ALTOGETHER STRANGER
WILD WATERS
Every light lit needs darkness to be seen
My matches are wet and it keeps darkening
Wild waters are calling to me
I was somebody’s daughter
But lately just me
New temples are tragic
Skyscrapers that claw
The rain from the clouds
Which now comes at a cost
Wild waters calling to me
We bathed here before
When the water was free
Some fashion the chains
Some fasten them on
Some of us will stay chained
And some shake them off
Wild waters calling to me
I once followed blindly
But now I can see
Save me a place at the table
Say grace
I’m eating my words
But still wasting away
Wild waters calling to me
ALL GOOD THINGS WILL COME TO PASS
God said to man
“There’s not much I’m asking
Take her hand into your hand
Keep on the green, green grass
And all good things will come to pass”
Man shook God’s hands
Crossed his fingers at his back
Took the blueprint plans
And made a few adjustments
All good things will come to pass
We’ll get a condominium
With a pool and gym
Make some sneakers
Sneak in slowly
Without Father even hearing
All good things will come to pass
We’ll take the whole world in our hands
Make mistakes
Make amends
Make amusement parks
Prison yards
Salad bars
And shiny, shiny cars
And all good things will come to pass
There will be janitors and kings
Toll booth keepers and priests
The magic of machines will make everything easy
And all good things will come to pass
All good things will come to pass
But our feet only know pavement
And the ocean is a trash can
Our brothers sisters hated
With our mother instituted and decaying
And all good things must come to pass
So we’re going to our maker
With our heads hung and our tails in
giving keys back to our father
Like some acne-prone teenagers
All good things will come to pass
All good things will come to pass
All good things will come to pass
DOWN ON THE FREEWAY
Everyone’s out now down on the freeway
Going to the mall, going to the beaches
I am one of us
I’m just like everyone else
I am one of us
I’m just like everyone else
Are you going to follow
Are you going to miss me
Get me out of the lines
Out of the city
Only in my mind
Only will I be there
I might be late
But I’ll be there
I might be late
But I’ll be there
Everyone’s talking
Everyone’s dreaming
Get me out of the lines
Out of the city
Only in my heart
Only will I be there
I have seen the sky I know what it means to fly away
I have seen the night I know what it means to light the way
I have seen the dawn I know what it means to start again
Everyone’s out now down on the freeway
Everyone’s out now down on the freeway
Get me out of the lines
Out of the city
Out of the lines
Out of the city
Only in my mind (out of the lines)
Only will I be there (out of the city)
Only in my mind (out of the lines)
Only will I be there (out of the city)
I might be late
But I’ll be there
I might be late
But I’ll be there
Get me out of the lines
Out of the city
SLEEP THROUGH THE LONG NIGHT
I’m stale as the daylight
In photos of still lifes
And grave as the bread that was left with no twist tie
My eye is the smooth side
Of magazine advertisements
I want what I can’t buy
I buy any true lie
I lie with my hands tied
And try to sleep at night
Lay me to bed under canopy tree lines
My mind is a jungle of sirens and stoplights
The traffic is static
No station to heaven
Im heavy as plastic
In the belly Atlantic
I want what I can’t find
I find what I can’t hide
I hide until it’s time
To sleep through the long night
COME ON
Come on we never learn
We look until our eyes are blind
I blame the screenplay
The scream before the ending comes
I’ve been on the phone with someday
Since the first ring rang
Rattling the cage that keeps me here
Just hanging on
Come on we’ve got to move to melt
To make a new shape touch
The bell that never rang will clang
To call the new day in
If all that you were wanting
Was to feel belonging
I’ll be there too
I’ve been walking past
The flowers that were cast away
Beauty doesn’t last
It never promised that anyway
Come on why would we knock
When we could break the whole door down
Even the bright sun will leave
If we stop looking up
TELL ME HOW TO BE HERE
Choppers cast shadows
Above the brave houses
Can’t feel my feet on the ground
The super 8 motel
Sees suits come and go out
To play the part
Give speeches, get feedback
Give data, get real facts
We’re born to a chart
But can you tell me how to be here
Can you help me be here right
Tell me how to be here
Can you help me be here right
It’s just a little lonely
Without the ground below me
The cabinet won’t close
There’s dust on my pillow
I can’t sleep at night
With jazz through the window
And all that is unknown
Behind the cabinet door
Daylight’s a million miles
From where I go at night
But can you tell me how to be here
Can you help me be here right
Tell me how to be here
Can you help me be here right
NEW AGES
New ages have come
Only to swallow whole
The empire set
Oh how the mighty fall
I’ve been a queen
I’ve been fortune’s fool
For wanting much more
Than I can hold onto
But if you want me to
I can hold on to you
I am diamond pressed
But I still am coal
In my darkness
Just an animal
Chain me with the thread
From your holy spool
I’ll never wed
But I can hold on to you
And you can hold me too
And I will hold on to you
Some love is built to last
Some primitive
Some will take much more
Than they will ever give
I’d like to build a love
That has no flag
Nothing for the wind
To whip and drag
But if you want me to
Then I will hold on to you
And you can hold me too
And I will hold on to you
ALL IS NEVER LOST
All is never lost
We’re only getting right
With what we’ve got
All is never lost
It’s only trying
To come across
When the world began
There was a light inside the man
But all is never lost
There’s still a light
Inside of us
Through barren seasons
Talking to the gods
There’s a wheel turning all of us
People in windowpanes
Watch trucks take trash away
But all comes with a cost
The weight of what we want
When the world began
There was a light inside the man
But all is never lost
All is never lost
All is never lost
THERE FROM HERE
I’m flying out now
Im getting away
Somewhere where I won’t complain
Lift above the traffic
And the engines of time
The spike of the arm of the clock
The airport’s a sea
With people just like me
Trying to get there from here
Killing the time
With our magazine minds
Flipping the pages too fast
Who wore it best
The architecture’s digest
I eat but I’m always hungry
Watch me walk quickly
Through hallways marked bright
Past perfume too sweet
Past the lines
Of liquor stacked neat
Where it’s all duty-free
But we pay with this purgatory
I want to go somewhere sunny and clear
But Im sad as the last unsold souvenir
And they say you can never get there from here
Sit beside me
here in economy
And wake me before I go to sleep
STAR EATERS DELIGHT
I AM THE RIVER
I am the river
I carry men down
I see no rejects
No one to keep out
Tell me your dreams
How long could you keep them?
This is an Ice Age
And I have frozen
I pledge allegiance
To tree and meadow
I have no need to
conquer or keep them
I’m for the ocean
Where we will all end
Let us have music
While we are moving
I hear the bells of
The country churches
I have my sadness
And that is sacred
There is no feedback
Electric static
Let us keep moving
Let us keep moving
Remember dancing
Remember magic
We are together
I am the river
IF I HAD NO WINGS
In the doorway the sun waits
But I will not wake
I could never see love
Or feel love
Or be love
And if I had no wings
To fly home with
I’d sing my way
Back to you
In the winter the trees lose
The bird song, their green youth
And I’ll be gone before too long
So while I’m here
I’ll feel it all
Because I have no wings
To fly home with
I’ll sing my way back to you
Go then with the hours
It’s too late
There is too much time to waste
While we look the other way
Oh brother, sinner, savior sent
To teach us how to love again
Your shadow is no enemy
Your darkest heart
is the light we could be
And I will try to see you
To feel you, to free you
Because you have no wings
To fly home with
I’ll bring the song back to you
And if you have no wings
To fly home with
I’ll bring the song back
I’ll sing my way back
I’ll bring the song
back to you
FASTER THAN THE MEDICINE
It’s high noon
The bells of St. Ives ring through
The stone streets and thoughts of you
Reach me
Faster than the bells of time
A patient
Waiting for the nurse
Waiting for your holy word
To reach me
Faster than the medicine
Faster than the medicine
Impatient
I call for the priest
She knows
Just what I need
To reach you
Faster than the word of man
Faster than the medicine
And if it’s only tonight
Hold me
Don’t leave
Love is just a one shot try
I’m taking
the waters of Bath
But only, only your breath
Can heal me
Faster than the water can
Faster than the medicine
No one here feels the same
No one here knows the way
To reach me
Faster than the one I love
Faster than the one I love
Faster than the one I love
IN VERONA
In Verona
Where we laid
Our perfect death
Let the wine spill down the stone steps
Let us tear each other to bits
In Verona, in Verona, in Verona
Where we live
Friar touch me
Holy water
Hand on prayer bead
Reliquary
I’m a reject in this village
Cast the stone, cast the stone
What Jesus said
In Verona
Where we live
Angels staple prayers to phone polls
I call home, I call home, I call home
He was beauty word and deed
He was star born purity
Palm to palm
Sword to skin
How the wine spilled
What a name meant
In Verona, in Verona, in Verona
Where we live
Sacrament of a kiss
As the blood let
From your prayer lips
Did you meet him,
Did you meet him
In the blank and marble dome?
Catacombs, catacombs
In Verona, in Verona
How can I ever find my holy way
Through these stone streets
How does love die
Did you hold it in a vial of forever
Can they touch you
Can they reach you
Do the bells rings?
In Verona, in Verona, in Verona
Where we live
The flower died
for the corpse bride
There is beauty
There are no sides
In Verona, in Verona,
Cast no stone, cast no stone
In Verona, in Verona
Cast no stone, cast no stone
How can I ever find my holy way
Through these stone streets
How can I ever find my holy way
Through these stone streets
I don’t belong here, I don’t belong here
I don’t belong here, I don’t belong here
In Verona, in Verona,
Cast no stone, cast no stone
In Verona, In Verona
Cast no stone, cast no stone
What Jesus said
In Verona, in Verona
Cast no stone, cast no stone, cast no stone
In Verona, in Verona, in Verona
Cast no stone
Where we live
Who’s going to stop the sun from setting
MUST BE TEARS
Even, even though I don’t know you
I know someone is with you
You’ve been touched with the music
I’ve got something in my eyes
Can you help me
It’s springtime
And all I do is cry
Human, human kindness abounds now
And the steeple made churches
Have been turned into stations
Like the one where I waited
With my coat on my suitcase
To see your teeth in person
Beneath the poster of items
From the lost and the found
From the lost and the found
Where else, where and when could I meet you?
Beneath the portrait of Queen Anne
On the carpeted stairs when
You’ll lean forward and whisper
Let’s get lost and then found
And then lost and then found
Even, even now I see something
Something darkening my eyes
Something so real it’s blinding
Like a dream of what could be
You have put with me something
Must be tears in my eyes
Must be tears in my eyes
Must be tears in my eyes
NO HOLDS BARRED
Tell me how
To live and die
Tell me what, where, when & why
‘cause I can’t take
Another thought
Of what I’m meant to do or not
I surrender
No holds barred
The game is rigged
It seems to be
That unjust old referee
But I guess
we all agreed
on the rules of the ring
I surrender
No holds barred
You can have me
No holds barred
I won’t seek
If you won’t hide
I’ll count the clouds
Until you’re mine
I’m giving up
On getting down
It’s not my problem
Whether you come around
And you can have me
No holds barred
I surrender
No holds barred
If this is love
It’s too easy
All I have to do
Is give you everything
And you can have it
No holds barred
You can have it
No holds barred
I surrender
No holds barred
RETURN TO ME NOW
You shake
You turn your head
The will to feel nothing
All is turn and turn again
You walk with care
You talk with whispered fear
You mark the days that come
The days that go
Return to me now
Just like a flower
Who loves the sun
Fortune wide is cast
But Nature will laugh last
All is turn and turn again
This is the circle made
Why are you so afraid
all that was will remain
Return to me now
Just like a flower
Who loves the sun
Although your cage is glass
It’s much easier to smash
Are you safe and sound
Or sound asleep
Return to me now
Just like a flower
Who loves the sun
LEAD ME BLIND
You can lead me blind
To the door
To seek the shadow side of love
As I bloom and sway
Just like a woven tapestry
Flower for the king
There’s no way we can ignore
The way the stars lay in the smog
This morning
Shining on the empire fall
You’re so lovely
I can see
No shadow on your wall
You can lead me deaf into your word
I know you best by your design
To lead the rest
With gestures mild
Shepherd with a junkie’s smile
You’re so lovely
I can see
No shadow on your wall
You’re so lovely
I can see
No shadow there at all
You’re so lovely
I can see
ACQUAINTED WITH NIGHT
BLUE VEIN
Gather your words, gaze at the field of snow
the Garden has gone the cold wind blown
Kneel down to your mom
hold on to your dad’s hands
maybe they’re dead, yet, don’t forget
you’re born with a blue vein
born to the song
born just to know things
then to take off
I’m gonna fly
Guardian angel, gather my losses
keep them all safe until I come to my cross
Gather the weight
gold trick of the world
gap in my girl’s teeth
the love that I held
Now it’s easier said when it comes from my head,
but the needle of truth gives the blood that I let
And we’re born with a blue vein
born to the song
born just to grow wings
then to take off
I’m gonna fly
Though there’s nothing to believe in besides you & I
And when I come to the fold meet the arms of my Brother
feel the birth of a new age
when I become the Other
Some say the truth springs for reservoir seekers
but I think the truth sings to whoever listens
and we’re born with a blue vein
born to the song
born just to grow wings
then to take off
I’m gonna fly
EVERY STAR SHIVERS IN THE DARK
Every star shivers in the dark
I’ve been shooting with a heavy, heavy heart
Talking to losers at the stadium
telling them it’s alright
let’s have some fun
Why can’t I have some fun? Why can’t I have some fun?
Shaping the clay in the dark pre-dawn
God made man to love someone
Why can’t I love someone? Why can’t I love someone?
Making my way through the grocery
talking to the man at the cash machine
I work in service too, so I feel for you
I work in service too
Alameda street-side prison tower
a man pressed his hand on the window
I waved a little while, I waved a little while
The shape of your face in the dark pre-dawn
all I want to do is love someone
why can’t I love someone I’d like to love someone
Sailors seek harbor on a lone seashore
leaving the known for something more
I am a pilgrim too I am a pilgrim too
I might be leaving you
cause I am a pilgrim too
Machine-made lap of luxury
I’m torn between the town and country
I’m going to get real old
go watch a garden grow
I’m gonna get real old
Shaping the clay in the dark pre-dawn
God made man to love someone
I’m gonna love someone I’m gonna love someone
ACQUAINTED WITH NIGHT
You were the night that failed to depart
because I was holding on
and though we were quiet the birds made the sky bid farewell
they went somewhere unknown
Shadows move slowly I know that you know me
as one who was made for the light,
but if I could show you I can unfold to
become acquainted with night
You sent me the cold, white shape of the moon
in the city lit by this gloom
It’s how you talk to me in the forest of song
I am led, let me be led on
And now that you’ve gone
I hope I know my own way home
Someday, baby someday, baby
You were the night that had to depart
and I was the prodigal sun
returning to places I knew before I knew the dark could come
Shadows move slowly I hope you might know me
as one who’s acquainted with night
and now that you’ve gone
I’ll be mourning I’ll be mourning tonight
WHITE WINGS
Where was I before the breath
light inside some distant morning
What will I do Who will I be?
Where were you before this love
darkened angel, charcoal dove?
What will you do Who will you be With those white wings?
I’ve reached for happiness
just to touch the void
I’ve knelt with my hands out
to feel a little more
How the sun reveals herself
dazed and sure of that distant morning
I felt the chain upon my skin
caged inside my ancient longing
What will we do Who will we be?
What will we do Who will we be
When those white wings touch the shore?
HOW FAR IS IT TO THE GRAVE
How far is it to the grave
the child looked up from his play
It must be far away away
it must be far away
How far is it to the grave
the lover looked up with a smile
and to his own true love he lied
‘it must be many a many a mile it must be many a mile’
How far is it to the grave
the banker looked up from his ledger
'the balance says a little longer,
I haven’t bought the things I long for,
I need a little longer, I need a little longer'
How far is it to the grave
the master said to his slave
'I hope it won’t be long, said he, in life I am dead
in death I’ll be free I hope it won’t be long for me'
How far is it to the end
It’s only a life, dear friend
it’s only a life, dear friend, dear friend
FOR NO ONE FOR NOW
Cast all your troubles to the ground
I've given up mine to be crowned
It's a new day, but I'm folding sheets in the bedroom
for no one, for now
There's light in the alley, there's a breeze
lifting curtains, laughter from the street
It's a new day, but I'm making toast in the kitchen
for no one, for now
Somehow it feels as though you're real
White cross on the top of the hill
I'm deep in the valley driving still away
It's a new day, but I'm making plans on the freeway
for no one, for now
SLIDING DOORS & WARM SUMMER ROSES
Sliding door to warm summer roses
windows, shades of blue
I was under your spell
fading back to the bloom
Screened-in porch to warm summer roses
window through the blue
I’m never lonesome I’m never lonesome
I've been under your spell
fading back to the blue
though my lover comes and goes
he’s like tomorrow
on and on my love will go
it’s like the ocean
and I’m never lonesome I’m never lonesome
THIRD FLOOR WINDOW
Why do we fear love like falling from the car door
Faced with all the world we don’t know, don’t you?
I should be happy for the air that fills me
forget the names that you had called me, baby
I’m a straight coat vision staring out the third floor window
and I’m mad for you I’m mad for you
Why do we say words but never know the meaning
Sadness, another word for feeling too much
and when the morning paper’s tell the only stranger is yourself
the only stranger is yourself
I’m a white coat mistake waiting in the drugstore window
but I’ll wait for you I wait for you
Why does the sun fall softly on your photo
why do words fail
I’m a white-robed mystic sitting on a third world mountain
but I long for you I long for you I long for you
LET ME LIVE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD
Let me live by the side of the road and be a friend to man
There are those who leave such long shadows
there are those who’ve loved and those who cried
in fields of flowers gave their lives
So let me live by the side of the road and be a friend to man
We have come with such strong desires
to fill the banks of rivers higher
to quench the thirst of knowing
by and by by and by
So let me live by the side of the road
and be a friend to man
SOME SUNNY DAY
Some sunny day I will wake up with no warning
of sadness to come no shipwreck no regret some sunny morning
Some people say we make a deal with death
living our love and then leaving
But I never shook the hand that made this silver cloak of time
and I never chose the heavy-handed hammer of my mind
Some sunny day I will wake up smiling
I’ve taken my time lifting the pages,
petal-pressed roses of the past
and that’s how I’ve known the sand that made the pearl inside my mind
but I never shook the hand that made this silver cloak of time
So we sail though our pain is binding
I know the way to set you free
when some sunny day I will leave this place
marked by a stone carved morning
And I will be shown the hand that made this silver cloak of time
and therein I’ll shine through walls that made the tavern of my mind