Love Without Possession

[Verse 1: Phil Elverum & Julie Doiron / Julie Doiron]

What would be the use in becoming

A symbol of walking desolation?

Awash in multiple griefs

Elaborating on anguish

What glows beneath? (Beneath all the pain and anguish)

Love that doesn’t die (Magma embroidering)

“Love," a small word

Unable to hold

While we stretch at its meaning

[Verse 2: Phil Elverum & Julie Doiron]

Now this:

What’s this new version of love that intrudes

Into the peace I thought I had?

This love has no recipient

But still lies there smoldering

Indifferent stars in the night sky

Watch me while I churn

Still holding this love for you

Without a thing to do

But try to live

In this uninvited liberation

Without a home in your life or heart

Without a shelter at all

Exposed and burning still

This unattended fire

For no one emanates a wasted warmth on the wind

Pushing against the edges

Of what it means to give

Lost wisdom in sparks that rise and die

[Verse 3: Phil Elverum / Phil Elverum & Julie Doiron]

Even if I never get to see you again

I’ll know that when we collided

We both broke each other open

Rose petals were blustering

And I’m determined still to hold this open door

Even now as it devastates

I wake up gasping in the void again

[Bridge: Julie Doiron]

Speak sky, blow breaths

Exhale to dissipate

The always gathering clouds

Of yearning memory

Of all that we foresaw

Laid out before us, unlived

[Outro: Phil Elverum]

Dropped from a height

Back into the open ocean, it’s all horizon

This sky mirroring emptiness

Is where I first found you