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The Librarian's Garden

from Visitors by Howard Simon

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about

This is kind of a hodge-podge of ideas, images and references. It’s ostensibly about two married couples (and maybe an ex or two) and their complex lives, but there are crazy shout-outs to “A Doll’s House,” “The Waste Land,” “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” “Star of the County Down,” and who knows what else. Not entirely sure what I was thinking . . . Thanks to the wonderful Libby McLaren of Flower & McLaren for the cheesy organ part – still makes me smile every time I hear it!

lyrics

The Librarian’s Garden

In the woods outside Windale there’s a beautiful house
As quiet as a tomb
There’s nobody there except the few weeks each year
Nora sleeps in the cloud-filled room
I’ve heard it said she’ll live there with Ted
Once she signs the papers with Zack
But it’s getting’ pretty late, she hasn’t made that date
‘Cause once she goes, she knows she can’t come back

Nora kneels in the dirt in the wet southern sun
Ted’s out back by the clay
Wisteria waiting to be joined to the earth
The kiln will be fired today
In the west, William stirs; he’s been dreaming of her
Picks up an acoustic guitar
While Eve sorts her beads like she’s sowing seeds
Each one in its proper jar

The librarian’s garden, that’s what I want to see
That’s what I want to see today
Queen-Anne’s lace all over the place
Lilacs in April and May
The librarian’s garden, that’s where I want to be
That’s where I want to be today
She walked there alone on the bridges and stones
But the librarian’s gone away

At the house outside Windale there’s a gardener now
Carefully sculpting the land
The front trees are gone for an elegant lawn
The wildness slips from her hand
But Nora’s content; though she’s folded her tent
She did it for comfort and love
And Ted, feeling blessed, heads off on his quest
Like Icarus soaring above

Out in the west, with a pain in his chest
William thinks of her, languid and soft
Her hair in the light of a beautiful night
On the bed in the clouds in the loft
And Eve, she just stares with no words and no tears
She sees everything and nothing at all
And cares for her man as best she can
Waiting for darkness to fall

The librarian’s garden, that’s what I want to see
That’s what I want to see today
Queen-Anne’s lace all over the place
Lilacs in April and May
The librarian’s garden, that’s where I want to be
That’s where I want to be today
She walked there alone over bridges and stones
But the librarian’s gone away

Nora and Ted might make a go of it yet
So many years down the line
Back and forth from south to north
Magnolia to pine
And William and Eve sitting watching TV
Silently getting on
These strange sad lives of husbands and wives disappear
Look! They’re gone . . .

credits

from Visitors, released June 27, 2016

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Howard Simon image

Howard Simon San Francisco, California

I am a San Francisco-based singer-songwriter. My songs are about love (romantic and otherwise), family, morality and mortality. If there is a common thread to my songs, it is the people we love, the desire to do right, and the hope and fear, the peace and the struggle that constitute life bring wonder in addition to its joy and sadness, and sometimes loss. ... more

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