Knots

[00:15.81] What a tangle
[00:19.72] What a strangling knot to be caught in
[00:23.14] To be exiled here
[00:25.24] To be stuck in Berlin with Vienna so near
[00:28.91] Yet so far from the Emperor's ear
[00:33.35] What a strange and impossible sum
[00:35.78] To be old while to still be so young
[00:39.13] To have sung before speaking a word
[00:43.46] To be heard
[00:44.25] To be hailed
[00:45.39] Then to fail
[00:46.82] To be done
[00:48.36] To love but to be so naive
[00:52.37] To trust and to be so deceived
[00:55.95] To mourn, forlorn, to be torn from you
[00:59.66] Scorned for another who suffers no grief
[01:04.59]
[01:06.80] To curse God, seeking lightning
[01:08.57] And to still be ignored
[01:11.33] To hide in this room, now too rich to afford
[01:14.50] To hear armies of creditors bang at the door
[01:17.17] Always yelling for more
[01:19.25] And to have nothing to sell that could help
[01:22.12] Except for the Steinway that sits in the corner
[01:29.90] For Arthur it all came too easily
[01:32.15] To learn the scales in every key
[01:35.11] To play the etudes and the suites
[01:38.17] The nocturnes and The Fantaisie
[01:39.81] To master the sonatas, minuets, and symphonies
[01:43.76] To seek the truth fits and starts
[01:45.68] To strike the middle F like it's an arrow through the heart
[01:48.69] To wing the right hand like a dove (the peaceful flutter of a dove)
[01:51.17] And with left a violent shove (some moments will demand a shove)
[01:54.30] To needle gently yet relentless with a steady foot upon the pedal
[01:57.33] And to clench the iron first inside the velvet glove
[01:59.71] To learn to whisper and to scream
[02:01.21] (The whisper justifies the scream)
[02:02.28] To let each yearning finger breathe
[02:03.50] (No, nothing lives unless it breathes)
[02:04.85] To burn, to worship, to mislead
[02:06.75] To pose a question with a pinky on a key
[02:11.66] To flee, to fight, to bleed
[02:14.05] To float in air
[02:15.58] Nothing solid underneath
[02:17.22] To rap those heavy knuckles on the gate to heaven til there's nothing to
[02:21.63] Achieve, but
[02:25.94] To go retrieve the length of cable hidden in the cabinet
[02:28.28] To metamorphasize the twisted rope unto an alphabet
[02:30.83] To lay the lazy C upon the shabby wooden floor to rest
[02:32.90] To send the end across the top and bend the C into an S
[02:35.52] To curve the tail beneath the S to turn the tangle to a B
[02:37.03] To hug the wretched root around the fibers suffocatingly
[02:38.78] To wrap again to wrap again to give the coil seven loops
[02:40.67] To penetrate the yawning hoop
[02:41.75] To tug the loose appendage through
[02:43.29] To yank the knot until it's ready for the job it's got to do
[02:44.43] To toss the braid above the ceiling beam and to affix the noose
[02:46.27] To bid adieu to all of you until there's nothing left to do but
[02:48.76] Climb the chair
[02:49.85] To cinch the collar
[02:51.93] Find the edge
[02:53.45] To step into the air
[02:55.54]