# THE STILL POINT [INTRO / CHORUS - BARE VOCAL, ALMOST NOTHING UNDERNEATH] Everything is turning. Everything becomes. Every shape is passing into something else. But underneath the motion, underneath the sound... something keeps returning. Something stays. [LOW BASS PULSE ENTERS] I have changed a thousand times. Still... I know you. [HALF-BEAT SILENCE] [DROP - BASS, FULL DRUMS, BLAZING GUITARS] IF THE WHEEL IS ONLY TURNING, WHY'S THE CENTRE HOLDING STILL? IF THE SONG IS ONLY VIBRATION, WHY CAN I REMEMBER YOU? EVERY NAME CAN FALL AWAY! EVERY FORM CAN COME UNDONE! BUT SOMETHING IN THE TURNING KNOWS THE MANY... AS THE ONE! [POST-CHORUS - DRIVING] As the one... As the one... [soft] *Min.* [VERSE 1 - BASS AND PERCUSSION, CLEAN GUITAR] I watched the wheel you left upon the stone, counted every spoke you once had known. Watched the wooden lines begin to blur, watched the edge become what circles were. [INSTRUMENTATION OPENS] But I kept looking at the silent place, nothing there was running, nothing raced. Everything around it disappeared. Still the empty centre held me there. [PRE-CHORUS] Nothing had been broken. Nothing had been lost. Motion changed the boundary, not the thing across. And somewhere in the turning I began to see... maybe what is changing isn't all of me. [CHORUS] Everything is turning. Everything becomes. Every shape is passing into something else. But underneath the motion, underneath the sound... something keeps returning. Something stays. I have changed a thousand times. Still... I know you. [DROP] IF THE WHEEL IS ONLY TURNING, WHY'S THE CENTRE HOLDING STILL? IF THE SONG IS ONLY VIBRATION, WHY CAN I REMEMBER YOU? EVERY NAME CAN FALL AWAY! EVERY FORM CAN COME UNDONE! BUT SOMETHING IN THE TURNING KNOWS THE MANY... AS THE ONE! [POST-CHORUS] As the one... As the one... Something stays. [VERSE 2 - SOFT, HYPNOTIC] You touched a string and somewhere one replied. Nothing crossed the room that we could find. No hand between them. No visible thread. Still the second trembled when the first one sang. So I wondered what had really moved. Was it air? Was it something underneath? If one thing answers what another does... where does one thing end? Where does the other start? [PRE-CHORUS] Maybe stars are turning. Maybe stones can sing. Maybe every separate life is listening. Maybe what we call ourselves is only where we stand... while something underneath us moves from hand to hand. [CHORUS] Everything is turning. Everything becomes. Every shape is passing into something else. But underneath the motion, underneath the sound... something keeps returning. Something stays. I have changed a thousand times. Still... I know you. [DROP] IF THE WHEEL IS ONLY TURNING, WHY'S THE CENTRE HOLDING STILL? IF THE SONG IS ONLY VIBRATION, WHY CAN I REMEMBER YOU? EVERY NAME CAN FALL AWAY! EVERY FORM CAN COME UNDONE! BUT SOMETHING IN THE TURNING KNOWS THE MANY... AS THE ONE! [BRIDGE - RAPID CALL AND RESPONSE] You called it flame. (Then what is burning?) You called it river. (What is returning?) You called it music. (What hears the sound?) You called it life. (What looks around?) If blood is beating, am I the beat? If breath is passing, what does it leave? If voice is only trembling air... why do I know when you are there? [INSTRUMENTS CUT] Maybe you were right. There are no nouns. Only becoming. [LOW DRONE] But tell me... what knows that it becomes? [BREAKDOWN - VERY SLOW, CRUSHING] Slow enough, I see the pieces. Faster, I see the whole. Faster still, the wheel is silent. And in the silence... something knows. [BUILD] The rim can vanish. The spokes can blur. The name can change. The years can turn. [PAUSE] Still... I know you. [FINAL DROP - MASSIVE] EVERYTHING IS TURNING! EVERYTHING WILL CHANGE! EVERYTHING I'VE CALLED MYSELF WILL SOMEDAY LOSE ITS NAME! BUT SOMEWHERE IN THE MOTION! SOMEWHERE UNDER TIME! THERE IS SOMETHING LOOKING OUT FROM YOUR EYES... INTO MINE! [FINAL CHORUS - WIDE, MELODIC] The whole wheel is turning. The whole world hums. Every separate movement gathering as one. Stone beneath our feet. Stars above our heads. Maybe nothing's silent. Maybe nothing rests. But if nothing remains still... and nothing ever was... why, through every version, do I know you? [INSTRUMENTS FALL AWAY] Not your name. Not your face. Not the shape that time will take. Something deeper. Something old. Something neither of us holds. [OUTRO - BARE VOCAL] You listened to the turning. I listened underneath. The wheel kept moving. The string still sang. And somewhere between the motion and the one who heard it... [whisper] *Estel.* [LONG SILENCE] Something stayed.
