Some of my favourite poems are songs. In this I suspect I am not alone. The dividing line between lyricism and poetry is always fuzzy and subject to sectarian doctrinal world views. I have seen it written that the difference comes down to poems having an unstated or cryptic dimension while lyrics spell things out. This view seems to typecast both traditions and leave us somewhere unsatisfactory.

I would argue there is no fundamental difference between the traditions.

Here are four ‘poems’ from 2 of my favourites , Nick Cave and Tom Waits.

From Cave we get the ethereal melancholy and feeling of loss of Skeleton Tree and the cosmic absurdity of Steve McQueen. I particularly like the lines

God is great, chances are
God is good, well I wouldn’t go that far

In fact were it to be pulled out of the context of the rest of the piece and presented alone one might be forgiven for thinking it a laconic Manhire poem and it would be perfect.

From Waits we get the cautionary tale of a young woman falling victim to a deadly misogynist world in the form of Dead and Lovely

He’s not the kind of wheel
You fall asleep at

and the irresistibly dark treatise on not giving in to suicidal temptations with The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me Today.

Skeleton Tree – Nick Cave

Sunday morning

Skeleton tree

Well nothing is for free

In the window

A candle

Well maybe you can see

Falling leaves

Thrown

Across the sky

A jittery TV

Glowing white like fire

Nothing is for free

I call out I call out

Right across the sea

But the echo comes back empty

Nothing is for free

Sunday morning

Skeleton tree

Pressed against the sky

A jittery TV

Glowing white

Like fire

I call out I call out

Right across the sea

I call out I call out

Nothing is for free

And it’s all right now

And it’s all right now.

Steve McQueen – Nick Cave

Here I am the Moonlight Man with my six-barrel shooter
I’m Steve McQueen
Call me a cab I’m that kinda guy, I have a dream
Sometimes I get the elevator to the top of the Burj Al Arab
And shoot my guns across Dubai
Bang, bang, bang, I’m that kinda guy

But mostly I curl up inside my typewriter
Curl up inside my typewriter and wish that I could die

Your legs are so long they should come with their own elevator
Don’t worry darling I’ll be coming around to see you later
Because between you and me and my best friend the housefly
I’m Steve McQueen with a big, beautiful dream

I am God
I am God thinking about God thinking about Steve McQueen

It’s for me the sirens and the sylphs do their twilight pining
And on Saturday night I walk on someone else’s stomach lining
Up and down the street, call me a cab, call me a cab
No, I’m a housefly called God and I don’t give a fuck

Here I come up the elevator
Sixty floors, hoping I don’t get stuck

And everyone out there does mean
And everyone out there does pain
And someone’s gotta sing the stars
And someone’s gotta sing the rain

I’m the atomizer
I’m the vaporizer
I turn everything to crud
I like it here in your flesh and blood
I’m the elevator man don’t you see?
You’re a spider lashed, long legged lovely young thing
Call me a cab, and I’ll drive to the top of the Burj Al Arab
And fire my guns across your stomach

Because someone’s gotta sing the stars
And someone’s gotta sing the rain
And someone’s gotta sing the blood
And someone’s gotta sing the pain

Watch out you fuckers
I’ve got my six shooter and my housefly on a lead
I’m Burj al-McQueen
And I’m coming to make every last one of you bleed

God is great, chances are
God is good, well I wouldn’t go that far

I’m Steve McQueen the atrocity man
With my strap-on bloodborne dream

But mostly I curl up inside my typewriter with my housefly and cry
I tell my housefly not to cry
My housefly tells me not to die

Because someone’s gotta sing the stars
And someone’s gotta sing the rain
And someone’s gotta sing the blood
And someone’s gotta sing the pain

Someone’s gotta sing the stars
Someone’s gotta sing the rain

Yeah, that’s me
Riding my housefly
Up and down your dream

The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me Today – Tom Waits

The ocean doesn’t want me today
But I’ll be back tomorrow to play
And the strangels will take me
Down deep in their brine
The mischievous braingels
Down into the endless blue wine
I’ll open my head and let out
All of my time
I’d love to go drowning
And to stay and to stay
But the ocean doesn’t want me today
I’ll go in up to here
It can’t possibly hurt
All they will find is my beer
And my shirt
A rip tide is raging
And the life guard is away
But the ocean doesn’t want me today
But the ocean doesn’t want me today
The ocean doesn’t want me today

Dead and Lovely – Tom Waits

She was a middle class girl
She was in over her head
She thought she could
Stand up in the deep end

He had a bullet proof smile
He had money to burn
She thought she had the moon
In her pocket

But now she’s dead
She’s so dead
Forever dead and lovely now

I’ve always been told to
Remember this…
Don’t let a fool kiss you
Never marry for love

He was hard to impress
He knew everyone’s secrets
He wore her on his arm
Just like jewelry

He never gave but he got
He kept her on a leash
He’s not the kind of wheel
You fall asleep at

But now she’s dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now

Come closer, look deeper
You’ve fallen fast
Just like a plane on a
Stormy sea

She made up someone to be
She made up somewhere to be from
This is one business in the
World where that’s no
Problem at all

Everything that is left
They will only plow under
Soon every one you know
Will be gone

And now she’s dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now

But now she’s dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now

I’ve always been told to
Remember this…
Don’t let a fool kiss you
Never marry for love

Everything has it’s price
Everything has it’s place
What’s more romantic
Then dying in the moonlight?
Now they’re all watching the sea
What’s lost can never be broken
Her roots were sweet
But they were so shallow
And now she’s dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now
And now she’s dead
Forever dead
And she’s so dead and lovely now