Soria Moria

Bm G Em F#m

[Refrain Chords]
Bm A G Em

The refrain starts on the seventh fret for Bm, down
to the fifth for A, third for G, then to regular Em.

In between verses: Bm G  Em  F#m G A C#m F#m
On Bm, use your third finger to hammer the A string
into the G.

[Refrain]
Bm           A
Slow pulsing red tower lights
G                  Em
Across a distance, refuge in the dust

[Verse 1]
Bm               G
All my life I can remember longing
Em                         F#m
Looking across the water and seeing lights
          Bm                    G
When I was five or six, we were camping in the islands in July
    Em                          F#m
The tall yellow grass and the rose hips fragrant
Bm                          G
After sunset, island beyond island
Em                     F#m
Undulating and familiar, not far from home
Bm                                             G                           Em
With my fragrant, whittled, cedared drift wood dagger in the mildew canvas tent
                F#m                 Bm
I saw fireworks many miles away but didn't hear them
             G                   Em
And I felt a longing, a childish melancholy
                   F#m
And then I went to sleep
                   Bm                G                      Em                  F#m
And the aching was buried, dreaming, aging, reaching for an idea of somewhere other than this 
place
           Bm               G
That could fold me in clouded yearning
           Em                        F#m
For nowhere actually reachable, the distance was the point

[Instrumental]
Bm   G    Em   F#m G A C#m F#m

[Verse 2]
Bm
And then when I was twenty-four
G                          Em               F#m
I followed this ache to an Arctic Norwegian cabin
                       Bm                 G
Where I said "fuck the world" in a finally satisfying way
Em                              F#m
I stayed through the winter and emerged as an adult
          Bm                  G
Holding a letter from you, an invitation
     Em
So I flew back and drove back
F#m                              Bm          G
And when we met in person it was instant
          Em                           F#m
It didn't matter where we lived as long as we were together
             Bm             G
And that was really true for thirteen years
        Em         F#m
And the whole time still
Bm

[Refrain]
             G
Slow pulsing red tower lights
G                  Em                   Bm
Across a distance, refuge in the dust

[Verse 3]
Bm                   G
In January, you were alive still
              Em                           F#m                 Bm
But chemo had ravaged and transformed your porcelain into some other thing
          G
Something jaundiced and fucked
     Em                         F#m
They put you in the hospital in Everett
              Bm            G                 Em
So I gave the baby away and drove up and down I-5 every night
       F#m                    Bm
Like a satellite bringing you food that you wanted
G                     Em                F#m
Returning at night to sleep in our bed, cold
       Bm           G
I went back to feel alone there
    Em                     F#m
All past selves and future possibilities on hold
       Bm                           G
Well I tore through the dark on the freeway
    Em      F#m          Bm
The old yearning burning in me
  Bm                     G
I knew exactly where the road bent around
          Em                          F#m
Where the trees opened up and I could see
Bm            G        Bm                 G
Way above the horizon, beyond innumerable islands
    Bm                   G                       Em               F#m
The towers on top of the mountain lit up slowly, silently beaconing
              Bm        G      Em
As if to say "just keep going
           F#m           Bm         G
There is a place where a wind could erase this for you
        Em                        F#m                Bm
And the branches could white noise you back awake"
     G                 Em              F#m
So I went back to feel alone there but cradled you in me

[Instrumental]
Bm   G    Em   F#m G A C#m F#m

[Verse 4]
       Bm                  G
In the National Gallery in Oslo
          Em              F#m
There's a painting called Soria Moria
  Bm                      G                  Em                F#m              Bm G Em  
A kid looks across a deep canyon of fog at a lit up inhuman castle or something
F#m G C#m F#m

       Bm                  G                         Em                          F#m
I have not stopped looking across the water from the few difficult spots where you can see
         Bm                         G                      Em          F#m        Bm       
That the distance from this haunted house where I lived to Soria Moria is a real 
        G
traversable space
       Em          F#m
I'm an arrow now
   Bm    G
Mid-air
Bm

[Refrain]
             G
Slow pulsing red tower lights
G                  Em
Across a distance, refuge in the dust