Get all 15 Tom Alter releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Dispatch from the Lesser Middle, Last Season in the Lesser Middle, Love and All That Comes With It, Chaos in the USA, Poetry and Protest, One Year in the Lesser Middle, Songs For An American Hero, Wading in the Lesser Middle, and 7 more.
1. |
Carthage
04:03
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Turquoise sea
Patient breeze
A deep blue sky
Ancient walls
Do recall
Our days passed by.
Take my hand
Let's both stand
Where ghosts speak rhymes
Tales of love
And stories of
Lives lost in time.
Walking through Carthage
Whispers and echoes in my mind.
Footsteps in Carthage
Leaving impressions
Fading
Swept away by winds in time.
As you led
To the edge
Fell to my knees
Time worn walls
Chasm calls
To capture me
Threatening to capture me.
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2. |
Medium
05:00
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I climbed the steps to the front door
Trying to fight my second thoughts.
I've had them before.
I need to take this chance to hear you again.
Tell me if this is real.
Can I believe?
Or is she a fraud?
I take a seat and cut the deck.
I try to hide that I'm a skeptic.
I've been one before.
I need to think that I can hear you again.
I want so hard to believe
That this thing is real
And you're speaking to me.
It goes against the shred of faith remaining.
I try so desperately.
And even if I leave here unbelieving,
At least I tried.
After a pause the medium spoke.
The voice was her's the words were yours,
Or so I was told.
I want so badly just to hear you again.
The voice said to let you go.
Am I to suppose
I could let you go?
That's when I knew she was a fraud.
I stood and put my money down
And quickly was gone.
I took this chance so I could hear you again
But I knew you'd never say
I should set you free.
You know my love's just too strong.
I hold onto a shred of faith remaining.
I try so desperately.
And even though you leave me solitary,
I'll never shake you.
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3. |
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The lone cypress in Ellen Browning Scripps Park
Fell over and died last week and we cannot determine why.
And the one who speaks for the trees is gone
And the trees are still left without a voice
And they are fighting for their lives.
Is this another sign
As the earth grows warm and the oceans rise?
Is this another sign
Like breaking ice and all the forest fires?
Do we see the signs or cover our eyes?
Do we cover our eyes?
It's half a century since the Doctor said
Keeping up like this is worthy of our dread
And yet we haven't found a way.
We vacillate and procrastinate
We block our ears and turn our backs
And pass this to another age.
And we ignore the signs
Like glaciers melting right before our eyes.
We don't recognize
The cypress loss could be another sign.
So we cover our eyes.
We cover our eyes.
When a tree comes down so premature
So exactly like what happened to the
Ellen Browning Scripps cypress.
Will we finally open up our eyes
Or wait so long that we realize
We're way too far past an "unless."
Will we not see the signs
The earth grows warm and the oceans rise?
Will we now recognize
The cypress loss is just another sign?
Can we open our eyes?
Open our eyes.
Will we open our eyes?
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4. |
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This morning, I found I very nearly wept
In the first hour after I had slept.
Eighteen minutes in black and white
That ended with a crowding sky.
And it made me think of you.
Once I read a novel of a woman's life.
From her memory to the day she died.
Colors changing along the way,
Yellow to orange and then to red.
And it made me pray for you.
So when I think of you.
And all that we've been through,
I give my thanks for you.
I have seen a man sitting in the dusk
Alone in silence with the TV off.
He did not want the dialogue
To remind him of the one he'd lost.
And it made me thankful for you.
So when I think of you,
And all that we've been through,
I give my thanks for you.
So when I think of you,
And all that we've been through,
I give my thanks for you.
And when I think you,
And all that we've been through,
Then I'm completely sure
I always want to be with you.
Every morning opening up my eyes
And seeing you still by my side,
It makes me say thanks for you.
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5. |
29
05:06
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Just twenty nine when it was your time
On a lonesome snowy road.
You left behind a newfound widow child,
Only nineteen years or so.
To leave so much, life took too much
And strung you on the line.
In such short time
You said so much
And left at twenty nine.
A string of pearls that you left behind
Resonating still today.
Like the single whipoorwill
You left along the way.
So all alone out on the road
Did you mean to find
A final poem to leave with us
At only twenty nine?
Not yet a glinting in the eye
Of my father when you disappeared.
I heard the stories of you life,
Your songs down through the years.
You cried so much
But not enough,
For anyone to save your life.
What if your songs were desperate calls?
Nobody answered the help line.
To leave so much
Life took too much
And strung you on the line.
In such short time
You said so much
And left at twenty nine.
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Tom Alter Detroit, Michigan
Tom Alter is a singer-songwriter based in Detroit. The influences of jazz, folk, pop, and Latin genres are found in his
original compositions. Tom's lyrics mix world events with the affect on his personal ideals. He has released 3 EPs and 2 albums since 2019. His work can be found on digital and streaming music platforms. He is also a member of the duo After Blue.
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