I have some incomplete musings that are probably wrong:
Today I came across the phrase "lying in repose" and thought of this song. "Lying in repose" is where a dead person is displayed to the public. So in that context, "in repose" means "dead". It also brings in the idea of displaying the dead (thing) to the public, possibly as a part of the grieving process.
"Angle of repose" is a technical scientific thing that seems to be related to how high something can be piled up before the pile will collapse. This seems spot on for explaining the last stanza about the "avalanche"; keep piling up more and more (something), and eventually it comes crashing down.
"In repose" can also just mean "resting", rather than dead.
"I am made of tonnes of tiny countries" always grabbed me as an interesting lyric. My first thought was that it was talking about a person being a complex, multi-faceted, sometimes conflicting within themselves -- being. It could also just be about actual countries; setting the stage of the song with the Earth as the protagonist. That seems less interesting to me, but maybe that's it.
"I buried the dead and they came stories" made me think of someone grieving. You bury the dead, then they take on a new "life" in the world and to their survivors, as stories told and remembered.
"I planted the stories, they came up singing
I planted the song and it came up dancing"
At each stage of crystalization and transformation of what was the person and their impact, the themness becomes more positive. First, singing (I imagine here a /gentle/ singing - someone singing wistfully to themselves in an empty house one day while thinking of a memory of the deceased), and then positively dancing (no-holds-barred, energetic joie-de-vivre).
"I buried the dance and it
Came up facing home"
I got nothing on these two. "Facing home" seems like it has to mean something, but I don't know what.
I have some incomplete musings that are probably wrong:
Today I came across the phrase "lying in repose" and thought of this song. "Lying in repose" is where a dead person is displayed to the public. So in that context, "in repose" means "dead". It also brings in the idea of displaying the dead (thing) to the public, possibly as a part of the grieving process.
"Angle of repose" is a technical scientific thing that seems to be related to how high something can be piled up before the pile will collapse. This seems spot on for explaining the last stanza about the "avalanche"; keep piling up more and more (something), and eventually it comes crashing down.
"In repose" can also just mean "resting", rather than dead.
"I am made of tonnes of tiny countries" always grabbed me as an interesting lyric. My first thought was that it was talking about a person being a complex, multi-faceted, sometimes conflicting within themselves -- being. It could also just be about actual countries; setting the stage of the song with the Earth as the protagonist. That seems less interesting to me, but maybe that's it.
"I buried the dead and they came stories" made me think of someone grieving. You bury the dead, then they take on a new "life" in the world and to their survivors, as stories told and remembered.
"I planted the stories, they came up singing I planted the song and it came up dancing"
At each stage of crystalization and transformation of what was the person and their impact, the themness becomes more positive. First, singing (I imagine here a /gentle/ singing - someone singing wistfully to themselves in an empty house one day while thinking of a memory of the deceased), and then positively dancing (no-holds-barred, energetic joie-de-vivre).
"I buried the dance and it Came up facing home"
I got nothing on these two. "Facing home" seems like it has to mean something, but I don't know what.