Coming Up
Have you seen the way trees grow around barbed wire?
or the way fog burns off into blue?
have you seen the day turn into a dozen windows?
it's a great big world out there
Have you seen October rain falling on rivers
or the way leaves gather at the dam?
Chorus:
I've been among them too scared to cross over
now there's nothing keeping me here
so if you hear some kind of singing in the underground
you'll know who it is without going down
and after this mean coastal winter's gone
i'll be the first one you see coming up, coming up
Have you seen the eyes of the men on the Avenue?
they drink until they holler like children at the air
Chorus:
People press themselves into the trains
stare the hard stare of people without names
all these tired bodies riding home in the rain and the
dusk at the end of the day
Chorus:
Leonids
After I knew it was over had one too many in that bar
Stumbled out into cold weather we did not talk in the
car
I was still drunk hours later you woke me up on
account of the stars
Climbed out on the roof for a while lay side by side
in that beautiful dark
Chorus:
And I almost forgot the pins in my heart
Almost forgot what was tearing us apart
We left the shape of our bodies in the frost
For a while I was ahead of all that we'd lost
I remember mornings when our breath hung on the air
I remember evenings when our edges disappeared
Chorus:
There's a certain kind of freedom
In letting go of such a dream
Out beyond all ideas of belonging
That's where my love begins, that's where my love
begins
And I almost forget the pins in my heart
almost forget what is tearing us apart
i can still see the shape of our bodies in the frost
for a while I am ahead of all that we've lost
Vanishing Points
Just a boy on a
street corner as the evening fades
Empty book under his elbow so familiar it's strange
Just these tired fingers hell bent on letting go
So high from the singing as I make my way home
Chorus:
It's the story of the story
It's the still place behind my words
It's the look on his face that makes me think he heard
All these vanishing points I've learned
They said it'd be easy to find
Simple as a dot and two lines
If I held my straight edge I'd be fine
Failed to mention limits of the naked eye
Chorus:
Moving through this dark country
Thinking how would I know?
If the one that disappeared
Could've been standing so close?
Chorus:
San Andreas
Wake up to the
earth rattling my room
Wake up to the world trembling
I've been slipping, like a hand across a table
I've been shaking underneath this strain
Wake up from this dream of thunder
Wake up to the floor rolling under me
I've been staring at my very blindest faults
I've been looking for fault plane solutions
Chorus:
San Andreas, Callaveras, Hayward
I've been trying to go deeper
and I've been opening these eyes
I've been trying to go further
Instead I've been going so blind
Wake up to find love
moving like a snake
Wake up as side to side the buildings shake
I've been travelling, only backwards on this wave
We've been falling, falling down in place
San Andreas,Callaveras,
Hayward
Yeah, they say after a quake
There comes a shining in the sky
Well I'll be looking, I'll be looking
Looking up tonight
San Andreas, Callaveras, Hayward
Everything Familiar
Never knew the birds could fly this low
guess I've never been up this early
you know I'd sleep if I could
but when I do I only dream of fleeing war torn
countries
oh it's the same road takes me to you
takes me away
oh and takes me back oh and takes me back to you
remembering a carnival in the rain
the fireworks poured down anyway
the taste of sorrow on my tongue
so much sulpher so much mud in these lungs
Chorus:
Oh it's the same road takes me to you
takes me away
oh and takes me back, takes me back to you
everything familiar, everything new
The water lay like a second sky
we had only one choice left after such a long climb
it was as if we'd always been there
living on wild fruit and mountain air
Oh,
and if “love is the distance between you and what you love” *
Then look how far look how far I’ll go
Chorus:
*Rilke..”On Love and
Other Difficulties
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More
I feel the pull of distant cities
I hear the yellin of the trains
Learn to handle all the hours of these new found days
I hear the wailing of the sirens
Moving out along the sound
Tonight I feel so much more dangerous
Than this sweet little town
Chorus:
I wanna walk down streets with strangers everywhere
Wanna hear jazz on Tuesdays and have a life
'bout which no one cares
Wanna wear a tiny red dress and taste the city air
I want more
Though I've never been to Paris
I can see it in my mind
I guess one good thing about being young
Is I've got all kinds of time
Chorus:
I want to find a place to stay
With pretty boys in cafes
I want to sing all morning above the screaming of the subway
I wanna walk and walk and walk until I lose my way
Wanna forget all about you for one whole day . . .
I want more
I see the blinking of the signs
Maybe one day my name in lights
Even my skin can't hold me tight
I feel much too wild for this country night
Chorus:
Sum of This
See the thousand
days and all the million ways
I've loved you
See the darkness rising and the sadness
Flying all around me, all around me
Chorus:
And I don't know if
I can ever be more than the sum of this
All this brokenness
See
the mountain roads and all the cruelest loads
That we carry, oh we carry
See the anchors broken and all the boats
Just floating off around me, all around me
Chorus:
So
would you take a picture of my bones
And nail it to the wall?
So hollow
Would you take a picture
of my heart?
And nail it to the wall, things fall apart
Things fall apart, things fall apart
And this endless question
And this human notion of perfection, oh perfection
And this lonely girl and this vast world
Twirling all around her
Blessed
I saw you play last night
and
the room and I hung on your every word
and you burned off that rain
burned off the smallness of my town
and October seemed to pale beside you
Held on with one hand to that bar
now I hate to speak of magic
but what other words do I have to tell you?
for the record I knew
as for my "Diamonds & Rust"
well I don't feel damned no I feel blessed
yeah I feel blessed
If these strings they can recall
than I pray that they will show me
pressed into the hollow of your fingers
and the hollow of my throat
if you spend your days doing what you love
than love it seems comes easily
now I feel blessed, yeah I feel blessed
And the girls hung on your arm
And they pulled out all their charm
And you shook each and every hand
And then were gone
It's like your blessed
Oh it's like your blessed
These songs they came my way
at a time in which I questioned
the value of what we do
between impending war and unpaid bills
mine was the privilege of confusion
as for this humming in my chest
only the singing could still
it’s like you’re blessed, oh it’s like you’re blessed
The Crossing
Bridge just south of town
They've been working on it for years now
Just about finish up 'fore it occurs to anyone
They built that damn thing just about a foot off the ground
Way way higher than the road around
So if you happen down that highway, 'specially at night
Hit the bridge at fifty-five
Feel like you might just take flight
And every time the crossing comes as a surprise
See my flying
I've found quiet in this room
Down by where the trains run
I've learned to hear the rumble, long before it
comes
And the things I'm working on
Are invisible to everyone
Something 'bout an empty hip or the angle of the sun
Every time the crossing comes as a surprise
See me flying
Maybe these stitches in my throat
Have just about dissolved
Like the sad moan of the drunkard
walking home from the bar
I hear the thin song of the fire house
when they sound the alarm
I hear the church bells on Sunday... ringing out
Used to be a town of dirt and horses
Now it's all liquor and cars
There's still a whole lot of nothing
up between those stars
Take the dog out for a walk
On the Episcopal church lawn
My God we're still tryin' to find a way
To get ourselves beyond
And every time the crossing comes as a surprise
See me flying
As The
Crow Flies
Let me love as the crow
flies
Though we live in a maze
Let me wake up each
morning
Like it’s my only day
Let me bring down this
castle
That I built long ago
Let me tear off this
crown of mine
Come down from my window
Let me go
Let me open this heart
again
Wider than the sky
To all the pain and
wonder
Of being in this life
Of being in this life
Let me go
Let me love as the crow
flies
Though we live in a maze
Let me wake up each
morning
With you in this place
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