• Lyrics: play full screen play karaoke
• Momentum - Vienna Teng
• Gravity - Vienna Teng
• Feather Moon - Vienna Teng
• Homecoming (Walter's Song) - Vienna Teng
• Harbor - Vienna Teng
• Daughter - Vienna Teng
• Between - Vienna Teng
• White Light - Vienna Teng
• watershed - Vienna Teng
• Unwritten Letter No.1 - Vienna Teng
• The Tower - Vienna Teng
• Shasta (Carrie's Song) - Vienna Teng
• Say Uncle - Vienna Teng
• Radio - Vienna Teng
• Passage - Vienna Teng
• Mission Street - Vienna Teng
• Lullabye For A Stormy Night - Vienna Teng
• Grandmother Song - Vienna Teng
• Eric's Song - Vienna Teng
• Enough To Go By - Vienna Teng
• Drought - Vienna Teng
• Cannonball - Vienna Teng
• Antebellum - Vienna Teng
• The Last Snowfall - Vienna Teng
• St. Stephen's Cross - Vienna Teng
• Whatever You Want - Vienna Teng
• Transcontinental, 1:30 A.M. - Vienna Teng
• Recessional - Vienna Teng
• Pontchartrain - Vienna Teng
• Now Three - Vienna Teng
• Nothing Without You - Vienna Teng
• Love Turns 40 - Vienna Teng
• I Don't Feel So Well - Vienna Teng
• City Hall - Vienna Teng
• Blue Caravan - Vienna Teng
• 1BR/1BA - Vienna Teng
• The Atheist Christmas Carol - Vienna Teng
• Shine - Vienna Teng
• My Medea - Vienna Teng
• Unwritten Letter #1 - Vienna Teng
• Soon Love Soon - Vienna Teng
• Stray Italian Greyhound - Vienna Teng
• No Gringo - Vienna Teng
• Kansas - Vienna Teng
• In Another Life - Vienna Teng
• Hope On Fire - Vienna Teng
• Decade And One - Vienna Teng
• Augustine - Vienna Teng
• Anna Rose - Vienna Teng

Why am I walking barefoot
Upon this road with no one around
I close my eyes to this decision
The night's like coffee to my tongue
Like waking up without a sound
I map the words out
Maybe you will say them
Won't you help me rise up
Touch my face and watch me try to breathe again
Would you let me do this
Burn down the final wall
Overcome me, baby
Overcome me, baby
Overcome me, baby
Overcome me, yeah
All I'm asking is to be alive
For once
Always I am mistaken
I look for love, I find a stone
Of all the seasons, winter befriends me
I come to you in friendship
And hold my breath against the snow
What are you thinking as I gaze into you
Forgive me the confusion
Forgive me as I realize my thoughts betrayed
You are the answer
Cry and smile the same
Overcome me, baby
Overcome me, baby
Overcome me, baby
Overcome, yeah
All I'm asking is to be
All I'm asking is to be
Alive
Overcome me (overcome me baby), baby
Overcome me (overcome me baby), baby
Overcome me (overcome me baby), baby
(overcome me)
Overcome me (overcome me baby), baby
(overcome me)
Overcome
Overcome
Overcome
Overcome
All I'm asking is to be

Hey love
Is that the name you're meant to have
For me to call
Look love
They've given up believing
They've turned aside our stories of the gentle fall
But don't you believe them
Don't you drink their poison too
These are the scars that words have carved
On me
Hey love
That's the name we've long held back
From the core of truth
So don't turn away now
I am turning in revolution
These are the scars that silence carved
On me
This the same place
No, not the same place
This is the same place, love
No, not the same place we've been before
Hey, love
I am a constant satellite
Of your blazing sun
My love
I obey your law of gravity
This is the fate you've carved on me
The law of gravity

Feather moon
Scarlet sky
Living clouds
My blinded eye
Waters black
Wood in snow
Dead of night
How bright you glow
Breathe in breathe out
Exhale and inhale
Seven sins
God of stone
All is true
Down to the bone
Feather moon
Scarlet sky
I love you endlessly
Not knowing why
Exhale and inhale...

It's desert ice outside but this diner has thawed my ears
Hot coffee in a clean white mug and a smile when the waitress hears
That I was born in North Carolina
Not an hour from her home town
And we used to play the same pizza parlor pinball
And there's a glance in time suspended as I wonder how it is
We've been swept up just by circumstance to where the coyote lives
Where my days are strips of highway
And she's wiping tables down
Holding on and still waiting for that windfall
But I've come home
Even though I've never had so far to go
I've come home
I pay the check and leave the change from a crumpled ten-dollar bill
Head across the street where VACANCY is burning in neon still
Well the night eats up my body heat
And there's no sign of another
And I find myself slipping down into that black
But things are good I've got a lot of followers of my faith
I've got a whole congregation living in my head these days
And I'm preaching from the pulpit
To cries of "Amen brother"
Closing my eyes to feel the warmth come back
And I've come home
Even though I swear I've never been so alone
I've come home
I just want to be living as I'm dying
Just like everybody here
Just want to know my little flicker of time is worthwhile
And I don't know where I'm driving to
But I know I'm getting old
And there's a blessing in every moment every mile
Thin white terry bars of soap and a couple little plastic cups
Old Gideons Bible in the nightstand drawer saying "Go on open up"
Well I'll kneel down on the carpet here
Though I never was sure of God
Think tonight I'll give Him the benefit of the doubt
I switch off the lights and imagine that waitress outlined in the bed
Her hair falling all around me
I smile and shake my head
Well we all write our own endings
And we all have our own scars
But tonight I think I see what it's all about
Because I've come home

We're here where the daylight begins
The fog on the streetlight slowly thins
Water on water's the way
The safety of shoreline fading away
Sail your sea
Meet your storm
All I want is to be your harbor
The light in me
Will guide you home
All I want is to be your harbor
Fear is the brightest of signs
The shape of the boundary you leave behind
So sing all your questions to sleep
The answers are out there in the drowning deep
You've got a journey to make
There's your horizon to chase
So go far beyond where we stand
No matter the distance

Well it's you and it's me
Me with a drink in my hand
The ice is tinkling like a windchime
And late afternoon settles over the land
And you're talking about things
Interesting just slightly
And things that matter too much
To say any way but lightly
Did you know you're so beautiful
On the edge of summer
That years from now
I'll cry to remember
How very close you were
Knowing this will I reach for you
Knowing this will I reach for you
The way you want me to
Well it's time to be wise
Wise in the ways of the heart
To come out from under the covers
This voluntary state of apart
From the faces, oasis
In this Sahara of sorrow
These graces that hold me
It's from you that I borrowed
Did you know you're so beautiful
On the edge of summer
That years from now
I'll cry to remember
How very close you were
Knowing this will I reach for you
Knowing this will I reach for you

We are not together here
Though we lie entwined
To make room for the other presence
We both draw back in our minds
I have a prophecy
Threatening to spill into words
This growing certainty
Of Over
There once was a time I was sure of the bond
When my hands and my tongue and my thoughts were enough
We are the same but our lives move along
And the third one between replaces what once was love
Freedom is being alone
I fear liberation
But something more alive than silence
Swallows conversation
No pleasing drama
In subtle averted eyes
The swelling fermata
As the chord dies
There's no denying we feel the third one
We do

All of a sudden the conversation turns
And everyone concerned is looking down
Guilty party is right here in the room
But no one can assume the high ground
Oh it almost caught up with you
Caught up with you then
Oh you should've thought of this my friend
If you knew it was wrong why did you do it
You don't know, you didn't mean to, it slipped your mind
And it feels so good to feed a habit
You're just making the most of your borrowed time
Waiting for the white light
Heading home you swear that you'll be good
Do everything you should, and know the facts
But in the morning you're back to petty needs
Tragedy recedes to photographs
Oh it hasn't caught up with you
Caught up with you yet
No it hasn't taught you when to quit
If you knew it was wrong why did you do it
You don't know, you didn't mean to, it slipped your mind,
It is OK because everybody does it
This whole party is rolling on borrowed time
Waiting for the white light
Shine down
Wipe it all out again,
Show me how
It doesn't matter in the end
If you knew it was wrong why did you do it
You don't know, you didn't mean to, it slipped your mind
It is OK because everybody does it
No laws are broken if we're all committing the same crime
But I know it's wrong, why do I do it
I don't know, I don't mean for it to slip my mind
It just takes so much to break a habit
Even when I'm aware we are out of time

While you were building your empires
I was still sleeping
I was still sleeping
While you were setting your woods afire
I was still dreaming
I was still dreaming
Now I will unsettle the ground beneath you
Send my waters ashore
Creep into your bed
Find you in every corner
While you argue it over
I am not waiting
I am not waiting
While you retreat to your comforts
I am not fading
I am not fading
I've done this many times before you
Old Shanghai
New Orleans
Amsterdam and Mumbai
Strange new creatures
To scavenge your pores
Oh I've done this many times before you
Ashen sky
Lightning storms
Deltas to desert plains
Wartime on every border
I've done this many times before you
Watched the pattern take form
Children your time is done

Nightfall we're brushing past your town
Destination not you my one
The driver doesn't know way down
How deep these bright-eyed feelings run
I've no intention of confessing today
I need to make distance a while
But miles don't make your image fade
They don't erase this secret smile
Everything reminds me
Wet grey gold-lit streets
Shop displays near-lovers meet
I feel the grasp of your hand still
This your face now in the glass
Breathing whisper what is this
Bent so close we nearly kiss
Although we never will
Strange that there's no hurtful need
Used to be my only sign
On my mind would make me bleed
Why is it that I'm feeling fine
Why is it this warmth within
No candlelight that causes burn
Memories of you begin
Well welcome friends
Glad you've returned
Everything reminds me
Music surging bedroom dance
Crazy spinning sultry glance
I inhale your presence still
These your arms of daring grace
Encircle me, what pact is made
Desire is your masquerade
Want me you never will
You gave me truth
I chose illusion
Now we are used to this confusion
But I know
Yes I know
This story has to end
Never groped for a connection
Never hoped for more affection
For I know
I know I am your friend

The one who survives by making the lives
Of others worthwhile
She's coming apart
Tight before my eyes
The one who depends on the services she renders
To those who come knocking
She's seeing too clearly what she can't be
What understanding defies
She says I need not to need
Or else a love with intuition
Someone who reaches out to my weakness
And won't let go
I need not to need
I've always been the tower
But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow
She turns up the light
Anticipating night falling tenderly around her
Watches the dusk
The words won't come
She carries the act so convincingly
The fact is sometimes she believes it
She can be happy with the way things are
Be happy with the things she's done
And yet I need not to need
Or else a love with intuition
Someone who reaches out to my weakness
And won't let go
I need not to need
I've always been the tower
But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow
Reach out, hold back
Where is safety
Reach out and hold back
Where is the one who can change me
Where is the one
The one
Reach out, hold back
Where is safety
Reach out and hold back
Where is the one who can save me
Where is the one
The one
I need not to need
Or else a love with intuition
Someone who reaches out to my weakness
And won't let go
I need not to need
I've always been the tower
But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow
I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in the snow
The danger and the power

So far so good
You're coming to the bend at the end of the road
You put a hand to the belly that's foreign more
With every day like an oversize load
And you're thinking about clouds the color of fire
And the scent of an orange peel
The way Mt. Shasta explodes into windshield view
And your hands steady on the wheel
So far so good
Coffee motel coffee diner coffee go on
Styrofoam is drying like the tears that once did flow
Starting 10 o'clock and ending at dawn
And you can't go back but you're going back
And you don't know what you'll say
You've got half-formed sentences
Explanations for a life half-broken away
And they just may
They'll take you in their arms and then take out their knives
So you drive on thinking
So far so good
But you can't go on much longer like this you know
You're all alone in this world no that's not true
The nice Christian lady told you so
She was handing out pamphlets by the clinic door
Saying "Jesus knows what you've been through
Take the Savior into your heart my child
There's love waiting for the both of you"
Well you don't believe but you have to believe
It's still crumpled there in your back seat
Were you the hero or the worst kind of coward back there
Putting pavement back under your feet
Couldn't stand the heat
Couldn't stand the thought of ghosts with a negative age
Turn the page
So far so good
You try to sing along to the radio
But it's not your language not your song
It's from some other time ago
And you're thinking about how someone died that day
The you that was so carefully planned
But then again maybe this life is like a sleeping mountain
Waking up to shape the land
Calm calm let it come let it come back to you

Everyone agrees it came too soon
It was only meant to be an interception
You kept fear of death in the back pocket of your jeans
In the palm of your hand, affection
It came like a sudden gust of wind
Leaving them bewildered to ask how
I recall last time we met, you said we'd meet again
The irony is only bitter now
These days everyone cries, "say uncle"
They want to touch your spirit lest it die
For this your sons and widow gather with us at the table
To form a healing circle for our new demise
These days everyone cries, "say uncle"
I retrieve the memories quickly as I can
Add them to the portrait we all draw in our minds
Your body gone, we shall keep the man
I close my eyes and hope they do not fade
These remnants of a voice and a smile
Images of landscape, cloaked in forest green
Like your life unfolding mile by mile
A fierce embrace, a word of thanks
A cheerful whistle, and hours in a van
Somehow these pieces must bring back the man you were
Though the ocean claims your ashes on the sand
These days everyone cries, "Say uncle"
They want to touch your spirit lest it die
For this your sons and widow gather with us at the table
To form a healing circle for our new demise
These days everyone cries, "say uncle"
I retrieve the memories quickly as I can
Add them to the portrait we all draw in our minds

It came from nowhere
On the 38 Geary
A girl with a backpack of shrapnel and wire
Through spiderweb windows
Of blood stained glass
A pagoda's shadow and a cruel sunny sky
Oh the flash then the silence
Shouldn't there be screaming praying crying
Oh anything at all
Tell me where are the sirens
Fire's getting closer but I've got to stay calm
It's just the radio darling,
Just the radio and your runaway imagination
Just the radio darling
We can turn away to another station
Outside they're handing out
Fate to the wounded
Little tags in black red yellow, and green
It's now my twenty-fith hour
With a scalpel in hand
If I stop moving I will sleep on my feet
And the rumors are seething
Gunfire at freeway exits, bridges mid-barricades
I can feel the fog creeping
God where is the morphine, the sweet lidocaine
It's just the radio
Sing me a love song dear
What good has the news ever done me
Come on it'll never happen here, oh no
We are not some third world country
This is not some third world country
I'm sorry Mama
I held on for as long as I could
I'm sorry Papa
There was nothing more I could do

I died in a car crash two days ago
Was unrecognizable
When they pulled me from the gears
No one's fault, no one's bottle
No one's teenage pride or throttle
Our innocence is all the worse for fears
The other walked away alive
Arms wrapped now around his wife
My lover sits, the silent eye
In a hurricane of warmth and word
My mother trembles with the sobs
Whose absence seems absurd
My sister shouts to let her see
Through the cloud of crowd surrounding me
My colleagues call for silence in my name
I died in a car crash three months ago
They burned me until I glowed
And crumbled to a fine gray sand
Now I am nothing, everywhere
Several breaths of strangers' air
And all thoughts ever written in my hand
They plant my tree out in the yard
It grows but takes the winter hard
My lover holds a knife to wrist
Says tomorrow comes, hold on a while
My mother tosses in the sheets
And dreams me holding my own child
My sister plays our homemade tapes
Laughs as tears run down her face
My office door now wears a different name
I died in a car crash four years ago
My tree drinks melted snow
Just eight feet tall a pale and fragile thing
Bee stings beaches bright vacations
Sunburnt high-school graduations
A sparrow healing from a broken wing
This year a glimpse of second chances
Tiny apples on my tree's branches
My lover hears the open wind
And crawls blinking into the sun
My mother leafs through photographs
And thinks "yes she was a lovely one"
My sister can't decide her truth
Asks aloud what I might do
In a conference hall my brief efforts engraved
I died in a car crash
A lifetime ago it seems
Been a decade or two or three
They've just release a new design
Bars and bags front and behind
My fate now an impossibility
Safely packaged hurtling down
The highway hardly make a sound
My lover very much alive

Mission Street is a striking dark-eyed stranger
Who speaks a language I don't know but long to learn
Its cadences fall endlessly beyond the windowpane
As I sit as though awaiting some return
And my hands are cold tonight
I'm sleepless in this dark
Forgetting what it was I came to find
And it seems that I've been wrong
More than I've been right
More than I've been right
Mission Street calls out to me by name
Then hurries on before I've hardly turned my head
Promises of answers muttered underneath her breath
Like an offering of contraband misread
And my hands are cold tonight
On the strings of this guitar
Looking for the chords of what I've left behind
And it seems that I've been wrong
More than I've been right
More than I've been right
Mission Street is alive at every hour
Like I've never been and feared I may not ever be
A light so steady on the mountains in the distance
A solitude so deep it might awaken me
Well my hands are cold tonight
But the sky is bright with stars
And I'm tearing through the veil that keeps me blind
And it seems the more I'm wrong
The more that I am right

Little child, be not afraid
The rain pounds harsh against the glass
Like an unwanted stranger
There is no danger
I am here tonight
Little child
Be not afraid
Though thunder explodes
And lightning flash
Illuminates your tearstained face
I am here tonight
And someday you'll know
That nature is so
This same rain that draws you near me
Falls on rivers and land
And forests and sand
Makes the beautiful world that you see
In the morning
Little child
Be not afraid
The storm clouds mask your beloved moon
And its candlelight beams
Still keep pleasant dreams
I am here tonight
Little child
Be not afraid
The wind makes creatures of our trees
And the branches to hands
They're not real, understand
And I am here tonight
And someday you'll know
That nature is so
This same rain that draws you near me
Falls on rivers and land
And forest and sand
Makes the beautiful world that you see
In the morning
For you know, once even I
Was a little child
And I was afraid
But a gentle someone always came
To dry all my tears
Trade sweet sleep the fears
And to give a kiss goodnight
Well, now I am grown
And these years have shown
Rain's a part of how life goes
But it's dark and it's late
So I'll hold you and wait
'til your frightened eyes do close
And I hope that you'll know
That nature is so
This same rain that draws you near me
Falls on rivers and land
And forests and sand
Makes the beautiful world that you see
In the morning
Everything's fine in the morning
The rain will be gone in the morning

Oh girl, you think you got time
You're gonna get 'round to it way down the line
But one step, two step, fall behind
So you better have a good plan
Oh girl, you think you got time
You're gonna get 'round to it way down the line
But I'm telling you no matter what you have in mind
Still gonna need a man
Take it from your grandmother I've been 'round
I've been 'round, I've been 'round
Yeah, take it from your grandmother I've been 'round
I've been 'round, I've been 'round
No, no one's gonna take care of you
In that world you've got yourself into
All the good boys, baby they're in grad school
Oh girl, your story's all wrong
Your dream'll be a nightmare before too long
You're turning thirty and still trying to sing your songs
Come on who do you think you are
Oh girl it's too heavy a load
Your mama and your baba they are worried souls
How you gonna raise a family when you're on the road
With some tattooed boy with a guitar
Take it from your grandmother I've been 'round
I've been 'round, I've been 'round
Yeah, take it from your grandmother I've been 'round
I've been 'round, I've been 'round
All this music career isn't real life
It won't see you through to when you're sixty five
And when the tide turns you won't survive
You'll sit on the banks and cry, cry, cry, cry
Gonna cry alone, cry, gonna cry
Oh girl, you've never know war
When they come in the night and knock on the door
And you can go from the high life to dirty poor
And lose everything you knew
But the one thing they can't take away from you
Is your mind and the education you've been through
And so you find a man who understands that too
Make sure that he stays true, gives respect where it's due
Make sure he knows, make sure he knows
Make sure he knows what he's got in you
Because a woman isn't just for cooking meals
Scrubbing floors, making babies
A woman's got ambitions same as he does
Maybe more
When the sirens wailed and the bombs fell
We ran from the schoolyard into hell
And what we could've been time will never tell
Because we never had your chances
The advantages that you've been handed
Girl, you'll never know how hard it was
So you got to do this for all of us
Take it from your grandmother I've been 'round
I've been 'round, I've been 'round
Yeah, take it from your grandmother I've been 'round
I've been 'round, I've been 'round
Yeah, take it from your grandmother I've been 'round
I've been 'round, I've been 'round

Strange how you know inside me
I measure the time and I stand amazed
Strange how I know inside you
My hand is outstretched toward the damp of the haze
And of course I forgive
I've seen how you live
Like a phoenix you rise from the ashes
You pick up the pieces
And the ghosts in the attic
They never quite leave
And of course I forgive
You've seen how I live
I've got darkness and fears to appease
My voices and analogies
Ambitions like ribbons
Worn bright on my sleeve
Strange how we know each other
Strange how I fit into you
There's a distance erased with the greatest of ease
Strange how you fit into me
A gentle warmth filling the deepest of needs
And with each passing day
The stories we say
Draw us tighter into our addiction
Confirm our conviction
That some kind of miracle
Passed on our heads
And how I am sure
Like never before
Of my reasons for defying reason
Embracing the seasons
We dance through the colors
Both followed and led
Strange how we fit each other
Strange how certain the journey
Time unfolds the petals
For our eyes to see
Strange how this journey's hurting
In ways we accept as part of fate's decree
So we just hold on fast
Acknowledge the past
As lessons exquisitely crafted
Painstakingly drafted
To carve ourselves instruments
That play the music of life
For we don't realize
Our faith in the prize
Unless it's been somehow elusive
How swiftly we choose it
The sacred simplicity

I'm at your back door
With the earth of a hundred nations in my skin
You won't recognize me
For the light in my eyes is strange
It was years ago, God knows
When you strained to tell me your whole truth
That you were not mine to save
That you could not change
Carry the weight
I'll carry the weight of you this time
Carry the weight
I'll carry the weight of you
Would it be enough to go by
If we could sail on the wind and the dark
Cut those chains in the middle of the night
That had you pulled apart
Would it be enough to go by
If there's moonlight pulling the tide
Would it be enough to live on
If my love could keep you alive
I've built a lot of castles
I've built a lot of blazing speed-of-light machines
But it doesn't matter, you know
They all crumble in the winds of change
So I turned back to breathing
I learned a few good reasons to cry
And I finally called home
Praying you weren't out of range
Carry the weight
I'll carry the weight of you, I swear
Carry the weight
I'll carry the weight of you
Would it be enough to go by
If we could sail on the wind and the dark
Cut those chains in the middle of the night
That had you pulled apart
Would it be enough to go by
If there's moonlight pulling the tide
Would it be enough to live on
If my love could keep you alive
So will you let me come in
Mosquitoes have found me
And they're crowding 'round my blood
At least offer me a drink
Or a breaking of the ice
I'm wanting your anger
I only want to see if I can shake you out of sleep
And bring you out under this flooded sky
At any price
So carry the weight
Carry the weight of me in your heart
Carry the weight
Carry the weight of me
Would it be enough to go by
If we could sail on the wind and the dark
Cut those chains in the middle of the night
That had you pulled apart
Would it be enough to go by
If there's moonlight pulling the tide
Would it be enough to live on

Summer move forward and stitch me the fabric of fall
Wrap life in the brilliance of death to humble us all
How sweet is the day
I'm craving a darkness
As I sit tucked away with my back to the wall
And the taste of dried-up hopes in my mouth
And the landscape of merry and desperate drought
How much longer dear angels
Let winterlight come
And spread your white sheets over my empty house
Summer move forward and leave your heat anchored in dust
Forgotten him, cheated him, painted illusions of lust
Now language escape, fugitive of forgiveness
Leaving as trace only circles of rust
And the taste of dried-up hopes in my mouth
And the landscape of merry and desperate drought
How much longer dear angels
Come break me with ice
Let the water of calm trickle over my doubts
Come let me drown
Angels no fire no salt on the plow
Carry me down
Bury me down
And the taste of dried-up hopes in my mouth
And the landscape of merry and desperate drought
Once I knew myself
And with knowing came love
I would know love again if I had faith enough
Too far is next spring and her jubilant shout
So angels, inside

There’s still a little bit of your taste in my mouth
There’s still a little bit of you laced with my doubt
It’s still a little hard to say what's going on
There’s still a little bit of your ghost, your witness
There’s still a little bit of your face I haven't
kissed
You step a little closer each day
Still I can't see what's going on
Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to lie
Life taught me to die
And it's not hard to fall
When you float like a cannonball
There’s still a little bit of your song in my ear
There’s still a little bit of your words I long to hear
You step a little closer to me
So close I can't see what's going on
Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to lie
Life taught me to die
And it's not hard to fall
When you float like a cannon
Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to cry
So come on courage
Teach me to be shy
'cause it's not hard to fall
and I don't want to scare him
It's not hard to fall
And I don't wanna lose
It's not hard to grow

In the fall,
We circle through the leaves
And talk about the little ones.
And we smile, but never say too much.
The moment always vanishing.
One by one the neighbors' lights come on.
Our October day is almost gone.
I know the border lines we drew between us
Keep the weapons down,
Keep the wounded safe;
I know our antebellum innocence
Was never meant to see the light of our armistice day.
In the spring,
We climbed the rolling hills
And talked about our budding plans.
And we smiled,
Our faces like a mirror
Showing us our secret sides.
But then the fights...
The sharp words splintering the night,
How I couldn't be what you'd need...
But oh how I could make you bleed...
I know the border lines we drew between us
Keep the weapons down,
Keep the wounded safe;
I know our antebellum innocence
Was never meant to see the light of our armistice.
But how much would I give to have it back again?
How much did we lose
To live this way?
You'll go home...I'll stay here
Seasons keep on marching
I'll stay here...you'll go home

If this were the last snowfall
No more halos on evergreen
If this were the last glimpse of winter
What would these eyes see?
If this were the last slow curling
Of your fingers in my palm
If this were the last I felt you breathing
How would I carry on?
This is not the last snowfall
Not our last embrace
But if I were that kind of grateful

He was there the night the wall came down.
He lost her in the endless crowd,
In the shadow of St. Stephen's cross.
He sent cries aloft for his fellow man,
His fingers slipping from her hand,
The rain clouds prowling overhead.
She was there the night the wall came down.
She faded into that newborn crowd
Like a warning of what could be lost.
Through the perforated night she ran,
Her fingers slipping from his hand,
And she breathed in freedom
Before daylight tread.
They were there the night the wall was drowned
In the surging of that tidal crowd:
An old world made new
On the same holy ground.
She found him standing, looking lost
In the shadow of St. Stephen's cross,
And he closed his eyes and heard no sound

He's a company man, your right hand, 13 years and counting.
No detectable ambition, a model of efficiency, far as you can see.
He knows every loophole, the art of fine print, massages the numbers 'til they fit.
And every time you ask him for another vanishing act, he half-smiles as if to say:
Whatever you want, whatever you want, whatever you want is fine by me.
Whatever you want, whatever you want, whatever you want is fine by me.
Never a real moment together but she understands: you're an important man.
Another late night. don't know if you're coming home or when. she's alone again.
But she goes on curating your domestic museum. she disappears in her loyalty.
She is a dress wearing a face in the doorway, opening her arms out to you:
Whatever you want, whatever you want, whatever you want is fine by me.
Whatever you want, whatever you want, whatever you want is fine by me.
No one would dare to question you, oh no.
No one would dare to stand up.
But in the night she leaves the papers in a tiny pile: evidence for her reasons.
And in the night he takes the main accounts and pulls the files, detailing every treason.
I am the last one you'd ever suspect of setting the fire, of setting the fire.
But as you switch on your TV tomorrow morning, you'll hear me saying quietly:
Whatever you want, whatever you want, whatever you want is fine by me.
Whatever you want, whatever you want, whatever you want is fine by me.
Oh whatever you say, oh whatever you say:
I'll do what you ask me, I'll do what you ask me.
Oh whatever you say, oh whatever you say.
But do you know who's listening?
Oh whatever you say, oh whatever you say,
You know it's over!

Recessional
Wait
Don't let the sun go slack
Don't go alone into the cold
Wait
Don't give up on us yet
I know that there's more you haven't told
Wait, wait, wait my love
Just one more thought
Wait, wait, wait my love
I haven't got time in my life
To watch you drift out to sea, so
Please Wait
Don't let the sun go slack
I want to bring you back to where I know you
Oh Wait
Don't give up on us yet
I just want you to let you let me hold you
Oh wait, wait, wait my love
Just one more thought
Wait, wait, wait my love
I haven't got time in my life
To watch you drift away
But I've all kinds of time
All kinds of time if you'll stay
I know we're transcontinental 1:30 A.M.
And there's not even a wire just a whispering in air
I know we're transcontinental 1:30 A.M.
But I'm here, I'm here

"It's so beautiful here," she says,
"This moment now and this moment, now."
And I never thought I would find her here:
Flannel and satin, my four walls transformed.
But she's looking at me, straight to center,
No room at all for any other thought.
And I know I don't want this, oh, I swear I don't want this.
There's a reason not to want this but I forgot.
In the terminal she sleeps on my shoulder,
Hair falling forward, mouth all askew.
Fluorescent announcements beat their wings overhead:
"Passengers missing, we're looking for you."
And she dreams through the noise, her weight against me,
Face pressed into the corduroy grooves.
Maybe it means nothing, maybe it means nothing,
Maybe it means nothing, but I'm afraid to move.
And the words: they're everything and nothing.
I want to search for her in the offhand remarks.
Who are you, taking coffee, no sugar?
Who are you, echoing street signs?
Who are you, the stranger in the shell of a lover,
Dark curtains drawn by the passage of time?
Oh, words, like rain, how sweet the sound.
"Well anyway," she says, "I'll see you around..."

Sunday:
Dark water draining north, the heat
Swells and bursts like plague.
Sunday:
Ever-so-faint slow tambourine
Glides onward toward the grave.
Who drew the line?
Who drew the line between you and me?
Who drew the line
that everyone sees?
Darling,
Lake Pontchartrain is haunted:
Bones without names, photographs framed in reeds.
Darling,
What blood our veins are holding.
The overpass frozen, fires ablaze at sea.
Who drew the line?
Who drew the line that cuts to the skin, buries me in?
Tell me who drew the line.
Darling, don't close your eyes.
(Lie as darkness hardens.
Lie of our reunion.
Oh lie if God is sleeping.
Oh I believe you now.)
Darling,
Lake Pontchartrain will cradle me,
and all you left behind.
Listen:
Ever-so-faint slow tambourine
is marching back through time.

City fast asleep.
Clouds up on the hill.
So quiet, so still.
Dreams of rain in sheets,
Dreams of ice and wings.
So delicate, these things.
Love, love, love is a word so small.
let it fill up, up, up 'til I can't see at all.
I want to be blind, only my hands to guide me.
bring all of you inside me.
City fast asleep.
Lights hum in the gray,
Like her breathing will someday.
Strangest beauty cries,
one and one, by and by,
now three of us here lie.
Love, love, love for one so small,
come fill me up, up, up 'til I can't see at all.
I want to be blind, only my hands to guide me.
Gather all the world inside me."

It's the quiet night that breaks me.
I cannot stand the sight of this familiar place.
It's the quiet night that breaks me, like a dozen papercuts that only I can trace.
All my books are lying useless now.
All my maps will only show me how to lose my way.
Oh call my name.
You know my name.
And in that sound, everything will change.
Tell me it won't always be this hard.
I am nothing without you, but I don't know who you are.
It's the crowded room that breaks me: everybody looks so luminous, and strangely young.
It's the crowded room that's never heard.
No one here can say a word of my native tongue.
I can't be among them anymore.
I fold myself away before it burns me numb.
Oh call my name.
You know my name.
And in your love, everything will change.
Tell me it won't always be this hard.
I am nothing without you, but I don't know who you are.

She's holding a secret that she'll never tell
She's holding a secret that she'll never tell
Cause the myth is not supposed to retire
We'd rather it lit itself on fire
Or overdosed in a four star hotel
She's holding a truth that she'll never reveal
She's holding a truth that she'll never reveal
Cause truth this time is an ugly child
And mother and daughter may reconcile
But their faces will never heal
Don't go, she says, but he's sleeping
She says it to herself
Don't go, she sees herself rising
Packing her suitcase with all of her shoes
But something keeps you faithful
When all else in you turns and runs
Love turns 40
The morning comes
She's holding a secret that she'll never tell
She's holding a secret that she'll never tell
Because we were once cinema gods in the night
Now all we've got is lunch hour light
Where nothing photographs well
Don't go, she says, but he's sleeping
She says it to the dark
Don't go, she sees herself rising
Dressing in silence for nothing to lose
But something keeps you faithful
When all else in you turns and runs
Love turns 40
The morning comes

I don't feel so well
I thought that you should know
I thought that you should know
That I don't feel so well
I thought that you should know before you fall
I don't call them back
I thought that you should know
I thought that you should know
That I don't call them back
I thought that you should know before you fall
I saw it begin to dawn on us both
That somehow it wasn't suprising
And so you're preparing to swear every oath
And all the while I'm realizing
I can't love you then
I thought that you should know
I thought that you should know
That I can't love you then
I thought that you should know before you fall
I saw it begin to dawn on us both
That somehow it wasn't suprising
And so you're preparing to swear every oath
And all the while I'm realizing
I can't love you then
I thought that you should know
I thought that you should know
That I can't love you then
I thought that you should know before you fall

Me and my baby on a february holiday
'cause we got the news
Yeah, we got the news
500 miles and we're gonna make it all the way
We've got nothing to lose
We've got nothing to lose
It's been 10 years waiting
But it's better late than the never
We've been told before
We can't wait one minute more
Oh, me and my baby driving down
To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
Oh, me and my baby stand in line
You've never seen a sight so fine
As the love that's gonna shine
At city hall
Me and my baby've been through
A lot of good and bad
Learned to kiss the sky
Made our momma's cry
I've seen a lot of friends
After giving it all they had
Lay down and die
Lay down and die
10 years into it
Here's our window
At the vegas drive-thru chapel
It ain't too much
For 'em all to handle
Oh, me and my baby driving down
To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
Oh, me and my baby stand in line
You've never seen a sight so fine
As the love that's gonna shine
At city hall
Outside, they're handing out
Donuts and pizza pies
For the folks in pairs in the folding chairs
My baby's lookin' so damned pretty
With those anxious eyes
Rain-speckled hair
And my ring to wear
10 years waiting for this moment of fate
When we say the words and sign our names
If they take it away again someday
This beautiful thing won't change
Oh, me and my baby driving down
To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
Oh, me and my baby stand in line
You've never seen a sight so fine
As the love that's gonna shine
Oh, me and my baby driving down
To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
Oh, me and my baby stand in line
You've never seen a sight so fine
As the love that's gonna shine
At city hall

Blue blue caravan
Winding down to the valley of lights
My true love is a man
Who would hold me for ten thousand nights
In the wild wild wailing of wind
He's a house 'neath a soft yellow moon.
So blue blue caravan
Won't you carry me down to him soon
Blue blue caravan
Won't you drive away all of these tears
For my true love is a man
That I haven't seen in years
He said, "Go where you have to
For I belong to you until my dying day."
So like a fool, blue caravan
I believed him and I walked away.
Oh my blue blue caravan
The highway is my great wall
For my true love is a man
Who never existed at all
Oh he was a beautiful fiction
I invented to keep out the cold
But now, my blue blue caravan
I can feel my heart growing Cold
Oh my blue blue caravan
I can feel my heart growing Cold

1br/1ba hrdwd flrs w/vw of trees.
1br/1ba prkg space 4 xtra fee.
My little flock of boxes and I surrounded by a painted-white unknown.
Soon as this wall in my heart comes down, I'm gonna make it feel like home.
1br/1ba: A/C was fine 'til yesterday.
1br/1ba: 89 degrees today.
My upstairs neighbors are making sounds that I never want to hear.
I hope they're just moving furniture around, and really liking their ideas.

It's the season of grace coming out of the void
Where a man is saved by a voice in the distance
It's the season of possible miracle cures
Where hope is currency and death is not the last unknown
Where time begins to fade
And age is welcome home
It's the season of eyes meeting over the noise
And holding fast with sharp realization
It's the season of cold making warmth a divine intervention
You are safe here you know now
Don't forget
Don't forget I love
I love
I love you
It's the season of scars and of wounds in the heart
Of feeling the full weight of our burdens
It's the season of bowing our heads in the wind
And knowing we are not alone in fear

In this desert land
I know some rain must fall
See where we began
We've come so far
On this harbor shore
We hear the ocean call
In our minds at war
We have so far to go
Shine with all the untold
Hold the light given unto you
Find the love to unfold
In this broken world we choose
In unending storms
We search for space to breathe
How our hearts are worn
We've come so far
In this desert
How we blossom and we cease
Tell your story now

Inside the labyrinth walls
There lies a tiny child who sleeps alone
And as the daylight falls
The wind becomes so wild across the stone
For I have made her prison be
Her every step away from me
And this child I would destroy
If you tried to set her free
So come to me my love
I'll tap into your strength and drain it dry
Can never have enough
For you I'd burn the length and breadth of sky
For it's my thoughts that bind me here
It's this love that I most fear
And this child I would destroy
For I hold her pain most dear
No haven for this heart
No shelter for this child in mazes lost
Heaven keep us apart
A curse for every mile of ocean crossed
For I must die for what I've done
A twist of fate a desert sun
For I see what I destroy
Sweet reflection knife into me
For I see what I destroy

Nightfall we're brushing past your town
Destination not you my one
The driver doesn't know way down
How deep these bright-eyed feelings run
I've no intention of confessing today
I need to make distance a while
But miles don't make your image fade
They don't erase this secret smile
Everything reminds me
Wet grey gold-lit streets
Shop displays near-lovers meet
I feel the grasp of your hand still
This your face now in the glass
Breathing whisper what is this
Bent so close we nearly kiss
Although we never will
Strange that there's no hurtful need
Used to be my only sign
On my mind would make me bleed
Why is it that I'm feeling fine
Why is it this warmth within
No candlelight that causes burn
Memories of you begin
Well welcome friends
Glad you've returned
Everything reminds me
Music surging bedroom dance
Crazy spinning sultry glance
I inhale your presence still
These your arms of daring grace
Encircle me, what pact is made
Desire is your masquerade
Want me you never will
You gave me truth
I chose illusion
Now we are used to this confusion
But I know
Yes I know
This story has to end
Never groped for a connection
Never hoped for more affection
For I know
I know I am your friend
Only your friend

Soon, love, soon
Soon, love, soon
Soon, love, soon
There'll be a fire burning in the temple of our peace
(Soon love soon)
There'll be the soaring voice for a silent plea
(Soon love soon)
We will hold a broken circle and begin to pray
(Soon love soon)
We will find a black and white in the grey
And we will be as one god
And we will be as one people
And we will be as one god
And we will be as one people
(Soon love soon)
We will find illumination in unnatural light
(Soon love soon)
You will travel a thousand miles without leaving my sight
(Soon love soon)
We will find we never knew hatred ran so deep
(Soon love soon)
Such a wide, wide chasm of faith to leap
But we will be as one god
And we will be as one people
And we will be as one god
And we will be as one people
Yes we will be as one god
And we will be as one people
(Soon love soon)
There'll be an evolution of the human soul
(Soon love soon)
We will know that to be a part is to be truly whole
(Soon love soon)
We will know the pattern of centuries' rise and fall
(Soon love soon)
We will know that the fate of one is the fate of all
And we will be as one god

Oh, no not now, please not now
I've just settled into the glass half empty made myself at home
And so why now? Oh, please not now
I just stopped believing in happy endings, harbors of my own
But you had to come along didn't you
Break down the doors, throw open windows
Oh, if you knew just what a fool you have made me
So what do I do with this?
This stray Italian greyhound, these inconvenient fireworks
This ice-cream, covered screaming hyperactive thought
God, I just want to lay down, these colors make my eyes hurt
This feeling calls for everything that I am not
I'm not that kind, I'm so good at shooting down any notion
This tired world could change
It's all been bought, well at least that was my line
No use in spending all that emotion when there's someone else to blame
But you had to come along didn't you?
Rev up the crowd, rewrite the rule book
Where do I go when every no turns into maybe
So what do I do with this?
This sudden burst of sunlight and me with my umbrella
Cross indexing every weatherman's report
I was ready for the down slide but not for spring to well up
This feeling calls for everything I can't afford to know is possible now
What do I do, do I do with a love that won't sit still?
Won't do what it's told
What do I do, do I do with a love that won't sit still?
Please not now, please not now
Please not now, please not
What do I do, do I do with a love that won't sit still?
With a love that won't sit still
What do I do, do I do with a love that won't
With a love that won't sit still?
What do I do, do I do with a love that won't, that won't sit still?
Won't do what it's told
What do I do, do I do with a love that won't sit still?
Everything that I am, everything that I am

Father says head down, we don't want them finding you
Mother says practice now all the words you know
Oh, Arizona's burning, they say the fence turned round
And now the razor wire keeps us out
Mother says with luck we'll sleep under a roof tonight
Father says in the truck we'll be crushed in tight
Oh Chicago, don't forget me as the miles between us grow
Keep the maple tree carved with the name of my love
The hills we would sled race down
Lake Michigan stay endless and painted in sky goodbye
Mother says years ago the whole world was ours to rule
Father says let it go those days are gone for good
All the signs read no gringo but somehow we'll find our way
Maybe waiting at dawn by the factory doors
Sun burnt and bent in the fields
Hey don't turn us in, we'll be silent as the grave, as time
No gringo, no gringo aquí
Words as levies against the flood
Hoy cerrado, there's too many to feed
Room for only our own kind, our own blood
No gringo, no gringo aquí
You have stayed in this land for too long
Tan amargo but there's no time to grieve
You just pack up your things and move on

Sun sets in an ocean of brown farmland haze
Power lines draped across roads you could drive on for days
Well it's all too perfect
Time to look back at us now
Endless and empty like Kansas
Our cities of clouds
Flat on the table like Kansas
I lay down in sheets suddenly worn threadbare
Every wall I lean on transforms to sliding doors and thin air
Well I hope yours is kinder
Let go of this when you find her
Bury this hard
Down underneath your white canvas
Our houses of cards
Flat on the table like Kansas
It's not regret
Just an unexpected accounting of debts
Only now called
No it's not regret
Just remembrance is all
Of how close we had come
The war almost won
But I sent up our flag and moved on
You and I
Lost to the winter like Kansas
And all my goodbyes

In another life
You and I worked West Virginia coal mines
Side by side
Collecting the black dust like sin
The day the main shaft caved in
I caught your eye
As the lantern light guttered out
And the afterdamp swallowed us slowly
I gripped your hand
And caught a glance
Of the next time 'round
In another life
You and I were Red Guards in training
Side by side
We marched on Tiananmen
Turned our own parents in
For hoarding rice
And in the Great Leap forward
We crawled on our bellies and died
A blood orange sky
Gave a cry
Of next time 'round
In another life
I was married at thirteen
You were killed at twenty-one
On a minor battlefield
I was buried beside my second stillborn child
My last thought it seemed
A fever dream
Now we sink into a summer afternoon
Central Park in June
Marveling at the bounty our days contain
And we feel it like the shiver
Of a passing train
That other life
Deep underground
You and I
Side by side

Gotta fight gotta strike
'cause there's no turning away
From what you don't want to know
Gotta see gotta be
If they're all going astray
Don't let them take you in tow
You're a one-man shift in the weather
You're the woman who just won't sell
Climbing up and ringing the bell
Ooh you're gonna make your mark this time
Ooh you're gonna set your hope on fire
Gotta leave gotta bleed
You've gotta stop lying still
'cause this is no kind of life
You don't need guarantees
You just want something to build
Before you turn to the knife
When the streets are aflood like a fever
It's a holiday of the new
We're coming closer now to the truth
Gotta move gotta choose
You've got a difference to make
Don't watch it happen again
Gotta change rearrange
Something's bending to break

Once when I was thirty-one
I woke in the dead of night
And heard the vastness of the snowfall outside
Slipped downstairs in my bare feet
Soon forgotten freezing
And poured a milk glass full
To wait out the tide
It's been a decade and one
Been a decade and one my friend
Decade and one
Since i've
As the white went down
I thought of the child upstairs
I thought of the god upstairs
That I couldn't believe
I thought of the chosen man
Asleep on his side of the bed
How green becomes wood in the family tree
Been a decade and one
Been a decade and one so soon
Decade and one
Since i stood so proud
And so unsure
Ebony glowing by the window there
As always
Fingers kissed the keys oh so tenderly
Cool ivory returned in kind
I thought of anger and adulation
And the taste of dreams realized
And the waste dreams realized leave behind
Decade and one
Decade and one
I said out loud
Decade and one
And I am here

Oh my god
What have I done
Chasing some mirage in my Mojave sun
Don't say every chance is lost,
Please don't say anything at all
In sand and thorns
I'm walking forth
Bare and blinking as the day that I was born
Bells in spires of China white
Ring for an Augustine tonight
Oh now, I'm breaking down
Oh let me be
Let me be your Augustine
Lead me now
I understand
Faith is both the prison and the open hand
Bells on low on high
Will you ring for Augustine tonight
Oh now I'm breaking down,
Every illusion in between
All the lies that I have seen

Anna Rose sleep well tonight
The stars are dancing on the carpet of the sky
Time to close your wondering eyes
Where I see the sleepiness creeping
Anna Rose it makes my heart smile
To know you give love so freely
Anna Rose it makes it worthwhile
Your love makes me see things so clearly
How it grows heaven knows
Anna Rose sleep well tonight
Anna Rose it's time to dream
I see that your imagination knows no bounds
There it flows like some magical stream
And carries you on its journey
Anna Rose it makes my heart smile
To know you give love so freely
Anna Rose it makes it worthwhile
Your love makes me see things so clearly
How it grows heaven knows