She lived in the Polish projects

In the city of deep blues

The new world ghetto - Newark, New Jersey

So many souls there, passing through

There were heavy-hearted immigrants

And barroom brawls that spilled into the street

It was a heavy world for a little girl

And she felt the weight of it

As she tried to sleep

Her head was filled with magic

Kaleidoscopic images danced through

She could hear the angels singing

And they swept her away from her room

She gathered coins in the morning

That the night time had released

Flung from brawlers' pockets

Cast out by the drunken ruckus

In such a fleeting world

They were something she could keep

She took the train into New York City

She was fifteen, and carried a knife

She watched the strangers

She danced with the danger

Alone, she was free to be alive

She could harness the fear

That was already there

Haunting the dark corners of her life

This made her fearless

A special creature

Beautiful, raw, and composed of light

She learned her prayers in Polish

At Saint Casimir's Catholic School

The holy dove, inlaid above

Painted gold and red and blue

She told me ghost stories

But they were her stories

In the darkness, there's a light that shines through

She didn't need to capture it

Or prove it was magic

That was something that she already knew

It was in the kaleidoscopic images

In the angelic voices

In the colors of the flowers she planted

And in the places she danced through

It held her close

It never left her

The clear, bright light

Shining deep inside her

There was magic in the world, after all

It was the love that had come

To guide her heart through.

He was clearing out the cobwebs

From all the seasons passed

The years were coming quicker now

And quicker still, each passed

If time can move so quickly

Then why does the mind stand still

He knew that there could be no God

And that hell on earth was real

These cobwebs are relentless, he thought

They're always coming back

He'd sweep them away on clear, sunny days

But the north wind always blew them back

He was jolted into the past

In no time at all

But he sat there in the present

So no one ever saw

He was a time traveler

Always going back

To walk inside his shadow

On the long and winding path

He was the miner of what can't be forgotten

He was the heart that holds the war

He carried with him the stories of many others

And through his veins, that history poured

He had walked through a hellscape

With a specter close behind

It always hung around him

But at night, it came alive

He was not awake to fight it

And the veil, it wears so thin

The war, it filled his beating heart

In this life, there was no end

He watched the earth break open

He saw the sun turn black

From a stranger's foreign shore

He never could come back

He held the love of many others

But they weren't the ones who knew

They could see the edges of his pain

But the contents were only known to a few

The war, it never ended

Within him, it still grew

How many lives can one man carry

He already knew.

I'm gonna go out west

Where the suns gets tall

I'll pack up my dreams

My shovel, and saw

I'll finally see the desert

And the old redwood trees

Where the future grows tall

I'll build me a dream

I'm gonna go out west

Where the thunder clouds roll

I'll dig in the earth

Where the dirt turns to gold

I'm gonna go out west

And get myself free

Where the blackbirds gather

I'll plant me a dream

I'm gonna go out west

Before I get old

All my wandering thoughts

Will turn into gold

I'm gonna go out west

And never come back

With room in my head

And treasure in my hands.

The stars, they move

Across the night sky

The heavens meet

In celestial riptides

Capricorn is rising

In the eastern sky

And I am alone

Chasing heaven tonight

Long live the light

That drips from the boughs

The fruit weighs heavy

The branches sink down

The roots descend

As if heaven's crown

Tonight is the night

I chase heaven down

Sometimes I dream

That I cannot see

My eyes, they weigh heavy

They burn from the day

I reach for the water

I reach for the night

On that dark, lonesome road

I chase heaven tonight.

He came from a town

Dug in by the sea

The coastline held treasures

That not all could see

Many made the journey

To the town by the sea

They spoke of its beauty

Its calm, lifting seas

When they came, they built bonfires

That lit up the night

Never seeing the ocean

As it held the moonlight

He understood its wildness

Its destructive tendencies

They came once a year

In the season of peace

He'd seen how its waves

Could swallow men whole

How the ocean collects

What men think they own

He lived in the mud

In the storms and the floods

It was the cold, gray water

That ran through his blood

He needed raw weather

The bays and backwaters

Without open water

His eyes could not see

He would stay there forever

Dug in by the water

His gray eyes held the treasure

That not all could see.

The sky has grown heavy

With the weight of mens' dreams

Once, it was empty

Just the moon and the sea

It contains every sorrow

Every vision and dream

The stars serve as anchors

To the things we can't see

The sky weighs heavy

In the age of tangled dreams

The stars, they are falling

To grant its release

Our lifetimes move quickly

In feverish sleep

They are only small windows

From which we can see

In the age of falling stars

I can hear the sky scream

We are born to forget

What we're destined to see.

She set off to wander

Where the pines grow tall

Far away from the towns

And their ivy-choked walls

She followed her feet

Until she got lost

She stopped at the place

Where the sun formed a cross

They warned her of serpents

In the great sunken lake

In its watery mirrors

Men drift away

They warned her of monsters

That the mind itself makes

In the canopied cathedrals

Where the light falls away

The birds grew silent

The wind died down

The heartbeat of the forest

Rose up from the ground

She laid on the moss

On the green, breathing earth

In the still, golden silence

Under stands of white birch

She communed with the spirits

Long held by the land

She closed her eyes

And opened her hand

There were granite halls

And moss-covered paths

She sat ever-still

As the world circled past

It wasn't a dream

The unseen was vast

The ravens grew restless

The green darners danced

She shook off the static

That clung to her skin

It passed through her body

And left on the wind

They were hers to brave

The dark groves and deep lakes

She needed distance

The unconfined space

She was never afraid

Of their serpents and snakes

What she dreaded the most

Were the hours and days

Outside of the walls

She could wander away

She could summon her demons

And chase them away

In the forest cathedral

In the white birch stand

She closed her eyes

And opened her hand.

The big black birds

In the sky, form circles

They take up the grief

That the earth makes fertile

I lay down my weapons

I come here in peace

I ask you, great river

To grant my release

I feel it coming

The flood again

Grant me great courage

And strength in my hands

Should the flood take me

Should the storm break me

Should the world that I built

Run through my hands

I'll go east to the ocean

Where the great river ends

With an undying devotion

I will find it again

I'll build up my courage

And the strength in my hands

Where the seagulls gather

I will hold it again.

Oh mother

Can you take

My worries from me

And tie them like ornaments

To the sycamore trees

We'll weave golden garlands

For our heads to be crowned

They'll protect us in darkness

When the winter comes down

Oh mother

Can you fill

My body with light

And crown me with candles

When the world turns to night

We'll build crowns of fire

And project our own light

In the old hemlock grove

Where the shadows reside

Oh mother

Please grant me

The gift of sight

When the sun returns

I'll know well, the night

We'll burn green boughs

From the evergreen trees

There's a sacred protection

In the resin they bleed

Oh mother

Protect me

With the light of the sun

On the longest of nights

When the winter has come.

There's an old stone bridge

That I have crossed

It finds my feet when I am lost

It leads me to familar ghosts

Where heaven and earth collide

It does not seem so long ago

That my path, with yours, did cross

The autumn rushes by us now

The ferns are brushed with frost

It once was mine

I captured time

The light, in my image, danced

With rushing devotion, I came to life

In the earth, my roots were tapped

But now a silence softly grows

And ivy chokes the apple groves

I imagine only heaven knows

How quickly time does pass

With cheerful birds, returns the spring

The old stone bridge is green again

It's come time I should cross again

My feet are worn with miles

For all the miles I have tread

And all my comrades, come and went

Our paths are sure to cross again

For I've walked it by your side

To all of my familiar ghosts

And all the ones I've loved the most

Where new life springs from cold gray stone

I'll return once more to life.

I wear the crown of a dying king

Long gutted by the storm

My crown weighs heavy

Where all land ends

I am headed for the north

It pulls me from a distance

Like the waves that rush the shore

I sink in the sand

In the cold north wind

The waves are breaking tall

I am king of the water

I reign over the storm

In my bloodline, I carry

What is yet to be born

My head contains oceans

My heart holds the rain

Where water runs clear

The sky speaks my name

Through gray winds, wailing

I hear the siren song

Standing tall, I carry

The weight of the storm

I am descended from embers

That burn in the blood

I command the north waters

Of the life-giving flood

Where the water runs clear

And the sun's colors dance

The sorrows I've held

Will run through my hands

I will keep walking forward

Though the embers grow small

Against the north wind

I will hold myself tall.

Ancient history filled the air

The edges burned with light

She cast her only anchor

To the storm cloud's open eye

In landscapes of undying dreams

She collected ornamental leaves

A rip in time

A cosmic bleed

The rain pulled down the sky

She dipped her toe

Along the edge

Of the river's rushing shore

The water rushing by her now

Had passed her by before

The water was a mirror

A golden looking glass

It held the heat of many suns

And many anchors cast

Alive in the water

Were undying dreams

In the moment of grasping

They ceased to be

The ones that had crossed her

The ones that had crowned her

The ones that grew wild

From the tiniest seed

She lived by the water

To be nearer her dreams

The things she can't touch

The things she can see

She would carry them back

If only, she could

But a thing so wild

Would be misunderstood

With empty hands

She could never explain

What cannot be grasped

What cannot be named

She held great riches

She held the whole world

Her anchor of gold

Her eye in the storm.

On the eve of another setting sun

I see the road that's dark

Fire sweeps through ochre leaves

And ignites the sacred heart

The trees reach up to heaven

Toward a brilliant burning sun

They came to life in darkness

Where roots and rivers run

Cathedraled canopies hold the heat

Of a thousand setting suns

Infinites exist between the leaves

In silk that's spider-spun

Another sun has risen

Another road falls dark

I wander in the waylands

Where paths of travelers cross

I forge a heart of iron

For the road ahead that's dark

My hands are steady in the fire

That lights the sacred heart

My people come from islands

Green lands of stone and sod

Our bloodline holds the weather

The rains, the wind, the flood

We move inside the weather

Sunblind and thunderstruck

Our blood moves ever-westward

Where the gold road opens up

Where gray stone drops to deep blue sea

And the world is open sky

The road will meet our weary feet

And match our traveler's stride

My heart beats ever-steady

To meet the road ahead

I'm the last of the travelers of the iron clan

Who walk along the edge

We are forgers of the sacred fire

That lights the path ahead

A well-worn path to other worlds

That those before us tread

A fire burns within my heart

Far older than my years

I'm the forger of the sacred heart

The blood of iron's will.

I come from the valley

That holds up the sky

The clouds in my head

The rain in my eyes

I come from the valley

Of gathering storms

We draw closer to heaven

With each passing storm

The wise, weary mountains

Hold up the sky

I stand alongside them

Lonely and tired

Down in the valley

A soul can get caught

On the old fire roads

The miles get lost

Down in the valley

We all walk alone

Our fates grow nearer

With each passing storm

We have learned not to fight it

That which comes from the sky

For God's spade is sorrow

And the ground, it is ripe

We are just like the weather

Tangled and wild

Down in the lowlands

We hold up the sky.

Where is it you go

Each night when you sleep

I go east to the ocean

To the tangled blue sea

Where is it you're headed

At night in your dreams

To the trenches and canyons

Where at last I can breath

Silence surrounds me

In the arms of the deep

I forget every sorrow

That dry land keeps

Though the pressure is great

It's a weight I can bare

For under the world

I've no need for air

I lay on the seabed

Forgetting all ties

To the world overhead

Where the weather is wild

How is it I'll tell

Between life and a dream

As one comes to life

The other recedes

Each quest is the same

In tangled blue seas

We keep sight of the sun

And make peace beneath.

The colors danced

Behind her eyes

She gathered up the moonlight

The sun peeled back

The angry clouds

The colors bled to bright white

She felt the light

Move up her spine

It spoke in simple answers

Don't get lost

Inside the fire

The path of smoke and ashes

Her body burned

Her long hair hung

She waited for the midnight

She sang a song

In silver tongues

And gathered up the moonlight

She pulled the water

From the earth

And cast it to the north sky

It fell on her

In sheets of snow

The colors turned to white.

My words, they are leaving

Like ships on the sea

They dip in the distance

Night swallows day

With words, I built mountains

That lifted the sky

My foes fell to ruin

I danced in the fire

With words, I wove worlds

But the hurricanes came

My long, flowing ribbons

Were all cast away

I cast them to prayer

I cast them to peace

I cursed the mad sky

As it rained down on me

Words, my rope

Words, my anchor

Words, my earth and clay

On the gusts of a rising southern storm

In silver tongues, I sang

Words were my maps

They guided me back

From that liminal space

Where language is glass

Over blue mountains

On a steep, winding pass

I carried them with me

My ribbons and glass

With words, I wove worlds

But the hurricanes came

With my eyes on the wind

The earth fell away.

When the storms came

They opened the sky

When the sky fell

She opened her eyes

She lived with no rain

Twelve long years in the drought

The sun burned her skin

The sky held no clouds

She could hold off the weather

The sky, black and gray

But the thunder clouds found her

And the Furies, they came

She knew not the weather

That rose in her brain

Building and lifting

The tidal waves came

She kept enough rope

Enough to escape

It was tied to a time

Before the storms came

She pulled on the rope

To find her way back

But the sky always fell

As she grappled the past

She knew not the weather

Contained in her eyes

Gray clouds and blue seas

A weather, so wild

Pinned to the earth

Soaked in the mud

The storm now upon her

She let the flood come

When the sky rains

It pours from her eyes

Now when she sings

It opens the sky.