Nora York Singing What I Want

I’d like to begin this song I wrote

about ceaseless yearning and never-ending want

with a poem of popular Petrarchan paradoxes

by Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder:

“I find no peace, and all my war is done;

I fear and hope, I burn and freeze like ice;

I fly above the wind,

and yet I cannot arise;

And naught I have,

and all the world I seize upon.”

♫ I want what I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have what I don’t have, what I want ♫

♫ What I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have what I don’t have, what I want ♫

♫ What I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have what I don’t have, what I want ♫

♫ What I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have what I don’t have, what I want ♫

♫ What I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have but I don’t have ♫

♫ It feels like all I got is loss on a bad back ♫

♫ Gone with the last train, honey don’t you fret ♫

♫ Every cloud has a silver lining ♫

♫ Just a little rain, just a little rain, just a little rain ♫

♫ I want what I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have what I don’t have, what I want ♫

♫ What I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have but I don’t have ♫

♫ My mind won’t stop, and my heart says go ♫

♫ Nobody knows how to hold me ♫

♫ My mind won’t stop, and my heart says, ♫

♫ “Good things come to those who wait” ♫

♫ And I can’t stand in … ♫

♫ I can’t stand in line forever ♫

♫ Stand the cold air ♫

♫ Glad-handed ♫

♫ Sick and tired of the “Later, maybe” ♫

♫ Take it, fake it, take it, take-it-or-leave-it life ♫

♫ And I gotta just tame it ♫

♫ I gotta just name it ♫

♫ I gotta just seize, so please, oh please, oh please, oh please ♫

♫ Oh please me right, ‘cause ♫

♫ My mind won’t stop ♫

♫ And my heart says go ♫

♫ Nobody knows how to hold me ♫

♫ My mind won’t stop – and my heart says go-ooooo … ♫

♫ Good things must be here – yes, right here ♫

♫ Here, right here, right here ♫

♫ I won’t live this life forever ♫

♫ One time round is all the offer is ♫

♫ Sick and tired of the “Later, maybe” ♫

♫ Take it, fake it, make it, leave it life ♫

♫ And I gotta just name it, I gotta just claim it ♫

♫ I gotta just seize ♫

♫ Oh please, oh please, oh please me right ♫

♫ I want what I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have what I don’t have, what I want ♫

♫ What I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have but I don’t have – you know that ♫

♫ My mind won’t stop, and my heart says go ♫

♫ Nobody knows how to hold me, no ♫

♫ My mind won’t stop, and my heart says go ♫

♫ ‘Cause I want what I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have but I – have what I want ♫

♫ What I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have but I don’t have, what I want ♫

♫ What I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have what I don’t have, what I want ♫

♫ What I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have but I don’t have, what I want ♫

♫ What I can’t have, need what I can’t want ♫

♫ Have but I don’t have what I want ♫

(Applause)