They set out west to find her

With horses and with dogs

The night, they pierced, with torches

Through hills of choking fog

She hoped they would not find her

And alone, she would be free

To wander with the other ghosts

To fade away in peace

In her hands, she cupped her sorrow

And with water, she divined

That she was not of flesh and bone

But of weather, stark and wild

She threaded golden thimbles

That the Fates had so designed

She kept and spun the heavy thread

Spooling golden twine

She clutched the seeds of apple trees

In orchards fell by vines

Her figs and golden apple groves

The wards of blited time

The thorny branches caught her skin

And snagged her golden hair

Gray fog choked the rocky barrens

And fate hung in the air

Before the fog that took the east

The world was open air

Her worries skipped across the sea

The poison bled out clear

Before the vines that choked the trees

The world was open ground

She danced upon the open moors

The starlight lit her crown

She keeps now to the waylands

The place that sits between

Her golden twine, so loosely tied

To the land of fog and weeds

In the twisted hills of karstic earth

Clear water flows beneath

Heaven above, and hell below

In flesh and bone, they meet

In her hands, she holds the water

And from it, she divines

She is not of earth and blood

But of weather, stark and wild.

Silence, she held

In her mouth like a stone

Her bone turned to earth

The earth turned to bone

It made her teeth loose

And turned her heart gray

Grief, it had found her

And snatched her away

The dark ocean grew

Her heavy heart sank

They offered her pity

Or else, kept away

Her grief was her anchor

Her grief was her god

Her grief was a distance

That no soul could cross

She heard then a song

Rise up from the deep

A deep, booming voice

To calm the rough seas

Keep your heart warm

Do not be afraid

The soul is the sun

That lights better days

Fear not the locusts

Fear not the plagues

Fear not the darkness

From darkness, we wake

Keep walking forward

You approach a new dawn

Look to the sky

You are born of the sun.

Where will I go

One day when I die

When I sink in the sea

And cut earthly ties

I'll return to the beach

Where the waves rush the shore

The long golden road

That leads to God's door

The wind will pick up

And lighten my feet

To meet the white dunes

In the midsomer heat

To life's cold sorrows

I will not be bound

The sunshine will find me

And break through the clouds

I'll return to a time

When I was young

When life was unfolding

And moved like a song

I'll return to a time

When I was free

When the dog days of summer

Were kept by the sea

I will dance with the night

And sing with the dawn

I will never get old

I will never get lost

The midsomer nights

Will roll on and on

Like when we were kids

And life was a song.

I'm gonna get on the road

I'm gonna get somewhere

I'll know the place

When I get there

The world is like an avalanche

It's got me down

But don't worry, baby

I'm gonna walk right out

I'm gonna light myself a candle

Gonna shake and lurch

Gonna dance away the devil

Shake off this curse

I can see the road to heaven

It's a tourist trap

You're on the phone forever

No one calls you back

The doctor said what's got me down

It's in my head

No one will see it coming

When I raise the dead

They talk about the rapture

About the nuclear hail

But I'll be so dead

Baby, I won't care

I'm gonna get to where I'm going

Pass me a match

I'm gonna light the holy fire, baby

Please stand back.

I need the sun

To cover my skin

I need the bird

To give me her wings

So come find me, love

I am under the ground

You are the fire

That lights the way out

I forget the cold ground

When the wind lifts my wings

I fly toward the sun

Like a bird in the spring

So come with me, love

The road meets our feet

Wherever you are

Is where I am free

Let's burn through the days

And take every road

We'll never plant roots

We'll never grow old

We'll be just as young

As the day we were born

To endure this cold world

You must burn like the sun

Forget the cold ground

Our wings catch the wind

We are bound for the sun

Like birds in the spring

You've got the love

That lights every road

The future is calling

Why don't we go.

Your love, it plays like music

Golden notes that guide me in

I hear our song, it's playing

It is written on the wind

But you don't need to find me

'Cause I've never been lost

I know just where I'm going

I know it by heart

Let me sing it for you now

What is written in the stars

A melody, so sweet

The song that carries on

But you don't need to find me

'Cause I've never been lost

Golden notes are calling

From the great beyond.

I kept my heart

In a golden cage

Until one day

It grew wings and escaped

From my window, I watched

As it fled away

I've kept my door locked

Since the day it escaped

I thought that I could keep it

If I never looked away

I thought that I could keep it

From a world where strong things break

I bet that I could catch it

And forever keep it in

I bet that I could catch it

And slowly clip its wings

It roams now in the open

Where everyone can see

I think of ways to catch it

And keep it locked away

If I knew where it was headed

I would not mind it free

But I'm sure I couldn't stand it

To see it lose its way

The heart

A strong and fragile thing

The things it holds

We can scarcely dream

Try to cage it

Or lock it away

A wild thing always

Finds a way to escape.

I was born as Capricorn

Rose in the evening sky

Eleven degrees out to the east

A time of endless sky

Once, time rolled like jelly

It crept its way in slow

It showed me far horizons

That glittered just like gold

I walked beside the ocean

And held my mother's hand

My soul was new inside my skin

Time was different then

Then one day, it shifted

Like someone closed a door

But how could I forget it

That place of open shore

I think of the beginning

When I had open eyes

I think of the beginning

When I had endless sky

I wish I could go back there

And trade this earthly gold

I wish I could go back there

To watch it all unfold

Dreams were just like memories

I felt them rushing in

Dreams were just like memories

They told me everything

Time, the rarest sunken treasure

Time, the darkest depths

Time is just a dream, I think

A dream that can't be kept.

You used to come calling

But now I hear nothing

Away from your graces

I feel myself falling

When I reached out my hand

You held it so tight

You kept my soul close

In a lantern of light

Once, I was gone

I had my great fall

But I heard golden music

That time I was lost

God, let it find me

That future I knew

I will open my eyes

And see clear to you

I wait for its golden notes

To call me

I wait for the day

That again

It will know me

From this sick bed, I'll rise

So hold close, your light

The future is calling

It rips through the night

When I open my eyes

The future will sing

Your love is like music

It plays on the wind.

You speak to me in color

When all the world is black

From high and lonely places

Your vision pulls me back

Language blooms in color

Violets, golds, and greens

Kaleidoscopic symmetries

Draped in earthly dreams

I came upon a vision

Once when I was lost

I came upon a vision

Shipwrecked upon the rocks

If my own eyes had not seen it

I could have looked away

In color, I see clearly

What words cannot explain

The vision burned so brightly

Word traveled on the wind

The masses came to see it

To hold it in their hands

Diviners holding science

Wielding sacred maths

With blinded eyes, they killed it

That vision on the sand

Language cannot capture

That which can't be named

They had no way to see it

Oh, how they tried, in vain

When navigation fails me

When I am lost at sea

I travel on the tradewinds

To shipwrecks far away

Many hands have lifted me

From drowning in the sea

Many eyes have met me

To gaze eternity

Do you think

That's what life is

A beautiful shipwreck

Visions of color

In the black

Churning sea

From the old

Sunken wreckage

Where all souls

Are shipwrecked

New life grows

From the bottomless sea.

I go down to the water

By the weeping willow tree

I think of you

With the sun in your eyes

The river runs on to the sea

Sing me a memory

Play me a song

Here at the crossroads, I stand

I'll follow you anywhere

I don't care if we're lost

We'll find the river again.

Born upon the shipwrecked coast

On the day of fools

She kept a light for stranded ghosts

And gathered up the wool

To keep from being lonely

She filled her head with dreams

She never lost a stranded thought

In the gathering

She liked to fall off edges

And never hit the ground

She liked to fall off edges

And wander in the clouds

She had no use for anchors

To hold her to this world

They would only trap her here

And bind, once more, her soul

She liked to fall off edges

And let her heart grow wings

Love was just like endless flight

A wish to fall again

She fell in love with shipwrecked ghosts

And gathered strands of wool

For every heart is made the same

The brave heart and the fool

She found her way through darkness

Through lifetimes lost at sea

For souls who have not shipwrecked yet

The rocks, they cannot see.

Tied to the mast

Wreckless and bent

Tonight the crow

Flies the nest

I will stay here

Tied to the wreck

Under blue sky

My heart is kept

I keep empty pockets

For runaway dreams

The things I can't hold

In my hands

I mourn the sky

I miss the sea

Under the willows

I stand

The clouds in the sky

Remind me that I

Have a long way

To climb

Tied to the mast

My life has been spent

I hold my dreams

In my hands.

Listen now, my child

I will tell you where I'm from

A place of shifting shelter

Where to live you must hold on

Black night breaths inside the womb

That births the golden dawn

Earth gives way beneath the feet

And to live you must hold on

The seaside strums a lullaby

That only brave hearts hear

The sound of storms descending

Grows deep within the ear

Where the firmament is orange

And the ocean, emerald green

Where every storm must be outrun

And the sun is seldom seen

The sky, it cries, like banshees howl

And the coast has sharpened horns

If ever you are stranded there

Remember to hold on

This place, my son, has sharpened teeth

Take care not to get caught

Far-off storms will find you there

Pinned up against the rocks

Should you fight the current

My son, you will be drowned

The ocean is a wild thing

Untamed and unbound

Your worries draw the angry sky

In the place where I am from

My dear, you mustn't let it hear

Or soon you will be found

By the time you hear the thunder

The birds will all be gone

The petrel and the albatross

Fly out before the storm

When pirates robbed the ancient hull

They called upon the storm

Billowing and echoing

The thunder clouds were born

Such cargo is the devil's own

A ship destined to wreck

Son, you mustn't use such gold

To pay your earthly debts

Don't get lost in worry

For you are not like me

You are from a different place

Where hope survives the sea

Where the firmament is orange

And the ocean, emerald green

You are from a different place

Where hope survives the sea.

I'll be gone before the rooster crows

I can see the open road

There's nowhere else I want to go

I can see the open road

Take all of my troubles

And shove them in the ground

I don't need them

Walking around

I bequeath my possessions

To the holy lord

My pockets will be empty

When I reach the golden doors

I'm gonna wash my mind of this earthly mud

I can see the open road

I'm gonna see the stars when I look up

I can see the open road

Take all of my sorrows

And put them on a train

Where I'm going

There ain't no rain

I'm gonna sleep under

The willows

And burn away the days

No dark clouds

Will keep the sunshine away

I'm gonna reach for the sky and fill my cup

I can see the open road

I'm gonna thank the lord when it opens up

I can see the open road

What I have to gain

Is nothing more to lose

Where I'm going

There ain't no blues

Only golden sky

Shining on my back

And the holy grail

Down the railroad tracks.

Some say that it is sleeping

But the land here is awake

In the flowering vines that climb the trees

And the rings that faeries make

Sap moves in the sugar trees

Blue iris paint the lake

The heart renews its vision

When the hillside comes awake

The wisdom of the wild place

Restores our second sight

In the darkest groves of hemlock

I have seen the bristling light

In the deepest part of winter

When the ice holds still the lake

Our hearts, they guard the vision

Of the land when it awakes

Should the faeries trick you

And your berries fall to blight

What winter winds may wither

The sun restores to life

We mourn our stolen vision

When the flowers fall to frost

In the deepest part of winter

When the light is nearly lost

Boughs and branches quake and bend

Before the winter thaw

The redwinged blackbirds sing again

In the wild fens and bogs

The earth gives rise in ebbs and sighs

In yellows and in greens

New daffodils have sprung to life

Beneath the sugar trees

The forest floor is rising

Ferns fumble toward the sun

The hermit thrush is back again

She sings her ancient song

The melting snow, it sinks below

To meet the rushing stream

The treefogs and the summer toads

Awaken from their sleep

The wisdom of the wild place

Restores our second sight

In the darkest groves of hemlock

I have seen the bristling light.

We come from the pines

From the low country dirt

Where the water runs red

And the fire trees grow

From the earth, we pull iron

From barrens and bogs

We drink from the sky

When the summer rains fall

Pitch pines bleed

Onto white sugar sand

The deer and the vulture

Reign over this land

Ash is our history

Our beginning and end

Angels and devils

Circle this land

They come down as lightning

As thunder and wind

They go up as ash

Where the fire trees stand

On the ash, travel memories

Of the earth sunken in

What falls down the hole

Shall crawl out again

It comes out at night

It howls on the wind

It keeps to the woods

Where the fire trees stand

Our plants, they drink blood

Our sand drinks the rain

We know that which dies

Will come back again

In a land that is barren

We've learned to breath fire

Our devils grow wings

Our angels grow tired

That which has fallen

Shall rise up again

We come from the iron

Where the fire trees stand.

A star fell from

The cold March sky

And landed in my eyes

I dropped it in the ocean

As I stumbled in the light

I go back

Every winter

When March is in its ides

When all the world has withered

And narrowed in its sight

When the earth

Has frozen solid

And the knuckles have grown white

When blood moves just like cedar sap

And wounds have open eyes

I go back

Every winter

When March is in its ides

I stare across the ocean

When the new moon starts to rise

I open up

My hands

To catch the falling light

This time, I will not drop it

This time, I won't lose sight

I promise

To surrender

And look toward the sky

I promise

To surrender

And nevermore lose sight.