Lyrics

Witness Marks (C Cain)

Talking to a carpenter about how to build a home:
“Make a clearing in the stand, work the timber with your hands, make a place to be alone.
A felling saw will turn a trunk into a frame. Hot work for a summer’s day, but let the teeth have their say, as they pull across the grain.”

“Everything we do leaves a trace: impressions in a face, that connect it to that place.
Everything we do leaves a sign: sometimes its in the light, or it’s hidden in the dark.
Witness lines and witness marks are connected to the past.”

“Even an oak can be split, with wedges and a maul. The iron heart can be cracked, into beams and into planks – there are flaws in us all.
The maker leaves his mark with axes and with froes - the story of his work, like an echo of his soul, will be there after he goes.”

I think about these words some days, if I’m feeling weak that way.
But now the rooks are here to stay, and I wonder what he’d tried to say.