As she falls asleep, the city sings

The night descends and lets me in

I can feel her breathing in

The heartbeat in her chest

She lifts me up above my body

I slip into the sea

There is no separation here

One breath holds eternity

My body mixes with the night

Tonight the sky's cracked open wide

There's nothing that exists inside

Except what's passing through

Reaching for the open night

Where I can't see the other side

Where my city meets the sea

The world has turned to blue

Her broken heart, it lets me in

I hear it in the way she sings

Never could I lie to her

She's always seen right through

Lonely creatures haunt the night

Lives pass by in window light

There's nothing that exists outside

Everything shines through

She's my city by the sea

When it's dark she sings to me

Through my broken heart she sees

Where everything gets through.

My feet, they are betraying me

I've fallen where I stand

Of my words, I've no command

I have no expectations

Only hopes and dreams I follow

The days are drawing to an end

And of this time, I dream

I have seen the rising sea

And the fires that will be

The end of everything

All the falling empires

Are crumbling into sand

There's no statues left to stand

What reaches for the sun now

Are only flowers

I'll sleep under the apple trees

And finally get some rest

I will come to find myself

And like a bird in spring

I'll find tomorrow

I'm ready to go under now

To dive under the waves

To cast myself away

Where the water goes

I'll let it take me

I'm ready to go underground

And start out as a seed

Life is like a dream

What feels most like the end

Is the beginning.

The future lit by firelight

Dances across my walls

The shadows growing tall

I have no place to be

Nowhere I'm headed

The shadows being cast

Come from things that I don't see

They circle around me

Like a pebble dropped

Into the seas of dreaming

I've nothing in my hands to hold

I'm out here on my own

I've stared into the sun

And chased the end of night

Into tomorrow

I have a dog that follows me

He's baying at the moon

It's never looked so blue

The road that we walk on

Is meant for dreaming

I find it hard to worry now

That all my fears came true

The moon, it looks so blue

The only faith I have

Is in tomorrow

Blackbirds gather in the sky

To mark the lonely road

They sing out as I go

Far away from heaven

I have stumbled

Fish are leaping from the sea

And flopping on the sand

I keep nothing in my hands

The road that I walk on

Is meant for dreaming.

Have you heard about the light above the water

You can see it in the north country all the way south down to Florida

I used to draw it when I was younger

Orange flowers, yellow sun

The sky blue like the water

I'm in the mountains now

But by the sea, my body grows

Like the ocean, it holds all the weight of the world

It is there that I don't grow old

I remember the flowers, yellow and orange

Bursts of sun in my mother's garden

I squinted my eyes, the sky was so bright

In my blue dress, I watched how she picked them

Under the green umbrella, we held giant sunflowers

In the summertime, in my bare feet

My grandfather's hands, the sun shining down

I watched how he picked out the seeds

My mother told me stories

Of holes opening up in the sand

She could see other worlds that were different than ours

It seems like I dreamed them, she said

I'm in the mountains now

But a light shines on the sea

Photographs hold all the bursts from the sun

Shining on my childhood, just like a dream.

By the end of October, my heart had cracked open

And under my feet, the earth was gone

I have always bent toward madness

Like a butterfly being dizzied by the sun

Watching my feet, I approach the distance

To the edge where the light pours in

God, he left me standing there

Not knowing how it ends

Townes Van Zandt sings like an angel

His voice sounds like the rain

They took away his memories

Running electricity through his brain

I listen to his sad songs

Whenever I can't cry

The dead leaves, they are falling down

I hear the train go by

Someday I might get on it

With the summer in my eyes

I'll go to where the orange trees grow

And I will feel alive

The beauty of a broken heart

Is that it knows the sun

It skips just like a record does

Scratched and worn and loved

Townes said, his songs, they weren't sad

He thought of them as hopeless

Like being caught inside a fog

Overtaken by the ocean

When I hear him sing

I always think of the Pacific

Of a golden shoreline far away

Where everything is different

They say God sees a broken heart

Like the stars shine in the sky

Busted stuff, all opened up

Shimmering gold and red and white.

She watches the lights of the fishing boats

At night on the beach at the end of the world

She knows the ghosts that haunt this town

They step from the waves

When the moon's shining down

Her friends are all skeletons

Her heroes, all ghosts

She imagines the lights on a faraway coast

The sky swirls around her, electrically charged

Two points of light connect in the dark

She looks back in time when she closes her eyes

Dark stars are born outside of the light

Time barrels toward her

The blue planet spins

Time barrels toward her

An old wind blows in

Crows pick the wrack line for shiny things

At the edge of the light

The blue planet spins

Torn out from space

And hurled toward the shore

Piled at her feet at the end of the world

Momentum is building from forces unseen

One circle closes, another begins

The future collects at the edge of the light

She opens her window

To let in the night

She presses her forehead against the glass

Something's out there looking back

She opens her hand to pull it back in

At the edge of the light

The blue planet spins.

In the breakers town where I come from

The old ones tell a story

Of a dragon caught inside a storm

Whose fight carved out the mountains

It's here that there are other worlds

That open at the edges

The dragon circling underneath

Thrashing through the ages

My finger runs along the edge

Of where the light gets in

Where the mountains meet the sea

The veil is always thin

I've seen the light of other worlds

Breaking through the clouds

I've seen the light of other worlds

Flicker and go out

Down inside the trenches

The dragon comes awake

A new world, it is being born

The mountains break away

As I enter through the door

It seals up tight behind me

On the other side of things

Only the light will find me

The vulture stands beside me

The earth has opened up

On the other side of things

The dragon eats the sun

Once, the world was water

Once, the world was black

Consciousness was just a breath

Light was just a crack

In his breath, he holds the sun

The water-breathing dragon

Where the mountains meet the sea

Another door has opened.

I hear it in the air tonight

Something out there calls

To cross the darkened sea tonight

From the ordinary world

All the leaves have fallen down

The sun is going underground

The sky, it has that far off pink

That only autumn brings

All these years of shallow breath

Have twisted tight around my neck

I walk along the winding path

Not knowing where it ends

Something crawled out of the water

And laid upon the shore

The air grew heavy with its breath

From beyond the fog, it called

To embark across the darkness

Into the great unknown

To cross over the threshold

Into the setting sun

So far, I've gone, away from shore

Bound for the unmastered world

No one was there to see me go

Into the night, I went alone

Before, the world was beautiful

I could feel it in my bones

The bluebirds gathered in the east

And circled around the sun

A fire filled my beating heart

Before the world turned blue

God, let it flow like water now

So I can swim right through

Now, the world is water

Now, the world is black

Consciousness is just a breath

Light is just a crack

The ones at home, they pray for me

Not knowing where I've gone

They light candles for the holy dove

For land, she searched alone

It's been so many years

Since the sun has touched my skin

But out here on the water

There's a light that shines within

Someday I know I will return

To the ordinary world

I will fall upon the shore, and smile

And feel the earth again

My heart will shine with brightest light

Like summer sun, like wildfire

For in the deepest pit of night

I've seen the light break through

With sacred fire, I'll return

From the cave, the pit, the underworld

From the belly of the great white whale

I'll crawl my way to shore

My story, like the fire, burns

When I am lost, and the light is gone

I dig down deep to pull it up

And hold it to the sun.

Green is the color I hold in my heart

The little white dove flies fast in the dark

Around the old oak, I wrap ribbon that's green

Planted by my grandfather as the sheltering tree

The oldest oak to stand on the earth

Grew deep in the heart of an evergreen forest

To hold itself down, its roots ran for miles

Wrapped around one another, endlessly entwined

The wind's picking up, I hear a voice call

To go underground, deep into the dark

Little white flowers tremble beneath

Growing up from the roots of the sheltering tree

Where the road turns is where I look up

I sing from my heart, the sky is my song

You speak in green when the spring is still new

I am the storm where the gold sun slips through

There's a hole that I found that goes into my chest

Deep underground, even under my breath

Now that it's opened, I follow it down

I hear my heart beating in the underground

Every great thing that has since come to be

Has grown from the roots of the sheltering tree

The blue and the green, endlessly entwined

From the most broken heart, shines the brightest green light

When you are lost, just take my hand

The little white dove flies on searching for land

When she surrenders, she is not giving up

She simply remembers the beat of her heart

When I was young, I had these dreams

Of the black, churning sea devouring me

When the road falls dark, and you've lost your song

I'll reach out my hand for you to hold on

I'll always be there to follow you down

Our hearts are like roots, entwined underground

If you find yourself lost, just call out to me

When you are the blue, I'll be the green

No matter how far, no matter how long

No matter the sorrows or storms that may come

I'll reach out my hand when you're down in the flood

You'll know that it's me by the color of my heart.

No one ever asked me

About my father and the war

I heard them call it Vietnam

I saw his shrapnel scar

I watched him smoke his cigarettes

And read his history books

I watched him get pulled back each time

I entered the room

He left from San Francisco

Like my grandfather before

To cross the wild Pacific

To a stranger's foreign shore

"Monday, Monday" played that winter

On the radio

When springtime came in Tay Ninh

It was the bloodiest month of the war

The sky was lit on fire

In that place called Vietnam

And in the screaming jungle

Rolling hell raged on and on

I wished that I had hands to hold

The things he carried back

I wished my love could mend his wounds

And bring the pieces back

He said he wonders who he is

And just how many are there

His white hair grows down past his shoulders

An old man looks back in the mirror

On a summer day, we paddled across

The lake at Root Beer Falls

Sheep's laurel bloomed in Batsto Village

White sand soaked up the red water

The water was a liminal place

A place we could go in between

Cuckoos called from the chestnut oaks

Watersnakes warmed themselves on dry leaves

It took us half the day

To paddle out and back

Nothing else existed

Outside those hours on the raft

Soft clouds looked on from above

Heaven and hell, under just one sun

He need not wonder who he was

And in those moments, he was home

When Aztec soldiers went to war

They took a different name

Should they live, should they return

They would put it down again

He thinks about it often

As if no time has passed him

Some wounds are just too deep to heal

And no one can imagine

When the sky went up in fire

And the palm trees turned to black

When the mortar rounds pounded in his chest

And rolling hell came racing back

He flew back over the wild Pacific

Like my grandfather before

Touching ground in San Francisco

On a stranger's foreign shore

Someone once described war

As a weight that you can't carry back

As a still moment deep in the jungle

When a bear and a tiger cross paths

In a different world than ours

Under a different sun

We'd understand what we asked of them

We'd understand what war is

Soft clouds looked on from above

Heaven and hell, under just one sun

He need not wonder who he was

And in those moments, he was home.

The country I come from burns white like the summer

White birds fly over the dark myrtle water

A ship wrecked in the springtime where I was born

Things come and go where the veil is thin-worn

A sinkhole opened that drowned the whole world

Down in the trenches, scarlet petals unfurl

In the belly of the ocean, my eyes have come open

I swim to the bottom, my lungs moving water

I walk in the bloodline of thunder and fog

Fast-moving lightning burns bright in my heart

Electric and pink like a wild summer storm

I hold in the light that could blind the whole world

The people I come from bleed blue like the ocean

We had silver fins, but through the ages we lost them

We call in the storms, our eyes move the water

At the edge of the world, the white birds have gathered

I sit by the sea, and like so many dreams

The arms of the ocean reach out for me

They hold me close until I can't breath

My gills have come open in the belly of the sea

The light that we come from cannot be imagined

Little white flowers in the bottomless canyon

Suspended in the age of tangled dreaming

Holding our breath for our eyes to come open

So many times, I have been born

Where the ocean is wide the veil is thin-worn

The arms of the ocean reach out for me

Pulling me under, delivering me

Down in the canyon, my eyes have come open

At the center of the world, a red lotus blossoms

I swim to the bottom, my lungs move the water

'Neath the white diamond sky, I am born from the sea.

I've got the sun in my eyes and the night in my heart

I am still waiting, still searching for God

I have this sad song, I can't put it down

Blue notes from heaven fall from my mouth

On the coast where waves of pity roar

We dance inside the moonlit fog

Our boats commanded away from shore

Waiting for the landslide, the mountains to fall

Crushed under the foot of God

I wait in vain for the song to come out

Blue notes stuck inside my throat

The sky can't see to pull them out

My anchor drags me to the sea

Wrapped around my tired feet

White quills push up from my skin

Blue heaven calls me back again

The earth has clipped our golden wings

We live to grow them back again

We find blue music on the wind

And follow it to shore

Waiting for our wings to grow

Where tidal waves of pity roar

We travel far enough from shore

With the white birds flying east

I breath in the tired fog

Crushed under the foot of God

Soft white feathers grow out from my heart

Touched by the sun and brushed by the dark.

What can be said of the woman

The one who can grow the new world

By her touch, the moonflowers blossom

Her song calls the little blue birds

When I think of my mother

The golden sun shines in my eyes

Marigolds and orange blossoms

A love, so bright and alive

She dances with the spirits

On the beach, in the night, in the fog

She believes in magic

In saints and in ghosts and in gods

To the moon, she offers her worries

Her voice guides the golden sun west

In my mother's garden

The orb weaver spins her gold web

Her love is as big as the ocean

Her sorrow, so deep and so wild

She can hear Saint Theresa

Singing at night when she cries

My mother contains every color

She sees points of indigo light

She knows there is something that guides her

Through the storm, through the fog, through the night

We stand upon the yellow beach

I hold my mother's hand

Golden relics begin to surface

Unearthed where the waves hit the sand

At night, we walked on the seashore

Jellyfish luminesced blue-green light

My heart came alive with the colors

Her eyes shined with indigo light

My mother burns orange like the sunrise

But her heart shines a brilliant blue

Her love is as big as the ocean

Her sorrow, so wild and so blue

I believe in magic

In saints and in ghosts and in gods

I close my eyes and see colors

Blue for patience and green for love

We stand where two worlds come together

Where darkness meets with light

On this path, we walk together

Collecting blue pieces of light.

I'll see you again out in the canyons

The dusty gray earth, dreamscapes of moon landings

We'll capture the light of the falling stars

When I close our eyes, you will never be far

The world will shrink down into one point of light

We'll open our wings and sail through the night

All of the roads will lead to one spot

We'll shake loose our heads, and fall into our hearts

Where we fall, we will take our stand

The bottom will open in the canyon lands

In the white burning desert where the red hoodoos stand

Points of gold light will push up from the sand

We'll dance on the spider's web, and not have a thought

We'll know there is magic still left in this world

The white buffalo, from red earth, will be born

The pink desert rose will bloom from gray stone

Soon we'll remember just who we are

Bright points of light on the dusty gray earth

We who have crashed, we who can fly

The people of the sun with the night in their eyes.

Footprints disappear up here

Where asphalt meets dream land

Like the surface of the moon

Saffron sky and opal sand

I drift off to other worlds

At night when I'm asleep

At night, I get my golden wings

My soul, no cage to keep

I am just a little bird

Still learning how to fly

I shake the dust off from my wings

And look up to the sky

I am just the wildest bird

To fly the saffron sky

I come from where the music's made

From the faintest, farthest light

In the catacombs of dreams

Where footprints disappear

I will sing my golden song

For the sleeping world to hear

Never will I be so far again

From where I'm from

This life, I know, is beautiful

But I will not return

I am just a wild bird

Tumbled by the storm

Gray stone turns to opal white

Where the rock gets worn

Raindrops fall across the sun

And I begin to fly

I think back to where I'm from

The rainbow fills my eyes

I am just a tired bird

Who has never flown so high

Singing on the dusty earth

Waiting for the night to fly.

We who come from wild blood

We who ride the storm

Our footprints in the ash and mud

Wildflowers with sharp thorns

We who shake the weather loose

And ride against the wind

The surface dwellers of the earth

The old ones, born again

Our eyes, the colors of the earth

Our blood, electrified

The lightning strikes our wild hearts

We cry out to the sky

We speak to the farthest stars

To the old ones, far away

Every time the rain comes down

Our footprints wash away

When the wild raven

Is kept inside a cage

There's a freedom that's inside her

That exists anyway

She still sings her wild song

Across the blackest night

She can make her own joy

She captures her own light

We, the walkers of the dream

Drawn by a foreign hand

Our ways, so wild; our hearts, so blue

Strangers to this land

The surface dwellers of the earth

The ones that time can't keep

Every time the thunder rolls

We startle from our sleep.

Are you lost in worry

Are you awake across the sea

When the waves are crashing down

I hear the ocean breath

The full moon's riding high tonight

It's keeping me awake

Tossed inside the sea of dreams

My body, washed away

I shot my arrow blindly

To the far side of the sun

The yellow snake, I find her there

My lifeline to the sun

Her skin is warm, her body long

She goes for miles and miles

Her golden skin shines with the sun

Her tongue forks, splicing time

The water's ghostly still tonight

The sea holds in her breath

The moon, she's cloaked her golden skin

With gray dust and worm's web

I shot my arrow blindly

To the far side of the sun

It stuck inside the dirt out there

I dreamt the earth was gone

I go back and forth from there

I move inside the sun

I connect the golden threads

Lifelines waiting to be born

Are you falling through the sky

Are you tumbling just like me

Does the moonlight make you blind

Can you hear the ocean breath

The things I've seen, and what I've dreamed

Few souls would fast believe

The road grows thin like spider's web

It binds my hands and feet

Time is branching out again

The silk worm weaves her web

The yellow snake, upon her tongue

Creates the earth again

The lines are forking on my palm

I'm tumbling through the sky

The moon, she cloaks her golden skin

The snake opens her eyes.

Though my home I've not forgotten

I can't hold her in my arms

She's there inside my dreams at night

In my daydreams, and my thoughts

On the shortest days of winter

I remember summer streets

Buzzing with electricity

Kids out howling in the heat

If I had the strength to carry her

I'd never put her down

I'd float inside the nighttime sea

She'd tip her starry crown

Coyote calls the pale new moon

The ice holds still the bay

The laughing gulls call in the dusk

And I lie here awake

I can hear the killing moon

She's calling out to me

I wake up and I'm on the beach

Walking in my sleep

The winter sky is still tonight

The wind holds in her breath

I listen to the ocean breath

A song my heart has kept

Summer is a memory

Like a song, I let it play

Every time the moon is new

And I lie here awake

The world was just beginning

We caught heaven in the heat

On the boulevard, the cars rushing by

It felt like we were free

Capricorn is rising

Across the eastern sky

The night calls me to wander

An old song makes me cry

My island, she's so far tonight

The stars begin to fade

"Ol' 55" is playing

I listen to Tom Waits

He sings about the old days

The days of roses, long gone by

Every time I hear those songs

The ocean fills my eyes

She tips her starry crown tonight

The dark sea, and her charms

I listen to her breath tonight

My summer song in wintertime.