Material Possession by Peter Hammill Lyrics
Every loss a legacy
Every gain ill-gotten
The golden apples on the tree are all potentially rotten
Pluck the fruit and bear no mind
So the poisonous bloom advances –
The hand that clasps too tight will never grasp its chances
All the things that you've got will not be worth a lot
If the owning becomes an obsession
Meaning nothing more than mere material possession
Broken, lost, the precious thing
Does that make your life so empty?
Stars shine alike upon the ditch and on the land of Plenty
The thing that's gone was always going to be gone
What's left is some remembered pleasure –
Only their loss confirms the things we ever learned to treasure
And the things that you claim are only ever yours in name –
Do you think that they'll leave an impression?
Only flesh and bone are the true material possessions
Your lighter's worth a watch, your watch would buy a car
Your car is worth a house with rooms to rattle round in
Try to make the house a home that's yours and yours alone:
You dredge a lake of dreams to fill with tears and drown in
Now the flame will soon be dowsed and time is running out
The wheel will turn full circle, then we'll all be foundlings
And all the things that we own are never ours alone
No, they just pass through our hands in succession –
Shake the spirit, shake the blood, shake the flesh and shake the bone
Shake free from material possession
Every loss is treasure trove, every gain is faded
Every taste and every touch will finally be jaded
When in the end all life is spent
What we bought was mere digression:
The price we pay shaking free from material possession
Every gain ill-gotten
The golden apples on the tree are all potentially rotten
Pluck the fruit and bear no mind
So the poisonous bloom advances –
The hand that clasps too tight will never grasp its chances
All the things that you've got will not be worth a lot
If the owning becomes an obsession
Meaning nothing more than mere material possession
Broken, lost, the precious thing
Does that make your life so empty?
Stars shine alike upon the ditch and on the land of Plenty
The thing that's gone was always going to be gone
What's left is some remembered pleasure –
Only their loss confirms the things we ever learned to treasure
And the things that you claim are only ever yours in name –
Do you think that they'll leave an impression?
Only flesh and bone are the true material possessions
Your lighter's worth a watch, your watch would buy a car
Your car is worth a house with rooms to rattle round in
Try to make the house a home that's yours and yours alone:
You dredge a lake of dreams to fill with tears and drown in
Now the flame will soon be dowsed and time is running out
The wheel will turn full circle, then we'll all be foundlings
And all the things that we own are never ours alone
No, they just pass through our hands in succession –
Shake the spirit, shake the blood, shake the flesh and shake the bone
Shake free from material possession
Every loss is treasure trove, every gain is faded
Every taste and every touch will finally be jaded
When in the end all life is spent
What we bought was mere digression:
The price we pay shaking free from material possession