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MARYSE SUITE

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Maryse, July 2023 in cameo detail copy.png

July 2023

'The Dancer under Wraps'
'I Miss My Wife'
'Lilies' 

Don and Roger, recording for 'Love and Work' tour, August 31, 2023, video by Keith Hill.pn

with Roger Lewis on baritone saxophone, recorded by Keith Hill at the New Orleans Musicians Union, August 31, 2023.
Lyrics below.

'The Dancer under Wraps'
 

1 'The Dancer under Wraps'Don Paul and Roger Lewis
00:00 / 03:29

Two pair of shoes

In her kitchen

Are made of wood,

Simple shoes with brilliant straps

Like rubies, diamonds or tiara,

Fitting for a ballerina,

The dancer under wraps.

 

Her blood father

Was a Toussaint-hearted aviator

Who flew from Haiti to Germany

In the 1930s.

The father who adopted her

Was Haiti's Ambassador 

To Mexico and Great Britain

Before he fled the Papa Doctor Duvalier's regime.

 

What a fountain is her laughter!

How it rumbles and quakes and peals!

What a marvel is her compassion!

Almost she cries 

With both laughter and compassion.

How quickly she can move,

Fast as a pulling guard

Or a Gauguin brushstroke,

Erect as a crane's steps 

Flying across water.

 

A child so bold as to declare

At age three: "My mother 

Made me this dress and I love it!"

A child taken places and then hearing voices

Of Tontin Macoute raised with threats and guns

Outside darkened windows

A child sheltered across continents

Without a choice in the matter.

Someone who came to ask

Why and how the Church is so rich.

 

If her skin was a lake,

If her voice was a mother's whispering or a flute

("Kwame'! Oh, Kwame'! …"), if her arms 

Were the smoothest cocoa and bread-fruit,

If her eyes were themselves pools of dancing darkness,

She would still be 

As the sunrise by your pillow.

'I Miss My Wife' 

2 'I Miss My Wife'Don Paul and Roger Lewis
00:00 / 01:14

Rain needles the roof

Like a dancing drill

To that 3:00 a.m. of the soul

And I miss my wife--

Not so much from absence

Of her body next to mine--

Her limbs and curves

And amplitudes--

As from the wish

That we could be together

As a single cell,

Or rock,

Or coral reef,

Is together--

That we could be together

As a star is together.

'Lilies' 

3 'Lilies'Don Paul and Roger Lewis
00:00 / 02:41

Lilies represent life

Like the bass-lines

Of "Take Me To The River"

And "Going To See You Again"

Flower with percussion 

And darting tongues.

Lilies and bass-lines and ...

Evoke so many elements

In your senses at once

That you must surrender 

To belief in their being born 

Of a Creator many know as God.

"That's right," you say. 

"That's right," you say.

"Your Body Is a Nurturing
I Ride Into Night /
New Cars And Power-LInes
Are Strung Out To L.A."
 
with Roger on flute

 

8 _Your Body Is A Nurturing I Ride into Night'. mp3Don Paul and Roger Lewis
00:00 / 03:53

​

Your body is a nurturing 

I ride into night 

Your body is of spirit things 

To bring soul's delight

        Hi-dee-High Hi-dee-High 

        Hi-dee-High-de-hi-de-hi- ...

 

Your body is replenishing 

Source gives back to thirst 

Your body is of healing things 

From it wants are burst

        Hi-dee-High Hi-dee-High 

        Hi-dee-High-de-hi-de-hi- ...

​

​

​

New cars and power lines 

Are strung out to L. A.

How we use the time we have 

Is our means our light

 

Birds are mired in the oil

Palms and firs shrink by Bays 

How we meet the calls of life 

Is our play with paradise

 

Damage is a constant 

As cars run round the clock 

Dying can't be accident 

If we boil in our own pots

 

Politicians banning Art 

Scumbags wash to shore 

No shame in Nature's gifts 

Naked 's where it starts

​

​

 

Your body is a nurturing 

I ride into night 

Your body is of spirit things 

To bring soul's delight

         Hi-dee-High Hi-dee-High 

         Hi-dee-High-de-hi-de-hi-

 

Your body is replenishing 

Source gives back to thirst 

Your body is of healing things 

From it wants are burst

           Hi-dee-High Hi-dee-High 

           Hi-dee-High-de-hi-de-hi-

 

An-other world! Another world!

Another world is there for us

Starry, fleshly night.

Still from video by Keith Hill.
 

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