1. |
Tamarack
03:43
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Tamarack
I hold my arms up and to the side
but I get tired after a while
not like tamarack
I’d like to live straight and true
I’d like you to love me the way you do
the way you do tamarack
it’s tamarack I burn
with birch bark and a Redbird
firey fingers holding snow
changing colours like some people I know
it’s tamarack I burn
with newspaper and a lighter
I can do you wrong
the way that I keep on wind dancing
I walk to see you
I walk to see you
I walk to see you
I walk to see you
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2. |
Walking Human
04:40
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Walking Human
Holding the forest, coming for us
hiding the way we know how
it’s time to remember, a conk and embers
the dying birches can show how
losing is rhythm, losing our isms
how many days until now?
walking human stalking a room
with a perfect ray of sundown
if today is a danger the way is a wager
there’s something out there
tracks in the muddy asking you, honey
to come sing out dear
all that is taken is regenerating
in a long arm embrace
come back as different, solid or sifted,
loved or other ways
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3. |
Hardline
04:13
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Hardline
A new season descending
fight the law and the law will win
if history gives us any hint
they will draw a hardline
draw a hardline
I draw a line too where I grow
steady what soil to seed and what to sow
it’s what they say goes not what they know
and they will draw a hardline
draw a hardline
not a new weight shouldering
there’s an old millstone
when arms are unburdened
they can carry a load
Oh, Montana. CFIA
what did you see the day they came?
seemed arbitrary, seemed insane
how they would draw a hardline
draw a hardline
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4. |
Before, We
06:57
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Before, We
Summer lets out her hind legs
pacing an edge of a forest
these were lands before we drew them
these were plants before we grew them
where do you put yourself?
these bodies
these decisions
to be happy to go on living
I leapt on a dirt trail
the dew lifting
came to a river
the sky opened
I thought I heard you
I thought I heard you
I heard the wind she was an ocean
leaves and leaves and leaves
swaying and playing
asking and giving
making and thinking
hanging and singing
in a move of love
Summer breaks when I don’t expect her
I send a piece of my self in a letter
these were trees before we milled them
these were bluestems before we tilled them
I took up a trade and built this for you
my body was made to be moved
I held a sunrise and had a longing
It was strong enough
I hear the wind she is an ocean
an open figure swelling and laughing
dying for living
honest and boundless
removing borders all throughout her love
life is moving
we together form the colours of our dust
mind— I don’t mind the way
I don’t mind the way
I am moved to love
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5. |
Sleep
01:32
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6. |
Monarch
03:07
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Monarch
I collect you
jars of you
flights of you
study you
in times of you
who you got to worry?
who you got to worry?
not coming back this year
not coming back this year
dormant
pinned-down
erudition
sessile
body
mid-section
who you got to worry?
who you got to worry?
forgiven, dying
you are the new way the earth dies
paper, flying
you are the new way the earth dies
I keep you
hang you
frame you
study you
in times of you
who you got to worry?
who you got to worry?
not coming back this year
not coming back this year
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7. |
Peace River Song
03:51
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Peace Song
Peace river before the flood
the power in our blood
the moving vein of our desire
city of light
I swear— I swear I’ll give more this time
In green coats and blue jeans
seemed like plain folk, real friendly
til they drew lines between us and home
how do you prepare?
I swear— I swear I’ll give more this time
On the river with Marie and Ron
our relocation to Fort St. John
people talk here and will support a cause
but down south they don’t talk
where they make the calls
I swear— I swear I’ll give more this time
I have a friend on a hunger strike
he sits outside with his sign
I see him there in my mind
I swear— I swear I’ll give more this time
With my feet where cold water moves
I dream of treaties and well-lit rooms
the sun and moonlight the only kind here
What kind we need?
I swear— I swear I’ll give more this time
Like prophecy, like warning
the count in Cross Lake hit 140
down the road, that could be Moberly
for a city of light
I swear— I swear I’ll give more this time
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8. |
Rock and Sand
06:38
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Rock and Sand
There is a rising of the ground
in a dreaming land
you can listen with your soles
pressed to the rock and sand
in a silence, in a day
in an open eye
there is lightning on the way
flashes across her mind
come in forgiveness
come in real sun
a dream-giving closeness
to open us
there is fire in a name
when set out on to land
there is a coldness to the game
when you break them in your hand
come in true giver
come in like light
a few stars in the river
to help you survive
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9. |
The Myth of Forests
04:59
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The Myth of Forests
The dream saw you before you woke.
The creek, the clear creek leaving the lake.
Where it was possible to see a temperature.
Where you dream had run in desperation—
Your sleep was maudlin.
You casted one incipient belief after another, sploshing through Canada.
Smart, you think, as you notice a life underground.
You thought you might be crazy to love in such complexity.
In your dream you drew your body over, dam after dam.
Scrape the crust off an idyll ‘til it’s bloody.
Incise with Swiss steel.
Don’t cauterize.
Watch for colour.
On my arms and legs, marks of a forest scored my skin— marks of refusals.
Further down, dense vegetation rallied throughout my lungs
and I scuttled to the side of the trail, reading a sign screwed to an oak tree:
a boundary sign.
The language was blue on white on metal and hinted at a calendar year.
I moved through anyway.
Now when I imagine futures I try to imagine the actions of forests:
objects of regeneration being the futures we have always acted of.
This story, this boundary, being one of many.
You dream finds a job.
You work nights, mornings too.
The creek is cold but your legs never get so.
Break off.
Spend as much as you can on words.
Throw dirt over.
Water.
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10. |
Footpath
01:25
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Footpath
Footpath
stone bodies
dream trees
river humming
one foot
on shale trundles
out a door
I enter
light this line
to light a soul
Wet stone
tree spirit
river tidal
and silent
Kloiya
blue carpet
old passage
I enter
light this line
to light a soul
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Jesse Matas Manitoba
Jesse Matas is a musician and a poet from Treaty 1 territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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