PJ Harvey - Fountain

stand under fountain
cool skin, wash clean
wash him from me

along comes wind, a big bone shaker
blows off my clothes, completely naked
what to do when everything’s left you?

out of the blue, it is he
a vision to me, bearing leaves
and petals green, covers me in all my shame

hand in hand, he’s my big man
stays with me some forty days
no words, then goes away – I cry again

on my hill I wait for wind

PJ Harvey - August

Tree-tears vall
wordle-wide.
All ’us cross o’er
t’other side.

‘Vore I leave
someone please,
Love Me Tender
’neath the trees.

Lorn of leaf,
twiddicks sigh.
Child and season
mortify.

PJ Harvey - Lieben

...

PJ Harvey & John Parish - The Soldier

I imagine a dream in which I'm a soldier
And I'm walking on the faces
Of dead women and everyone I've
Left behind me it's the year when
The troops entered the thirty-ninth
Thirty-ninth parallel

Send me home restless send me home damaged
And wanting

It's the year when some poet said
"We must live, or accept the consequences"
I want you to share every pinprick of guilt
That I have felt that I have felt

Send me home restless send me home damaged
Some me home dispossessed
Send me home damaged and wanting
https://pesnihi.com

PJ Harvey - Driving [4-Track Demo version]

Tell him I'm driving, it's alright
Turn on this wheel
Turn on headlights
A hundred different bibles by my side
In my white gown
I go flying down
Oh my eyes, it cannot be,; He said no, it cannot be
All that time, it cannot be,; Easy said, it cannot be
The ghosts fly their asses off tonight
I'm just driving till it dies
Tell him I'm driving, it's alright
You tell him that I had a skin full
You tell him that I couldn't sit still
Imagine your whole self is filled with light
Your voice ringing out
Through the whole fucking town
Oh my eyes, it cannot be ; He said no, it cannot be
All that time, it cannot be ; Oh my eyes, it cannot be
You tell him I'm driving
You tell him I'm driving
You tell him I'm driving
You tell him I'm driving

PJ Harvey - I Inside The Old Year Dying

Zun’s a feeble lamp
O’er leery land

Stares a’chat in code
Lark a meagre note

Drush repeats ’enself
Over UNDERWHELEM

Croopied in the reames
Shepherd gurrel weaves

PJ Harvey - Arpeggio Waltz

...

PJ Harvey - Lwonesome Tonight

Hark the greening of the eth
Curl-ed ferns yet to uncurl
Hark the zingen of the birds
Gurrel yearns yet to un-girl

Beech and aller, woak and birch,
Biddle, bull-head, squirrel’s drey
Willow, aspen, elder, larch,
Soldier-King on Maundy day

In her satchel, Pepsi fizz,
Peanut-and-banana sandwiches,
For this man her shepherd is.
Parts her bready-lips:

Are you Elvis? Are you God?
Jesus sent to win my trust?
Love Me Tender are his words,
As I have loved you, so you must…

Thrice she draws her lips to kiss
Mouthing for his mouth in vain
Thrice her lwonesome kisses miss
My love, will you come back again?

PJ Harvey - Send His Love To Me

Lover had to leave me
to cross the desert plains.
He turned to me, his lady,
tells me, Lover, wait.

I’m calling Jesus, please,
send his love to me.

Wind and rain haunt me.
I look to the north and pray.
Send me please, his kisses.
Send him home today.

I’m begging Jesus, please,
send his love to me.

Left alone in the desert
this house becomes a hell,
this love becomes a tether,
this room becomes a cell.

Mummy, Daddy, please,
send him back to me.

How long must I suffer?
Dear god, I’ve served my time.
This love becomes my torture,
this love my only crime.
Oh lover, please release me,
my arms too weak to grip,
my eyes too dry for weeping,
my lips too dry to kiss.

PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By / The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go

I once knew a woman/man
A courageous friend I thought
Turned out so wrong was I
when we were up against the wall

He had chicken-livered balls
He had chicken-livered spleen
He had chicken-livered heart
Made of chicken-livered parts
Lily-livered little parts

Prematurely going bald
Any passion long gone cold
But I wanted to explore
the damp alleyways of his soul

All the times I tried to help
he’d spit in my face and laugh
that woman/man –
I want his fucking ass
I want your fucking ass!

Hermaphrodite
he’s looking lik-e
Crammed in a taxi
I see you too clearly
I’m sucking on a little pee!
My, my your little toy!
He’s just a Mummy’s boy!
Where’s your liver, where’s your heart?
And what’s with all your woman parts?!

Now it’s my turn to laugh!
You can stick it up your fucking ass!

PJ Harvey - I Inside the Old I Dying

The beech buds wait.
The aish buds wait.
The frogs and twoads in lagwood holes
and hedgehogs in their leafy ditch,
all waiting for His kingdom.

The eth waits.
The dead brakes
host the holly’s bloody beads;
they are His crown of thorns
and He will rise again.

Oh Wyman, Oh Wyman.
Unray I for en.

Slip from my childhood skin;
I zing through the forest,
I hover in the holway
and laugh into the leaves.

Oh Wyman, Oh Wyman.
Unray I for en.

I laugh in the leaves
and merge to meesh,
just a charm in the woak
with the chalky children
of evermore.

PJ Harvey - Waltz

...

PJ Harvey & John Parish - Cracks In The Canvas

How do we cope
With the days after a death
Empty days
Nothing left
Not even a funeral
I see shapes forming inside paintings
Animals and humans feet on road
Walking towards something
Waiting for something

I'm looking for an answe
Me and a million others
disbelievers, deserted lovers
Dear god you better not let me down this time

Cracks in the canvas
Look like roads that never end
Honey
Go to sleep
You have no one to wait for
And now, here's another voice

Outside the window
The voices of ten thousand angels
Tten thousand lives that lived before>

PJ Harvey - You Said Something

On a rooftop in Brooklyn, one in the morning,

watching the lights flash in Manhattan,

I see five bridges, the Empire State Building

and you said something that I’ve never forgotten.

We lean against railings, describing the colours

and the smells of our homelands, acting like lovers.

How did we get here? To this point in living?

I held my breath, and you said something.

And I am doing nothing wrong riding in your car,

your radio playing – we sing up to the eighth floor

of a rooftop, Manhattan, one in the morning,

when you said something that I’ve never forgotten,

when you said something really important.

PJ Harvey feat. Lily James - The Moth

Oh ghost moth, hear me, hear me
Oh pale moth, shield me, shield me
I hear you beating, beating
I feel you in me, in me

Beyond yourself
into the lights
Palest wings
burning bright

Oh ghost moth, hear me, hear me
Oh pale moth, shield me, shield me
I hear you beating, beating
I feel you leaving, leaving

Lose yourself
into the lights
Palest wings
wave goodbye

Nothing else but waves of love
Nothing else but waves of love
I can’t wait for night to come
Nothing else but waves of love

PJ Harvey - Hanging In The Wire

Walker sees the mist rise

over a no-man’s-land.

He sees in front of him

a smashed up waste-ground.

There are no fields or trees.

No blades of grass.

Just unburied ghosts

hanging in the wire.

Walker’s in the wire,

limbs pointing upwards.

There are no birds singing

The White Cliffs of Dover.

There are no trees to sing from.

He cannot hear the wind.

Far off, a symphony.

Do you hear the guns beginning?

James Walker’s in the mist rising

over no-man’s-land,

in the battered waste-ground,

the big guns firing.

PJ Harvey & John Parish - Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen

Erika is watching
Daniel is hiding
Erika is counting,

16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9
Erika is coming

The sun is setting the scene
In the garden it’s starting to rain
The trees are trembling

Erika’s repeating
Oh, oh, oh, oh

Erika is feeling something
Daniel is hiding
She’s counting,

16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4

The sun is leaving the scene
It took a look and turned away
The trees are trembling

Erika’s repeating,
Oh, oh, oh, oh

There is no laughter in the garden

PJ Harvey - White Chalk

White chalk hills are all I’ve known

White chalk hills will rot my bones

White chalk sticking to my shoes

White chalk playing as a child with you

White chalk south against time

White chalk cutting down the sea at Lyme

I walk the valleys by the Cerne

on a path cut fifteen hundred years ago

and I know these chalk hills will rot my bones

Dorset’s cliffs meet at the sea

where I walked, our unborn child in me

White chalk, gorse-scattered land

scratch my palms – there’s blood on my hands

PJ Harvey - Sheela-na-gig

I’ve been trying to show you over and over

Look at these my child-bearing hips
Look at these my ruby-red, ruby lips
Look at these my work-strong arms
You’ve got to see my bottleful of charm
I lay it all at your feet
You turn around and say back to me

He said
Sheela na gig, Sheela na gig
You exhibitionist!

I’m gonna wash that man right out of my hair
Just like the first time, said you didn’t care
Wash that man right out of my hair
Heard it before, no more
Wash that man right out of my hair
Turn the corner, another one there
Wash that man right out of my hair
Heard it before

He said,
Sheela na gig, Sheela na gig
You exhibitionist!
Put money in your idle hole

Gonna wash that man right out of my hair
Just like the first time, said you didn’t care
Wash that man right out of my hair
Heard it before, no more
Take my hips to a man who cares
Turn the corner, another one there
Take my hips to a man who cares
Heard it before

He said,
Sheela na gig, Sheela na gig
You exhibitionist!
Put money in your idle hole

He said,
Wash your breasts, I don’t want to be unclean
He said,
Please take those dirty pillows away from me

PJ Harvey - Angelene

My first name, Angelene.

The prettiest mess you’ve ever seen.

Love for money is my sin –

any man calls, I’ll let him in.

Rose is my colour and white.

A pretty mouth and green my eyes.

I see men come and go

but there’ll be one who will collect my soul and come to me.

Two-thousand miles away he walks upon the coast.

Two-thousand miles away – it lays open like a road.

Dear God, life ain’t kind –

people getting born and dying,

but I’ve heard there’s joy untold

laying open on that road in front of me.

My first name, Angeline.