ok. if you know me, you know i am a huge bjork fan. you know that i have all the sugarcubes albums and all the solo albums and was heartbroken when my fanclub-only copy of bjork unplugged went awol. you'd know that i get a little narky when people go 'oh, bjork? that freaky weirdo who bashed up a photographer, did that stupid screamy song, wore a swan dress and laid an egg on the red carpet of some hollywood awards ceremony? she's bizarre!' well, anyway, some of you might have seen something from me in the letters section of the age last sunday - in response to an article in the age the sunday before, on the olympics opening ceremony. if you didn't see it, you can find a copy of the letter here. anyway, the reason why i get so shitty is that if people got past her public persona and listened to the music, to the lyrics of her songs, they'd see what a beautiful poet the woman is. to illustrate my point, following are lyrics from some of my favourite bjork songs (oh, and in case you're wondering, 'it's oh so quiet' is not one of my favourite songs. but then again, it's not one of bjork's own favourites, either). by the way, oceania was the song she sang at the opening ceremony, and no, it wasn't about sweat being salty as such - it was written from the perspective of the ocean, observing her children at the games, after billions of years of evolution. think outside the square, people!

oceania (from 'medulla', out aug 30) one breath away from mother oceania your nimble feet make prints in my sand you have done good for yourselves since you left my wet embrace and crawled ashore every boy is a snake is a lily every pearl is a lynx is a girl sweet like harmony made into flesh you dance by my side children sublime you show me continents - I see the islands you count the centuries - I blink my eyes hawks and sparrows race in my waters stingrays are floating across the sky little ones my sons and my daughters your sweat is salty - i am why

unravel (from 'homogenic') while you are away my heart comes undone slowly unravels in a ball of yarn the devil collects it with a grin our love in a ball of yarn he'll never return it so when you come back we'll have to make new love immature from 'homogenic' how could i be so immature to think he would replace the missing elements in me? how extremely lazy of me!