40 acres

Out on these Texas plains you can see for a million lives
And there's a thousand exits between here and the state line
About the last time that I saw you
You said call me Pandora, call me a fool
And I'm thinking this view it could do you some good
So drop these scales and take a look

There's forty acres and redemption to be found
Just along the way
There is a place where no plow blade has ever turned the ground
And you will turn it over, 'cause out here hope remains
'Cause out here hope remains...

Out here the Texas sky is as big as the sea
And your alone in your room like an island floating free
Your spirit's hanging in a bottle out on a tree
You say that you're the black sheep, I say you're still family
So throw that bottle to the waves
They'll bring you in to me and the shore you will see

Out here the Texas rain is the hardest I've ever seen
It'll wash your house away, but it'll also make you clean
Now these rocks they are crying too
And this whole land is calling out for you

april showers

Like April Showers on the slick cement
When I consider how our light is spent
Keeping the candles inside the cathedral
Hold on tight, Don't go into the night
So full of evil

Rain rain don't go away
We need you this dry and dusty day
Rain rain don't go away
Though some may say please go away

Like the April Showers on the slick cement
And the roads once straight have now become so bent
Weaving through the trees of vain security
Rounding round the hard rocks of hard morality

And the sacred cows
Feed on the green
While the least of these
Are dying on the streets
And they're crying...

love alone

No one would love me
If they knew all the things I hide
My words fell to the floor
As tears drip through the telephone line

And the hands I've seen
Raised to the sky
Not waving but drowning
This time
I'll try to build the ark that they need
To float to you upon the crystal sea

Give me your hand
To hold
Cause I can't stand to love alone
And love alone is not enough
To hold us up we've got to touch your robe
So swing your robe down low
Swing your robe down low

Prince of despair's been beaten
And the loosers still fight
Death's on a long leash
Stealing my friends to the night

And everyone cries for innocent
You say to love the guilty, too
And I'm surrounded by suffering and sickness
So I'm working tearing back the roof

Give me your hand
To hold
Cause I can't stand to love alone
And love alone is not enough
To hold us up we've got to touch your robe
So swing your robe down low
Swing your robe down low

And the pain of the world is a burden
And it's my cross to bear
And I stumble under all the weight
I know you're Simon standing there
And I know you're standing there

Give me your hand
To hold
Cause I can't stand to love alone
And love alone is not enough
To hold us up we've got to touch your robe
So swing your robe down low
Swing your robe down low

table for two

Danny and I
Spent anther late night over pancakes
Talkin' 'bout soccer
And how every man's just the same.
We made speculation
On the who's and the when's of our futures
And how everyone's lonely
But still we just couldn't complain.

And how we just hate being alone.
Could I have missed my only chance,
And now I'm just wasting my time
By lookin' around

But ya know I know better,
I'm not gonna worry 'bout nothin'.
Cause if the birds and the flowers survive,
Then I'll make it okay.
I'm given a chance and a rock;
see which one breaks a window.
See which one keeps me up all night and into the day.

Because I'm so scared of being alone
That I forget what house i live in.
But it's not my job to wait by the phone
For her to call.

Well this day's been crazy
But everything's happened on schedule,
from the rain and the cold
To the drink that I spilled on my shirt.
'Cause You knew how You'd save me
before I fell dead in the garden,
And You knew this day
long before You made me out of dirt.

And You know the plans that You have for me
And You can't plan the end and not plan the means
And so I suppose I just need some peace,
Just to get me to sleep.

the rich song

Whatcha been doing today?
'Cause I've been thinking about you
Just heard some news that set my mind to wandering
And I need to hear your voice

Are you out on the plains?
Burning your feet on the ground
Out where no one even knows your name
Seventy miles out of town

Cause we miss you
Do you miss us?
What is the language
With which these words I can trust?
That I thank my God
Every time
I remember you

Whatcha been thinking about?
Cuz I've been thinking about life
And how nothing can escape the governing of God
Still somehow that just doesn't comfort me tonight
I still need to hear your voice

Now I hear you
Do you hear me?
What medium is there
That I can use to make you see?

Bending down to help the flower dry with poverty
Helping it to understand its inheritance
How I remember life so bright
Every time I close my eyes
I can see you

Brother you made it
Brother you made it
Brother you made it home

this world

There's tarnish on the golden rule
And I want to jump from this ship of fools
Show me a place where hope is young
And a people aren't afraid to love

This world has nothing for me and this world has everything
All that I could want and nothing that I need

This world is making me drunk on the spirits of fear.
So when he says who will go, I am nowhere near.

And the least of these look like criminals to me
So I leave Christ on the street

This world has held my hand and has led me into intolerance
But now I'm waking up, but now I'm breaking up
But now I'm making up for lost time

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
that all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky

mr youse needn't be so spry
concernin questions arty

each has his tastes but as for i
i likes a certain party

gimme the he-man's solid bliss
for youse idea i'll match youse

a pretty girl who naked is
is worth a million statues

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears are awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

when god decided to invent
everything he took one
breath bigger than a circustent
and everything began

when man determined to destroy
himself he picked the was
of shall and finding only why
smashed it into because

who knows if the moon's
a balloon,coming out of a keen city
in the sky--filled with pretty people?
(and if you and i should

get into it,if they
should take me and take you into their balloon,
why then
we'd go up higher with all the pretty people

than houses and steeples and clouds:
go sailing
away and away sailing into a keen
city which nobody's ever visited,where

always
it's
Spring)and everyone's
in love and flowers pick themselves

These days only he could see the rock,
so when he stopped for a bagel
at the bagel store, then for a newspaper
at one of those coin-operated stalls,
he looked like anyone else
on his way to work. Food—

the gods reasoned—
would keep him alive
to suffer, and news of the world
could only make him feel worse.
Let him think he has choices;
he belongs to us.

Rote not ritual, a repetition
which never would mean more
at the end than at the start . . .
Sisyphus pushed his rock
past the aromas of bright flowers,
through the bustling streets
into the plentitude and vacuity,

every arrival the beginning
of a familiar descent. And sleep
was the cruelest repite;
at some murky bottom of himself
the usual muck rising up.

One morning, however, legs hurting,
the sun beating down,
again weighing the quick calm of suicide
against this punishment that passed for life,
Sisyphus smiled.

It was the way a gambler smiles
when he finaly decides to fold
in order to stay alive
for another game, a smile
so inward it cannot be seen.

The gods sank back
in their airy chairs. Sisyphus sensed
he'd taken something from them,
more on his own than ever now.

John & Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who also had never met. —from a freshman's short story

They were like gazelles who occupied different
grassy plains, running in opposite directions
from different lions. They were like postal clerks
in different zip codes, with different vacation time,
their bosses adamant and clock-driven.
How could they get together?
They were like two people who couldn't get together.
John was a Sufi with a love of the dervish,
Mary of course a Christian with a curfew.
They were like two dolphins in the immensity
of the Atlantic, one playful,
the other stuck in a tuna net—
two absolutely different childhoods!
There was simply no hope for them.
They would never speak in person.
When they ran across that windswept field
toward each other, they were like two freight trains.

A good thing, the experts say, the getting it out. I know they're right. The few big times I've exhibited it, I felt spent and righteously clean. A grudge is more my style, weeks, months of resentment silently borne. At my worst, after quarrels, I've kept it in and let it mix with any old bitterness it could find. When it finally emerged— stunted, timed, cruelly calm—I was no one's decent man. But I'm seldom at my worst and can only envy the brilliantly angry in books and in films. I can't bear anyone routinely angry, anyone with a childhood untamed. In truth, I prefer the manners of those who keep most things to themselves. We're unable to entertain opposites when we're angry. We're so bloody dull. Everything I love about the mind disappears. I choose my friends by the quality of their hesitations, their ability to be ambivalent about the smallest things. Harm anyone I love, though, and I'll seek you out and break you fucking in two. I'd at least want to. I'd certainly understand anyone who would.

Generosity

Not to be confused with philanthropy, capitalism's managed leftovers. Or with largesse, a little something off the top. Generosity is that palpable extra that comes along with the gift, motiveless as a good wind. Best is the extra that comes unencumbered: pure generosity of spirit, always replenishing itself. We the less generous are quick to suspect it, remembering what we've given and why. But those who have it irradiate the day. They redefine the meaning of wealth. We fall in love with them, we try to shine that brightly, yet before long they've mostly instructed us about what it is we want to keep. Blessed are the generous who keep enough for themselves so we can live with them without guilt. Blessed, too, are those who receive well, so the generous get their reward. A cold heart is not generosity's natural enemy. Scarcity is, and its crucible as well. Blessed are the poor who give to the poor. In our world of plenty when our daughter was three, at first we laughed at her mistake: "Share, share, and like." Then we praised it.

He climbed toward the blinding light
and when his eyes adjusted
he looked down and could see

his fellow prisoners captivated
by shadows; everything he had believed
was false. And he was suddenly

in the 20th century, in the sunlight
and violence of history, encumbered
by knowledge. Only a hero

would dare return with the truth.
So from the cave's upper reaches,
removed from harm, he called out

the disturbing news.
What lovely echoes, the prisoners said,
what a fine musical place to live.

He spelled it out, then, in clear prose
on paper scraps, which he floated down.
But in the semi-dark they read his words

with the indulgence of those who seldom read:
It's about my father's death, one of them said.
No, said the others, it's a joke.

By this time he no longer was sure
of what he'd seen. Wasn't sunlight a shadow too?
Wasn't there always a source

behind a source? He just stood there,
confused, a man who had moved
to larger errors, without a prayer.

The sky in the trees, the trees mixed up
with what's left of heaven, nearby a patch
of daffodils rooted down
where dirt and stones comprise a kind
of night, unmetaphysical, cool as a skeptic's
final sentence. What this scene needs
is a nude absentmindedly sunning herself
on a large rock, thinks the man fed up
with nature, or perhaps a lost tiger,
the maximum amount of wildness a landscape
can bear, but the man knows and fears
his history of tampering with everything,
and besides to anyone who might see him
he's just a figure in a clearing
in a forest in a universe
that is as random as desire itself,
his desire in particular, so much going on
with and without him, moles humping up
the ground near the daffodils, a mockingbird
publishing its cacaphonous anthology,
and those little Calvinists, the ants,
making it all the more difficult
for a person in America
to close his office, skip to the beach.
But what this scene needs are wisteria
and persimmons, thinks the woman
sunning herself absentmindedly on the rock,
a few magnificent words that one
might want to eat if one were a lover
of words, the hell with first principles,
the noon sun on my body, tempered
by a breeze that cannot be doubted.
And as she thinks, she who exists
only in the man's mind, a deer grazes
beyond their knowing, a deer tick riding
its back, and in the gifted air
mosquitos, dragonflies, and tattered
mute angels no one has called upon in years.

It was the winter I had to get away.
Though I didn't know it then,
I needed the kind of solace
you get at depressing moving
if they're good; all those others
just like you. In Orlando,
biding time, I watched peacocks
among people in a wooded preserve,
then drove further inland past cattle
to where my friend lived.

I was glad the peacocks made awful
sounds, and I was glad—
after we jogged his circular path
through the orange groves—
that our polite, complete sentences
broke down into talk
of his empty house, the woman who left,
and then my house far away.
I told him what staying meant, as if
I knew; the precipice in every room.
Friendship: someone leaning
to your side of the truth.

Next day was beautiful,
seventy-five degrees, and each of us
silent, back in control.
We walked into the countryside,
pointed away from ourselves
toward the landscape,
took possession of it for a while.
Kumquats were growing next to lemons
and white birds rode the backs of cows.
Though it wasn't, it seemed enough,
seemed we'd never have to speak again.

Similiter et omnes revereantur Diaconos, ut mandatum Jesu Christi; et Episcopum, ut Jesum Christum, existentem filium Patris; Presbyteros autem, ut concilium Dei et conjunctionem Apostolorum. Sine his Ecclesia non vocatur; de quibus suadeo vos sic habeo. - S. Ignatii Ad Trallianos.

And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans.

The broad-backed hippopotamus
Rests on his belly in the mud;
Although he seems so firm to us
He is merely flesh and blood.

Flesh and blood is weak and frail,
Susceptible to nervous shock;
While the True Church can never fail
For it is based upon a rock.

The hippo’s feeble steps may err
In compassing material ends,
While the True Church need never stir
To gather in its dividends.

The ’potamus can never reach
The mango on the mango-tree;
But fruits of pomegranate and peach
Refresh the Church from over sea.

At mating time the hippo’s voice
Betrays inflexions hoarse and odd,
But every week we hear rejoice
The Church, at being one with God.

The hippopotamus’s day
Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;
God works in a mysterious way—
The Church can sleep and feed at once.

I saw the ’potamus take wing
Ascending from the damp savannas,
And quiring angels round him sing
The praise of God, in loud hosannas.

Blood of the Lamb shall wash him clean
And him shall heavenly arms enfold,
Among the saints he shall be seen
Performing on a harp of gold.

He shall be washed as white as snow,
By all the martyr’d virgins kist,
While the True Church remains below
Wrapt in the old miasmal mist.

They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.

The brown waves of fog toss up to me
Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
An aimless smile that hovers in the air
And vanishes along the level of the roofs.

Hysteria

As she laughed I was aware of becoming involved in her laughter and being part of it, until her teeth were only accidental stars with a talent for squad-drill. I was drawn in by short gasps, inhaled at each momentary recovery, lost finally in the dark caverns of her throat, bruised by the ripple of unseen muscles. An elderly waiter with trembling hands was hurriedly spreading a pink and white checked cloth over the rusty green iron table, saying: “If the lady and gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden, if the lady and gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden…” I decided that if the shaking of her breasts could be stopped, some of the fragments of the afternoon might be collected, and I concentrated my attention with careful subtlety to this end.

Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin;
And breastless creatures under ground
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.

Daffodil bulbs instead of balls
Stared from the sockets of the eyes!
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs
Tightening its lusts and luxuries.

Donne, I suppose, was such another
Who found no substitute for sense,
To seize and clutch and penetrate;
Expert beyond experience,

He knew the anguish of the marrow
The ague of the skeleton;
No contact possible to flesh
Allayed the fever of the bone.
. . . . .

Grishkin is nice: her Russian eye
Is underlined for emphasis;
Uncorseted, her friendly bust
Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.

The couched Brazilian jaguar
Compels the scampering marmoset
With subtle effluence of cat;
Grishkin has a maisonette;

The sleek Brazilian jaguar
Does not in its arboreal gloom
Distil so rank a feline smell
As Grishkin in a drawing-room.

And even the Abstract Entities
Circumambulate her charm;
But our lot crawls between dry ribs
To keep our metaphysics warm.

The Hollow Men

A Penny for the Old Guy

I

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voice, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rat's feet over broken glass
In Our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralyzed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us--if at all--not as lost
Violent souls, but only
The stuffed men.

II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer--

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III

This is the dead land
This is the cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone

IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jar of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V

Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow
For Thine is the kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

I'd sit on logs like pulpits
listen to the sermon
of sparrows
and find god in Simplicity,
there amongst the dandelion
and thorn

It's been
too many nights
   of being with

to no be suddenly
without

So just kiss me and let my hair
messy itself in your fingers

tell me nothing needs to be done--
no clocks need winding

There is no bell without a voice
needing to borrow my own

instead, let me steady myself
in the arms

of a man who won't ask me to be
what he needs, but lets me exist

as I am

   a blonde flame
   a hurricane

wrapped up
in a tiny body

that will come to his arms
like the safest harbor

for mending

I am fascinated by
those certain girls
   you know the ones
the women that are always girls
their tiny bodies like
neglected willow trees
   controlled and contorted
which may blow away with
the slightest disappointment

Can you imagine
how silent
a plane crash would be
if you were deaf?

How unbearably loud a rape?

I wrote you those nice
poems only because
the honest ones
would frighten you.

In my belly is a gold fish.
I swallowed it and kept it there,
I sing to it, and can feel it wiggle
when it especially likes the tune--
Brahms makes it do backflips of glee.

The Slow Migration of Glaciers

The slow migration of glaciers
unfolding through the centuries
their heavy wing
burdened with all the
weight of the earth
they move and carve and breathe

swollen rivers thick with soot
my pony and I drawing
   deep sharp breaths
as we cross
submerged
in all that is natural and Holy

To run free with you once more
to let my hair tangle itself
in a wind that knows only motion

to lose my heart once again
in the thorns of primrose
on the plains of Fox River Valley
lost in a maze of Timothy and Blue Grass hay.

These are the things which made me
these are the things I call home
these are the things that have filled
my heart with song and I raise them now in homage:

my father and I riding until after dark
chasing cattle or startling eagles into flight
cooking on a coal stove
cutting meat with a dull knife
my hands raw from picking rose hips
on the sea cliffs above Kackamack Bay
staring endlessly at the blue sky. . .

Few would guess now how much I miss
you Alaska

how my heart grows
heavy out there

so far away

So much talk
so much noise
strangling all stillness
so I can no longer
hear the voice of god whisper
to me in the silence

I will return to you, Alaska,
my beloved, but for now
I am youth's soldier
chasing down
an endless dawn

Anima Mea .

After we had made love
a girl with big eyes and
warm breath started to
talk about my soul hush
I said hush and beware
if I have a soul it's
only a box of vanities
tied with frightened
pieces of string.

A Winter's Night

The outside, where the snow
Is softly and soundlessly
Falling (there is no wind
Tonight) has brought its quiet
Into the house that was noisy
All day with TV voices,
The telephone ringing,
And the happy shouts of children
Romping from room to room.
Now, except for me, sleep
Has taken over the house.
I bring the silence of the dark
Outside into it. I wrap that
Around my care. Soon I too
Will be sleeping.

Many Loves

She changes the way
she does her hair for
each new admirer if
she is to have many
loves she wants to be
a different person
for each one of them.

Jack Jigger

They call me Jack Jigger because
I'm entirely made of little pieces
Taken from other people (some are
Alive, some dead). If there were
An autopsy the coroner would have
A hard time identifying which bits
I was born with, which were really
Mine. I can hear him saying to his
Assitant: "There's a lot of foreign
Stuff in here, things I never ran
Across before." When I walk fast
I hear a kind of rubbing inside,
Like bits of paper rustling. That's
How it is, pieces of paper moving
Against each other. The doctor has
Tried every kind of coagulant.
But no use. He's given up on me.

The Daze of Love

Comes sometimes from
the blaze of light
when an asteroid
passes us too near.

There is also
the softer radiance
when we are separated
and sink into sleep
thinking of each other.

His Problem

Was an excessive interest
In the life of language.
There was no place for the
Emotions in his existence.
He was passionately absorbed
In words, as much with words
Themselves as with what they
Were saying. More and more,
The words built a wall around him,
Shutting him off from those
He should have loved and
Those who wanted to love him.

In my personal world view, there have been only two real psalmists in the history of the world, and those are David (biblical) and Rich Mullins. Eventually, I will put up a biography/history of Rich online so you can read about his life, but for now just understand that his role as a muse. These are songs that backdrop my life and instill hope and purpose. These hold some of my favorite truths. The poet is the prophet is the speaker for the dead and the living. To this end, I want to place here my favorite of his songs, one that captures the immensity and security of God and his will in scale against the minutiae and frailty and uncertainty of life lived in our own strength:

We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are

Psalm 139:13-16

Well, it took the hand of God Almighty
To part the waters of the sea
But it only took one little lie
To separate you and me
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

And they say that one day Joshua
Made the sun stand still in the sky
But I can't even keep these thoughts of you from passing by
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

We are frail, we are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are

And the Master said their faith was
Gonna make them mountains move
But me, I tremble like a hill on a fault line
Just at the thought of how I lost you
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

We are frail, we are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are

And if you make me laugh
I know I could make you like me
'Cause when I laugh I can be a lot of fun
But when we can't do that I know that it is frightening
What I don't know is why we can't hold on
We can't hold on.

It took the hand of God Almighty
To part the waters of the sea
But it only took one little lie
To separate you and me
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

When you love you walk on the water
Just don't stumble on the waves
We all want to go there somethin' awful
But to stand there it takes some grace
'Cause oh, we are not as strong
As we think we are

No, we are not as strong
As we think we are

Walk on the water
Walk on the water
If we could just hold on
Just hold on

Elijah

Second Kings 2:11, Matthew 6:19-21

The Jordan is waiting for me to cross through
My heart is aging I can tell
So Lord, I'm begging for one last favor from You
Here's my heart take it where You will

This life has shown me how we're mended and how we're torn
How it's okay to be lonely as long as you're free
Sometimes my ground was stoney
And sometimes covered up with thorns
And only You could make it what it had to be
And now that it's done
Well if they dressed me like a pauper
Or if they dined me like a prince
If they lay me with my fathers
Or if my ashes scatter on the wind
I don't care

But when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye

There's people been friendly, but they'd never be your friends
Sometimes this has bent me to the ground
Now that this is all ending
I want to hear some music once again
'Cause it's the finest thing that I have ever found

But the Jordan is waiting
Though I ain't never seen the other side
Still they say you can't take in the things you have here
So on the road to salvation
I stick out my thumb and He gives me a ride
And His music is already falling on my ears

There's people been talking
They say they're worried about my soul
Well, I'm here to tell you I'll keep rocking
'Til I'm sure it's my time to roll
And when I do

When I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye

'Cause when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye

Be With You

Philippians 1:9-11, Second Thessalonians 1:3, Revelation 6:12-14

Everybody each and all
We're gonna die eventually
It's no more or less our faults
Than it is our destiny
So now Lord I come to you
Asking only for Your grace
You know what I've put myself through
All those empty dreams I chased

And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will You pick up the pieces
That were pure and true
And breathe Your life into them
And set them free?

And when You start this world over
Again from scratch
Will You make me anew
Out of the stuff that lasts?
Stuff that's purer than gold is
And clearer than glass could ever be
Can I be with You?
Can I be with You?

And everybody all and each
From the day that we are born
We have to learn to walk beneath
Those mercies by which we're drawn
And now we wrestle in the dark
With these angels that we can't see
We will move on although with scars
Oh Lord, move inside of me

And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly runied me
Will You pick up the pieces
That were pure and true
And breathe Your life into them
And set them free?

And when You blast this cosmos
To kingdom come
When those jagged-edged mountains
I love are gone
When the sky is crossed with the tears
Of a thousand falling suns
As they crash into the sea
Can I be with you?
Can I be with you?

If I Stand

Psalm 125:2, Psalm 126:1-6, Psalm 137:1-6
Isaiah 2:17-22, Isaiah 49:15-16, Hosea 6:3
Ephesians 2:8-10, James 1:13-17

There's more that rises in the morning
Than the sun
And more that shines in the night
Than just the moon
It's more than just this fire here
That keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger
Than this room

And there's a loyalty that's deeper
Than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver
Of all good things

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

There's more that dances on the prairies
Than the wind
More that pulses in the ocean
Than the tide
There's a love that is fiercer
Than the love between friends
More gentle than a mother's
When her baby's at her side

And there's a loyalty that's deeper
Than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegence
I owe only to the Giver
Of all good things

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

And if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

Home

Isaiah 60:1-3, First Corinthians 2:9
Second Corinthians 4:7-18, Second Timothy 2:11-13

I see the morning moving over the hills
I can see the shadows on the western side
And all those illusions that I had
They just vanish in Your light
Though the chill in the night still hangs in the air
I can feel the warmth of morning on my face
Though the storm had tossed me
'Til I thought I'd nearly lost my way

And now the night is fading and the storm is past
And everything that could be shaken was shaken
And all that remains is all I ever really had

What I'd have settled for
You've blown so far away
What You brought me to
I thought I could not reach
And I came so close to giving up
But You never did give up on me
I see the morning moving over the hills
I feel the rush of life here where the darkness broke
And I am in You and You're in me
Here where the winds of Heaven blow

And now the night is fading
And the storm is through
And everything You sent to shake me
From my dreams they come to wake me
In the love I find in You
And now the morning comes
And everything that really matters
Become the wings You send to gather me
To my home
To my home
I'm going home

Ready for the Storm (note, song by Rich, lyrics by Dougie MacLean)

Isaiah 50:5-11

The waves crash in the tide rolls out
It's an angry sea but there is no doubt
That the lighthouse will keep shining out
To warn a lonely sailor
And the lightning strikes
And the wind cuts cold
Through the sailor's bones
Through the sailor's soul
'Til there's nothing left that he can hold
Except a rolling ocean

Oh I am ready for the storm
Yes sir ready
I am ready for the storm
I'm ready for the storm

Oh give me mercy for my dreams
'Cause every confrontation seems to tell me
What it really means
To be this lonely sailor
And when the sky begins to clear
The sun it melts away my fear
And I shed a silent weary tear
For those who mean to love me

Oh I am ready for the storm
Yes sir ready
I am ready for the storm
I'm ready for the storm

The distance it is no real friend
And time will take its time
And you will find that in the end
It brings you me
This lonely sailor
And when You take me by the hand
And You love me, Lord, You love me
And I should have realized
I had no reasons to be frightened

Oh I am ready for the storm
Yes sir ready
I am ready for the storm
Yes sir ready
I am ready for the storm
Yes sir ready
I am ready for the storm
I'm ready for the storm

While the Nation's Rage

Psalm 2:1-12, Isaiah 8:11-17, Isaiah 40:12-17

Why do the nations rage?
Why do they plot and scheme?
Their bullets can't stop the prayers we pray
In the name of the Prince of Peace
We walk in faith and remember long ago
How they killed Him and then how on the third day He arose
Well, things may look bad
And things may look grim
But all these things must pass except the things that are of Him

Where are the nails that pierced His hands?
Well the nails have turned to rust
But behold the Man
He is risen
And He reigns
In the hearts of the children
Rising up in His name
Where are the thorns that drew His blood?
Well, the thorns have turned to dust
But not so the love
He has given
No, it remains
In the hearts of the children
Who will love while the nations rage

The Lord in Heaven laughs
He knows what is to come
While all the chiefs of state plan their big attacks
Against His anointed One
The Church of God she will not bend her knees
To the gods of this world though they promise her peace
She stands her ground
Stands firm on the Rock
Watch their walls tumble down when she lives out His love

Where are the nails that pierced His hands?
Well the nails have turned to rust
But not so the Man
He is risen
And He reigns
In the hearts of the children
Rising up in His name
Where are the thorns that drew His blood?
Well, the thorns have turned to dust
But behold the love
He has given
It remains
In the hearts of the children
Who will love while the nations rage
While the nations rage

Well, where are the nails that pierced His hands?
Well the nails have turned to rust
But behold the Man
He is risen
And He reigns
In the hearts of the children
Rising up in His name
Where are the thorns that drew His blood?
Well, the thorns have turned to dust
But not so the love
He has given
Oh, it remains
In the hearts of the children
Who will love while the nations rage

The Love of God

Romans 8:18-39, Ephesians 3:14-21

There's a wideness in God's mercy
I cannot find in my own
And He keeps His fire burning
To melt this heart of stone
Keeps me aching with a yearning
Keeps me glad to have been caught
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God

Now I've seen no band of angels
But I've heard the soldiers' songs
Love hangs over them like a banner
Love within them leads them on
To the battle on the journey
And it's never gonna stop
Ever widening their mercies
And the fury of His love

Oh the love of God
And oh, the love of God
The love of God

Joy and sorrow are this ocean
And in their every ebb and flow
Now the Lord a door has opened
That all Hell could never close
Here I'm tested and made worthy
Tossed about but lifted up
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God

Boy Like Me/Man Like You

Matthew 2:21-23, Luke 2:39-52
Colossians 1:9-14, Colossians 2:6-10

You was a baby like I was once
You was cryin' in the early mornin'
You was born in a stable Lord
Reid Memorial is where I was born
They wrapped You in swaddling clothes
Me they dressed in baby blue

But I was twelve years old in the meeting house
Listening to the old men pray
And I was tryin' hard to figure out
What it was that they was tryin' to say
There You were in the temple
They said You weren't old enough
To know the things You knew

Well, did You grow up hungry?
Did You grow up fast?
Did the little girls giggle when You walked past?
Did You wonder what it was that made them laugh?
And did they tell You stories 'bout the saints of old?
Stories about their faith?
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold
Stories like that make a man walk straight

And You was a boy like I was once
But was You a boy like me
Well, I grew up around Indiana
You grew up around Galilee
And if I ever really do grow up
Lord I want to grow up and be just like You

Well, did You wrestle with a dog and lick his nose?
Did You play beneath the spray of a water hose?
Did You ever make angels in the winter snow?
And did they tell You stories 'bout the saints of old?
Stories about their faith?
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold
Stories like that make a man walk straight

Did You ever get scared playing hide and seek?
Did You try not to cry when You scraped Your knee?
Did You ever skip a rock across a quiet creek?
And did they tell You stories 'bout the saints of old?
Stories about their faith?
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold
Stories like that make a man walk straight

And I really may just grow up and be like You someday

Jacob & Two Women

Genesis 29:16-30

Jacob, he loved Rachel and Rachel, she loved him
And Leah was just there for dramatic effect
Well it's right there in the Bible, so it must not be a sin
But it sure does seem like an awful dirty trick
And her sky is just a petal pressed in a book of a memory
Of the time he thought he loved her and they kissed
And her friends say, "Ah, he's a devil"
But she says, "No, he is a dream"
This is the world as best as I can remember it

Now Jacob got two women and a whole house full of kids
And he schemed his way back to the promised land
And he finds it's one thing to win 'em
And it's another to keep 'em content
When he knows that he is only just one man
And his sky's an empty bottle and when he's drunk the ocean dry
Well he sails off three sheets to some reckless wind
And his friends say, "Ain't it awful"
And he says, "No, I think it's fine"
And this is the world as best as I can remember it

Now Rachel's weeping for the children
That she thought she could not bear
And she bears a sorrow that she cannot hide
And she wishes she was with them
But she just looks and they're not there
Seems that love comes for just a moment
And then it passes on by

And her sky is just a bandit
Swinging at the end of a hangman's noose
'Cause he stole the moon and must be made to pay for it
And her friends say, "My, that's tragic"
She says, "Especially for the moon"
And this is the world as best as I can remember it
And this is the world as best as I can remember it

Howling

Genesis 4:10, Psalms 69
Isaiah 62:1, Romans 8:18-22

I can see the iron horses' tracks
Pressed in the mud from the weight of all that steam and steel
But the wind don't blow where you want it to go
No, the wind just goes where it will and you follow
I can feel the breath of winter
Driving this snow across these newly-whited plains
Takes my breath from me and it leaves me falling
Then it picks me up again in its own strength

And I can hear the wild wind howling
And I can feel it in my bones
And I know that the howling will take me home

I can see some traveller's footprints
There's a little bit of blood in every step he made
I wonder what kind of burden he's bearing
That has cut him so deeply every step along the long, long way
In the west I see an evening
This scarlet thread stretched beneath the gathering dark
Red as the blood on the hands of the Savior
And rich as the mercy that flowed from His broken heart

And I can hear the wild wind howling
And I can feel it in my bones
And I know that the howling will take me home

These men of violence, they have made this a world full of wars
Oh God break Your silence and let Your justice shine forth
Show some mercy, Oh Lord

'Cause I can see a people dispossessed
Broken and brave in the face of so much fear
Driven from their homes by the greed of a nation
Whose treaties were as good as litter
Along the trail of their tears
I can see the Covenant colors
The sun and the rain have woven against the blue of the sky
And I know if we live we will live by His promise
I know He who made it and
And I'm sure that He would not lie

And I can hear the wild wind howling
And I can feel it in my bones
And I know that the howling will take me home

Calling Out Your Name

Psalms 19:1-6, Psalms 65:5-13

Well the moon moved past Nebraska
And spilled laughter on them cold Dakota Hills
And angels danced on Jacob's stairs
Yeah, they danced on Jacob's stairs
There is this silence in the Badlands
And over Kansas the whole universe was stilled
By the whisper of a prayer
The whisper of a prayer

And the single hawk bursts into flight
And in the east the whole horizon is in flames
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

I can feel the earth tremble
Beneath the rumbling of the buffalo hooves
And the fury in the pheasant's wings
And there's fury in a pheasant's wings
It tells me the Lord is in His temple
And there is still a faith that can make the mountains move
And a love that can make the heavens ring
And I've seen love make heaven ring

Where the sacred rivers meet
Beneath the shadow of the Keeper of the plains
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

From the place where morning gathers
You can look sometimes forever 'til you see
What time may never know
What time may never know
How the Lord takes by its corners this old world
And shakes us forward and shakes us free
To run wild with the hope
To run wild with the hope

The hope that this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
And I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

And I know this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And with the prairies I am calling out Your name

The River

Song of Solomon 4:8-9

Another hour deeper in the night
Another mile farther down the road
A man can drive as hard as he can drive
And never get as far as his heart was meant to go
Sometimes when you look up in the sky
You think we might be closer than you know

Another tune forms in my head
More harmonies, more empty words
Oh, I could play these songs 'til I was dead
And never approach the sound that I once heard
I remember when I was just a kid
Listening in the sky
Believing that the wind would stir

And I know the river is deep
I found out that the currents are tricky
And I know the river is wide
And oh the currents are strong
And I may lose every dream
I dreamt that I could carry with me
But I have failed so many times
And You've never let me fall down alone

Maybe she could come to Wichita
And maybe we could borrow Beaker's bike
We'd let the road wind tie our hair in knots
Let the speed and the freedom untangle the lies
Maybe fear can vanish before love
Oh God, don't let this love be denied

'Cause I know the river is deep
I found out that the currents are tricky
And I know that the river is wide
And oh, the currents are strong
And I could lose every dream
I dreamt that I could carry with me
Oh, but I will reach the other side
Please don't let me have to wait too long

Another hour deeper in the night
Another mile farther down the road
We could be closer than you know

Sometimes By Step

Genesis 15:5-6, Psalm 63, Isaiah 30:21
Romans 9:8, Hebrews 12:1-3

Sometimes the night was beautiful
Sometimes the sky was so far away
Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close
You could touch it but your heart would break
Sometimes the morning came too soon
Sometimes the day could be so hot
There was so much work left to do
But so much You'd already done

Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days

Sometimes I think of Abraham
How one star he saw had been lit for me
He was a stranger in this land
And I am that, no less than he
And on this road to righteousness
Sometimes the climb can be so steep
I may falter in my steps
But never beyond Your reach

Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days

The Waiting

First Corinthians 15:51-58, First John 2:28-3:3

Stand on the corner, I watch my breath freeze in the air
See how it lifts and then vanishes
But I know You're still there
Well, I've got nowhere else to go
'Cause the only life that I know comes from You

And I can't walk away
Though the truth is that it can be so hard to wait
When a million voices whisper, and they tell me I should leave
Into the shadows that the moon casts
On these alleys and these streets
But I know that chasing shadows won't get me anywhere
'Cause I've been there

So I stand on the promise, 'cause I know that the promise is sure
That it comes from beyond us and tells us again
That there's a whole 'nother world
Well, the one I'm in keeps spinning 'round
But I want to stay right here 'cause I found You

And I can't walk away
Though the truth is that it can be so hard to wait
When a million voices whisper, and they tell me I should leave
Into the shadows that the moon casts
On these alleys and these streets
But I know that chasing shadows won't get me anywhere
'Cause I've been there

So I'm waiting for You Jesus
'Cause I know that those who wait
They will mount with wings like eagles
They will run and not grow faint
They will walk and not grow weary
Their strength will be renewed
Coming from You

So I wait
I'm waiting for You
Waiting for You
So come back soon
I'm waiting for You

Maker of Noses

Isaiah 8:11-19

I believe there is a place
Where people live in perfect peace
Where there is food on every plate
Where work is rewarded and rest is sweet
Where the color of your skin
Won't get you in or keep you out
Where justice reigns and truth finally wins
Its hard fought war against fear and doubt

And everyone I know wants to go there too
But when I ask them how to do it they seem so confused
Do I turn to the left?
Do I turn to the right?
When I turn to the world they gave me this advice

They said boy you just follow your heart
But my heart just led me into my chest
They said follow your nose
But the direction changed every time I went and turned my head
And they said boy you just follow your dreams
But my dreams were only misty notions
But the Father of hearts and the Maker of noses
And the Giver of dreams He's the one I have chosen
And I will follow Him

I believe there'll come a time
Lord, I pray it's not too far off
There'll be no poverty or crime
There'll be no greed and we will learn how to love
And children will be safe in their homes
And there'll be no violence out on the streets
The old will not be left alone
And the strong will learn how to care for the weak

And everyone I know hopes it comes real soon
But when I ask 'em where I'd find it they seem so confused
Do I find it in the day?
Do I find it in the night?
When I finally ask the world they give me this advice

Well they said boy you just follow your heart
But my heart just led me into my chest
They said follow your nose
But the direction changed every time I went and turned my head
And they said boy you just follow your dreams
But my dreams were only misty notions
But the Father of hearts and the Maker of noses
And the Giver of dreams He's the one I have chosen

And oh, I hear the voice of a million dreams
Then I wake in the world that I'm partly made of
And the world that is partly my homemaking
And oh, I hear the song of a heart set free
That will not be kept down
By the fury and sound
Of a world that is wasting away but keeps saying (keeps on saying)

Saying boy you just follow your heart
But my heart just led me into my chest
They said follow your nose
The direction changed every time I go and turn my head
They said boy you just follow your dreams
But my dreams were only misty notions
But the Father of hearts and the Maker of noses
And the Giver of dreams He's the one I have chosen
And I will follow Him
(Just follow your dreams)
(You just follow your dreams)

What Susan Said

Proverbs 27:5-10, Philemon 1:12

Two lonely-eyed boys in a pick-up truck
And they're drivin' through the rain and the heat
And their skin's so sweaty they both get stuck
To the old black vinyl seats
And it's Abbott and Costello meet Paul and Silas
It's the two of us together and we're puttin' on the mileage

And we both feel lost
But I remember what Susan said
How love is found in the things we've given up
More than in the things that we have kept
And ain't it funny what people say
And ain't it funny what people write
And ain't it funny how it hits you so hard
In the middle of the night
And if your home is just another place where you're a stranger
And far away is just somewhere you've never been
I hope that you'll remember, I was your friend

Two full grown men in a huddle of kids
And they're trying to help them to believe
What is too good to be real
But is more real than the air they breathe
And it's Wally and the Beaver, David and Jonathan
It's the Love of Jesus puttin' on flesh and bone

And we both feel lost
But I remember what Susan said
How love is found in the things we've given up
More than in the things that we have kept
And ain't it funny what people say
And ain't it funny what people write
And ain't it funny how it hits you so hard
In the middle of the night
And I remember what Susan said

And ain't it funny what people say
And ain't it funny what people write
And ain't it funny how it hits you so hard
In the middle of the night
And if your home is just another place where you're a stranger
And far away is just somewhere you've never been
I hope that you'll remember, I was your friend
I hope you'll have the strength to just remember
I'm still your friend

Growing Young

Matthew 19:13-14, Luke 15:11-24

I've gone so far from my home
I've seen the world and I have known
So many secrets
I wish now I did not know
'Cause they have crept into my heart
They have left it cold and dark
And bleeding,
Bleeding and falling apart

And everybody used to tell me big boys don't cry
Well I've been around enough to know that that was the lie
That held back the tears in the eyes of a thousand prodigal sons
Well we are children no more, we have sinned and grown old
And our Father still waits and He watches down the road
To see the crying boys come running back to His arms
And be growing young
Growing young

I've seen silver turn to dross
Seen the very best there ever was
And I'll tell you, it ain't worth what it costs
And I remember my father's house
What I wouldn't give right now
Just to see him and hear him tell me that he loves me so much

And everybody used to tell me big boys don't cry
Well I've been around enough to know that that was the lie
That held back the tears in the eyes of a thousand prodigal sons
Well we are children no more, we have sinned and grown old
And our Father still waits and He watches down the road
To see the crying boys come running back to His arms

And when I thought that I was all alone
It was your voice I heard calling me back home
And I wonder now Lord
What it was that made me wait so long
And what kept You waiting for me all that time
Was Your love stronger than my foolish pride
Will You take me back now, take me back and let me be Your child

'Cause I've been broken now, I've been saved
I've learned to cry, and I've learned how to pray
And I'm learning, I'm learning even I can be changed
And everybody used to tell me big boys don't cry
Well I've been around enough to know that that was the lie
That held back the tears in the eyes of a thousand prodigal sons
Well we are children no more, we have sinned and grown old
And our Father still waits and He watches down the road
To see the crying boys come running back to His arms
And be growing young
Growing young
Growing young

Here In America

Genesis 13:17

Saints and children we have gathered here to hear the sacred story
And I'm glad to bring it to you with my best rhyming and rhythm
'Cause I know the thirsty listen and down to the waters come
And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America

And if you listen to my songs I hope you hear the water falling
I hope you feel the oceans crashing on the coast of north New England
I wish I could be there just to see them, two summers past I was
And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America

And if I were a painter I do not know which I'd paint
The calling of the ancient stars or assembling of the saints
And there's so much beauty around us for just two eyes to see
But everywhere I go I'm looking

And once I went to Appalachia for my father he was born there
And I saw the mountains waking with the innocence of children
And my soul is still there with them wrapped in the songs they brought
And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America

And I've seen by the highways on a million exit ramps
Those two-legged memorials to the laws of happenstance
Waiting for four-wheeled messiahs to take them home again
But I am home anywhere if You are where I am

And if you listen to my songs I hope you hear the water falling
I hope you feel the oceans crashing on the coast of north New England
I wish I could be there just to see them, two summers past I was
And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America

The Color Green

Second Chronicles 13:18, Psalm 24:1-10

And the moon is a sliver of silver
Like a shaving that fell on the floor of a Carpenter's shop
And every house must have it's builder
And I awoke in the house of God
Where the windows are mornings and evenings
Stretched from the sun
Across the sky north to south
And on my way to early meeting
I heard the rocks crying out
I heard the rocks crying out

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise

And the wrens have returned and they're nesting
In the hollow of that oak where his heart once had been
And he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again
And the streams are all swollen with winter
Winter unfrozen and free to run away now
And I'm amazed when I remember
Who it was that built this house
And with the rocks I cry out

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise

Hold Me Jesus

First Kings 19:3-13, Matthew 11:25-30

Well, sometimes my life just don't make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small

So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul
I swear there must be blisters on my heart

So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something I don't really want
Than to take what You give that I need
And I've beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm falling down, I'm falling on my knees

And this Salvation Army band is playing this hymn
And Your grace rings out so deep
It makes my resistance seem so thin

I'm singing hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

Peace (A Communion Blessing From St. Joseph's Square)

Matthew 26:26-30, John 6:32-58, Colossians 3:12-17

Though we're strangers, still I love you
I love you more than your mask
And you know you have to trust this to be true
And I know that's much to ask
But lay down your fears, come and join this feast
He has called us here, you and me

And may peace rain down from Heaven
Like little pieces of the sky
Little keepers of the promise
Falling on these souls
This drought has dried
In His Blood and in His Body
In the Bread and in this Wine
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you

And though I love you, still we're strangers
Prisoners in these lonely hearts
And though our blindness separates us
Still His light shines in the dark

And His outstretched arms are still strong enough to reach
Behind these prison bars to set us free

So may peace rain down from Heaven
Like little pieces of the sky
Little keepers of the promise
Falling on these souls the drought has dried
In His Blood and in His Body
In this Bread and in this Wine
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you

And may peace rain down from Heaven
Like little pieces of the sky
Like those little keepers of the promise
Falling on these souls the draught has dried
In His Blood and in His Body
In the Bread and in this Wine
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you

Land of My Sojourn

Joshua 2:1-24, Psalm 137:1-6, First Peter 1:17

And the coal trucks come a-runnin'
With their bellies full of coal
And their big wheels a-hummin'
Down this road that lies open like the soul of the woman
Who hid the spies who were lookin'
For the land of the milk and the honey
And this road she is a woman
She was made from a rib
Cut from the sides of these mountains
Oh these great sleeping Adams
Who are lonely even here in paradise
Lonely for somebody to kiss them
and I'll sing my song, and I'll sing my song
In the land of my sojourn

And the lady in the harbor
She still holds her torch out
To those huddled masses who are
Yearning for a freedom that still eludes them
The immigrant's children see their brightest dreams shattered
Here on the New Jersey shoreline in the
Greed and the glitter of those high-tech casinos
But some mendicants wander off into a cathedral
And they stoop in the silence
And there their prayers are still whispered
And I'll sing their song, and I'll sing their song
In the land of my sojourn

Nobody tells you when you get born here
How much you'll come to love it
And how you'll never belong here
So I call you my country
And I'll be lonely for my home
And I wish that I could take you there with me

And down the brown brick spine of some dirty blind alley
All those drain pipes are drippin' out the last Sons Of Thunder
While off in the distance the smoke stacks
Were belching back this city's best answer

And the countryside was pocked
With all of those mail pouch posters
Thrown up on the rotting sideboards of
These rundown stables like the one that Christ was born in
When the old world started dying
And the new world started coming on
And I'll sing His song, and I'll sing His song
In the land of my sojourn

In the land of my sojourn
And I will sing His song
In the land of my sojourn

Hatching of a Heart

Psalm 59:17, John 10:14-16

Well the night was cold and my heart was
Hidden very safely in a shell
But I knew somehow I'd have to run that risk
Have to open up myself
Look at the stars on the face of the sky
They're the same ones Abraham saw
Come under my wings I will make you shine
Give you strength enough to love

Oh, now I'm getting strong enough
You helped me chip my way out and open myself up
And for the snow that comes with winter
For the growth that comes from pain
For the joke I can't remember
Although the laughter long remains
For the faith that brought to finish
All I doubted at the start
Lord, I give you praise for all that makes
For the hatching of a heart

Well my face was smooth and featureless
Just like an egg
And if I was moved you would never guess it
By the look upon my face
But You said man looks without but I look within
I can see the love you hide
It's a matter of doubt it's a symptom of sin
It's a problem of too much pride

And I, now I'm opening up wide
Wet feathers pulled out from beneath me
And You're teaching me to fly
For the strength that comes with friendship
For the warmth that comes with hope
And for the love time can't diminish
And for the time love takes to grow
And for the moonlight on the water
And for the bright and morning star
Lord I give you praise for all that makes
For the hatching of a heart

And for the moonlight on the water
And for the bright and morning star
Lord I give you praise for all that makes
For the hatching of a heart

Wounds of Love

Hebrews 4:16, Hebrews 11:6

It's a quarter 'til tomorrow
And it's only half past yesterday
The here and the now
Done come and gone
It's gone away

And the moon over Atlanta winks
And nods its head for a long good night
And I don't know where you are
And I don't know how you're sleeping
But I sure do hope that you're alright

And may the angel of His presence keep your heart
And when your prayers give flight to your dreams
May the only scars you see on their wings
Be the wounds of love
Be the wounds of love

The bottle is still so full
There's no one here to turn the tap
So much in me wants to reach out and hold you
But you're so far away I can't do that

And the dark comes through these windows on the wind
Makes those votives glow more brilliantly
Well, if passion can lead to prayer
Maybe prayer can give us faith
And if faith is all we've got
Then maybe faith is all we need

And may the angel of His presence keep your heart
And when your prayers give flight to your dreams
May the only scars you see on their wings

Be the wounds of love
Be the wounds of love
Wounds of love

And the moon over Atlanta winks
And he nods his head for a long good night
And I don't know where you are
And I don't know how you're sleeping
But I sure do hope to God that you're alright

And may the angel of His presence keep your heart
And when your prayers give flight to your dreams

May the only scars you see on their wings
Be the wounds of love

Cry the Name

Colossians 3:2

I cannot hide this longing that grows
In this temple of silence and stars
But a thief in the night stole in and broke
Every chain that had bound up my heart
I cannot cling to shadows again
So here on this altar tonight
I lay every dream I've ever dreamt
To burn in the fire He lights

I cry the Name of the One who loves me
The Name of the One on whom I call
'Til it roars like thunder
Rolling down these canyon walls

I cry the Name of the One who loves me
The Name of the One on whom I call
'Til it roars like thunder
Rolling down these canyon walls

Every breath I've ever breathed
Was sent as a gift from on high
And with all that is left of all that is me
Up to the Heavens I cry

The Name of the One who loves me
The Name of the One on whom I call
'Til it roars like thunder
Rolling down these canyon walls

I cry the Name of the One who loves me
The Name of the One on whom I call
'Til it roars like thunder
Rolling down these canyon walls

The Name of the One who loves me
Name of the One on whom I call
'Til it roars like thunder
Rolling down these canyon walls

I cry the Name of the One who loves me
The Name of the One on whom I call
Down these canyon walls

I cry out Your name
I cry Your name out
'Til it roars like thunder
Rolling down these canyon walls

The Name of the One on whom I call
'Til it roars like thunder
Rolling down these canyon walls
Down these canyon walls

The Breaks

First Corinthians 9:24-27

Here is my heart take what you want
'Cause I have no use for it anyway
Well of all the stupid things I've ever said
This could be the worst may be the best
But those are the breaks
These are the bruises
And if I can't give myself away I'm the only one who loses
And I don't want to lose this

It is the sea that makes the sailor
And the land that shapes the sea
And I do not know yet what I am made of
Or all I may someday be
And it is the wood that makes a carpenter
It's the very tools of his trade
And it is love that makes a lover
And a cross that makes a saint

Here is my song, listen if you will
But I have no heart for it anymore
I just have half a mind to cut it loose
And if it sails off into the blue
Then I'll just let it soar
And the sky is better keeping
And I won't be any poorer
For giving it its freedom
And here's one for freedom

It is the sea that makes the sailor
And the land that shapes the sea
And I do not know yet what I am made of
Or all I may someday be
It is the wood that makes a carpenter
It's the very tools of his trade
And it is love that makes a lover
And a cross that makes a saint

Well, of all the stupid things I've ever said
This could be the worst may be the best
But those are the breaks

If I Could Make It Work

Job 14:14-15

I sit on a piano stool, and I make up songs for these men
Who come in with dust on their faces and mud on their boots
From these places that I'll never go.
I sleep in a rented bed, with a woman who gives me
What little I get of the love that we'd like to imagine
Is left of the love that we never did know.
I slip out and scribble a note that reads like a million bucks.
It's a four cent nickel for my dime store thief
But it sure reads good

And If I could make it work in life
(Make it work in life)
Like it works on paper.
(Works on paper)
If the love that I describe
(Love that I describe)
Could be anything but words
Then I would wipe my eyes,
I'd dry this ink,
I'd trade my pen in on a pair of wings.
And I would
(I would)
I would fly
(I would fly)
If I could only make it work in life

And at the end of every night, I add up the tips
That account for what might not come down to a thing
That amounts to a life, and the sum of it all
I'm afraid is less than what I know
I need to slip beneath the surface of my forgeries
Where I buried my hopes with sometimes my dreams
Still stir me and steal me away.
And I can still hear Dineh Bikeyah call
Just like when we were kids.
And I could tell you all about it in a song.
But Lord, I wish that

I could make it work in life
(Make it work in life)
Like it works on paper.
(Works on paper)
If the love that I describe
(Love that I describe)
Could be anything but words
Then I would wipe my eyes,
(Wipe my eyes)
I'd dry this ink,
I'd trade my pen in on a pair of wings.
(I would fly)
And I would fly!
If I could only make it work in life.
If I could only make it work in life.

Love's As Strong

Song of Solomon 8:6-7, Job 11:7-9

When love has got you in its throes
Even the summer's heat just freezes your soul.
And the sweetest song -
It just clanks along,
And the morning dew just says goodnight,
And leaves your heart undone.
It doesn't do to try and understand.
Nothin' that's as good as love ever made a lot of sense.
Like how the eagles fly
And how the rattlers slide
And what it is that comes to bind a woman and her man.

Love's as strong as death my love.
Unyielding as the grave.
Relentless as the desert sun.
And rivers cannot wash my love away.
Lord, I won't let it wash away.
And many waters cannot quench love.

There ain't nothing left to soothe you with.
Love has marked your soul the way the sun has marked your skin.
And there ain't no way to find no shade
When your soul's the very thing
That feeds the blaze that burns within you.
It just makes your cold heart melt.
The flames that burn as white as the very flames of hell.
So just hold on tight,
'Cause it's a long, wild ride
When you finally find the grace to love another as yourself.

Love's as strong as death my love.
Unyielding as the grave.
Relentless as the desert sun.
And rivers cannot wash my love away, away!
I won't let it wash away.
And many waters, it cannot quench love.

Nothing is Beyond You

Psalm 42:7-8, Psalm 93, Psalm 139:1-12
First Corinthians 15:51-57, Second Corinthians 5:21
Revelation 1:8, Revelation 22:13

Where could I go, where could I run
Even if I found the strength to fly
And if I rose on the wings of the dawn
And crashed through the corner of the sky
If I sailed past the edge of the sea
Even if I made my bed in Hell
Still there You would find me

'Cause nothing is beyond You
You stand beyond the reach
Of our vain imaginations
Our misguided piety
The heavens stretch to hold You
And deep cries out to deep
Singing that nothing is beyond You
Nothing is beyond You

Time cannot contain You
You fill eternity
Sin can never stain You
Death has lost its sting

And I cannot explain the way You came to love me
Except to say that nothing is beyond You
Nothing is beyond You

If I should shrink back from the light
So I can sink into the dark
If I take cover and I close my eyes
Even then You would see my heart

And You'd cut through all my pain and rage
The darkness is not dark to You
And night's as bright as day

Nothing is beyond You
You stand beyond the reach
Of our vain imaginations
Our misguided piety
The heavens stretch to hold You
And deep cries out to deep
Singing that nothing is beyond You
Nothing is beyond You

And time cannot contain You
You fill eternity
Sin can never stain You
And death has lost its sting

And I cannot explain the way You came to love me
Except to say that nothing is beyond You
Nothing is beyond You
Nothing is beyond You

Hard to Get

Psalm 77:7-13, Isaiah 53:4, Isaiah 55:8-9
Matthew 5:4, Matthew 6:11, Luke 22:41-45
Romans 7:18-19, Romans 7:24-25

You who live in heaven
Hear the prayers of those of us who live on earth
Who are afraid of being left by those we love
And who get hardened by the hurt

Do you remember when You lived down here where we all scrape
To find the faith to ask for daily bread
Did You forget about us after You had flown away
Well I memorized every word You said

Still I'm so scared, I'm holding my breath
While You're up there just playing hard to get

You who live in radiance
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in skin
We have a love that's not as patient as Yours was
Still we do love now and then

Did You ever know loneliness
Did You ever know need
Do You remember just how long a night can get?
When You were barely holding on
And Your friends fall asleep
And don't see the blood that's running in Your sweat

Will those who mourn be left uncomforted
While You're up there just playing hard to get?

And I know you bore our sorrows
And I know you feel our pain
And I know it would not hurt any less
Even if it could be explained

And I know that I am only lashing out
At the One who loves me most
And after I figured this, somehow
All I really need to know

Is if You who live in eternity
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time
We can't see what's ahead
And we can not get free of what we've left behind
I'm reeling from these voices that keep screaming in my ears
All the words of shame and doubt, blame and regret

I can't see how You're leading me unless You've led me here
Where I'm lost enough to let myself be led
And so You've been here all along I guess
It's just Your ways and You are just plain hard to get

What lay on the road was no mere handful of snake. It was the copperhead at last, golden under the street lamp. I hope to see everything in this world before I die. I knelt on the road and stared. Its head was wedge-shaped and fell back to the unexpected slimness of neck. The body itself was thick, tense, electric. Clearly this wasn't black snake looking down from the limbs of a tree, or green snake, or the garter, whizzing over the rocks. Where these had, oh, such shyness, this one had none. When I moved a little, it turned and clamped its eyes on mine; then it jerked toward me. I jumped back and watched as it flowed on across the road and down into the dark. My heart was pounding. I stood a while, listening to the small sounds of the woods and looking at the stars. After excitement we are so restful. When the thumb of fear lifts, we are so alive.

There is a tree here so beautiful it even has a name. Every morning, when it is still dark, I stand under its branches. They flow from the thick and silent trunk. One can't begin to imagine their weight. Year after year they readch, they send out smaller and smaller branches, and bumches of flat green leaves, to touch the light.

Of course this has consequences. Every year the oak tree fills with fruit. Just now, since it is September, the acorns are starting to fall.

I don't know if I will ever write another poem. I don't know if I am going to live for a long time yet, or even for a while.

But I am going to spend my life wisely. I'm going to be happy, and frivilous and useful. Every morning, in the dark, I gather a few acorns and imagine, inside of them, the pale oak trees. In the spring, when I go away, I'll take them with me, to my own country, which is a land of sun and restless ocean and moist woods. And I'll did down, I'll hide each acorn in a cool place in the black earth.

To rise like a slow and beautiful poem. To live a long time.

In fall, in the garden and the fields beyond, in the delicate yellow space between anything, spiders, plump as acorns, spin their webs; they are the wildest woven things; they are the moist shimmering death-traps.

The mouse and the vole, the raccoon and fox walk lightly through the grass below. They scarcely glance up to see her running on her dark and cunning legs along the first bridges, on racing back and forth along the silver girders, or waiting, or wrapping the white moth whose night was full of bad luck, who already can't move, and will soon be dead.

What is the spider good for? A few things surely. Birds eat spiders, thus feeding the song. And spiders eat insects, some of which, as we know, carry diseases--though not pride--not that one.

But, speaking of that. At dawn, the early walker, to the spider a giant, wanders through the garden and the fields in the meditative, and thus inattentive, frame of mind of first things. This is, of course, myself. And more than once I have just
noticed the dew-glittering web in time, and the spider stamping her tiny feet and screeching: I live here, duck your head.

The temperature
Cruises down, slides
Limply toward zero,

Meets it and crosses under
To the dark side
Of winter. Soon

I have to scrape frost away
To watch it withdrawing
Into itself, along the minuses,

All evening. Heaven
Help us! I say. But heaven
Is full of spitting snow,

And the deer lying
In the pine groves outside of town,
The foxes plunging home,

Even the crows, plump
As black rocks in the cold trees,
And beginning to shiver. But they

Can bear the wrack of the storm. Patient
As stones or leaves or clumps of clay,
What saves them is not knowing they are mortal--

What saves them is thinking that dying
Is only floating away into
The life of the snow.

Then the deer stepped from the woods. It walked from the shadows under the trees into a clear space. Antlers sprang from its brow, each with five or six tines. From the antlers, from each tine, green leaves were growing, as if from the branches of a tree.

The deer stood without moving, brutish and graceful as deer alive in the daylight, except that its heavy, elaborate head was carrying, upon the usual curvatures of horn, these branches, this fountain of leaves.

Then it turned and vanished. In shyness, perhaps. Or simply because we get no more than such dreamy chances to look upon the real world. The great door opens a crack, a hint of the truth is given--so bright it is almost a death, a joy we can't bear--and then it is gone.

I thought the earth
remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her packets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

There isn't anything in this world but mad love. Not in this world. No tame love, calm love, mild love, no so-so love. And, of course, no reasonable love. Also there are a hundred paths through the world that are easier than loving. But, who wants easier? We dream of love, we moon about, thinking of Romeo and Juliet, or Tristan, or the lost queen rushing away over the Irish sea, all doom and splendor. Today, on the beach, an old man was sitting in the sun. I called out to him, and he turned. His face was like an empty pot. I remember his tall, pale wife; she died long ago. I remember his daughter-in-law. When she died, hard, and too young, he wept in the streets. He picked up pieces of wood, and stones, and anything else that was there, and threw them at the sea. Oh, how he loved his wife. Oh, how he loved young Barbara. I stood in front of him, not expecting any answer yet not wanting to pass without some greeting. But his face had gone back to whatever he was dreaming. Something touched me, lightly, like a knife-blade. I felt I was bleeding, though just a little, a hint. Inside I flared hot, then cold. I thought of you. Whom I love, madly.

He kneeled down
dismissing his orisons
as inappropriate; one by one
they came to his lips and were swallowed
but without bile.
He fell back
on an old prayer: Teach me to know
what to pray for. He
listened; after the weather of
his asking, no still, small
voice, only the parade
of ghosts, casualties
of his past intercessions. He
held out his hands, cupped
as though to receive blood, leaking
from life's side. They
remained dry, as his mouth
did. But the prayer formed:
Deliver me from the long drought
of the mind. Let leaves
from the deciduous Cross
fall on us, washing
us clean, turning our autumn
to gold by the affluence of their fountain.

Nuclear

It is not that he can't speak;
who created languages
but God? Nor that he won't;
to say that is to imply
malice. It is just that
he doesn't, or does so at times
when we are not listening, in
ways we have yet to recognise

as speech. We call him the dumb
God with an effrontery beyond
pardon. Whose silence so eloquent
as his? what word so explosive
as that one Palestinian
word with the endlessness of its fall-out?

Like That

He remembers how younger,
when he was reading about love,
his love would come quietly
to his room to challenge
description, and how he would put
the book down and listen to her
version of it, with rain
falling, perhaps, and the wind loud.

Selah! It is now he who must
go, and from the familiar prose
of her body make his way back
to his book, to the memory
rather of those earlier evenings, when
too willingly he laid it aside.

Coda

And not refusing
it, indulging in it
rather. All those days
of refreshment; the nights, too,
enormous incinerators
of time. 'Tell me,' the voice
said, and was silent
before the absurdity
of the question.
There was that
girl in Hawaii, was it,
or Bombay? and only the ocean
between us, that is the gallery
of the drowned, the staircase
we may not climb. The game
is its own rules, the drama
is what the audience is
for. I have come
in my reading of the narrative
of myself to the page
that is not
there, and have put the book down.

The Way of It

With her fingers she turns paint
into flowers, with her body
flowers into a remembrance
of herself. She is at work
always, mending the garment
of our marriage, foraging
like a bird for something
for us to eat. If there are thorns
in my life, it is she who
will press her breast to them and sing.

Her words, when she would scold,
are too sharp. She is busy
after for hours rubbing smiles
into the wounds. I saw her,
when young, and spread the panoply
of my feathers instinctively
to engage her. She was not deceived,
but accepted me as a girl
will under a thin moon
in love's absence as someone
she could build a home with
for her imagined child.

Almost

Was here and was one person
and was not; knew hunger
and its excess and was too full
for words; was a memory's
victim. Had he a hand
in himself? He had two
that were not his: with one
he would build, with the other
he would knock down. The earth
catered for him and he drank
blood. What was the mirror
he looked in? Over his shoulder
he saw fear, on the horizon
its likeness. A woman paused
for him on her way
nowhere and together they
made in the great darkness the
small fire that is life's decoy.

Praise

I praise you because
you are artist and scientist
in one. When I am somewhat
fearful of your power,
your ability to work miracles
with a set-square, I hear
you murmuring to yourself
in a notation Beethoven
dreamed of but never achieved.
You run off your scales of
rain water and sea water, play
the chords of the morning
and evening light, sculpture
with shadow, join together leaf
by leaf, when spring
comes, the stanzas of
an immense poem. You speak
all languages and none,
answering our most complex
prayers with the simplicity
of a flower, confronting
us, when we would domesticate you
to our uses, with the rioting
viruses under our lens.

Amen

It was all arranged:
the virgin with child, the birth
in Bethlehem, the arid journey uphill
to Jerusalem. The prophets foretold
it, the scriptures conditioned him
to accept it. Judas went to his work
with his sour kiss; what else
could he do?
A wise old age,
the honours awarded for lasting,
are not for a saviour. He had
to be killed; salvation acquired
by an increased guilt. The tree,
with its roots in the mind's dark,
was divinely planted, the original fork
in existence. There is no meaning in life,
unless men can be found to reject
love. God needs his martyrdom.
The mild eyes stare from the Cross
in perverse triumph. What does he care
that the people's offerings are so small?

(for martyrs)

They who feel death close as a breath
Speak loudly in unlighted rooms
Lounge upright in articulate gesture
Before the herd of jealous Gods

Fate finds them receiving
At home.

Grim the warrior forest who present
Casual silence with casual battle cries
Or stand unflinchingly lodged

In common sand
Crucified.

There are five people in this room
who still don't know what I'm saying.
"What is she saying?" they're asking.
"What is she doing here?"

It is not enough to be interminable;
one must also be precise.

Almost Time

Just across the sea on this world so round
the sun's shining hot right now.
And even though the winter still surrounds this town
I can still feel that sun somehow.

Chorus

When I know that my sun will shine just as sure as this world can spin,
I can hold on fine, cause it almost time, for that sun to come 'round again.

So I'll walk beside the sea on this frozen ground
where there once was a warm weather crowd.
Even though that summer's been a long time gone,
I can still feel that sun somehow.

Chorus

When your love grows cold and your heart grows dark
and the blame seems to fall on you.
Well look how seasons must change and don't think it so strange
that your love goes in circles too.

And just know that your sun will shine just as sure as this world can spin,
and I know you'll find, that it's almost time, for that love to come 'round again.
We can hold on fine, cause it almost time, for that love to come 'round again.

Leave It Like It Is

Now when the paint jar tipped
Off of the table
You watched as it started to fall
Glass popped, shattered and splattered
And paint spray hit the wall

Bright, blue glossy enamel
Across the kitchen floor
You said, "Good God, look at that pattern
I've never seen that before"

Chorus

Leave it like it is
Never mind the turpentine
Leave it like it is
Its fine

Now when the paint dried
You gave it a title
You called it "Kitchen Blue"
A white frame painted around it
And gallery lighting too

Rich folks come over to dinner
They all want one of their own
They say "How much? Who's the artist"
And, "My what a beautiful home"

Chorus

Now most folks suffer in sorrow
Thinking they're just no good
They don't match the magazine model
As close as they think they should

They live just like the "paint by numbers"
The teacher would be impressed
A life-time of follow the lines
So it's just like all of the rest

Common As The Rain

The night before she's leaving there's suddenly a change
She slowly sits beside me and she softly calls my name.
And gives me an address, and she says, "Come visit soon."
And yesterday she wouldn't notice that I was in the room.

I guess she stayed awake 'cause it's so hard for her to say
We both had built our hopes up, but the love just slipped away.
She's worried I might try to burden her with all the blame
For breaking up my heart as if she had planned it from the start
'Cause that's the way so people do.
Oh, but I have been on her side of it, too,

So I said, "Don't feel ashamed, don't feel guilty for the pain.
Sometimes you build your hopes up and you fall back down again.
The time we had was magic, and the love was not in vain.
Falling down's as common as the rain.

Something about me leaves you cold something even you don't know.
Don't think that it's wrong to go `cause of what we had before.
Just leave me with those magic times; I'd rather keep you on my mind
Then see you try to fake the feelings, trying not to be unkind.

And I don't feel ashamed or feel guilty for the pain
Sometimes you build your hopes up and you fall back down again.
The time we had was magic, and the love was not in vain.
Falling down's as common as the rain.

The only thing for certain is that nothing stays the same.
Falling down's as common as the rain.

Wildberry Pie

When you pick a sprig of balsam pine,
On your hike along the mountain view,
You can wrap the scent in corduroy,
And bring the mountain home with you.

When you sit beside the ocean's edge
And dream of what might come to be,
Your fingers keep the taste of salt,
From the castles made beside the sea.

I'm lonely at work now,
My hand holds my chin.
And my mischievous fingers remind me,
And cover my grin.

The scent takes me dreaming,
To wildberry pie,
And the wind hits my sails
With the sound of your trembling sigh.

When we work to make a berry pie,
lips can tell where we have been,
Out picking huckleberries wild,
to bring the harvest home again.

And on the way we sang a tune,
what I said is what I meant,
Our love is like a red, red rose--
it leaves a certain subtle scent.

I'm lonely at work now.
My hand holds my chin,
And my mischievous fingers remind me and cover my grin

The scent takes me dreaming,
of wildberry pie,
And the wind hits my sails with the sound of your trembling sigh.
And the wind hits my sails with the sound of your trembling sigh.

Distant Water

It's like you pass to me this bitter cup
So I can take a sip
And I know that it's likely gonna burn
But never mind the taste of it
I take what I can get
It sure is a hard way to learn

I mean look at how I sip your cup of nasty
Like I'm lucky for a taste to quench my thirst
When love creates an optical illusion
I'm gonna see it just the way it was rehearsed

Chorus

If I was dying in the desert
I would see shining on the sand
True love, like distant water
On dry land

I liked everything about you, except the way you treated me
But that didn't seem to matter much at first
I longed for you to fill me
Like a wino loves his drink
But every time you filled me with a thirst

Chorus

'Cause I was looking for a goddess who could save me
So I played the worshipping fool
The colder your kindness
The more it convinced me
You're just that cool

Now just look at how I sip your cup of nasty
Like I'm lucky for a taste to quench my thirst
When love creates an optical illusion
I'm gonna see it just the way it was rehearsed

Chorus

True love like distant water
On dry land

She's Just Dancing

She can run beside the stream through the forest
The wind will lift her hair
She can almost see the moon and the waterfall
The music takes her there

She can be wild in the summertime
She does not feel these walls
She can give in, look up, take a deep breath
And step into the falls

Chorus

She's just dancing
She's just dancing, understand
She's just dancing,
Dancing to the band

But when the sweet-talking hunter sees her move
His rifle only sees a prize he can capture
And maybe take her home tonight
Now watch him circle back around as if he can't quite read
What the writing on her T-shirt says
She spells it out and says
I'm just dancing, OK? OK

Chorus

Don't try to track her trail hunter
She is not your game
This is a wild-life sanctuary
And wild is why she came

You only hunt to feed your lonely
But you're hiding in the blind
So you're a prisoner of your own protection
If it's life you're trying to find

Chorus

Mighty Ocean

Would you like meet in Soho?
This is David
I don't know
Just talk of how New York has been
Yes its easy to imagine
I've healed a lot since then
I think that we could walk away as friends

Chorus

Its a clear reception
Its a long connection
And its all the way across this might ocean

I could be there by your night
Which is my morning
Right now I'm still at Heathrow at the gate
Yes of coarse I bragging
But didn't it sound great
To fly across the ocean for a dinner date

Chorus

Sure I've been in town before
But never quite so quickly
And never from a place so far away
But if this color carbon ticket
Says that I can fly the ocean
Well maybe I can think of what to say

Chorus

Its flight 715
Nine thirty
But I won't be through with customs
Until ten
OK
TWA
I'll be flying over ocean until then

Chorus (repeat)

Someday Soon

So we raced each other downhill on the sidewalk
And we raised each other, two against the world
And we promised not to bow, we made a solemn vow
To keep our Independence flags unfurled

So when the battles of the spirit left us stranded
Each went hiding in our separate ways
Ah, but carrying a candle to keep the fire burning
To find us here in brighter days

Chorus:
Someday Soon made a promise I will follow
Someday Soon is why I try
Someday Soon told me: "Take this cup of
Empty hope up to the well that's dry
Where there's just enough of Someday Soon to satisfy"

You have done all the adventures I have dreamed of
And I have run a different path but just as fine
Ah, but both of us have missed, we haven't closed
The distance on the destination peace of mind

For it seems as if it's always half together
There is no happy-ever-after magic wand
The lightning pulls the thunder, the distance
Pulls the wonder that calls us farther on

Chorus

Now if heaven is perfection
I'll get my deepest questions answered
Like a child tears into presents
To a Christmas tune

But in that big hall, let there be a
Bright red ribbon that stays
Wrapped around the mystery
Of Someday Soon

That's What the Lonely is For

The depth of your dreams, the height of your wishes
The length of your vision to see, the hope of your heart
Is much bigger than this
For it's made out of what might be

Now picture your hope, your heart's desire -
As a castle that you must keep
In all of its splendor, it's drafty with lonely
This heart is too hard to heat

Chorus:

When I get lonely ah, that's only a sign
Some room is empty, and that room is there by design
If I feel hollow - that's just my proof that there's more
For me to follow - that's what the lonely is for

Is it a curse or a blessing this palace of promise
When the empty chill makes you weep
With only the thin fire of romance to warm you
These halls are too tall and deep

Chorus

But, you can seal up the pain, build walls in the hallways
Close off a small room to live in
But those walls will remain, and keep you there always
And you'll never know why you were given... why you were given the lonely

Some room is empty
If I feel hollow that's just my proof that there's more
For me to follow - that's what the lonely is for

From the deep of your dreams, the height of your wishes
The length of your vision to see, the hope of your heart
Is much bigger than this
For it's made out of what might be

Show the Way

You say you see no hope, you say you see no reason
We should dream that the world would ever change
You're saying love is foolish to believe
'Cause there'll always be some crazy with an Army or a Knife
To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life...

Look, if someone wrote a play just to glorify
What's stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage
To look as if the hero came too late he's almost in defeat
It's looking like the Evil side will win, so on the Edge
Of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins
It is...

Chorus:
Love who makes the mortar
And it's love who stacked these stones
And it's love who made the stage here
Although it looks like we're alone
In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it's love that wrote the play...
For in this darkness love can show the way

So now the stage is set. Feel you own heart beating
In your chest. This life's not over yet.
so we get up on our feet and do our best. We play against the
Fear. We play against the reasons not to try
We're playing for the tears burning in the happy angel's eyes
For it's...

Break in the Cup

I try so hard to please you
To be the love that fills you up
I try to pour on sweet affection,
But I think you got a broken cup.
Because you can't believe I love you
I try to tell you that there is no doubt,
But as soon as I fill you with all I've got
That little break will let it run right out.

I cannot make you happy.
I'm learning love and money never do
But I can pour myself out 'til I'm empty
Trying to be just who you'd want me to.
But I cannot make you happy
Even though our love is true
For there's a break in the cup that holds love
Inside of you.

Now I begin to understand you
As you explain this fear you feel.
It's when you see me fall into that sorrow
it makes you doubt the love is real.
'Cause the lonely wind still blows through me
I turn away so can't see
But now how could I still be so empty
With all the love that you pour on me.

I guess you cannot make me happy
That's a money back guarantee.
But you can pour yourself out 'til you're empty
Trying to be just who I'd want you to be.
You cannot make me happy
It's just the law of gravity
And that break in the cup that holds love,
Inside of me.

So if you're tempted to rescue me
Drowning in this quicksand up to my neck
Before you grab my hand to save me
Why don't you ask me if I'm finished yet.
Because you cannot make me happy
Not when I'm empty inside of me
But you can pull yourself right in here with me
My misery'd love to have your company.

We cannot trade empty for empty
We must go to the waterfall
For there's a break in the cup that holds love,
A break in the cup that holds love,
A break in the cup that holds love,
Inside us all. Inside us all.

Farthest Shore

We were there in the woods by the water
We left our packs up against that willow tree
We dove right in, keeping just what we were born with
Our Memories, Knowledge and Dreams

As I swam away from our possessions
I imagined that they were gone forever more
And for once I was glad that all I treasured
Would still be with me as I reached other shore.

So...Let me dive into the water,
Leave behind all that I've worked for
Except what I remember and believe
and when I stand on the farthest shore
I will have all I need

After the blaze burned our cabin down to ashes
Where we'd slept warm, now the sky lets in the rain
I found the strings, frets and rusted latches
But I will never hear that old guitar again
These four walls are only in my memory
Where these stone steps rise to nothing in the air
So one last look and I'm headed for the river
To wash my hands and try to say this prayer

So...Let me dive into the water,
Leave behind all that I've worked for
Except what I remember and believe
and when I stand on the farthest shore
I will have all I need

When my time to live this life is over
I'll tip my hat when I think about that swim
And of all the things that make a life worth living
That only come to those who dive right in

So...Let me dive into the water,
Leave behind all that I've worked for
Except what I remember and believe
and when I stand on the farthest shore
I will have all I need

All I need.....
Let me dive into the water...
It's all I need....

All the Roots

Summer lasted a generation
A generation - and then the winter wind
The bounty harvest that seemed so endless
It seemed so endless until it gave what it could give

Prosperity will have its seasons
Even when it's here, it's going by
And when it's gone we pretend we know the reasons
And all the roots grow deeper when it's dry.

It looked so easy, we change the weather
We would turn this world ourselves our world so small
But slower rhythms - still unheard of
Said that every blessed summer someday has to fall

Prosperity will have its seasons
Even when it's here, it's going by
when it's gone we pretend we know the reasons
And all the roots grow deeper when it's dry, when it's dry.

Prosperity will have its seasons
Even when it's here, it's going by
And when it's gone we pretend we know the reasons
And all the roots grow deeper when it's dry.

Hold It Up

It's the choice of a lifetime - I'm almost sure
I will not live my life in between anymore
If I can't be certain of all that's in store
This far it feels so right
I will hold it up - hold it up to the light,
Hold it up to the light, hold it up to the light

The search for my future has brought me here
This is more than I'd hoped for, but sometimes I fear
That the choice I was made for will someday appear
And I'll be too late for that flight
So hold it up - hold it up to the light,
Hold it up to the light, hold it up to the light

It's too late - to be stopped at the crossroads
Each life here - a possible way
But wait - and they all will be lost roads
Each road's getting shorter the longer I stay

Now as soon as I'm moving - my choice is good
This way comes through right where I prayed that it would
If I keep my eyes open and look where I should
Somehow all of the signs are in sight
If I hold it up to the light

I said God, will you bless this decision?
I'm scared, Is my life at stake?
But I see if you gave me a vision
Would I never have reason to use my faith?

I was dead with deciding - afraid to choose
I was mourning the loss of the choices I'd lose
But there's no choice at all if I don't make my move
And trust that the timing is right
Yes and hold it up hold it up to the light
Hold it up to the light, hold it up to the light

Roadside Art

Well I'm gonna drive to West Virginia
Buy myself a shack
Put my good car in the front yard
Block it up on jacks
Then I'm gonna take me a couple wheels off
Roll 'em down into the creek
I'm gonna bust a couple windows
Fix it with a plastic sheet

I got tired of working for nothing
Working every day
Bills made me a poor man
But I found a better way
I just built myself a sculpture
A monument to Chevrolet
And now I've got a gallery
Where my front yard used to lay

Well I'm working on a '49 Ford
I got it hidden 'round in the backyard
But it's only going to be a few days
'Til it's rusted just enough to display
And when I roll it on down by the road
I'll have a monument to Henry Ford

Brought to you by Eastern Mountain Appalachian Roadside Modern Art
Yeah, modern art

So bring your car to West Virginia
Buy your own favorite spot
Get you a big old front yard
Start yourself a parking lot
You can roll 'em up on one side
Roll 'em over onto the roof
You can push 'em down into the creek bed
You can leave 'em on the avenue

But hey now, don't you go thinkin' that's just a car
Listen here buddy, that's a work of art
That was America's finest form of transportation
Don't you think it needs just a little celebration
That's all I'm trying to do

Brought to you by Eastern Mountain Appalachian Roadside Modern Art
Yeah, modern art

Dangerous

I'm dangerously romantic
When the leaves are coming down
When the air was clear this morning
And the frost still on the ground
When I wore those cozy woolen gloves
To bicycle into town
Well of course I'd want to fall in love
And finally settle down

Chorus:
But I'm dangerous
Be careful with me
'Cause I could fall for you
Much too easily
I'm usually cool, I like to be free
But I'm dangerous right now
Be careful with me

I'm hopelessly sentimental
When the winter comes a storm
When the snow is on the mailbox
And the sidewalks all are gone
But the fire in the woodstove
Can keep me so nice and warm
That of course I'd want to live with you
And share this simple home

Chorus

It must just be the season
When the spring is in the air
And I'm acting like a child again
And frankly I don't care
But I found these purple flowers
To weave into your hair
And of course I'd want to marry you
And travel off somewhere

Boob Job

She had some extra money
She wanted to buy time
Her friends said it was dangerous
But they couldn't change her mind
She did if for her mirror
And for the ocean's summer sand
She just laid down to that scalpel
That was in the surgeon's hand

She got a boob job
She got a what?
A boob job
No!
Yeah...
Put a pad of silicone, up against the breastbone
Treat her like a man-made thing

Well the surgeons try to tell you
That the world will love you better
If you let 'em cut your body
And put those mounds inside your sweater
But just think of the investment
Now how long those things will last
You know, silicone is permanent
Even after you have passed
When the rest of you has faded
In some box under some stone
Yeah you'll still have your silly cones
Balanced on your bones

She got a boob job
She got a what?
A boob job
No!
Yeah...
Put a pad of silicone up against the breastbone
Boob job, huh, well get down
Boob job, pick 'em up again
Boob job, good god, treat her like a man-made thing
No...

You Should See

It might look to you like nothing much to see
But you should see the way it feels to me
Here's the sidewalk I used to ride my bike
Down this little slope, down my little mountain
Start by the driveway spinning up to speed
Careful on the gravel 'cause it's nasty on the knees
Watch out for the branches on that apple tree
Soar down to the corner

Well I guess it's not as high as I remember
It might not be a mountain after all
But it was hard enough to climb
And steep enough to coast
Long enough to satisfy
And fast enough to boast

It may look to you like nothing much to see
But you should see the way it feels to me

Here's the treehouse, I used to spend my night
Up this little tree, way up in my mansion
Jump to the first brach, walk it upside down
Careful of your grip 'cause it's a long way to the ground
Better get a handhold before you look around
You can see into forever

Well I guess it's not as high as I remember
It might not be a mansion after all
But it was hard enough to climb
And safe enough to sleep
Big enough to satisfy
And home enough for me

It may look to you like nothing much to see
But you should see the way it feels to me

Here's the old man who used to be the child
So long ago, not so very long though
Look at the memory, think of all those years
Looking through the sparkle of the sunlight in the tears
Better take another look before you disappear
You can see across your lifetime

So I look at where I've come and where I'm going
I will never be the greatest after all
But it was hard enough to climb
To get to where I've been
Love enough to satisfy
And life enough to live

I make look to you like nothing much to be
But you should see the way it feels to me
You should see the way it feels to me