Mimosa Tree
Second Album by Ancient News, Andrea Cefalo and David Kisor, released Feb 22,2024.
Stream the songs on your favorite streaming platform. Below are the lyrics and inspiring poems.
Lyrics
1) Giant Wagon Wheel
I don’t know what I thought I knew
When I see your face
The fire starts dying, stones start flying
You breathe and wreck the place
In your eyes there’s a rusty mirror
Where the past disappears
While the song of this single desire
Keeps ringing in my ears
I’m trying to walk beside
A giant wagon wheel
Take it slow, I’ve got to follow
Now that I know
Your love is all that’s real
I don’t want what I thought I wanted
Three lights on a string
The water turns pearly, spring busts out early
You breathe and change everything
In your eyes there is widespread movement
Where a new shape appears
While the song of this single desire
Keeps ringing in my ears
I’m trying to walk beside
A giant wagon wheel
Take it slow, I’ve got to follow
Now that I know
Your love is all that’s real
2) The Subject Tonight
Change rooms in your mind for a day
Give your senses a little nudge
Let passion dance the doubt away
The subject tonight is love
Let your truth forsake its shyness
Sweet music is quite enough
To awaken her royal highness
The subject tonight is love
Let the light split you wide open
Sow seeds in your fruitful plain
Let love be the word unspoken
To sooth your sorrow and heal your pain
Let us sing of the priceless secret
Lift the liquid ruby-light in a cup
The treasure is ours, we can keep it
The subject tonight is love
3) Mimosa Tree
Can I make myself as strong and sweet as the mimosa tree?
Fragrant and pink, blowing in the breeze
Can I endure another winter, another spring?
My heart is melting, my ground is giving
I hold my face between my hands
To keep my soul from leaving
I have everything I need, and we can weather anything
SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF COMPASSION
SPEAK WITH THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE
SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF COMPASSION
SPEAK WITH THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE
We can withhold the love we have, as if we’ve never tasted
Dreaming in grayscale, starving and wasted
Why do we wait until our deathbeds to say these things?
Our time is fleeting…our hearts stop beating…
I hold my face between my hands
To keep my soul from leaving
How can I make my self as strong and sweet as the mimosa tree?
How can I make myself as strong and sweet as the mimosa tree?
SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF COMPASSION
SPEAK WITH THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE
SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF COMPASSION
SPEAK WITH THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE
4) The Energy Left
If I keep on keeping score
Of who’s right and wrong and who owes who
I won’t have energy left to love you
If I keep on looking for
A reason to doubt all the things you do
I won’t have energy left
I won’t have energy left to love you
The moon and the stars
throw a party every night
But I’ve got to keep my eyes open to see the sight
If I keep on dividing God
Into what I believe is false and true
I won’t have energy left
I won’t have energy left
I won’t have energy left to love you
[INSTRUMENTAL]
The planets serenade me, whirling in the sky
I miss it when I close my tired eyes
If I keep on dividing God
Into what I believe is false and true
I won’t have energy left
I won’t have energy left
I won’t have energy left to love you
5) I Declare
I looked in the alley behind the bar
I looked in the firepit in the park
I looked in every unlikely place,
still there you are
I declare – the friend is everywhere
I declare – the friend is everywhere
I looked in to my rival’s eyes
I looked beyond the swindler’s lies
I looked at my enemy but it was you in disguise
I declare – the friend is everywhere
I declare – the friend is everywhere
At Sunday school, at the drunken brawl
Where the angels soar and the sinners crawl
In the kum-by-ya, in the coup d’etat
In the first place finish, in the worst faux pas
I looked in the light, I looked in the dark
I tore that grandfather clock apart
I looked all around until you finally whispered
in my heart
I declare – the friend is everywhere
I declare – the friend is everywhere
[INSTRUMENTAL]
At Sunday school, at the drunken brawl
Where the angels soar and the sinners crawl
In the kum-by-ya, in the coup d’etat
In the first place finish, in the worst faux pas
I looked in the light, I looked in the dark
I tore that grandfather clock apart
I looked all around until you finally whispered
in my heart
I declare – the friend is everywhere
I declare – the friend is everywhere
6) Votes For Dancing
Come what may I refuse to be afraid
Or to feel betrayed or breed messages of hate
I can turn it off, I can walk away
I cast all my votes for dancing
Know some day that we’ll all look back and say
How it all seems strange and so very for away
Don’t just turn it off, don’t just walk away
And cast all your votes for dancing
[Instrumental]
Squeeze drops of sun
from the glance of your beloved
From the slightest little movements of your body
Do your best to spread some joy
to every girl and boy
Cast all your votes for dancing
Squeeze drops of the sun
from your work and play and music
Reveal the fun, in your everyday things
Reject the counterfeit coins,
do your best to spread some joy
Cast all your votes for dancing
What we speak becomes the house we live in
Who’ll want to sleep in your house
if the roof leaks
The moon covers her face with both hands
And can’t bear to look, no, no, no, no
With everything love is the answer
Raise your voice, love is the answer
Only one choice, love is the answer
Sweet love, deep love, real love
Pour every drop of you
into your work and life and music
Do it well, give ‘em hell, raise your voice
When it’s all said and done,
don’t forget to have some fun
Cast all your votes, cast all your votes
Cast all your votes for dancing
7) Still Trying To Find You
The clover damp with morning dew
The horizon turns from black to blue
Ancient love made soft and new
I’m still trying to find you
I’m still trying to find you
You’re just to my left, half hiding
Or just to the right of these words we’re writing
The hearth hard to light, the cup hard to fill
When you move so fast and stand so still
The clover damp with morning dew
The horizon turns from black to blue
Ancient love made soft and new
I’m still trying to find you
I’m still trying to find you
You silently slip into my pocket
Or through the gate. We forgot to lock it
Or in that vacant room in my mind
When I want you most, you’re most hard to find
The clover damp with morning dew
The horizon turns from black to blue
Ancient love made soft and new
I’m still trying to find you
I’m still trying to find you
8) Hot Bath
Somebody draw me a hot bath
I’m not ready to jump in the fire
Let the water bring the message to my skin
Take the temperature a little bit higher
Butter me a piece of that brown bread
Pour me a little sip of wine
Someday I’ll sit and eat the whole loaf
But today one slice is fine
Without my body we’d all be blinded
By the light I carry within
So I’ll smile and give y’all a little look
And keep the rest tucked under my skin
Sometimes you know I tell the whole truth
Sometimes you know I’m a liar
Somebody draw me a hot bath
I’m not ready to jump in the fire
I’m not ready to jump in the fire
9) What We Do
We wake up empty
We wake up scared
We’re up not knowing what to do
Don’t search for answers
Don’t read a book
Don’t turn to check the news
Let’s pick up a guitar and play
Open our ruby lips and sing a tune
Today, like every other day
Let the beauty we love be what we do
We wake up hungry
We wake up sad
We’re up with trouble all around
Music reminds us
Of hundreds of ways
To kneel and kiss the ground
Let’s pick up a guitar and play
Open our ruby lips and sing a tune
Today, like every other day
Let the beauty we love be what we do
10) The Universe Lies Within
Miles of untouched forest
Endless rows of fruit trees
Mounds of precious diamonds
Emeralds, pearls and rubies
Seven shining oceans
A million magic potions
Listen to me, my friend
The universe lies within
A thousand singing children
One never-ending song
The power to make the masses
Stop and sing along
Majestic snow-capped mountains
So many stars you can’t count ‘em
Listen to me, my friend
The universe lies within
Within this earthen vessel
Every color, each vibration
Within this earthen vessel
Creator and creation
The tears of every mother
The smile on every face
The ever-changing journey
The final resting place
The one revolving story
The power and the glory
Listen to me, my friend
The universe lies within
Inspiring Poems
1) Giant Wagon Wheel
“A GREAT WAGON” Rumi/Coleman Barks
When I see your face, the stones start spinning!
You appear; all studying wanders.
I lose my place.
Water turns pearly.
Fire dies down and doesn’t destroy.
In your presence I don’t want what I thought
I wanted, those three little hanging lamps.
Inside your face the ancient manuscripts
seem like rusty mirrors.
You breathe; new shapes appear,
and the music of a desire as widespread
as spring begins to move
like a great wagon.
Drive slowly. Some of us
walking alongside are lame.
2) The Subject Tonight
“THE SUBJECT TONIGHT IS LOVE” Hafiz/Ladinsky
The subject tonight is love
And for tomorrow night as well,
As a matter of fact
I know of no better topic
For us to Discuss
Until we all
Die!
3) Mimosa Tree
“FOR WARMTH” Thich Nhat Hanh
(written after the bombing of Ben Tre, during the Vietnam War)
I hold my face in my two hands.
No, I am not crying.
I hold my face in my two hands
to keep the loneliness warm –
two hands protecting,
two hands nourishing,
two hands preventing
my soul from leaving me
in anger.
“Listen with ears of tolerance!
See through the eyes of compassion!
Speak with the language of love”
4) The Energy Left
“DIVIDING GOD” Hafiz/Ladinsky
The moon starts singing
When everyone is asleep
And planets throw a bright robe
Around their shoulders and whirl up
Close to her side.
Once I asked the moon,
“Why do you and your sweet friends
Not perform so romantically like that
To a bigger crowd?”
And the whole sky chorus resounded,
“The admission price to hear
The lofty minstrels
Speak of love
Is affordable only to those
Who have not exhausted themselves
Dividing God all day
And thus need rest
The thrilled Tavern fiddlers
Who are perched on the roof
Do not want their notes to intrude
Upon the ears
Where an accountant lives
With a sharp pencil
Keeping score of words
Another
In their great sorrow or sad anger
May have once said to you.”
Hafiz knows:
The sun will stand as your best man
And whistle
When you have found the courage
To marry forgiveness
When you have found the courage
To marry Love
5) I Declare
“EVERYWHERE” Hafiz/Ladinsky
Running
Through the streets
Screaming,
Throwing rocks through windows
Using my own head to ring
Great bells
Pulling out my hair,
Tearing off my clothes,
Tying everything I own
To a stick,
And setting it on
Fire
What else can Hafiz do tonight
To celebrate the madness,
The Joy,
Of seeing God
Everywhere
6) Votes For Dancing
“CAST ALL YOUR VOTES FOR DANCING” Hafiz/Ladinsky
I know the voice of depression
Still calls to you.
I know those habits that can ruin your life
Still send their invitations.
But you are with the Friend now
And look so much stronger.
You can stay that way
And even bloom!
Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from your companions' beautiful laughter.
Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From the sacred hands and glance of your Beloved
And, my dear,
From the most insignificant movements
Of your own holy body.
Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins
That may buy you just a moment of pleasure,
But then drag you for days
Like a broken man
Behind a farting camel.
You are with the Friend now.
Learn what actions of yours delight Him,
What actions of yours bring freedom
And Love.
Whenever you say God's name, dear pilgrim,
My ears wish my head was missing
So they could finally kiss each other
And applaud all your nourishing wisdom!
O keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from your companions' beautiful laughter
And from the most insignificant movements
Of your own holy body.
Now, sweet one,
Be wise.
Cast all your votes for Dancing!
“COVERS HER FACE WITH BOTH HANDS” Hafiz/Ladinsky
What we speak becomes the house we live in.
Who will want to sleep in your bed
If the roof leaks right above it?
Look what happens when the tongue
Cannot say to kindness,
“I will be your slave.”
The moon covers her faces with both hands
And can’t bear to look.
8) Still Trying To Find You
(No particular poem. Inspired by Rumi’s love and longing for Shams)
9) What We Do
Rumi/Coleman Barks
Today, like every other, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
10) The Universe Lies Within Kabir
Within this earthen vessel are bowers and groves,
And within it is the Creator:
Within this vessel are the seven oceans
And the unnumbered stars.
The touchstone and the jewel-appraiser are within;
And within this vessel the Eternal soundeth,
and the spring wells up.
Kabir says: “Listen to me, my Friend!
My beloved Lord is within.”