[00:00:00] A Louse Is Not A Home (2006 Digital Remaster) - Peter Hammill [00:00:00] Sometimes it's very scary here sometimes it's very sad [00:00:23] Sometimes I think I'll disappear betimes I think I have [00:00:45] There's a line snaking down my mirror [00:00:54] Splintered glass distorts my face [00:01:05] And though the light is strong and strange [00:01:15] It can't illuminate the musty corners of this place [00:01:28] There is a lofty lonely Lohengrenic castle in the clouds [00:01:37] I draw my murky meanings there [00:01:48] But seven years' dark luck is just around the corner [00:01:57] And in the shadows lurks the spectre of Despair [00:02:12] A cracked mirror' mid the drapes of the landing [00:02:20] Split image labored understanding [00:02:28] I'm only trying to find a place to hide my home [00:03:15] I've lived in houses composed of glass [00:03:17] Where every movement is charted [00:03:19] But now the monitor screens are dark [00:03:21] And I can't tell if silent eyes are there [00:03:23] My words are spiders upon the page [00:03:26] They spin out faith hope and reason [00:03:27] But are they meet and just or only dust [00:03:30] Gathering about my chair [00:03:33] Sometimes I get the feeling [00:03:35] That there's someone else there [00:03:37] The faceless watcher makes me uneasy [00:03:40] I can feel him through the floorboards [00:03:43] And His presence is creepy [00:03:44] He informs me that I shall be expelled [00:03:50] What is that but out of and into [00:03:53] I don't know the nature of the door that I'd go through [00:03:57] I don't know the nature of the nature [00:03:59] That I am inside [00:04:07] I've lived in houses of brick and lead [00:04:10] Where all emotion is sacred [00:04:11] And if you want to devour the fruit [00:04:14] You must first sniff at the fragrance [00:04:16] And lay your body before the shrine [00:04:18] With poems and posies and papers [00:04:20] Or if you catch the ruse you'll have to choose [00:04:22] To stay a monk or leave a vagrant [00:04:26] What is this place you call home [00:04:30] Is it a sermon or a confession [00:04:32] Is it the chalice that you use for protection [00:04:36] Is it really only somewhere you can stay [00:04:40] Is it a rulebook or a lecture [00:04:42] Is it a beating at the hands of your Protector [00:04:46] Does the idol have feet of clay [00:04:51] Home is what you make it [00:04:53] So my friends all say [00:04:58] Don't you know I rarely see their homes in these dark days [00:05:06] Some of them are snails [00:05:09] And carry houses on their backs [00:05:16] Others live in monuments [00:05:19] Which one day will be racks [00:05:25] I keep my home in place [00:05:28] With sellotape and tintacks [00:05:33] But I still feel there's some other Force here [00:05:42] He who cracks the mirrors and moves the walls [00:05:50] Keeps staring through [00:05:51] The eyeslits of the portraits in my hall [00:05:57] He ravages my library and taps the telephone [00:06:06] I've never actually seen Him [00:06:09] But I know He's in my home [00:06:17] And if he goes away [00:06:21] I can't stay here either [00:06:29] I believe I think [00:06:40] Well I don't know [00:07:42] I only live in one room at a time [00:07:47] But all of the walls are ears [00:07:49] And all the windows eyes [00:07:52] Everything else is foreign [00:07:54] Home' is my wordless chant [00:07:59] Give it a chance [00:08:38] I am surrounded by flesh and bone [00:08:41] I am a temple of living [00:08:42] I am a hermit I am a drone [00:08:45] And I am boring out a place to be [00:08:47] With secret garlands about my head [00:08:50] Unearthly silence is broke [00:08:51] The room is growing dark and in the stark light [00:08:54] I see a face I know [00:08:57] Could this be the guy who never shows [00:09:01] The cracked mirror what he's feeling [00:09:03] Merely mumbles prayers to the ground where he's kneeling