I COME INTO TO THIS WORLD
First Album by Ancient News, Andrea Cefalo and David Kisor, released Feb 22,2015.
Stream the songs on your favorite streaming platform. Below are the lyrics and inspiring poems.
Lyrics
1) I Come Into This World
I come into this world to see
The gun fall from the shooters hand
The moment that we understand
The body that we’re killing is our own
I come into this world to hear
The cries of hopeless desperation
Turn to shouts of celebration
Welcoming the wayward loved-one home
I come unto this world to touch
With healing hands the wound still bleeding
In the heart still longing, needing
Comfort through the night
I come to see and hear and touch
The want, the need, the pain, the aching
Till that perfect dawn comes breaking
Through the darkness, filling us with light
I come into this world to hold
The hand of every other creature
Walking till we finally reach the
Resting place promised from the start
I come into this world to know
The people who would rather die than
Let an angry, unkind word fly
From their lips to pierce another’s heart
I come into this world to sing
The sacred chant the earth has sung
Since all the stars and moon were hung
To guide us ever home
I come into this world to see
The gun fall from the shooters hand
The moment that we understand
The precious life we’re saving is our own
I come into this world to sing
The sacred chant the earth has sung
Since all the stars and moon were hung
To guide us ever home
I come into this world to see
The gun fall from the shooters hand
The moment that we understand
The precious life we’re keeping is our own
2) What You Are To Me
You’re the first flower that blooms in the melting snow
The last star that shines in the dawn
The first place my wandering mind wants to go
The feeling that’s left when the last feeling’s gone
A flock of birds taking flight, vivid dreams in the night
The moon held in the branches of a tree
The first glimpse of the shore after a long time at sea
All this and more is what you are to me
The tears that I cry when I just can’t stop laughing
The silence that says more than words
A fireplace ablaze in a snow-covered cabin
When your lips move and it’s my name that’s heard
The feeling that lingers from the touch of your fingers
That sets my emotions free
That sweet moment before an untold mystery
All this and more is what you are to me
You’re the first flower that blooms in the melting snow
The last star that shines in the dawn
The first place my wandering mind wants to go
The feeling that’s left when the last feeling’s gone
3) Take Us Down
We’re tired of drinking water from a jar
Take us down to the river
To feel the flow right where we are
Take us to down the river
To live the life we’ve not lived yet
Let us jump in and get soaking wet
Take us down to the river
Take us down
Take us down to the river
Take us down
No more slippery cloud-like moon
Take us to down the river
Give us the hot bright light of noon
Take us to down the river
Morning after morning we soak up the wealth
The face of peace, the sun itself
Take us down to the river
Take us down
Take us down to the river
Take us down
The work unfinished, we diminish
Idle, reckless, worn out, worthless, breathless on the ground
Take us down
We’re tired of drinking water from a jar
Take us down to the river
To feel the flow right where we are
Take us to down the river
Beyond ideas of right and wrong
Take us back where we belong
Take us down to the river
Take us down
Take us down to the river
Take us down
4) Love’s Tavern
Come to Love’s Tavern where we drink till we’re drunk
Every road has been wrecked, every ship has been sunk
Come live every moment for all that it’s worth
Till heaven’s jealous of the love we make here on earth
Come to Love’s Tavern there’s a place for you here
Every back gets a scratch, every kiss gets a cheer
Come let down your hair till it touches the dirt
And heaven’s jealous of the love we make here on earth
Come to Love’s Tavern where we dance all night long
Every tear turns to laughter, every heartache to song
Come stand a table and hike up your skirt
Till heaven’s jealous of the love we make here on earth
Come to Love’s Tavern where there’s always enough
Pass the whisky of wisdom, pour the liquor of love
The Innkeeper knows how to cure every hurt
Till heaven’s jealous of the love we make here on earth
Come to Love’s Tavern where we drink till we’re drunk
Every road has been wrecked, every ship has been sunk
Come live every moment for all that it’s worth
Till heaven’s jealous of the love we make here on earth
Till heaven’s jealous of the love we make here on earth
5) God Laughing
I heard God laughing
I heard God sing to me
I saw God napping
And peeking from a tree
Guess I forgot
That it is all just me
Then I heard God laughing
And it jogged my memory
I heard God laughing
I combed God through my hair
I saw God pour the wine
Then offer me a chair
We spent the day
In playful reverie
I heard God laughing
It’s my favorite melody
Life’s too sweet and juicy to get jumbled up with worry
Slow down, what’s your hurry?
Life’s too sweet and tasty to be wasted on worry
Slow down, what’s your hurry?
I hear God laughing
I hear God sing to me
I see God napping
And peeking from a tree
Let’s not forget
It’s all just you and me
When I hear God laughing
It jogs my memory
I hear God laughing
It’s my favorite melody
6) I’m Not a Hothouse Flower
I’m not a hothouse flower
I am the hardy kind
I don’t need a fancy house
This place suits me just fine
I open to the sun
My roots are deep and strong
And if I should wither
Know I’ll bloom again soon
The promise of springtime
The birth of a new moon
A perennial wonder
The morning and the dew
I open to the sun
My roots are deep and strong
Though my petals are wilted
My colors are true
May not win the blue ribbon
But I might just win you
I am the bursting bud
I am the climbing vine
I am the wild rose
I am the sweet dark night
And though the ground is frozen
And the air so cold
I will push through the stubborn earth
To behold
Another bright warm day
I unfurl my leaves and pray
That I’ll open up a little more
Each day
7) Curly Love
Wrapped around your finger like a fiddlehead fern
I tried to walk a straight line but all I do is turn
Back in the direction of my heart’s connection
Upon close inspection, no surprise to learn that it’s
Curly love, curly love
Let me wrap around you wrappin’ around me
Wrapped around this
Curly love
Coiled around your current like a live electric wire
Your spiral staircase spinning, each step takes me higher
I’m so glad to be orbiting your gravity
Naturally it had to be that circle of fire called
Curly love, curly love
Let me wrap around you wrappin’ around me
Wrapped around this
Curly love
Mighty Aphrodite gave me this crown
Released the kundalini from the place it was bound
No need to circumnavigate, natural as the love we make
Nothing in this world escapes this vortex of fate called
Curly love, curly love
Let me wrap around you wrappin’ around me
Wrapped around this
Curly love
8) Love Comes With A Knife
Love comes with a knife
A piercing feeling, deep and rare
Love comes with a knife
Lays you open, leaves you there
The hint of death in the breath of life
Sinner, savior, husband, wife
Love comes with a knife
We think we see the enormity of love with our eyes
And call it ours by wrapping arms around it
Like a tiny spider trying to wrap a wasp ten times its size
And keep it just because she found it
Love comes with a knife
A piercing feeling, deep and rare
Love comes with a knife
Lays you open, leaves you there
The shiver in the cold, dark night
Sinner, savior, husband, wife
Love comes with a knife
We make our pledges and walk the edges of the crooked ocean shore
Holding up our clothes to try to keep them dry
When will we tear away all that we thought we were before?
Jump in, naked, fragile, not afraid to die
Love comes with a knife
A piercing feeling, deep and rare
Love comes with a knife
Lays you open, leaves you there
The hint of death in the breath of life
The shiver in the cold, dark night
Sinner, savior, lover, leaver, true believer, husband, wife
Love comes with a knife
9) Take Up Love
Against the evening sky I know you’re driving away
I walked you to the door and said good bye
A softer smile, a sweeter high, I could never find
And you’re the only key I want to try
It’s so hard to fall in love
So you might as well jump in and don’t look back
Yes, it’s so hard to fall in love
But you can wake up and take it up
These January days are short but somehow feel so long
I guess that’s the way it is sometimes, when your sweetheart is gone
But I think of all the things we’ll do when you can get home
And I might just sing this song into your phone
It’s so hard to fall in love
You can send your whole life trying to find a way
Yes, it’s so hard to fall in love
But you can wake up and take it up
Don’t know why they call it falling in love
When to me it feels like rising up
It’s so hard to fall in love
So you might as well jump in and don’t look back
Yes, it’s so hard to fall in love
But you can wake up and take it up
You can wake up and take up love
You can wake up and take up love
10) The Friend’s Delight
You’ve been handed a Divine Invitation
You’re invited to meet the Friend
You can be dragged kicking and screaming
Or get dressed up and come dancing in
You don’t have to act crazy no more
We all know how to play that part
Just look into the clear mountain mirror
Wash the pain from your sweet eyes and heart
And we dance (and we dance)
And we dance (and we dance)
We dance in the soft moonlight
And we dance (and we dance)
And we dance (and we dance)
We dance to the Friend’s Delight
I’m in love with the one who hides in you
I set pots of wine and milk at your door
Come crawling out of the hole you’ve been
Or I’ll be singing this song evermore
And we dance (and we dance)
And we dance (and we dance)
We dance in the soft moonlight
And we dance (and we dance)
And we dance (and we dance)
We dance to the Friend’s Delight
You’ve been handed a Divine Invitation
You’re invited to meet the Friend
You can be dragged kicking and screaming
Or get dressed up and come dancing in
And we dance (and we dance)
And we dance (and we dance)
We dance in the soft moonlight
And we dance (and we dance)
And we dance (and we dance)
We dance to the Friend’s Delight
Inspiring Poems
Under each song title is the poem(s) that inspired the song.
1) I Come Into This World
I HAVE COME INTO THIS WORLD TO SEE THIS Hafiz/Ladinsky
I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men’s hands
even at the height of their arc of anger
because we have finally realized
there is just one flesh to wound
and it is His – the Christ’s, our Beloved’s.
I have come into this world to see this:
all creatures holding hands
as we pass through this miraculous existence
we share on the way to even a greater being of soul,
a being of just ecstatic light,
forever entwined and at play with Him.
I have come into this world to hear this:
every song the earth has sung since it was conceived in
the Divine’s womb and began spinning from His wish,
every song by wing and fin and hoof,
every song by hill and tree and woman and child,
every song of stream and rock,
every song of tool and lyre and flute,
every song of gold and emerald and fire,
every song the heart should cry with magnificent dignity
to know itself as God:
for all other knowledge will leave us again
in want and aching –
only imbibing the glorious Sun will complete us.
I have come into this world to experience this:
Women and men so true to love
they would rather die before speaking an unkind word,
men so true their lives are His covenant -
the promise of hope.
I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men’s hands
even at the height of their arc of rage
because we have finally realized there is just one flesh
we can wound and it is our own.
[Daniel Ladinsky: A Year With Hafiz, pp.358-359]
3) Take Us Down
JARS OF SPRINGWATER Rumi/Coleman Barks
Jars of springwater are not enough anymore.
Take Us down to the river.
The face of peace, the sun itself.
No more slippery cloudlike moon.
Give us one clear morning after another,
and the one whose work remains unfinished,
who is our work as we diminish,
idle, though occupied, empty, and open.
[Rumi: The Big Red Book, p. 16]
4) Love’s Tavern
Hafiz/Ladinsky
There are moments in moist love
when heaven is jealous of what we on earth can do.
[Daniel Ladinsky: A Year With Hafiz, Introduction]
5) I Heard God Laughing
LAUGHTER Hafiz/Ladinsky
What is laughter? What is laughter?
It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!
It is the sun its sweet little head out
From behind a cloud
You have been carrying too long,
Veiling your eyes and heart.
It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure
That is your Real body – called Truth
It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight
To embrace everyone and everything in this world.
Laughter is the polestar
Held in the sky by our Beloved,
Who eternally says,
“Yes, dear ones, come this way,
Come this way toward Me and Love!
Come with your tender mouths moving
And your beautiful tongues conducting songs
And with your movements – your magic movements
Of hands and feet and glands and cells – Dancing!
Know that to God’s Eye,
All movement is a Wonderous Language,
And Music – such exquisite, wild Music!”
O what is laughter, Hafiz?
What is this precious love and laughter
Budding in our hearts?
It is the glorious sound
Of a soul waking up!
[Daniel Ladinsky : I Heard God Laughing, p.65]
8) Love Comes With A Knife
THE SILENT ARTICULATION OF A FACE Rumi/Coleman Barks
Love comes with a knife, not some shy question,
and not with fears for its reputation.
I say these things disinterestedly. Accept them in kind.
Love is a madman, working his wild schemes,
tearing off his clothes,
running through the mountains, drinking poison,
and now quietly choosing annihilation.
A tiny spider tries to wrap an enormous wasp.
Think of the spiderweb woven across the cave where Muhammad slept.
There are love stories, and there is obliteration into love.
You've been walking the ocean's edge,
holding up your robes to keep them dry.
You must dive naked under and deeper under,
a thousand times deeper! Love flows down.
The ground submits to the sky and suffers what comes.
Tell me, is the earth worse for giving in like that?
Don't put blankets over the drum!
Open completely.
Let your spirit listen to the green dome's passionate murmur.
Let the cords of your robe be untied.
Shiver in this new love beyond all above and below.
The sun rises, but which way does night go?
I have no more words.
Let soul speak with the silent articulation of a face.
[Rumi: The Big Red Book, p. 20]
10) The Friend’s Delight
A DIVINE INVITATION Hafiz/Ladinsky
You have been invited to meet The Friend.
No one can resist a Divine Invitation.
That narrows down all our choices to just two:
We can come to God Dressed for Dancing, or
Be carried on a stretcher To God’s Ward.
[Daniel Ladinsky: I Heard God Laughing, p.2]
YOU DON’T HAVE TO ACT CRAZY ANYMORE
You don’t have to act crazy anymore –
We all know you were good at that.
Now retire, my dear,
From all that hard work you do
Of bringing pain to your sweet eyes and heart.
Look in a clear mountain mirror –
See the beautiful Ancient Warrior
And the Divine elements you always carry inside
That infused this Universe with sacred Life so long ago
And join you Eternally with all Existence – with God!
[Daniel Ladinsky :I Heard God Laughing, p.3]
WE SHOULD TALK ABOUT THIS PROBLEM Hafiz/Ladinsky
There is a Beautiful Creature Living in a hole you have dug.
So at night I set fruit and grains and little pots of wine and milk
Beside your soft earthen mounds,
And I often sing. But still, my dear, You do not come out.
I have fallen in love with Someone Who hides inside you.
We should talk about this problem –
Otherwise, I will never leave you alone.
[Daniel Ladinsky: I Heard God Laughing, p.4]
THE GOD WHO ONLY KNOWS FOUR WORDS Hafiz/Ladinsky
Every Child Has known God.
Not the God of names, Not the God of don’ts
Not the God who ever does Anything weird,
But the God who only knows four words
And keeps repeating them, saying:
“Come dance with Me.”
Come Dance.
[Daniel Ladinsky: The Gift, p.270]