Sixteen white horsemen descending down a ladder,
I caught a glimpse, in their bellies were adders,
Flames shooting from their eyes light from their teeth,
I saw that what they brought would make the nations weep,
Black clouds, black cross, black dawn on that day,
O Mother, Mother, is this the last day.

Sixteen black adders slither from the pit,
tail in mouth, curled around, nowhere are they split.
Sixteen obelisks center the circles round,
raised up to the sky, reaching without bound,
You say there's no tension here, well I say you're wrong;
the obelisk's gravityless, and the adder's got no song...

Grace without gravity's got no place to ground.
And gravity without grace is spinning round and round.
Icarus flew too high, blazing plummets down,
Jonah's running to Tarshish, hiding from the hound.

Grace with gravity is the Knight of Faith;
blood flows from his feet and hands, love shines from his face.
Love is spyring up round a divine gyre.
Love is blazing a way bathe me in the fire.
Love's calling from above, Love's calling from the ground,
Love don't care who the fuck you are just turn yourself around.
Change your heart, change your mind, change your path and way.
Love's calling, calling, calling … [bear the blaze of faith].

This *is* a wierd one.
I dreamt it.
Honest.
Woke up one morning and wrote the whole thing out - boom, or blurp, or burp: whatever it is when something just jumps out of your brain all complete and looks at you and starts laughing 'cause you really don't know what the fuck it is, and it kind of worries you.

Was living in the Catholic Worker House in Toronto, 1995-ish?, and studying Theology.
Lorne, one of the residents, had taught me twelve bar blues the evening before. I'm forever grateful to Lorne for that. Saw him busqueing at Bay and Bloor a few months back. It was great to see him. Anyway, that cycle dove straight down into my psyche and by morning re-emerged with the above lyrics pinned onto it.



1. 'Grace and Gravity' is a book by Simone Weil.

2. 'hiding from the hound', cf. 'The Hound of Heaven', a poem by Francis Thompson.

3. 'knight of faith' from Johannes de Silentio's (aka Søren Kierkegaard) 'Fear and Trembling'