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A Little Cloud

from The Stern Task of Living by Hibsen

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    The CD for the Stern Task of Living is a beautifully designed 4 panel package with a booklet containing some background information about how the album was conceived plus lyrics of all the songs. The artwork, which was painted by Mark Keogh, captures the guests arriving at the 'Little Christmas' dinner from the short story 'The Dead', which is the most famous short story from James Joyce's Dubliners.

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lyrics

In T. Malone’s mind lived a poet and a prisoner
Strange bedfellows for one mind to house
Inseparable souls in more ways than one
But both with very different desires

“Let me out!” screamed the poet “I’m mistakenly here
For I have a gift that I need to share”
Of easy and graceful verse that I’ll write
I will shine on the world sweet yellow sunlight

The prisoner he longed for a simple life
In melancholic tone he cried and he cried
Anxiety agitation and much indecision
So much to bear for a delicate confusion

T.Malone’s poet was a fearless young man
A figure of brilliance who deserved most to win
The praise of his peers in the world of great poems
If his lonely companion would not drag him down

By contrast the captive could find no way in
To the state of contentment for which he long yearned
But whenever he tried to live life in peace
His cell mate would call and beg him to leave

And on it went until they agreed
To meet at a place where they both could be freed
There they drank whiskey and smoked fine cigars
At a corner of hope in T.Malone’s mind

The poet waxed lyrical about the life he would lead
A dreamer a traveller the world at his feet
Wild and vagrant he would find a way out
Write stories and poems that would earn wide applause

Alas the prisoner was not convinced
He longed for a different sort of imprint
To live a plain life absent of charm
His wife on hand and his child in arms

And therein lies the rub you will see
For the prisoner would not let the poet go free
And yet the poet was a thorn in the side
Of a man who just wanted some peace and some quiet

Weighing their souls they soon both realised
In the end they must reach a fair compromise
The poet would go forth with his dreams on high days
While the prisoner remained set in his ways

Both would be sated and both would live on
Inside the strange mind of one T. Malone

credits

from The Stern Task of Living, released May 26, 2023

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Hibsen Dublin, Ireland

Hibsen are an Irish contemporary folk music ensemble formed by folk artists Gráinne Hunt and Jim Murphy. They released their debut album 'The Stern Task of Living' on 26th May 2023. The album was inspired by the book of short stories 'Dubliners' by James Joyce. Each of the 15 songs on the album is named after the short story on which it is based. ... more

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