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 rivers end

Through undying devotion

I will find it again

I'll build up my courage

And the strength in my hands

Where the white birds 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.

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.