They come out every twilight

Beyond the castle walls

The ghosts that search the highlands

For the kingdom that was lost

I've seen their muddy footprints

Out by horse head's bog

Oak trees choked with spider's thread

Laid waste by knopper galls

This used to be the highlands

Back before the fall

We were cursed into the lowlands

To live inside the fog

The cobwebs on the doors grow thick

The hawthorn have all galled

The rust, it sticks

The wind, it whips

The castle doors are barred

You can see our kingdom glowing

Out past hag's head cliff

When the evening sun begins to set

And the west wind starts to shift

These ghosts, they haunt the highlands

That fell into the sea

They scale the cliffs at twilight

Searching for the key

Their eyes, they glow like torches

With hollow mouths, they scream

They rule the wind and water

Of the kingdom that sank in

They rise up from the bogs at night

When the corncrake starts to cry

The lowland peat begins to shift

The full moon starts to rise

They search in vain for entrance

To the kingdom lost at sea

The castle doors grow barnacles

The halls are choked with weeds

Far off on the hillside

By Saint Macreehy's grave

The eel will mark the headstones

Of the ones that come awake

The eel, she travels freely

The water gives her sight

The ocean is her looking glass

To glimpse the other side

Without the sun, without the wind

The kingdom fell to rot

The scarlet scourge of witch broom gall

Has made the ash roots soft

The ghosts wail at the castle doors

To curse the fallen king

The king calls in the cloaking fog

The gods call in the wind

They come out every twilight

Beyond the castle walls

The ghosts that search the highlands

For the kingdom that was lost.

The blackbird looks for treasures

To line her winter nest

The season in the north is long

And shallow in its rest

For those who are the seers

The blackbird gives them sight

That which has been cast to earth

She brings back to the sky

The sky comes down in wintertime

And rests upon the river

It sings the tired land to sleep

And wakes the blackbird's vision

She rises from the wishing well

Unearthing golden treasures

Long lost dreams and golden threads

The rarest sunken relics

The sun has caught a shiny thing

The blackbird, she is falling

Her feathers catch the spider's web

Into earth, she's tumbling

I heard a song from long ago

One night when I was dreaming

The blackbird trapped inside the well

Had brought to me a vision

The sun had dropped

The moth was caught

The spider's web was shimmering

That which comes her way this night

Shall stay with her 'til morning

She comes into my dreams at night

From underground, she's calling

To let her heart grow brave again

She practices her falling

She likes to brush with darkness

To let her heart grow strong

She takes the thread from underground

And ties it to the sun

I see her in the white birch tree

She waits there for the dawn

That which has been cast to earth

She brings back to the sun.

A cold wind blows

Through the halls of high kings

Far off fortunes

Grow stale on the wind

The raven knows

Where the dead ones lay

That which sleeps

Shall again, come awake

On the silver coasts of Andilar

The red king's ship did wreck

The augur, he divined the fall

The white raven flew west

The seabirds are enchanted here

They serve the fallen king

From high atop the ivory cliffs

They dive into the sea

Many years have come and gone

Since the misstep of the king

The night he lost the golden key

The night the north winds came

The fulmar has gone off to sea

The king pulls out the tide

He paces in these hills at night

The wind, his battlecry

The red king's heart

Was bound for war

When he set sail from Andilar

His fathers before him

And the old ones before

To battle, they sailed

They battle, no more

Badderlock festoons the decks

Of the sunken silver fleet

The scarlet king and his brave young men

Beneath the sea, they sleep

The contents of a young man's heart

Are made of the dreams that he keeps

Dreams of sky and glory

Dreams of God and sea

The dreams of youth are boundless

As wide as any sea

But every heart is bound to wreck

And even brave hearts weep

This day, the dead

Again, shall rise

The silver thread

To the petrel, is tied

The red king reigns

Where his countrymen lie

That which has sunk

Shall once more, arise

The ravens have grown silent

Where the ancient eel stones lay

The rolling drum beats loudly

From the kingdom's watery grave

The red king and his armies

Ride out upon the wind

They wear the skins of sea snakes

Gripping iron in their hands

You mustn't venture out at night

From the firelight, so warm

The high king and his armies

Draw closer on the storm

The waves crash down upon gray stone

The white horse leads the wind

Every soul that's fallen

Shall see the sky again

The winter wind is wailing

The gorse has gone to seed

The banshee screams

The dunnock sings

The wind whips through the reeds

You mustn't venture out at night

When the ocean's glowing green

The silver chains of Andilar

Will drag you to the sea

A cold wind blows

Through the halls of high kings

Far off fortunes

Grow stale on the wind

The raven knows

Where the dead ones lay

That which sleeps

Shall again, come awake.

At the bottom of the canyon

Where bits of heaven fall

The hermit, he collects them

And scribes them onto stone

In the earth, it's burning

The fire from the sky

It fell upon the grinding wheel

And set the hands of time

The hermit carves the fiery eyes

Of the earthbound ancient ones

By his vision, by his hand

The story turns the stone

The old ones guard the ancient grounds

Where earth's cleaved open wide

With opal skin and sinewed limbs

They turn the wheel of time

At the bottom of the canyon

The ones with many eyes

Wander through the haunts of men

Their white wings singed by fire

Bits of flint fall down upon

The totems to the sky

From the canyon, black as night

The red stone hoodoos rise

The hermit, he collects the flint

And steady, by his hand

Inscribes the story onto stone

That time grinds down to sand

The ones that brought the sacred fire

Still live inside the earth

In the canyon, black as night

With fiery eyes, they search

Their molten eyes light up the sky

And flow under the dirt

The hermit sets his sight to stone

The wheel turns blood to earth.

The red-winged angel sat with me

In my time of mourning

We skipped rocks across the sea

And watched the summer lightning

I imagined she'd be different

But she was just like me

Waiting for the sun to rise

On the far side of the sea

I watched her call the lightning in

She studied my confusion

She apologized profusely

For the state the world was in

I told her not to worry

That things just fall apart

The world is filled with fire

And fire burns the heart

She walks upon the lonely earth

To learn the ways of man

She finds herself in hotel bars

Trying to explain

She wants to take earth's sorrows

And keep them out of reach

She ends up getting drunk at night

And walking on the beach

She finds the other lonely hearts

And sits down by their sides

Skipping rocks across the sea

Waiting on the sun to rise.

The desert, she is still tonight

The white torch cactus blooms

The summer rain is coming down

Coyote calls the moon

I hear the desert breath tonight

The dust turns her skin red

Her crown is made of rattlesnakes

The starlight fills her head

She lifts my body from the sword

Each time that I have fallen

From her trees, the resin bleeds

With copal, she anoints me

Her incense draws the summer rain

I hear the lightning far away

She takes me in her arms at night

Every time it rains

Rainfall soaks the arid land

The desert rose has bloomed again

She can feel my beating heart

When it has turned to stone

Anointed by the full moon's light

The desert sand is glowing

When I lay down my sword tonight

The desert, she will hold me.

When I was just a blue-eyed child

I felt the time come down

It came on like an avalanche

And took me underground

I noticed it when I was young

It stalked me like a wolf sometimes

With hackles raised and yellow eyes

It kept me in its sights

When I was young, my mother dreamed

The black jaguar protected me

The bloodthirst of the stalking wolf

Had drawn her to my side

The black jaguar, she follows me

She has one noble quest

I feel her by my side each time

Earth piles on my chest

I feel her when there is no light

Her fearsome claws and orange eyes

I find her when there's only night

From the underworld, with her, I rise.

I keep the world inside a jar

Of fireflies and grasshoppers

I never hold it anymore

Except for when it rains

I feel the buzz of the wet summer street

Kids chase heaven out in the heat

I walk along a crooked line

One misstep, I fall behind

That's why I always fall

That's why I'm always caught

I took the jar and smashed it in the street

All God's creatures want to be free

We all do just what we can

We all walk the narrow strand

That's why

I walk on the back streets

That's why

I'm caught when the rain hits

I walk down the back city streets

Catching fireflies out in the heat

All the kids have lost their minds

On the beach, they're throwing fire

Every road here looks the same

Fireflies in the summer rain

That's why

I walk on the back streets

That's why

I'm caught when the rain hits.

I keep a light out for wandering ghosts

We sit by the sea and talk of our dreams

The sun starts to rise, and again, I'm alone

I see the things that no one else sees

We talk about music, the old punk rock scene

Nobody else here gets what I mean

The world is alive, we turn up the music

The world is on fire, we dance in the heat

We run until we're out of breath

Fast enough to forget ourselves

Spinning and dancing, we fall where we stand

We sleep on the beach in the warm summer sand

We raise a glass to Johnny Cash

And all the punk rock kings

We raise a glass to those who sleep

On the far side of the sea

I think it's true we live forever

That we're just passing through

Home, I think, is somewhere else

Than this world we wander through

Things there must be so alive

That nothing's ever lost

Although it may seem far away

I know it to be close

This place is filled with music

The ones I love are there

I stare across the summer sea

The music fills the air.

I walk inside the footsteps

Of those who've gone before

I follow them across the sand

To the edge, where earth drops off

They dance upon the breakers

Where earth and ocean meet

Far out on the jetties

Where the spiny Tautog sleeps

I see them when the moon is full

They dance inside the fog

Their footsteps lead me to the sea

To the edge, where earth drops off

I see them on the beach at night

Moving at the edge of sight

I turn my head and they are gone

Back into the fog

I hear them on the wind at night

From places far away

Far off music fills my dreams

I drift so far away

I am from the ocean deep

With water in my head, I dream

My island drops into the sea

And I stand by her side

The gulls, they laugh each day at dusk

The sun sets on the bay

I sit there on the old pine dock

My thoughts drift far away

They drift upon the rippling sea

The sky has turned to gold

In her arms, she carries me

The ocean that I love

I stand beside the water's edge

With diving terns and gulls

My footsteps lead into the sea

At the edge, where earth drops off.

Into the jungle

Up the river

The light is falling fast

Fires rise from the riverside

Red mud pools at its mouth

Time outside has ended

Again, I'm on my own

I go up the river

Before the setting sun

All the things that haunt me

I carry in this boat

Things I keep my distance from

On the river, they keep close

I push into the darkness

To find the other world

At night, I hear it breathing

The water brings me close

Temples rise up from the trees

With stairs that lead to heaven

But I belong to the ground now

To the earth, where souls are searching

Everything is conscious here

Inside, the time moves slow

I fall into lucid sleep

Where in my dreams, I row

The summer rains still haven't come

The sky holds back the water

I can hear the jungle scream

As I go up the river

Bats sleep in the hollow trees

At night, they rise together

The crocodile, submerged beneath

As I push up the river

Dancing in the fire light

The people pray for rain

The jungle has grown restless

The howler monkeys scream

Oh, how the river fights me

For I am getting close

I have passed through hell itself

To find the other world

Dragonflies rest on my knees

The river keeps on moving

The new world, it is close tonight

I can hear it breathing.

How vast it is

How blue it is

It rushes me away

High tide comes

I dream the flood

My island drifts away

In our red earth garden

My mother's moonflowers grow

Morning glories climb the twine

Around the driftwood pole

Slugs crawl on the warm concrete

Salt sticks to my skin

The laughing gulls erupt at dusk

Pine drifts on the wind

My island never stays

She's always leaving me

Every time the tide comes in

She vanishes away

I dig to find the earthworms

Where the watermelons grow

In our red earth garden

My father turns the soil

The wind, it shifts directions

Flies come from the west

In my mother's garden

The spider builds her web

My island is still out there

Kept in my memories

But she is someone else's now

And she will always be

How vast it is

How blue it is

It rushes me away

High tide comes

I dream the flood

My island drifts away.

I asked God

To give me a sign

Shot through by an arrow

A crow fell from the sky

She lay there on the snowbank

I pulled it from her side

Her blood dried on my fingertips

I sat there for a while

I told her I was sorry

That I asked for a sign

It was never my intention

To stop a bird from flying

I keep the arrow with me

The silver fletchings show

Sometimes, the blade, it pricks me

My blood drips on the snow

I see her looking at me

The crow that fell from flight

I know that she forgives me

It's written in her eyes

But I cannot forget it

And since then, God's grown silent

It happened all so quickly

That the arrow pierced her side

I gave the crow my promise

To never look for signs

God, he stays away from me

The crow, she keeps on flying

I keep a white stone in my pocket

Worn smooth by the roll of the sea

Water surrounds me

At night when I sleep

I carried it back from a dream

But now I can't tell if I'm dreaming

The white stone is always with me

The sun comes up

And I go blind

When the night's black as pitch

I can see

I walk in my sleep through strange cities

Through worlds that are made of concrete

I feel like I'm falling

Water surrounds me

I wake on the bed of the sea

I hold the white stone, as I stumble

My grip, it has loosened, you see

My wandering soul

Is tired, I know

Its roots have no soil to keep

I find myself lost in the middle

The light is too blinding to see

How will I know

When again, I awake

When everything plays like a dream

I feel it again, I am falling

I open my eyes, but can't see

I still cannot fly

In both places, I've tried

I drop the white stone in the sea.

Holed up in my head again

I stay inside my room

Outside, the world, it sounds alive

How beautifully, it moves

Once, I heard the melody

Like water, it ran clear

But winter storms brought down the trees

And dammed the rivers here

A place of verdant beauty

A place of open doors

A place of thorns and quicksand

A place of drowning pools

The world outside has hurt me

God there, he runs wild

He cuts the heart out from your chest

And throws it on the fire

The world outside, it hunts you

And God keeps sharpened horns

Only fools would worship

A mad bull who wants to gore

I see their open mouths, they sing

A song that I don't hear

The true God must reside inside

For he is nowhere here

Holed up in my head again

I stay inside my room

God, he has grown wreckless

And I am not his fool.

She walks on a wire

At the edge of great dreams

She will rule

In an era of peace

The old guard, they wither

For they cannot dream

They only grow rust

At the edge of the sea

All of the life

They have fished from the deep

The reefs turned to deserts

To gray dust beneath

They hunted the sharks

Even into the deep

Galled to no end

By the things they can't see

Those who would fear

Being eaten alive

Call with their prayers

That same thing, every night

The kingdom of winter

Has held back the spring

The hive has grown rotten

Dead is the queen

Her time, it was wasted

To the Fates, she is bound

Her kingdom, forgotten

Her wasteland, her crown

The haruspex foretold

The wraith's sad lament

Of an unlikely queen

That no one did expect

Where sights have grown shallow

She comes from the deep

Her power is seeded

Where people are free

A new dream approaches

It follows the storm

There is peace in the ocean

A new reign is born

She walks on a wire

At the edge of great dreams

She will reign

In an era of peace.

I am from the western sky

Across the cold, gray waters

My roots are planted in the east

To my land, I am a stranger

You are from the eastern sky

Across the northern waters

From fiery blood of salt and stone

Both you and I are daughters

I do not know the names of those

Who crossed the mighty sea

I wonder if their hair was red

Their eyes, gray like the sea

Did they fall to loneliness

Their brave hearts filled with dreams

Were they quick to walk off cliffs

Were they fools like me

Did the music save them

And like fire, light the dark

Could they sing the old songs

Or did it break their hearts

I feel a sorrow in my blood

That's from another time

I skip my prayers across the sea

In the east, my sun will rise

You are from the eastern shore

The far side of the sky

Your gold sun settles in the west

Over our fire pines

Like the wind, you're restless

Your eyes gray like the sea

You are from another place

From elsewhere, just like me

Although I've never met you

Your songs, they've crossed the sea

The fire burns within your heart

You're a fool like me.

The eyes of pine are knotted tight

In the ceiling of my room

Headlights cast a fractured glow

How strangely the light moves

Mary, she unties the night

Her voice falls down like rain

The mourning dove brings in the dark

Red roses drink the rain

The raindrops are like answers

And around here, water pours

It runs off from the dusty earth

The place of blood and toil

I gather with my fingertips

New raindrops on the grass

A thousand tiny messages

Pool together on the glass

With my fingertip, I trace the crack

That splits the old glass pane

Upon my bedroom window

My blood pools with the rain

I thought it would not cut me

For I was not the same

As every other creature

Who is made of blood and rain

When I look in the mirror

It is never me, I see

A foreign hand has drawn me in

The eyes look strange to me

The rain came down so hard last night

I fractured into bits

I look more like myself on days

The quicksilver can shift

I am just a rendering

Of someone's else's dream

The halogen glow of fractured light

Across a stranger's ceiling

Mary, she unties the knots

She stands there in the rain

Untangling the wreckage

Of someone else's dream.