Puedo Escribir

 Oír la noche inmensa,
más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como pasto el rocío.
Pablo Neruda

This is an epic track. With lyrics in both Spanish and English entirely from Pablo Neruda's "Poema 20," "Puedo Escribir" is the climax of what would be "Side 1" of the self-titled album, propelled by a slinky, vaguely Latin bassline to an eventual frenzy of tom-toms and cellos. (Ironically, the song itself is absent from the actual LP release.)

If the lyrics weren't from one of the 20th century's greatest poets, it would be easy to see this as a throwback to some of the sad-sack lost-love jams from This Beautiful Mess, but there's more gravitas here. Leigh Nash handles the Spanish ably (she's often said in interviews she feels a connection to Spanish; it is perhaps worth mentioning that New Braunfels, Texas, where Slocum and Nash grew up, is 35% hispanic, and that Slocum's mother was an ESL teacher) and the rhythm section is at its restrained best --  both Plasencio and Baker's technical prowess seem to work better on this record in general; they are not, strictly speaking, balls-to-the-wall rock musicians.

My favorite thing about this song is the way it grooves despite being in a weird time signature; it is in 11/8, which is why Dale Baker has a writing credit on it -- he is apparently the one who figured this out. (The only other Sixpence track that credits Baker is "The Garden," which starts with a prominent snare drum intro he presumably wrote). In early performances of this song, including one I personally witnessed sometime in 1995, Baker would step up to a microphone and introduce this with a weird double-time clapping thing. I still use this clapping technique today to impress my children.