The Sea and The Bells

| Cameron Wilson

  1. First Movement

Hour by hour, the day does not pass
It passes sadness by sadness
Time does not wrinkle, it doesn’t run out
Sea, the sea says, without rest
Earth, the Earth says: Man waits
And only his bell rings above the others
Keeping in its emptiness the implacable silence
That will be parcelled out when its metallic tongue rises, wave after wave…
Once I had so much
Walking on my knees through the world
Here, naked, I have nothing more than the stark noon of the sea, and one bell…
They give me their voice to feel the pain and their warning to stop me
This happens to everybody…
Space goes on…The Sea lives…The Bells exist.

2. I am Grateful Violins

I am grateful violins
For this day of four chords
Pure is the sound of the sky
The blue voice of air

3. This Broken Bell

This broken bell
Still wants to sing
The metal now is green
The color of woods this bell
Color of water in stone pools in the forest
Color of days in the leaves
The bronze cracked and green
The bell with its mouth open to the ground and sleeping
Was entangled in bindweed
And the hard golden color of the bronze
Turned the color of a frog
It was the hands of water
The dampness of the coast dealt green to the metal
And tenderness to the bell
This broken bell
Miserable in the rude thicket of my wild garden
Green bell wounded
Its scars immersed in the grass
It calls to no one any more
No one gathers around its green goblet
Except one butterfly that flutters one the fallen metal and flies off
On broken wings

4. Never an Illness

Never an illness nor the absence of grandeur
No nothing is able to kill the best in us that kindness dear sir
We are afflicted with
Beautiful is the flower of man his conduct
And every door opens on the beautiful truth and never hides treacherous whispers
I always gained something from making my self better
Better than I am better than I was
That most subtle citation
To recover some lost petal of the sadness inherited
To search once more for the light that sings
Inside of me the unwavering light

5. Everybody was Asking Me When I Leave

Everybody was asking me when I leave
When am I going to go
It seems one of us had secretly sealed a terrifying contract
I must leave anyway I can for somewhere else
Though I don’t want to go anywhere!
My friends I’m not going
I’m from Inquique
I’m from the black vines of Parral
From the water of Temuco
From the slender land
And I am here

6. Here

I came here to count the bells
That live upon the surface of the sea
That sound over the sea
That sound over the sea
Over the sea over the sea
Within the sea, within the sea
I came here to count the bells
That live upon the surface of the sea
That sound over the sea
That sound over the sea
Over the sea over the sea
Within the sea, within the sea
So here I live

7. If Each Day Falls

If each day falls inside each night
There exists a well where clarity’s imprisoned
We need to sit on the rim of the wall
Of darkness and fish for fallen light with patience
We need to sit on the rim of the wall
Of darkness and fish for fallen light with patience

8. Why Search in Vain

Why search in vain in every door
In which we will not exist because we have not arrived yet
That is how I found out that I was exactly like you and like everybody

9. Is the Sea There?

Is the Sea there?
Tell it to come in
Bring me the great bell one of the great race
Not that one the other one
The one that has a crack in its bronze mouth
And now nothing more
I want to be alone
With my essential sea and the bell
I don’t want to speak for a long time
Slience!
I still want to learn
I want to know if I exist

10. Finale

Matilde, years or days
Sleeping, feverish, here or there, gazing off
Twisting my spine, bleeding true blood
Perhaps I awaken or am lost sleeping:
Hospital beds, foreign windows, white uniforms of the scent walkers
The clumsiness of feet
And then, those journeys and my sea of renewal:
Your head on the pillow
Your hands floating in the light, in my light, over my earth…
It was beautiful to live when you lived
The world is bluer and of the earth at night
When I sleep enormous within your small hands