Tori Amos: HEREINMYHEAD.COM

Sights and Sounds
pull me back down
another year

I WAS HERE
I WAS HERE

Whipping past
the reflecting pool
me + you
skipping school

And we make it up
as we go along
We make it up as we
go along

You said —
you raced from Langley —
pulling me underneath
a Cherry Blossom
canopy
– Do I Have —
Of course I have,
Beneath my raincoat,
I have your photographs.
And the sun on your
Face
I’m freezing that frame

And somewhere Alfie cries
and says “Enjoy his every smile
You can see in the dark
Through the eyes of Laura Mars”
– How did it go so fast –
you’ll say
as we are looking
back
and then we’ll
understand
we held gold dust
in our
hands

Sights and Sounds
pull me back down
another year

I WAS HERE
I WAS HERE

Gaslights
Glow in the street
(flickering past)
Twilight held us
in her palm
as we walked along

And we make it up
as we go along
We make it up as we go along

Letting names
Hang in the
air
What color hair
(auburn crimson)
Autumn knowingly
Stared
And the day that
She came
I’m freezing that
Frame
I’m freezing that frame

And somewhere Alfie smiles
and says “Enjoy her every cry
You can see in the dark
Through the eyes
Of Laura Mars”

– How did it go so fast –
you’ll say
as we are looking
back
and then we’ll
understand
We held gold dust
in our
hands

in our
hands

Quotes

Last year, Tori gave birth to a daughter, and at the end of her journey, so does Scarlet. On the birth of her child in GOLD DUST, she is finally able to see the map she has lost. “From being the woman of adventure, she now has another life dependent upon her. And she sees that which is permanent and that which is transitory in a new light. When the Twin Towers went down we realised that what is permanent rests in your heart.”
– Scarlet’s Walk bio

I: Your reference to “gold dust” in the song of the same name has to do with how precious life is. Is that gold dust passing through your hands? The hands of your parents? The hands of the country?
T: Natashya is at that age where so many people were telling me to enjoy it, savor it, hold it. Everyone tells me that—all the mothers in the play group. Right now she loves crawling up on Mommy and Daddy’s laps, and there are so many cuddles and kisses, and there isn’t any embarrassment; it’s still okay to be lovey-dovey. In some ways I still can’t believe I’m a mom. But it has really become a major part of who I am.
–Tori; Women Who Rock, Fall 2002

“Gold Dust is very much about being other people and feeling how they feel. And feeling how you felt in another time, when you’ve been in another place. And it really isn’t your past because somehow these frames are written on your body and they’ve made you what you are. Nothing is gone, it’s just on your body map. And this project has been very much about finding my – i guess, my body map. I think if you’re going to really write a work about a road trip and about America and who she is, then you have to go see her in all her glory and all her (laughs) bad fast food joints and good truck stops and everything in between. You know, you can’t just go to the coast and then fly, do the fly over country trip. You really have to experience it. And the crazy thing about it is, the gold that we found – you find it so much when you’re not even…thinking that you’re in it. You turn around and see this pair of eyes and somebody puts a bowl of chili in front of you and it’s heaven. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
– Scarlet Stories CD