel with you I snatched myself back from the joys of knowing A planned reunion rarely comes off There's always some relative or another Who wants to kick the can the other way Stuff things up and make a right royal cock of it And then there's you I've got to deal with Standing like a broke down soldier in the corner nursing your drink and nothing at all to say You are a smug one aren't you Think you can pull the rug from under me We'll see We'll see I snatched myself back from the jaws of death And laughed right in his goddam ugly face See I told you so We'll discuss it in the morning
4.
These eyes of hers 01:27
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These Eyes of Hers ------------------------- These eyes of hers Have bewitched me before Frozen me in my tracks Left spinning on a pinhead Drew me into a lake placid blue To drown She said ultimately everything will be in the past And how important ultimately is it Just write what you are And love me Love me now No plans for these moments Just stand willing where X marks the floor Make like a bullseye Pray for a direct hit Pray for a direct hit The truth is now and her eyes speak for me At long last The past
5.
Wallsend 02:05
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Wallsend -------------- To say either was my plan When neither would ever do Either we wind back to the start Or I'm afraid again we're through Just castrate these thoughts of leaving Throw them to the ditch Both you and I know by now Which side of love is which Just stand Stand up Just stand up for the status quo I'll let you redesign the wall Let you win a couple of points or so Never bend Walled in until Wallsend   Stop being a victim stand up Take control of yourself Lord knows I would do it too Walk those words back to the start Cast them out again Thieves and robbers beset me Just because I took the bait and left the hook hanging in my chi Just stand Stand up Drag your sorry feet from the shadow of contrition And remember those people who put you here If you stay, it is all your doing If you choose to stay
6.
Nightingale 01:50
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Nightingale ---------------- Nightingale nurse tucks hospital corners into the edges of my dreams Neat as a pin Sharp as a tack Origami shapes rectangle windows monitor squares And your lovely face It must be drugs that made me say those things With two days left to the springing of winter The reluctant fall of summer But you, my dear, will fly right through the succulent annuals And will plot a weaving course for that remote seduced island Where we will kiss away the sand from our eyelids And await the crossing of Euphrates   A smiling procession Anne Laura Bev Raphael Checking instruments marking charts God knows what direction we are sailing Just a good night sleep is all I need Where the shallows of my breathing wash up on a distant shore Where our footprints will mark the golden sand for a time A sad reminder of what was I search for a future hazed in the sun As it sinks its bloody eye into the moon held sea Dancing No longer trapped I'll be walking out under my own steam
7.
Singing Fences 02:32
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Singing Fences --------------------- Out here fence lines bound round the horizon Gallop in a strange demented heat dance Wires pulsate and shudder Cryptically Push against lively heated molecules Ducted and rising A harmonising thrum backing soloing crows Acclaimed Divas of the plains What voices are these? Black ornaments hanging from a listless breeze? Time suspended Largely irrelevant Point of sun sky crossed means plenty Speaks more than the boundary rider's high slung song Traditional elders understand this Bent to the spirit of the rainbow serpent Curved distant horizon  Rhythm of cicadas and geckos line banks of a lifeless creek A slumbering city Waiting lifeblood The roar of rushing enzymes Sculpting story boards upon ancient stone History markers signal you'll never feel alone Camp beneath gnarled charcoal gidgee as gentle night breeze plucks at strings Conductive air And what amphitheatre is this? Candles on high Punching holes through billy tea darkness Out here a percussive chamber work Sculthorpe edgy Wiry Probably in D flat Vibrations of a timeless land
8.
Velocity 04:08
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Velocity -------------- 1) Hummingbird Time ---------------------- What is it about the young What compels them to always flitter flutter away Always in a hurry to be someplace else? I wrestle with that dark space surrounding me Emptiness left longing for her company But I fill these vacant sacks instead with the musing of an old man Tied off inevitable, slow of movement Tired Shuffling from room to lonely room Counting time as the kitchen clock drones on and on and on ... She will return, I tell myself And her bright smile will once again cast out these shadows What is it about the young So careless free and wild hovering over fields of hedgerow hope The world is welcoming her Wide eyed and innocent as a spring wound back to zero Yet miss her I will Sentimental old fool never ventured past that white picket fence Lived a life through words seeded and virulent Always circling over the same bland patch But she will return on the wings of blessed fortune And wait a time before alighting again   2) If Shakespeare ------------------------- If Shakespeare ambled round today Would he scratch out his musings With a feather quill Draw inspiration from an overflowing inkwell Cause that's what he knew Old habits die hard you know Would he turn out at the barracks For a tankard or three and carouse with the bard boys until the publican poured them all out on the street Cause that's how you really live Old friendships tied to the mast of the frigate frozen in the bay I am betting a thousand gilders he wouldn't forsake his times But invent a future he would never get to see And that's the real meaning, you know, of this whole disenchanted thing The one where imagination plants the forests of tomorrow   All artists draw their meticulous verse from the wintry veins Of gas lit snow dredged back street lanes Love hearts on frosty panes The pipe lit from the hearth Lips pursed Breathing rings into a veritable furnace That's what I would expect to see When Shakespeare projects himself into the centre of attention In this crowded well-oiled pub With its garrulous patrons Taking shouts to skol the schooners What a strange and interesting man When he talks as he offhand does often and verily Merrily verily I can't understand a bloody word he says Pooncey showboat skite So, he probably should have stayed at home tonight And left me to my reading   3) Alone Again? ---------------------- She said to me "do you want to be alone?" I said "No! Who the fuck wants to be alone?"
9.
Deep in the heart of winter 02:47
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Deep in the heart of winter ---------------------------------- I have never seen the snow fall So, I guess I have never really lived But I never cause to doubt it Pause a while Just softly believe The pictures and the postcards falling Idyllic leavening Cast as multicoloured crystals Filtered and dappled among the firs Wings matted dank dark mattered Cast as shards of thought Across the forest floor Casket depth in snow Deep in the heart of winter If I touch it will it disappear Fleeting Ephemeral If Thomas never questioned The word Heavy parched as it passed his lips What would be the point of all his suffering? Fell too fast Laws Blanketing cosseting Filling every crack and crevice Mattered Passed on from traveller to lonely travellers Traipsing knee deep in cold wet Bone hugging Cold Up to our armpits in barren beauty Deep in the heart of winter Here today gone tomorrow Melt Silence spreads   I have seen the storms roll in Savage and directed Cast from the iron will of summer Tearing the roofs from their moorings And bobbing the boats on the bay As six packs torn from their Eskys The last throes of the beast as she fights the inevitable Choking on the fumes of a summer haze Strewn across the afternoon commute It sure made a believer of me But left me cold and longing for the long shadows of winter I have never seen the snow fall So, I guess I have never really lived
10.
Port Arthur 03:48
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Port Arthur --------------- 1 --- crack caught in the crossfire of sunlight through clouds columns of decaying granite - ruins laid waste by a gestating day lonely wolf silhouette dangerous against a peaceful yet troubled background spreading evil - richer than a rosette of blood but how to crack the mind of madness incarnate? crack A kernel of sharp-edged insanity blue metal soulless machine glinting in the newborn rays of sunrise over Port Arthur where all the trapped and screaming faces merge into the black heart of one who moves in the shadow of man II --- such are days which start in beauty green lawns manicured merge into fragrant blue skies and throngs of the living spread their picnics for the last supper as children frolic like wispy wind and stir eternal the haunted forgotten wrecks of humanity lurking a ways up the hill such are days which start in beauty and rollercoaster into wide-eyed fear for who could guess the mind of a madman as he stalks his shadow   III --- so where are thou from oh son of man? modern day messiah of discontent muttering old man of broken teeth living with the rats and refuse of a society which groans under the weight of self-satisfaction fixating on endless re-runs of Rambo toting icons as they spit their venom across an empty screen - softly glowing infusing spirit into the son of man he'll sleep well tonight   IV --- what history can spawn such horror precise calculating gunning down shadows as they spill to red innocents spread like automatic spray splashed against a bloodied sky suffer the children for they shall be shot point blank ... and stop the timeline for all is sickly quiet stillness descends as history repeats the tabloid story and pictures the son of man as a child
11.
The Projectionist 03:17
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The Projectionist -------------------- A. --- I'm finding a new excitement Swept back to the corners of my mind The universe of living memory Flashes of consciousness Flicker in and out Willow-the-wisps of inspiration lit from the Maker Who stands above the laws of nature, goddamn it He is the big guy in charge The Kahuna The projectionist of moving realities Loading the reels one by one Sequentially onto the spindle Extracting the juice Every last drop from countless distracted viewings   Be. ---- To the glorious dead One of those news reel deals The stoic American chewing on grandpa's pipe Revelling his part in the Great War Seen 'em come and go Shell fire shrapnel flickering and flitting at the front Lord have mercy on the heroes projected on screens Laid up behind hospital curtains Reading Lord Tennyson Drawing breath between the lines You'll be just fine Tum te tum te tum te taa   See. ------ If you experience it enough it becomes your pin hole of truth A collection trapped in a celluloid prison Amber chains Light shining Pardoned by the passing The projectionist knows all this and more Punches the stubs at the door Knocks the popcorn from your hands going in for the final kiss Closing credits roll Lights fade up Take your sorry arse and wander home all alone Leaving alone? Unlit byways tonight? Oh yes, you'll leave on your own alright
12.
Sometimes I am just glad to be alive 02:07
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Sometimes I am just glad to be alive ------------------------------------------- Sometimes I am just glad to be alive Sucking it all in Breathing out these subtle shaded demons that possess me Sometimes I sit on the bench at the edge of the wetlands Poking at my phone as I listen to the orchestra of bird life and the drone of cars and trucks Humans going places behind me Sometimes I eyeball my surroundings uncovered by the mid-morning sun And glance away from the mother and her child riding their bikes Along the pathway Fringe dwellers It's way too precious to make eye contact It's way way too ...   When you've sniffed around the corners of hell and shaken hands with those things that don't bring comfort When you've come back from some foreign land and escaped the trappings of travel Sprayed them all off Journeyed out beyond the edges of the railcars and city burlesque And found a tree in a park where nobody cares much to go And you really rest your war-torn body and mind Adjust your set on a vista heard unseen You will discover just how precious it all is And you too will be glad to be alive
13.
Precious Life 00:57
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Precious Life ------------------- Try as I might I just can't push this precious life Soon it will be worthless shit if I don't try just a little bit Too bad I'm feeling lazy Perhaps hazy crazy ups-a-daisy There's a voice hollering inside To let this day slide for me to crawl and hide When this precious life is out the door I won't need to worry anymore
14.
Icarus on the sun 01:36
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Icarus on the sun ----------------------- Fear is not something you place in a corner and wonder about It creeps up on you Envelopes you And if you were to take the time to capture it and stroke its soft belly Make it really purr It might just put away its snarling sharp teeth And sink calmly into you Invite you on a strange journey to someplace deep within I can't share too much It's a personal taste Could be a chocolate waterfall or cascades of pain Or a coalition of forthright words Just know that strength comes in storm fronts Flattening every little thing in its path And that the rain that follows Will be as sweet and as clear as the truth When you first cried in amazement Leaving behind the safety of the ledge Leaving On an endless flight as Icarus on the sun

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Audio anthology and extras including full *.PDF book and selected video

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released October 14, 2020

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WAYNE HALFPENNY image

WAYNE HALFPENNY Redcliffe, Australia

I am an Australian singer-songwriter and I have an ever-growing collection of albums, EPs, and singles available on all the major streaming platforms under my own name.

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