Moondog Monologue

No matter where I came from, I say
No matter where I go
To me what matters is where I am on this day

Let me identify myself now
Songsters both, and both clad in brown
The hermit thrush, and I dwell far off of town

Death, when you come to me, may you come to me swiftly
I would rather not linger
Not linger

Driving with Herr Doktor one day for the air
He recircled a square before he taught me how to square the very same circle

You are opportunists the worst way
Therefore, I pray, let it pay for you to know me

I do not dress as I do to attract attention
I attract attention because I dress as I do

You, the vandal, plunder the village as you will
The earthworm will pillage you, the vandal, when you are under

I would bow down before just one
One who bows before none
I should know who that one might be who could do that to me
I am that one
And I bow down before me

Since the hunter is the hunted, surely he knows what it is to listen in ecstatic dread to some oncoming hunter's tread

Such and such is a star that filters through the starry blue alone
A burning star, turning in an orbit all of it's own
Such and such is I

Beasts always were great trailblazing engineers
Modern engineering would do well to do as well today
As well as beasts have done

If on this rock I stand alone
Loneliness will turn heel as he turns to stone

Each today is yesterday's tomorrow, which is now
Now is all I have, now is all I need
Now is all I want
Now

Better I go when you would that I stay, that I stay on
Than stay when you would that I would go
Better I go than stay

Ebb and flow of the ocean
Love and hate of emotion
Nothing lasts, is my refrain
As the moon and my feelings wax and wane
I remain calm

If I was just everything until I fell, then was just nothing
Then worming up pathways, I found with pleasure
I was just something

Standing at the door of my departure, I observed
That your eyes belie all that you have said
For you are still in love with me

Then, when recognition comes
You will take my muse, take her to his bed at ease
Have his will, have his fill
And strangle her

My tiny butterfly butters my bread
My briny flutter-by keeps me well fed
Why should I mutter?

Stung by this last rebuff, I rebound
On the way back, I hear me saying to myself:
"Dwell in your shell"

"One thing about life," the It said,
"It feeds upon itself over and over,"
"And of itself is fed"

Should I love you as I love myself?
Suppose I hate myself?
I would be as free to hate you too

I am never quite educated, never quite so
But I am ever in the painful process of becoming so

You remember me and my song
Only such immortality strikes creative sparks from my soul
Because of you

Who could wear out their welcome there
When there is no welcome there to wear out?
There is where it is, here on Earth

I would advise you not to generalize as a rule
A fool to thee, I have just uttered a generalization
Ah, me!

Down is up, and so up is down
Because the Earth is round
There is no such a thing as up or down

This one wish is ever so near to my heart
But oh, so far away from my tongue

Sadness was so mixed with gladness that she wept for joy
She was so sad
Tear-filled eyes but enhanced the smile on her face
She was so glad

Think of all of the thoughts that I think
They are naught to me, compared to just one fleeting thought of you

How could I fear for my last day
When I am dying daily?
And have been since my first day

Thus, the clown wore cap and gown
For she lived by degrees while she died by degrees
With a frown

Voices of spring were in chorus
Each voice was singing a song
I could not sing in that chorus, until I wrote me a song
I wrote my song and joined the throng

Why besiege my liege still further?
For my wooing is turning Your Majesty's royal head
And turning toward me

Though I climbed up the highest mountain in view
Yet content it was not mine
For beyond, a mountain still higher was glooming

Now is that painful moment of parting we dreaded
Saying goodbye is plural indemnity, truly
For having said hello