May 2007

Warm summer evening. Long family car ride.
Heading back from Aunt Gertie's with the moon shining bright.
Slouched in the back seat staring up at the stars
Just happy to be living while Dad drives the car.
Thinking' how much I loved him how funny he could be
He could always make me laugh and feel good about me.

CHORUS:
Memories of  Copetown, Old Binkley's Side Rd.
Our little house in the country when I was eight years old*

Summer vacation I'd walk to Inksetter's Pond
Thinking of Joanne Dallman so pretty and so blonde
Dreaming of holding her soft hand in mine
Ah but it never happened 'cause I was so ****** shy
But when I look back on days like these
I think if I'd asked her she would have been pleased

CHORUS:

Playing war in the backyard with Russ and with Steve
We'd pretend to be shot and fall down on our knees
Ah but we knew the difference you didn't **** for real
No and you didn't swear and you sure didn't steal
Sometimes we’d go fishing down at Mueller's creek
Ah but we never caught much; least not much we would keep

CHORUS:

Every year in the Autumn we'd have a corn roast
With a great big bonfire and the ones we loved most
I got to stay up late after everyone was gone
And I'd stare at the embers while Dad played a song
His harmonica drifting on the sweet evening breeze
He played "You Are My Sunshine" and I thought he meant me

CHORUS:

In the winter they'd close down the old ravine road
Where we'd toboggan for hours never feeling the cold
And when we got back home the old fire was lit
Mom would give us hot chocolate and we'd sit and we'd sip
Ah we knew how to play then. We knew how to have fun
But then we never worried where the money came from

CHORUS:

Ah now that was so many, so many years ago
Where all those years went I… I swear I don't know
But when I let the mood take me I'm back there again
With my parents, my sisters and old neighbourhood friends
and it's taken me a life time to see how lucky I was
to have such a childhood and to feel so much love

CHORUS:

Memories of  Copetown Old Binkley's Side Rd.
will always be inside me no matter how old
Memories of  Copetown Old Binkley's Side Rd.
Are more precious to me than all the diamonds and gold

James H. Webb

June 1 1978

Locked in the labour
of love and loneliness
once forgotten and twice removed
you are the hinge of my nerves
at the edge of my breakdown

Unaware of your power
of touch and smile
you back away and close behind
something forgotten, tied to my heart
tears away and bleeds.
James H. Webb

Scarborough circa 1989

Jacqui in the night of the instant sunrise
Raises the morning on her shoulders
Swelling between tears and laughter
She melts words into meaning
and gambles on intuition and power

Jacqui in the night of the instant sunrise
looking back and looking forward
finds the dawn most appealing
and issues commands and warnings
to all those with the inner strength to heed them

Jacqui in the night of the instant sunrise
smiles, and the strength of metal
and the purest of beauty
are forged anew

Into the eyes of this miraculous woman
I enter a new beginning
where wisdom lives, and moves, behind her horizons

Jacqui in the night of the instant sunrise
becomes the centre
where all truths are issued passage
and all lies are refused

Jacqui in the night of the instant sunrise
blends courage and compassion
into hues of fine precision
and automatic weapons

Jacqui in the night of the instant sunrise
spreads warmth like a familiar blanket
and moves the day by her power
just as it moves her.
James H. Webb

May 31, 2012*
You never stood a chance
You know that don’t you?
I was too frightened
You were the smartest woman I had ever dated
You were more than a match for me
And me?
I was damaged goods

But then you knew that didn’t you
You knew the hell I was going through before we met
And the pain that enveloped my heart
And still somehow you found me worthy of loving
And you tried so hard and I pushed you away so harshly,
So unfairly, so cruelly

You weren’t the one I wanted to hurt

I am so sorry for that – for what I did to you
And I am sorry that I will never see you again
To let you know that

James H. Webb

January 3, 1998*

It’s a small circle now
So many friends have gone
Some of them have passed away
And some just moved along

It’s a small circle now
‘cause I never stretch my wings
The breeze I can’t remember
Nor it’s call or beckoning

It’s a small circle now
And smaller, I know, soon to be
And though I leave my mark
On fewer now, it’s easier to see

It’s a small circle now
Ah but I love them all the more
And each one that I lose now
I miss more then before

It’s a small circle now
And maybe it’s all I can draw
But those in the ring are more precious
Than all of the diamonds I saw

James H. Webb

2007*

It was silence bled an angel
from the devil of my step
towards the distant future
that I cannot forget
It was laziness unbound me
and held me in its grasp
'til fear of failure found me
and shot me from its path
I dread the bitter moment
I walk the dreaded line
Those of you don't know me
must think that I am blind.


My silence bled an angel
That walked in perfect step
In a pain I still remember
In a dream that haunts me yet

I dress it when I’m shameful
Otherwise it naked flies
Across the span of promises
That time turned into lies.

And now I sing so painfully
That all the birds take wing
And the past is but a memory
That holds me by a string.

James H. Webb

June 8, 2008*

It is in the dark of night they will come for you
Long after the shadows have come and gone
And the autumn air has gotten cold out there
And you find yourself craving for the dawn

Long after the roar of the younger years
Has settled upon your ears
And age has taken everything
Except your deepest fears
You'll carry on like a wayward ship
Like a wayward ship but to where?
You'll meet your death "give in" or fight
Or you'll find you just don't care

In the dark of night when they come for you
Long after the shadows have come and gone
When the autum air has gotten cold out there
And you find yourself craving for the dawn

Carry on, carry on, carry on.