A little bird, she sang to me

To tell me that your soul was free

The western mountains called you home

You always had a desert soul

I'm back east where it all began

Where there's pitch pines and white sugar sand

I see you on a mountain road

Colorado's peaks are brushed with snow

And I thought I saw you sitting there

In the moonlight on the beach house stairs 

Your heart wrapped up in holy gold

You held the ocean in your soul

I remember you with the sun in your eyes

The laughing gulls, above us, flying

I have always known your soul

It winds just like a desert road

Your golden skin, it caught the sun

The summer wind blew across the ocean 

Honeysuckle climbed the driftwood poles

Where you and I were ocean souls

You found a road headed for the sun

And though I wish you were not gone 

The western mountains called you home

You always had a desert soul.

I made my peace with God today

Swimming in the ocean

The sun bowed down in fractured rays 

I knelt on the sand at the bottom

One day, when my name is gone

And this time is long forgotten

I'll return to the beach as the summer swell

The waves that the surfers find God on

My thoughts will crumble into sand

For another soul to stand on 

I won't be kept by the curse of dry land

I'll find my peace deep in the canyons

The sea will take my troubles away

And turn them into sky

Traveling like a white-winged bird

Disappearing over the horizon 

I'll find freedom looking up

Getting drunk by the sight of the moon

The morning sun will call to me 

Rising up behind the white dunes 

I will have fins, and wings for to fly

When I go floating away

I'll return as the little white butterflies

In the gardens on midsomer days

Orange wings, backlit by the sun

In October, when all the tourists are gone

The dog days will fade as the goldenrod blooms

The last monarch butterfly will lift off from the dunes

I'll make my peace with God that day

Diving down deep in the canyons

Pushing up the winter swell

For another soul to find God on.

She came from San Francisco

Wearing flowers in her hair

Making her way to the east coast 

Following the chemtrails

She listens to The Stooges

1969

She imagines all these places

When they were still alive

She goes back to the old songs

And finds the light in strangers

Traveling from coast to coast 

She sees so many angels

She's closest to the ones she's lost

They speak to her in signs

Iggy Pop is singing

The stars are yours and mine

She found the antidote to life

Not fearing the height of the fall

This life we have is fragile 

And we're just holding on

There's cricket song when the light is gone 

Serenading her along her way 

Following the chemtrails 

Across the U.S.A

The river coils like a diamondback snake

She counts the ghost towns on the way 

Looking out the window 

A child of the interstate

Her roots are shallow like a desert plant 

She wears yellow flowers in her hair

She loves to feel the start of things

But hates the thought of time

When the sun beams through the clouds

Her favorite ghosts are looking down

A lost child of the nuclear age 

She knows the desert songs

Her crown is made of rattlesnakes

Her soul is young and old

She dances as the sun melts away

And smiles at the sight of the road

She looks into the future

Not fearing the year of the snake

Seeing the light in strangers

Finding angels on the interstate.

The night moves with the fireflies

The longest days begin 

The weather moves inside her eyes

The rain drips on my skin 

I went swimming when the night was black 

To call my fears away

But the channels here are very deep

And when the fog moves in, it stays

I searched for meaning in the sky

Listening for my name

The cricket song lifted from the garden

Fireflies carried it away

The ocean, she remembered me 

She watched me being born 

She gave me the color of my eyes

The way the water looks before a storm 

I have a place where I can go

When I have no strength in my hands anymore

All that you have while you're here is your soul

A flake from the sun, a road that leads home 

I remember her from far away

On summer night when the fireflies raise

Carrying off the cricket song

On the eastern wind that leads back home

I went swimming when the night was black

Without the cover of sun

My fear, it carried me away

And pulled me under the ocean

But under the weight of the water 

My soul had come awake 

I was born at the height of a storm

Where the only the biggest waves break

Listening, I heard my name 

How a mother would speak to her daughter

Anyone can drown, my girl 

But it's you who can breath underwater

I have a place where I can go

When I have no strength in my hands anymore

All that you have while you're here is your soul

A flake from the sun, a road that leads home.

Back on the road

Headed down through God's country

Peace flows like a river 

Down through these green hills 

My mind is set high

On the indigo mountains

My heart has a wound

That I'm looking to heal 

The headlights, they flicker

Like the eyes of an angel

On these dark, empty miles 

The golden light spills 

All of my troubles

Sank down to the bottom

Under big water

They're buried there, still

The high golden sun

Is my paradise waiting

I'm aiming for heaven 

Far over the hills

My mother said God

Is something inside you

All sins get forgiven

All wounds become healed

And I'll find my peace

By the side of the river 

Down in God's country

The sky knows my name

My mind is set high

On the indigo mountains

I smile with the sunshine

And cry with the rain.

I thought I heard the angels
Calling out for me
I thought I heard the river
Crying for the sea

I stand where the forest turns to sand
The ocean takes a deep breath in
The night, so black
The moon, so dim
The seabirds, all asleep

I stand where the river runs wild and clear
My feet on the edge of the last frontier
I'm pulled by a dream that came to me
One night when I was asleep

The ocean pulls
The earth, it quakes
The dam inside my soul must break
All of my days will distill to one drop
Into one point of light in the dark

Such beautiful dreams, I hold in my hands
Where I am going, there is no land
No curse can lay upon me
When I am out at sea

No grave can keep my body down
No more, I'll sink
No more, I'll drown
Thunder rumbles in the far away clouds
The seabirds stir from their sleep

I stand in front of the swallowing night
Choking on the last piece of light
Wounded by the darkness
And blinded by the sun

The lightning comes from my fingertips
The rain pours from my eyes
I come up on the edge of God
The light that I lost deep inside

My dream begins to flutter
I open my hand, and she flies
Through the storm, over black water
Into the dark ocean, she dives

She belongs to the water
She is a piece of the sky
She sings as she flies against the wind
And when she is happy, she cries

I come up on the edge of God
The ocean pulls me in
I release the dream, touching her wings
I know she will be back again

Such beautiful dreams, I hold in my hands
The ocean takes a deep breath in
There is a light that never goes out
In the darkest part of the sea.

When I was young, I followed the sun 

And at night, the shadows would gather

I heard the moon singing out her song 

I stood at the mouth of the river

A child born under the sign of the sun

In the year of the water dragon 

Encountering every hour of the night

Learning to let the light win

When I was young, the monarchs would come

In the quiet days of September 

So many above, they would block out the sun 

Their wings just like flickering embers

When the songbird finds her way to spring

Having lost her last hope in the storm

Her faith is born in the depth of the night

When the last drop of sunlight is gone

Like the first flower of spring slowly opening 

Like the last breath of night before dawn

In the lost, empty miles under the desert sky

To the lonely places, I'm drawn

There are dragons that protect the river

With eyes just as bright as the sun

The only way we get to see them 

Is for all other light to be gone

A child born under the sign of the sun

In the year of the water dragon 

Encountering every hour the night

Learning to let the light win.

I hear the river speak to me 

She snakes her way back to the sea

The nighthawks gather up the night

And stir the fireflies 

A familiar song drifts on the sea

My open heart begins to bleed

Blue notes, I sing for sorrow 

Gold notes, I sing for joy

A dove sings softly through the night

The summer songs have come alive 

I follow the little path 

That brings me nearer home

With the wind, the white birch dance

The river bends along my path 

Through the fog, the north star shines

The wind is at my back

Two blackbirds sit by my door 

One for sorrow, two for joy 

Every year that I've been lost 

Has brought me nearer home 

So many miles, alone, I've walked

By the hungry wolves, my heart's been stalked

Something moves inside the night

That make my blood run cold

But dawn is waiting on the wing

Lifting up, the blackbird sings

One note, she sings for sorrow

Two notes, she sings for joy

By the rain, my heart is kept 

Washed away, I hold my breath

The river keeps on moving

Snaking her way to the sea

On summer nights, she sings to me 

A new sun rises in the east

My open heart begins to bleed

In the sky, the blackbirds dance

It's summertime when I return

I lock my hope inside the sun

The blackbirds gather at my door 

Leaving golden trinkets

Sometimes I feel my heart will burst

With overflowing love and hurt

I walk along the little path 

That brings me nearer home

A new sun rises in the east

Blackbirds sing from the goldnbirch trees

A treasure has been left for me

Of St. Thérèse, The Little Flower 

My golden heart begins to bleed

Inside the sun, I turn the key 

Every step that e'er I took

Has brought me nearer home 

With the wind, the willows dance 

The north star guides me on my path 

The river keeps on moving 

Snaking her way to the sea. 

There is magic underneath our feet
And a man inside the moon
Raindrops gather on the leaves
In the heavy days of June

There is something stirring in the night
Out on the empty street
In the ghostly glow of the halogen lights
That makes the crickets sing

The clouds are covering over me
I feel the weight of June
It's time I should be moving on
The staying makes me blue

My bones are made of desert sand
My blood, the raging river
My blue eyes catch the morning light
Before the shadows scatter

The city lights, they baptize me
In their heavenly halogen glow
The outside world has gone to sleep
The summer thunder rolls

On the road, it follows me
Through the country of big sky
Sometimes it rushes over me
It finds me where I hide

I feel it when the night is thin
Orbiting like Saturn's rings
My worries draw the monsters in
And wake the angry sky

But the raindrops carry music
And in June, the water pours
I channel it by dancing
Finding peace inside the storm

Thunder shakes beneath my feet
A force too big to fight
I feel it washing over me
It finds me where I hide

But in the sky, there's music
From the ground, upswells the beat
With the lonely ghosts, I'm dancing
From the weight of June, I'm free.

The cuckoo comes in the late days of June

In the haze of the midsomer heat

The sky is thin like the cabbage moth's wings

Barn swallows fly high on the breeze

She sleeps in the old weeping willow

And at dawn, she flies straight toward the sun

I watch her fly high with the sun in my eyes

To the world, some magic returns.

I was with you the night
They came from the sky
When consciousness
Cracked open wide

Saint Francis stood over us
Weaving ribbons of prayer
Our feet left the ground
When they landed here

Some say they are the ancients gods
Who created us from dust
Giants from another time
The lost seeds of heaven and earth

I saw them on the mountain that night
Drawing circles in the sky
The fruit of otherworldly dreams
Falling from the vine

Who knew the world would end in June
When everything's so green
I always imagined snow
And the crazy, howling wind

Every cloud left from the sky
The night they landed here
The earth let out the longest sigh
The night that they appeared

The gods spun time into circles
Spiraling like Saturn's last ring
A seed from the worm-eaten apple
Growing glorious ribbons of green

I thought that the end would feel heavy
But it feels more like shedding a dream
With you, I've got nothing to carry
Our history ends in green

Who knew the thing that kept us here
Was the fear of the height and the fall
The knotted grip of gravity
Coming loose, and sliding off

We'll be on the road before morning
Driving the crooked highway into the sun
We'll nod to the sky, squinting our eyes
We'll watch as the new world is born

The countryside is crumbling
Green shoots breaking through old concrete
With you, I don't mind if I'm falling
Because gravity feels like a dream

When we fall, there'll be nothing to carry
On the road, we are bound for the sun
In the ground, they'll be nothing to bury
The earth and the stars will be one.

I don't like the rivers here
They always run away
The ocean never lets me go
She's the one who always stays

She doesn't mind when I am sad
When the clouds in my head have turned gray
She wraps me up in her heavenly blue
With the rivers, I vanish away

I have this anchor I drag around
I pulled it from the sea
A girl like me can float away
So I keep it tied around me

Inland, where the rivers begin
The sun breaks through in rays
I sit beneath the sycamore trees
The treetops catch the rain

I let the forest bury me
In kaleidoscopic shades of green
Evening descends like a symphony
With the river, I drift to the sea

I'm the one who always dreams
The one who always pines
The lonely girl from the ocean block
Out on the barrier islands

I have this weight I drag around
I pulled it from the ocean
A girl like me can float away
And sink so fast, I touch bottom

I think of her on starless nights
When the summer sky turns gray
When sheets of rain blow through the trees
And the rivers rush away

I come from where the rivers end
Where everything dies and is born
The ocean never lets me go
She holds me in her arms

Someday I'll return as the river
Traveling back to the sea
Someday I'll put my anchor down
And there'll be nothing left to hold me

I'll disappear into the ocean
And there, I'll be reborn
And here beneath the sycamore tree
The earth and the stars will be one.

Tell me mother, when it all unravels
How will I find the sun
There's something foreign in my heart
And the gardens have overgrown

Every heart, I've heard it said
Is forged from fear and love
Every act carried out on this earth
Comes from only one

I lift my heart out from my chest
And tie it to a tree
I feel the arrows flying by
Landing in the dirt around me

Tell me mother, when it all unravels
How will I find peace again
My soul dropped out from my wandering feet
And all I can feel is the rain

Once, this place was holy
But the vultures have circled around
Some things can only exist in the dark
But mother, it's pulling me down

I wish I was an albatross
Flying out to sea
Far away from dry land
And the weight of its memories

The rivers here are rising
I steady myself for the flood
A hundred miles out to sea
The storm blocks out the sun

I walk the distance I find in my heart
Miles I've tread in between
I wrap myself up in the stars
And sink to the bottom of the sea

Down here, all things are holy
All things, they speak as one
Saint Sebastian comes to life
The sacred heart, it burns

Once, this place was holy
Once, this place was ours
Once, we knew our forefathers
Once, we knew the stars

I put my heart back in my chest
The silver arrows are flying
All souls are either getting born
Or getting busy dying

Tell me mother, when it all unravels
How will I know fear from love
You'll know it by the way it grows
Bending itself toward the sun.

At times, I find, there's nothing here to hold me
And gravity won't stick to me at all
To the south, the summer birds are flying
And the coldness of the morning's coming down

I'm so high, there's nothing left to ground me
Up here, alone, at home among the stars
But something on the earth can always pull me
And every time I go, my soul gets lost

And life is just another crooked highway
A southbound Greyhound bus chasing the sun
The morning sky reveals her endless beauty
And the desert sky at night holds every star

And all of us are waiting for the morning
And everyone is chasing just one sun
The river can't go back to where she came from
It's in the letting go that she moves on

I fear I'll disappear into the darkness
And my heart will come apart so far from home
One day I might forget that I'm the river
Surrendering to the ocean, I'll be gone

But life is like a silver singing river
A butterfly, so high, burned by the sun
We can't go back the same way that we came from
There's something even bigger we become

And all of us are waiting for the morning
To feel the sun upon our skin, return
Down the coast, the summer birds are flying
And the southbound Greyhound bus chases the sun.

At night, I hear the whippoorwills
And the southbound rolling train
I like it when I float away
On the wind, like a ghost, in the rain

Souls, they come and go out here
I hear them on the wind
In the late days of July, like fog in the sky
When the August crickets sing

And I've given myself over
To the force that moves the river
I've lost the cause to fight it
But I'm happy anyway

It's always in the little things
Like the honeysuckle opening
Like riding on the summer waves
To feel like you are flying

My feet, they slip on cold, gray stone
But I have found the way back home
I am gone when the thunder rolls
I return with the wind at my back

Heaven exists upon the earth
And it's a place that I have been
When the sun comes down to melt the snow
And the daffodils are opening

For a moment, I am not myself
And the world is something more
The sunshine turns the river gold
And I want nothing more

And I've given myself over
To the force that moves the river
I've lost the cause to fight it
But I'm happy anyway

It's always in the little things
The whippoorwill, at night, she sings
There are places where heaven connects with the earth
And for a moment, I have been.

Whenever I am lost at sea
I hear your voice, it carries me
You are somewhere in the dark
Where the cities slide down to the sea

I'm floating up to the surface
Where the sun paints the ripples in gold
I'm sinking down to the bottom
What a beautiful way to fall

Above, the seagulls are flying
The sea sings her ancient song
The summer sun is falling
A cold wind blows in from the north

So many treasures, my arms did hold
As I stood at the edge of the world
When I was young, I dreamed of the flood
Of what waited in the dark

I fought back the waves and cursed at the wind
All of my monsters have come from within
I felt the power leave from my hands
Where the darkness became attached

I heard the ocean, a voice in the dark
The crashing waves of the saved and the lost
The water so wide, I could not swim across
The darkness followed me

I feel it when the tide comes in
The Fates have brought me back again
To stand against the cold north wind
With nothing in my hands

They find me when I am alone
When the summer sun is moving on
The voices of the ones who've drowned
The ghosts that follow me

But far away, there is a light
That all lost souls can see
It guides us through the stormy nights
Through lifetimes lost at sea

When I am lost, I hear a voice
The ocean calls to me
If I am brave, and I let go
The darkness cannot find me

I can see the surface
Where the sun paints the ripples in gold
I feel my body rising
What a beautiful way to let go

I'm breaking through the surface
The morning sky fills up my lungs
Above, the seagulls are flying
What a beautiful way to return.

The stars, they look so far away
From where I stand on earth
I saw one tumble from the sky
When I was a little girl

When I saw it happen
I told no other soul
I walked down through the foggy woods
To look for where it fell

I found it in a clearing
Where the earth had been disturbed
The forest was so quiet
Not a cricket, a frog, or a bird

It shined so dimly as it lay on the earth
But the forest was bathed in its light
I was frozen in a moment, so holy
Crossing paths with a thing, so divine

Not a word was spoken between us
But I felt what she said in the dark
I asked if she had been defeated
From such a great height, she did fall

She said that all souls descending to earth
Have no memory after the fall
One lonely night, we give up our wings
And fall to the earth like a star

The fog sunk and rolled down the valley
Birdsong blew in on the wind
The stars disappeared in the morning light
As if gravity was thinning

To the star, I could not offer my pity
For only she knows why she came
To keep light alive in the darkness
To stand on the earth and be brave

On late August nights, I go to the place
Where I watched the star fall from the sky
By now, she has become someone
But she can't remember why

I wish for her peace on her journey
When she's lost and forgets where she's from
When the fog sinks and rolls down the valley
May some memory of this night return

Sometimes I go to the clearing
When the foggy night blocks out the stars
Not a word was spoken between us
But I felt what she said in the dark.

The yellow sun is sinking down
The dew rests on the leaves
The silver moon is shimmering
In heavenly sleep, she dreams

This life I found is beautiful
Like the rolling summer sea
Standing on the shifting sand
The waves wash over me

The night birds, west, are flying
The waves crash on the shore
I have the strangest feeling
Like I've been here before

This life I found is beautiful
These things, you'd never dream
There's silver thread like spider's web
Connecting you to me

The dew drops quiver
As the morning light scatters
The spider, she wakes from her sleep
The dawn shines in her mirrored eyes
The sun returns effortlessly

My days, I filled, with worry
In the time before I knew
Before I felt the silver thread
Connecting me to you

Heaven shines down
Through the lumbering clouds
I look up through the trees
My thoughts, they crumble into sand
I surrender them back to the sea

The night birds, west, are flying
The waves crash on the shore
I have the strangest feeling
Like I've been here before

At dusk there is a violet light
Where the ocean meets the sky
It melts, and turns into silver
Tying my soul to the sky

The fears I kept, they buried me
Like an anchor, dragged me down
Far away from the sight of land
I fought until I drowned

But in my time of drowning
I looked up through the clouds
Breathing underwater
The silver thread came down

Awoken from the dream of life
Alive, where the sky meets the sea
The moon, she sleeps in heavenly peace
And the sun returns effortlessly.

I can see the sky is slipping
I can feel the red, hot earth
I can hear my rabbit heart
Calling in the big black birds

Wild horses, like thunder rolling
Pulling in the mighty wind
I can feel my senses burning
The sand beneath me, sinking in

I stood on the edge of the desert
With nothing in my arms but a prayer
The raven, she called out an answer
It was gone like a moth in the air

There are spirits out here in the desert
I hear them on nights with no wind
They lead me in different directions
They follow me into my dreams

So I walk with the heart of a lion
For I know it's my time to be brave
The wild horses are coming
On the heels of the hurricane

And even though my hands are tied
I'm alive when my skin feels the rain
And even though my heart runs wild
I trust that it still knows the way

On the road, I see the beauty
On the road, I feel the pain
I sleep under the evening stars
In this lonely, wild place

My rabbit heart is beating fast
Red embers lift into the sky
There are no other souls in the desert tonight
Just the rabbit, the lion, and I

The stars are shooting low tonight
To remind me why I came
To wear the heart of a lion
When my rabbit heart can't be brave

First there was nothing, a distant heartbeat
The eastern forest, so dark
The angel rose from the western desert
Crashing thunder and splintering rock

No birds could be heard in the forest
To the south, they had all flown away
I stared at the cold eyes of winter
Locked in, I could not look away

Hope can get lost in the forest
In these dark days, the sun pulls away
I feel that which grows unfamiliar
The night bleeds into the day

To the western world, I am headed
Where the lost gods live and breath
In the west, the light is growing
A darkness descends in the east

My gaze, it is fixed on the mountains
On the light of the campfire glow
I'm not the only one searching out here
When the snow begins to fall

It paints the rock white in the highlands
On the peaks of the lost mountain roads
Crows circle high in the gold dust sky
And we let the fire grow

A new sun will rise on the desert
And our gaze, it will lift ever-high
Tonight, we will lay down our armor
And hold our hearts to the sky

Though winter descends on the desert
These mountains hold riches of gold
On the place where the earth fell to ruin
The eleventh angel rose

Though the winter holds us captive
Our hearts still remember the spring
New life begins in the darkness
First nothing, then a distant heartbeat.