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Once and Over Again

by Jeffrey Nordstrom

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1.
I belong to a sphere where words Are far mightier than any sword And guard a collective heart. I belong to suits and ties Legal process, political pyres Proceedings, agreements and bargaining tables Where love is taboo and souls are for sale But you belong on the streets of the city In the neon gardens of excess and plenty Where forgetting is the basic means of survival And stamina is charged by your fitness and style You belong in a club where your dance Tells your story through your gestures, midriff and fluids Where your movement is a potent pheromone We all need a place to belong I feel desperate and vital for a sense of the right place We all need a place to belong Over all of the dance, matter, time and space We all need a place to belong Mediating movement, escaping the rat race Yes, you belong to the people To the eyes of every voyeur You belong to our collective soul My jealousy burns A bright hole in my spirit Until you return We all need a place to belong I envision lands of ample proportion We all need a place to belong Worlds expanding by sheer force of your motion We all need a place to belong We’ll be the big fish in strobe-lit ocean We all need a place to belong I fall down with fatigue and filthy devotion ‘Cause there are so many days when you just wanna’ run Away from the bitterness in everyone Away from the rules that you’ve made for yourself It makes you just want to lay yourself down and dream And when you dream you always see the same old scene You see coloured, flashing lights and hundreds of people And each of them are dancing to that sweet, steady rhythm That moves through your pores like a sweet body lotion And you’re always with ‘em dancing out there on the street And you’re dancing so hard you wear the shoes off your feet And you’re dancing so hard that they’re giving you room But you’re moving so smooth that they’re crowding around you And that hi-hat kicks in you make a little scream Like nothing in the world could ever stop you from moving ‘cept that sexy Puerto Rican who’s been checking you out He makes you feel wanted, makes you wanna’ shout… We all need someone to belong to I putter on my knees at the legs of your table We all need someone to belong to I offer my goals as recompense for your fable We all need a place to belong From the darkest legislature to the childless cradle We all need a place to belong
2.
Strangers 05:02
I’d never shared much with strangers There are things that I just need to know Before I share my secrets You are the only anomaly With whom I shared my deepest needs At our first meeting I think we knew just what we were doing. As strangers we met and as strangers we shared Our passions, problems and improbable cares And like those men in a tub or some lifeboats at sea We used up our flares once the shore could be seen And as strangers we loved, although we didn't know why We felt like some shiny new husband and wife We might’ve mimicked or admired in the movies. Now, consider this: think about all the examples we’d seen All the dark hotel rooms and and steamy shower scenes Where, without fear or trembling, They’d hold out ‘til the morning Saying almost nothing. We knew what we wanted, We knew how we’d lose As strangers we met and as strangers we shared Our passions, problems, and improbable cares And each word we spoke was as pure as gold No baggage, memories, or language of old And as strangers we loved well into the night Like we were some recently eloped husband and wife We might’ve seen, mimicked, admired or even cried for at the movies. I sense that I’m a stranger who’d just slipped into your home And treated everything that you’d worked for like it was worth little more than nothing at all like it was Friday night and we’d settled for a foreign film We never cared to see I sense that I’m a stranger Who just shared everything you didn’t care to hear
3.
Two Mirrors 04:53
4.
I saw the image of Chief Poundmaker On a puzzle box through a toy store window It cost $22.95 His dignity pulled my gaze, stopped my step. Airbrushed and modern, it didn’t seem right Some puzzles can’t be solved The pieces just don’t fit Jammed with wanton interest In Cutknife Creek and Treaty 6 But his words remain – articulate and relevant — And sometimes when I sleep I hear his voice proclaim This is our land It’s not a piece of pemmican To be divided up and sold back to us This is our sustenance Misused, abused, maligned E’er since you came to us I can’t say I’ve fully understood the terms of lawyers and lobby groups Executives of government, activists and chiefs I hear them on the radio – their confident clear voices Their passion seeps through murky, legal words But I’m entitled to my space as they’re entitled to their birthright As I’m entitled to my privacy. (Sometimes it seemed so simple) No fear of reparations, ‘cause all their power’s been taken It still barely affects me when I hear rich voices say This is our land It’s not a piece of property Settled by one and one alone We all… And it’s so far away And I’m sure they know their place To share that land I’ll never walk on And to think that the Island farm where I was raised Was once unbounded forest – I can’t imagine! And to think the place that I call “home” – It simply wasn’t there! Hell, it wasn’t at all! Nothing defined my property line Non-existent, unideaed, without form or void And when I step inside our house I can’t help but be astounded by my absentee stewardship when I still I want to shout This is my land! A vital piece of my family, of my childhood Of the way I’d climb these trees and hills Of my need to get away This is my context The foundation of my Self my inherited aspect ratio my narrow field of view But this ain’t our land We’ve merely named it and claimed it Merely set up camp Temporary inhabitants This isn’t our land ‘Tis but a piece from whence we came A piece to where we turn
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10.
In the morning when I woke up for you there was rain. It poured your love upon me like a hefty morning dew While I was the Lily of the Valley The snow blazed with light Nests of hair and denim overalls were my home Out the window, over waterfalls I flow like a sparrow falling madly The snow blazed its white July's naked sun makes everyone have more fun Tonight, sky came grey, temp'rature dropped to snow from sun Arms spread open wide you ran from there to here with your golden wings It's all just an allusion that I do not understand: a lover to his prodigal love Your eyes blazed with light
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about

Released in 2007, Once and Over Again is my first solo album. I set out a bunch of rules for myself and recorded it entirely on my own.

I released it under the moniker "The Fairfax Mission," a label I've recently abandoned for simplicity's sake.

See more information about the album here: www.jnordstrom.ca/once-and-over-again-2007.html

credits

released September 22, 2007

Jeffrey Nordstrom: vocals, guitars, bass, programming, electric piano, harmonica.

Final mix and mastering: Jesse Bannerman with Roy Milner
Graphics: Kelly Pierce
Photography: Jeffrey Nordstrom

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about

Jeffrey Nordstrom Vancouver, British Columbia

Singer-songwriter, teacher, photographer.

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