Quartz (Price We Pay Suite)

Featured art, from the Optimising Quartz series, by Rosemary Purr.

Listen to Quartz by Richard Charles Stevens (Price We Pay Suite)

Listen to Price We Pay (Orbital Remix) by Octave One

Chime the toll
Chime the toll
Chime the toll
Chime the toll
(Toll)
.
Chime
Chime
Chime the toll
.
Chime
Chime
Chime the toll
.
Face the strike
Elate its chime
And take the time to breathe
.
Face the strike
Elate its chime
And take the time to breathe
.
Face the strike
Elate its chime
And take the time to breathe
All we need rely on is belief
.
Time marches on
In orderly fashion
Late for its own singalong and formerly barren
Prolonged for our own good
For it longs to be understood
To right the wrongs we overlook
To stay for longer than it should
It marches on
And seldom ever pauses to draw breath
From birth through each excursion
Unto death
Time is more or less a brief diversion acquiesced
Depending which perversion we undress
.
Face the strike
Elate its chime
And take the time to breathe
.
Face the strike
Elate its chime
And take the time to breathe
.
Face the strike
Elate its chime
And take the time to breathe
All we need rely on is belief
.
Chime the toll
Chime the toll
(Toll)
.
How long is a piece of string
When exiting stage left
Only encore left to sing
And bound to break a leg
Square peg in an oval hole
Underdressed for protocol
Time will rally hard to press
Unless there is no noble goal
.
Noble goal
Noble goal
Time will rally hard to press
Unless there is no noble goal
.
Chime the toll
Chime the toll
.
Each success is pinned upon our willing to caress
Stop the clocks for long enough to willingly confess
Affinity to each digression
Willing us to heed its lesson
Learn the curse to breathe the blessing
Less we chime the toll
.
Often it strolls
In between all the creeping
To ebb and to flow between beats in its keeping
Still marches on
Double time when we’re sleeping
Untroubled by the dreams of lifetimes fleeting
For it stands still
To thrill us into leaping
Deep into the quartz
With no remorse
For we are caught
Our broken falls
The echoed walls of ancient history repeating
.
Time marches on
Indeed I think I hear it sneaking
Though for all incessant ticking
I feel blessed my heart’s still beating
It matters not how oft we speak
However many days and weeks
For you will still be you and I will be the self same me renewed
Keener from each interlude
To see you reach your dream
For time here is superfluous
Deferred from the between
All we need rely on is belief
To face the strike
Elate its chime
And take the time to breathe
.
Face the strike
Elate its chime
And take the time to breathe
.
Face the strike
Elate its chime
And take the time to breathe
.
Face the strike
Elate its chime
And take the time to breathe
All we need rely on is belief
.
All we need rely on is belief to face the strike
Elate its chime and take the time to breathe
(Breathe)
.