Melodies and Lyrics by Louisa John-Krol with Mark Krol
Vocals by Louisa John-Krol
Co-produced & engineered by Harry Williamson
Instrumentation includes mandolin, firesticks, bells, chimes, keyboard,
chas-chas, guitar, ocarina, keyboard, tiple, tablas and angel harp.

Title-track after Cavafy's poem, "The God Abandons Antony".
(Collected Poems translated by Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard).
and Milton's poem "Lycidas"; music based loosely on "Baixa dansa Barcelona"
from 15th century manuscript de Bruxelles. (heard on a CD entitled
'Le Moyen Age Catalan, Ars Musicae de Barcelone').
"Belarmino's Dictionary": a tribute to Ramon Perez de Ayala's novel:
"Belarmino and Apolonio".
"Paper Door": for Dostoyevsky, Max Frisch & Shiga Naoya.
"Madame Alchemier" and "The Valley of Seven Keys": tales by Louisa.
"The Last Centaur": lyrics by Louisa, except last line: from "The Listeners" by Walter de la Mare

Alexandria

I
One more day away from Alexandria
And night is long to sail -
Rolling in a slow procession moved a place,
A city fair and strange.

II
Send the felon winds and every gust of wings
Toward Bayona's Hold
Over tides of dark I'll ever know your love
An uncrowned whitethorn blown:
"Fame isn't mortal,
nor does it lie in rumour, nor in your pride
But in the Laurel you'll reign afar
And in the Silence of you
in your rain, in your garden
in the sun on the rill
in Alexandria."

III
As one so long prepared
you'll hear the midnight voices,
Don't you mourn them now!
Don't betray your hope, and say goodbye to her -
Your Alexandria.



Contradiction is the Dragon

The Dragon of Western myth is depicted as a sinister worm, associated with greed, ego,
lust, venom, fire and destruction. Eastern Dragons preside over fertility and the elements,
over mountains, streams and earth's bountiful treasures. Ibn Arabi claimed that when whenever
we see contradiction, we are looking at reality.

I
Out on the colder mornings,
through a city of red snow;
Over the arc of reason
you can't tell it whole no, no
Contradiction is the Dragon -
fly off with the crow!
Blackbirds scurry through the snow -
windows crack 'n' groan.

Fly over the fortress,
Gleam under the rook
Your eyes are the roaming soul of air
Climb the stair, climb the stair of you!

II
Sure as cities crumble over seven seas,
fall over my life
As I gaze into your face -
there I see the Dragon;
Contradiction is the Dragon -
fly off with the crow!
Blackbirds scurry through the snow
- windows crack 'n' groan...



Hide in your Shadow

This song alludes to the native bushland where I was raised,
and the spirit of the Aboriginal Dreaming.

Wind blows through branches of lost Time
sleep forms foam rising to ashes.
And as you dance, your hair is on fire
tripping, falling, slipping into the ice Moon:
in the light of the Sun, hide in your Shadow.



Fortress

I
In your boudoir you've been hiding,
Lady in the Fortress
hiding yourself from the fog -
mist will reach you
it'll creep through cracks o' windows,
climb the stairways of your mind

Ah mist will reach you, mist will reach you
Mist will call you, mist will call you
Mist will haunt you, mist will haunt you

II
In your chamber, TV laughing
Lady in the Fortress
Alchemy is dangerous...
shooting arrows, you're shooting arrows
shooting from your Fortress, shooting arrows in the mist
ah but mist will reach you mist is closing in on you,
mist will move you, under doorways of your soul



Talim Ridge

Moon on Talim Ridge,
Six in red and One rhyme!
Flying Guardians, tails in the Air
were feeding the pine-cones.
Four hats rimmed in green,
Three in paper-bag brown -
on the Other Side in a Valley far from here
moved with the clouds.



Belarmino's Dictionary

after Belarmino and Apolonio by Ramon Perez De Ayala

but to see them on the pavement or the air drift
on nameless mist.... to the ceiling or the stair,
out of cages, birds fly south into the Sun
dusty pages, hand an' mind fall into one fall into one,
come in the dark cave where the light is far better than here!
fall into one, fear in your palm where the line is
a word they can't hear
fall into one, Belarmino, Belarmino...



Paper Door

I
And Dostoyevsky is waiting, humming
Beside the meadow green,
He's been there a million years
Telling tales to wandering ghosts -
And how in this world of Fate
Hope feeds our homes?
The Paper Door it swings away and I have fallen into Moontalk...

II
And Dostoyevsky is waiting for you
Beside the meadow green,
He's been waiting there a million years!
Waiting with his crew -
And now on the heron ground
The flying Paper Door!
The Fool leaps into the mire
It's a wilderness of mirrors in Time...

And how in this world of Fate
Hope feeds our homes?
The Paper Door it swings away and I have fallen into Moontalk...
Seems like whirling and the ordinary life is gone!
It's gone and you Step into the other world of feeling,
The Paper Door it swings away and I have fallen into Moontalk
The Fool leaps into the mire
The ordinary life is gone
The Fool leaps into the mire
It's a Wilderness of Mirrors
in Time The Paper Door it swings away,
Wings away, onward and far.



The Valley of Seven Keys

I
I dreamed of a Statue
I dreamed of a Garden that hadn't a key
I dreamed of a Play -
in a tree

II
I heard Someone say
I heard Something whisper from beyond the grave
I heard of a Name - in a cave

'You'd better take this key', said the man in the Valley of Seven Keys
(For the story of The Valley of Seven Keys, visit the Magic Theatre page)



Madame Alchemier

from a novella by Louisa John-Krol

Madame Alchemier, stubborn, proud, runs a dilapidated second-hand bookshop,
peopled by stray customers and illegal tenants: outsiders, misfits, eccentrics, the unemployed,
the exiled, the lonely. None of them are buying anything. A ticking clock spells not only neglect or age,
but also that diminishing treasure - Time. Background reading has included poems
by Vallejo and the novel 'Momo' by Michael Ende.

I
Last night a van with a clown on its back
took a one-man show down a windy road.
He's heading down to a woman I know -
and the saddest of places I used to go:
rows of books would line the walls,
paper souls she had in store,
voices lurking in the hall, cryingÐ
'Poetry's gone to Hell!'
and the turnover's not what it used to be
and the paint's been peeling for yearsÐ

But there's a snow-cat in the window,
and a card of the pier -
'Won't you come down the stair and try my wares?'
said Madame Alchemier -
ÔWell maybe they don't want you,
and maybe they can't hear?
and maybe they don't want youÕ
said Madame Alchemier.

II
Out on the Boulevard sequins abound
in another Circus of Charisma.
One more festival glittering past -
If they want something, they'll come to me...
No more writers want to read,
No more talkers want to hear,
No more painters want to see
Looks like Poetry's gone to hell!
And the turnover's not what it used to be,
And the paint's been peeling for years -

But thereÕs a snow-cat in the window...



The Last Centaur

Lyric & melody by Louisa, except last line: from "The Listeners" by Walter de la Mare.

The Renaissance - a time of discovery that changed the way we thought -
a flat earth would give way to a globe revolving round the sun*; village life would give way to city-life
and later, the Industrial Revolution; feudal hierar