Candlelight and Twine 
of the eleven songs eight are from a project I completed the day before christmas. my goal was to write ten love songs for m' ex-lady. I gave her the CD (only one copy in existence) for the birth of baby jesus day. so really she deserves much credit and praise for musing me. only silver sips is an older tune. this is a record of transition of leaving California and eventually arriving in boston where I continue to be amazed at life unfolding. and still, I feel as though transition isn't a term and neither is change for that matter. without them I'd be ashes scattered at my favorite place.
this CD is dedicated to the memory Jonathon Zimmerman. 
 
love adrenaline
she wants stars tattooed across her body not far from her womb
she's craving for a marker an egg nine months nine moons
she's craving to give over her possessions pay tribute to arcane ruin
I'm liable to touch her madly. too tense and much too soon
I've known deserts and they ain't lifeless beyond the surface cirque du serene
you don't have to create life to live it gods and peons all agree
we're all spectacles and who is out there watching? you don't know but you been
singing loudly and walking heavily can't keep the joy in
fear not tender thread mill. tender weave tender web
we will heed your heavy heart kill we will follow our big brains stuffed in our tiny heads
the inevitable so scholastic tapered to confine a single star
I'm off to sleep with moonbeams with jasmine in a mason jar
I will take pictures of you sleeping in perfect light tussled with age
the soft skin revealed in glory I will touch it like an ancient page
love you don't have to whisper I don't need you sweet or kind
steal away my intentions mess me up make me blind
	these flurries of winter haven't stayed long
	white dusting quickly gone
damn Canadian cold fronts
we're naked as deciduous trees no shades or covers drawn
winter solstice has arrived now for lengthening of days
adding on another year learning what it is to age
family all fondly surface to make rubbings of my heart
to be stuck up with magnets alongside childhood refrigerator art
love don't call the detectives my fingerprints are all over you
they'll take me into the jailhouse where the heavens scarcely move
I will think so hard on your strawberry curls and sew your name
like seeds that have been husked. you will grow to be mine again
and wildness will take animal form and so begins
the dance to bring forth the inner wise movement
dedication and discipline love adrenaline

ten
10 songs I wrote for my love 10 stars can be seen in the sky above
10 lifetimes she has looked into my eyes 10 days I left her to visit my former life
out in 'frisco each day I invoke her name 10 times she comes to me as I think of her again
1 word is not enough 2 eyes locked onto mine
3 nights with you is a tease 4 nights snowed in sounds fine
5, 6, 7, 8 . 9 ways I will make you palpitate
10 divided by 5 do the math that's 2
I guess that brings us back to me and you

silver sips
Gray sky everything is dripping dry
it ain't man it's time that flies
slip on this clarity try it out before you listen to your needs
everything I want is within these walls and I found it with ease
Tegan calls and says in one pasture the cows stand
and in the next they're laying about the land
so rain or shine what's it gonna be?
I don't know. it's a wonderful mystery
Sunship sinking I'm going down with the captain and the crew 
I had wings but I guess I never flew
if I get a second chance I will forget about all these doubts
pull you into me. singing 'bout
women run these hillsides with sudden bursting sprints 
my heart's all a flutter with these not so subtle hints
FINGERPRINTS
sliver moon silver sips pushing forward silhouettes
bombs fall beleaguered rain
a wise man sings here we go again

Work To Do
that's exactly how I remember it. some songbird singing high
as I trudged my way to work it pierced through the snow and the trucks rumbling by
what happened to wonder? is it lost in the clutter?
all I think about is you. love is work. I got work to do
writer's blocks and ad hocs and I am dreaming it will snow in june
I love the way it piles high if you scarcely move
the flowers you left behind all three of them blooming in purple and white
leaning away shifting my day to joy. it's going to be all right

It's Far Away
These old walls are caving in. are they worth the paint? sure they are
the old mattress stained and ripped. threw it out. spent better nights in a car
it's home though all that's hung is a triple A map
I highlighted the roads I took through Mexico now I'm wondering where those times are at
It's far away. bring it near. say its name. watch it disappear
impermanent and pure. a momentary muse. tinged with mercy. the base of all truths
that old road ain't gravel anymore but the cracks persist
dodge those potholes while staring at halos in the mist
love comes home all bright eyed and new
we steel into a park at midnight and count ourselves as the lucky few
on the way back the street and sky start to shimmer 
sparkling like crazy this is why I love the winter
but tomorrow I sing a different tune while shoveling snow
when the bricks are uneven get you to cursing low
It's far away


if we keep kissing
if we keep kissing if we keep kissing we ain't going to get nothing done
in this busy world that ain't looked too lightly upon
it's not our fault, it's not our fault we are such flinted stone
sparking like crazy burning to keep on going
we can't help it, we can't help it that this world is dying
and love is like wings look at me I'm an ostrich flying
you're penguin, you're a penguin up in the buttery clouds
we're flying we're making magic proud

candlelight & twine
happy valentines lady here's to candlelight I've got some twine
help me tie it round my waist then I'll float into the sky
I'll be a constellation baby I know you love sparkles I'll twinkle like crazy
there go those thoughts again do you miss me or remember when 
I touched you like color touches time now I've got candlelight and twine
I couldn't offer you security or a child no ring and your mind ran wild
all I could do was love you and sing now I've got candlelight and a string
I thought you'd pull me in but I'm still up here orbiting
there goes the moon looking so fine now I've got candlelight and twine
I thought about lining your steps with roses a mind full of clichˇs poetry and proses
but now love turns inward to cultivate beauty of the mind now I've got candlelight and twine


destiny
white snow. your embrace
rustling leaves fill every space
destiny
we're not perfect but we're meant to be
in this spinning in this velocity
bend low and I will inhale you're kisses
from shivering to melting to listless
I'm mesmerized all caught in your touch
for once the high without the rush

It's okay to be alone
Asleep at the wheel line after line
do what you feel treat yourself kind
it's a world full of critics why include yourself in the lot
speaking on things I don't know so my credibility is shot
it's blowing in kicking up dust 
making. breaking down creating a fuss
It's okay to be alone
get in tune with the tone
find yourself a rhythm 
loose and kicking
and ride on
just say I will be okay
people see me everyday
and I wonder are we relating
or are we showing what's amazing
stuck at the treadmill while the sky is blazing
I'm like a windmill 
if I don't get my fill 
people will see a run down thing of the past
when all I need is just one blast
to create me. to satiate me
I'm like a tectonic plate got to let the tension shape me
It's okay to be alone
get in tune with the tone
find yourself a rhythm 
loose and kicking
and ride on
What's all this skin and bones about?
all these worries of longevity a smack on the mouth
the sunlight perfectly caressing me 
feeling old in this young body
and when people ask all these questions
it's like a wound festering
I guess I'm tired of searching for some kind of mate
all you low downs ready to throw downs can relate
what came first the chicken or the lay
I've heard too many solutions today
just smile because you love to smile
and sing like it's going out of style
this simple remedy came to me
be the song with its own melody

angel of the floor
I sleep on the floor in the corner of a room
Your presence was too big and lonely for me too
Then the angel of the floor patron saint of creaky stairs
Watched me as I slept long and well and unaware
It had been such a long time since I felt so refreshed
Love had me wandering through the desert sunrise to sunset
I was tired and wide-awake casting large shadows in the street
The ants were busy working and the humans had offed to sleep
And I prayed to make tomorrow for others sake
Self-serving mind said this life is for you to live or take
Summer heat is sometimes lonely working hard at a slow pace
Waking to the sounds of coming towards and moving away
I keep moving don't know why it's not important anyhow
I love the little moments that conscience will allow
A friend called me from the road saying how do you do?
The inertia he was feeling was familiar for it's what gets me through
And I'm thinking of a woman who loved me in Mexico
It was passionate and desolate then gone to tall buildings in a row
Is this how you cultivate love with sharp angles and noise?
Walking with purpose collecting currency and toys
And I'm still singing that song yeah two chords and the truth
Collecting poetry from dying bookstores the proud and the few
The shelves welcome me home I run my fingers down the spines
There is an art to picking a book that sets motion to your mind
It's something you can share it's a universal love
Like how gospel music gets me high but not quite high enough
For me to see a vision or touch Jesus with my hands
But I'll cry and yell let it move me to clap or dance
Oh my lord oh my lord I am weary take my weight
Even though I may waiver or be led astray
Sometimes I'm so lost while looking to be found
Some days being lost is the best way to get around
I swore I knew it all but what's this garden doing here?
My sweet tooth's leading me to the nearest chocolateer
Days are just like this I am exhausted in the night
Life is too damn wonderful and it's such a fight
It's as simple as love it's as complex as hate
Clichˇs are like clouds so don't you give them weight
I'll press my face into flowers my nose has disappeared
The petals softer than skin tickling on my beard

up the ante
moving me the way you're grasping and clasping
I'm so in up the ante lets walk like we're slanting
dark chocolate bliss in the coming dust 
thoughts of kissing in a rush in a rush
spring spring whistles green green
drooping flowers it's a sign that sings
heart on fire orange habenero heat
saw that toe ring and I'm turned on by your feet
love it all the way elements get refined
boiled down to perfection yours and mine
what am I doing up at 1AM?
awakened in your inspiration

all songs by Elam Abraham Blackman 
(2005 backwards male music

Joe Borreson =  CD graphic design & layout
Pascal DePaz = studio recording (excludes 1,11,12)
Elam Blackman = guitar, voice, lyrics, and photos

this record is here because of your support thanks

elam - www.elamblackman.com -
booking: talk - 617.491.5385 	type - elamis@gmail.com