I'm sorry if I shocked you
I'm sorry that I cannot stay
It's only five days until I go

You don't need to see me, but I wish you would
Give me some of your time
I don't have enough of my own
Till I'm on my own

Perhaps it's true
I fell short all along
I need to write
To tell you I'm wrong

For so many years
I've tried to hold onto
A sort of flair
But you know that
I am so clumsy it slipped right out of my hands
You can't expect that I won't drop you next

In the sunshine
Under a tree
With so many reasons
To stay in love with you

Although I knew it was only a day
It felt like a weak excuse
For giving in to me and you

I never had the chance to tell you
I never had the time to explain
It's only five days
Till i come home

lyrics and music: jackson [2001]

It's getting quieter 'round my way
All of the kids are inside having their tea, except me
I watch the moon glowing huge up in the sky
And I know you're watching too

I take a walk up Murrayfield Ave.
I count the lights and rate the tackiness [one to ten]
Can't see the stars and I know that you hate that
But at least I notice now I can't

Though I won't change, I won't stay the same
Though I won't change, I won't stay the same

Your observations make me adore you
I now see beauty in the fields
Still I'm no philanthropist
But I appreciate what I would have missed

Though I won't change, I won't stay the same
Though I won't change, I won't stay the same
I'll re-arrange that same refrain
Though I will change, I'll stay the same

lyrics and music: jackson [2002]

Don't know why I've travelled to live in this unfriendly town
None of them understand just quite how it's bringing me down
But i'll get by, with your help, I'll call you again and again and again
I think I can see you, I see you coming through the rye

Well, that's how it began
But it's all different now
And I can't explain quite why
But I'll tell you how

And I try
Not to live or die
I won't run away, I'll wait for your call
And I'll savour the moment forever and evermore

My eyes will see you again

lyrics and music: jackson / calluna [2003]

Ice action, out of sight
Push push pushing away

If she's a mountain, I'm erosion
And she's crumbling down to the sea
Breaking everything in her path, everything
A thousand fragments of love wash away

At one time, it stood here on this ground
No-one thought the great rock might not be sound
Just then, I thought I heard someone call
"Watch out, we're not safe at all"

Ice action, out of sight
Plate techtonics, all their might
Fields of corn grinding against the grain
Push push pushing away

If she's a mountain, I'm erosion
And she's crumbling down to the sea
Breaking everything in her path, everything
A thousand fragments of love wash away

...Wash away

Ice action, out of sight
Plate techtonics, all their might
Fields of corn grinding against the grain
Push pushing away

lyrics and music: jackson [2003]

Once you come arond everything changes
Simple things seem to build up like polymerisation
But I can't break these problems down by eating them
And they won't make my collar stiff

Take care when you're feeling tired
And don't forget you exist
If it's quite loud don't amplify it
'Cause we can still get the gist

Please try

You always say you'll go forever
But you never seem to make the time
It's all around you
But you never seem to take the time

Please try

Now it's time to believe in yourself
Now it's time to believe

lyrics and music: jackson / calluna

Collecting my thoughts like spare change in a jar
Soon I'll put them together and buy a car
Well it's nothing special, just an engine and four wheels
But I'll see how far it can take me

And if the road should end, then I could walk for a mile or more
& trade my car for food and a good pair of boots

And if I get tired, I'll take a rest
And if I go to bed, I'll get undressed

And in the morning, if it's raining, I'll go outside, dance, get wet
Or swim on the flood plain
And dry my clothes by the fire
And as I sit, I'll play a song for you
Sing of words that don't make sense and tales from long ago
And you and I can be alone my dear, on my own

Voices speak to me from the trees my dear
And with no truth, in them I will place my hope, and smile

lyrics and music: jackson [2003]

You pass me an ice cube with a kiss
Another arrow fails to miss
Not a question of 'if' but 'when'

Into the waters we wade
The memories start to fade
And the moments I have replayed seep softly away

And as the moon combed through the night
The stars like dandruff flecked the sky
And as the sun set like turkish delight
We spent half the time in thought

You only exist now in my dreams
So I sit and watch the dew descend from the sky

The edge of the world seems just inches away
But always moves before I arrive
And now its quiet dead sound is absorbed
Into an evelope of fog
A bright white ring around your headlights
Yellow white light bright light white light
Like driving through a wall of solid nothing
And dense emptiness

lyrics and music: jackson [2004]

Replaced by Metric
Gone with your accent

When will it return
If undelivered
To the addressee?
[Me, as I play]

Gullible melodies
Naïve poetry

lyrics and music: jackson [2003]

Fuelled by obscure suggestions
I seem to be continually forgetting that
The broken tracks keep letting those...

Ideas shoot off in my head
Like runaway mine carts
My eyes are permanently red
Like stalactites on mars

I've got a cheat code that keeps me flying
And I'd give this thin shell to keep me flying

Sound weighs my heart down with lead
And seventy guitars
Keep getting caught in my head
Like fireflies in jars

lyrics and music: jackson [2004]

They're singing songs for the dead
But you don't have to believe them
I've got a hole in my head from which my thoughts flow
Without a chance to screen them
I can't remember what I said, it's true
But you don't have to believe me
And I'll follow where I'm lead
Until they run away and leave me

There's a saying where I come from
And I'm sure it must be true
It says "If i'm good to myself then i'll be good to you"

I have been in the dark
I have seen the day spark

lyrics: jackson
music: phimister / jackson / calluna [2001]

A dynamic graceful flight

Four miles in the air
Above parallel landscapes
Planes of cloud overlapping
And towering between

A dynamic graceful flight
Through dim magenta light

lyrics and music: jackson [2004]

And the banderillas dance with spears of flowers
They've changed their dance to love from one of power
And in the face of this all he could do was kneel down and cower

Something within him awoke
The page controls his every stroke
The painter has become the muse
The spectators look bemused

It only took that fleeting glance to send him off into a trance
And all his great intellect reduces to animal instinct
As he sinks further into the sky blue tinted pools of her eyes
Which become ocean-sized and the surf crashes right over and over

When finally he lets his pencil drop
And the dance of the banderillas stops
An overwhelming sense of joy fills their hearts
So they take a bow and gracefully depart

lyrics: calluna/jackson
music: jackson [may 2005]

Let's re-comission nuclear fission

The shorter the half-life, the greater the impact
The only protection is a bunker made out of lead
Nothing outwith here will remain intact
Anyone with half a brain will have turned away and fled

Let's re-comission nuclear fission

-|||-

Let's re-comission nuclear fission
And like an apparition: blink and I'm gone

lyrics: jackson / calluna
music: jackson [2004]

All the time, all the while

All the time I have been wondering why the sky was still grey
All the time I have been wandering through the clouds
All the time I have been pondering when to run away
All the while I have been dragging you down

All the time, all the while

I tried to be myself
But it didn't seem to help
I tried to understand
Why it didn't go as planned

All the times I have been doodling sketches for designs
All the times I have been caught not making plans
All the times I couldn't bring myself to run away
All the while I have been dragging you down

All the time, all the while

I try to be myself
But it doesn't seem to help
I've tried to understand
Why it doesn't go as planned...
...all the time

lyrics: jackson
music: jackson / gravis / calluna [2001]

I crash down at your feet

Imagine half a city razed to the ground
The rest are empty shells, their groans the only sound
And all that's left for me to do is stand and watch

It could be smoke hurting my eyes
But I'm sure I start to cry
As those beautiful buildings are destroyed

lyrics and music: jackson [april 2005]

Sometimes I like to ignore the advice of my friends
That way I know upon whom I can really depend

lyrics: jackson
music: jackson / flew [february 2005]