Odes to Joy

Tarot · Track 71 · middle

Eight of Pentacles

RWS: a craftsman on a bench with hammer and chisel, one finished pentacle in his hands, six already mounted on the post beside him and one at his feet, a town small in the distance. Keywords: diligence, repetition, mastery accumulated by the hour, and the town he is not in.

No audio yet — generation pending.

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
The lights are coming on down in the valley
Just pinpricks in the graying afternoon
I can hear the highway humming through the alley
But the dust in here is all I care about right now
Six of them are mounted on the timber
One is resting heavy by my boot
The hammer’s getting warm against my fingers
And the chisel finds the bottom of the root

[Chorus]
Tap, turn, measure, strike
It’s the same old motion in the fading light
Leave the town to do whatever towns will do
I've got this one in my hands, and I'll make it true
There's nowhere else I really need to be
When the brass gives up its secrets back to me

[Verse 2]
My thumb is resting heavy on the handle
Of a three-eighths flat-edged iron blade
It’s a quiet kind of way to earn a living
Counting every single mark I've made
The valley's pouring out the evening whiskey
Laughing at a joke I didn't hear

I brush away the shavings from the table
The star inside the center's getting clear

[Chorus]
Tap, turn, measure, strike
It’s the same old motion in the fading light
Leave the town to do whatever towns will do
I've got this one in my hands, and I'll make it true
There's nowhere else I really need to be
When the brass gives up its secrets back to me

[Bridge]
Some folks want the lightning and the thunder
Some folks want a story they can sell
My mind just wants the groove of doing one thing
And doing that one thing extremely well
It's a rhythm that can keep the dark away
Just carving out the wages for the day

[Outro]
Six on the post.
One on the floor.

And one right here, that needs a little more.
Just a little more off the edge.
Yeah.
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