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

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

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

[Verse 3]
Bm                   G
In January, you were alive still
              Em         
But chemo had ravaged and 
                  F#m              
transformed your porcelain into 
   Bm
some other thing
          G
Something jaundiced and fucked
     Em                         
They put you in the hospital in 
F#m
Everett
              Bm            G     
So I gave the baby away and drove 
            Em
up and down I-5 every night
       F#m                    Bm
Like a satellite bringing you food 
that you wanted
G                     Em         
Returning at night to sleep in 
       F#m
our bed, cold
       Bm           G
I went back to feel alone there
    Em                    
All past selves and future 
 F#m
possibilities on hold
       Bm                          
Well I tore through the dark on the
 G
 freeway
    Em      F#m          Bm
The old yearning burning in me
  Bm                     G
I knew exactly where the road bent 
around
          Em                   
Where the trees opened up and I 
       F#m
could see
Bm            G        Bm 
Way above the horizon, beyond 
                G
innumerable islands
    Bm                   G        
The towers on top of the mountain 
               Em               F#m
lit up slowly, silently beaconing
              Bm        G      Em
As if to say "just keep going
           F#m           Bm       
There is a place where a wind 
  G
could erase this for you
        Em                        
And the branches could white noise
F#m                Bm
 you back awake"
     G                 Em         
So I went back to feel alone there
     F#m
 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       
A kid looks across a deep canyon 
           Em                F#m  
of fog at a lit up inhuman castle 
            Bm G Em  F#m G C#m F#m
or something
       Bm                  G      
I have not stopped looking across 
                   Em           
the water from the few difficult 
               F#m
spots where you can see
         Bm                        
That the distance from this haunted
 G                      Em        
 house where I lived to Soria 
  F#m        Bm               G
Moria is a real 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