This Is Our Universe Lyrics

Let us now crawl under the canopy

Of the currant leaves

And tell stories

Let us inhabit the underworld

Let us take possession of our secret territory

Which is lit by pendant currants like candelabra

Shining red on one side

Black on the other

If we curl up close

We can sit under the canopy of the currant leaves

And watch the censers swing

This is our universe

All our moments strung on sky wire

Ever translucent

Even my body now lets the light through

I tremble and I quiver

Like the leaf in the hedge

As I sit dangling my feet

On the edge of the bed

With a new day to break open

Alone, I often fall down into nothingness

I must push my foot stealthily

Lest I should fall off the edge

Of the world into nothingness

There is nobody here among these grey arches

And moaning pigeons

And cheerful games and tradition and emulation

All so skillfully organized

To prevent feeling alone

Where is the girl who had shaken her head

And made all the jewels

The topaz, the aquamarine

The water-coloured jewels

With sparks of fire in them, dance

Who bared her brows

And with wide-opened eyes

Drove a straight pathway over the waves

The small darkhaired girl with dreams in her basket

Her shoulder-blades meeting across her back

Like the wings of a small butterfly

This is our universe

Adapted by Misha Penton from Virginia Woolf's The Waves