Hoop Dancer Chords by Bruce Cockburn

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_ [G] Out _ _ of my throat appears this chuckle, [A] a true twentieth century sound, but a little [F#] crazed
and [G] having no total center. _ _ _
The echoes of this laugh fade for [A] a long time, snaking among those jumbled pedestrians, _ [G] following
that struggling Cedric taxicab, _ sliding over the seeming [Em] infinity of white light [F] neon.
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_ _ _ [G] _ With no warning, [E] mine's [G] eye winks like a lifespan and opens again on memory [F] flash of prairie Indian dancers.
[G] _ They're on a stage, all [Em] jigging motion [F#m] and flare of bright [A] feathers, surrounded by white
papers floating on a sea of mud.
Poop dancer struts in front, [E] drum and voices blend [A] within. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ [G] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ There's a timeline, something like vertical, like perpendicular, cutting through figures
shuffling on a [G] horizontal plane, cutting through the survival pride of the dancers, [Gm] through
the guilty sentimental warmth of the [F] crowd, [G] through to some essence common to us, to original
man, [A] perhaps descendants, numbers, or a few. _ _ _ _
Where it intersects, the space at hand, this shaman with the hoop stands aligned like living
magnetic needle between deep past and [G] looming future.
Butterfly appears on each drum beat, wing beat, thunderclap, [F] storm front, static spark,
energy circle delineated by leaping limbs.
_ [Em] _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ First man, [A] last [Em] man, dancing man, man [E] dancing, hooped in head and [A] trampled [E] grass, circle
spreading voices, [Em] flame above, crazy [F#] coyote, heartbeat drum.
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_ [Em] _ _ [C] _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[Dm] _ [Em] _ _ _ [D] _ [E] I see [A] sunrise on the plains, big river of dust, [E] perpetual pillar of dust on [A] prairie
[E] rim, and always overhead those wings [C] circling, _
[Em] turning.
_ [C] _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[A] _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ [Em] He's the earth, [A] he's the egg, he's the eagle, always [E] circling, always turning, always comes
back to the [A]
center.
[Em] _ He's _ _ _ _
[A] _ [Em] the life.
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[G] _ _ _ _ _ Swirling now, [F] transparent feet, touchdown on anaconda streets, and on the next [G] beat
dissolve slowly into the moving lights, rainbow [F] steps, _ jerking universe, _ _
[G] _ goodbye, man in time, _ _
[F] _ _ and just beyond the clatter and cars, the last [G] long notes of wild voices ring like [F] Roland's horn. _ _ _ _ _ _
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Hello. _ _ _ _ _ _
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