Shawn Phillips - Landscape lyrics

Phillips Level upon level of wash and stone Cab drivers yelling that each one, each one's alone A forced-up smile when casting your eyes Insanity reigns on streets of no size High crumbling walls of stones that have seen The rigors of war and have never been cleaned A modern pay turnpike in midst of it all While an old woman works in a garden with trowel Trees are just blooming, I've come just in time Purple spring flowers in rebirth pantomime A miniature red castle in black craggy pa** Jig-saw puzzle houses the resultants of ma** The top of a mountain cut off by the mist And a white serene temple in space does exist The lemon trees, oranges, and cactus alike The growth of a vineyard with grapes not yet ripe A truck is forced off as big as a house While dawdling along like a little green mouse A long sweeping view expounds my belief And clear restless water with an absence of reef Evolutions and cycles we come face to face While foliage drifts in green filmy lace Now rough and then coarse soon velvet to touch Octagonal mosaic on a church that is such And columns of clouds go boiling across The mountains that stop them and suffer no loss Head reeling cliffs that fall down to sea While people are sleeping they hang peacefully But the trucks rolling blindly are waking them up To talk quietly murmuring over the morning's first cup Arches and steps are seen everywhere Manmade and Godmade and one made of air The essence of time is virtually gone Day goes and night comes, I breathe up my lawn Buona sera, buona sera is a faithful reply From any stranger you pa** who catches your eye And pinpoints of brilliance, some moving, some still Are caught in the gla** of my window sill The pinpoints I mentioned I don't speak of stars But then, think again, it's funny they are Stars made by man who himself is a star If only he'd realize the powers that are And all he's got to do is lay down and play dead And now looky here Vesuvius looms overhead