You were on the highway

Where the big sky knows your name 

Your headlights casting rainbows 

Where the night crossed with the rain 

Some say this world is dyin'

But maybe what dies still comes back

And here in our mockingbird kingdom

We walk with the sun on our backs

God is the part that's already forgiven 

The light that we've got deep inside

It shines when the hurricane's hitting

And when love is a battle we fight

The summer nights keep me awake

With the sun gone, I get washed away

I wish for you peace, I wish you could stay

I'd keep your blue skies from turning gray

Come find me now 'cause I can't sleep

I'm lost in the forest of memories

Like tupelo trees, the roots here run deep

There are generations awake underneath

And when the sky turns into rain

I can always see your face

To hold the ocean in your heart

Is to feel it all get ripped apart

And God is the part that's already forgiven 

The light that we've got deep inside

I don't think this world is dyin'

I think it's just coming alive 

These summer nights keep me awake

At night, the time here dilates

The sky shakes with the lightning crash

And in the light, you're driving back

And I could never be alone

This mockingbird kingdom grows deep in my bones

There are generations awake underneath

And in the dark, I hear them speak 

The storms out here, they never rest

And it weighs heavy on your chest

It won't be long before you're gone

The winding road grows deep in your bones

Our days here feel more like a dream

Like we're blinded from awakening

To hold another in your soul

Is to feel the storm hit over and over 

And I could never be alone

Our mockingbird kingdom grows deep in my bones

The lightning paints the night sky gold

And in the light, you're driving home 

And God is the part that's already forgiven 

The light that we've got deep inside

I don't think that we're dyin'

I think we're just coming alive.

Been waiting for death to find me 

Since 1964

I stayed in California 

Just back from the faraway war

I came home to the USA

To the land of a foreign god

When the earth caved in beneath me

Just like it never was 

I made my home in the mountains

Where the last of the condors fly 

So many ghosts surround me

I don't mind 'cause I keep them alive 

Down there, no one remembers

And time has slipped away

Up here, it's 1965

On the radio, The Stones are playing

On this side of the mountain

The desert Diablo winds blow

Across the bedrock of the desert

And through the cursed lands of my soul

The dragonflies are sparkling blue 

Snakes lay on the slate to stay warm

I sit and watch the sun go down 

Time circles itself 'round the sun

Death, he still remembers me

Having looked into my eyes

Been waiting for him to find me again

Since 1969

But all these years, he's stayed away

On this mountain, I've grown old

I used to hear the old men say 

It's the same wherever you go

I made my home in the mountains

Where the last of the condors fly

My faraway boys surround me

I'm the one who keeps them alive.

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.

I drive around these dusty roads

Finding pieces of you in the sky

The road behind me disappears 

In the last days of July

The summer sun is fading

The mourning doves are sighing

The songbirds, they are moving on

To take flight in another sky

I can see the southern oaks

Stretched out before the sun

The amber sun is disappearing

Underneath the ocean 

Driving on these lonely roads

You speak to me in signs

Taking flight from the surface of earth

Like a dark-winged butterfly

I see you in the future

In the light of the fireflies 

I'd drive through August and everything after

To see you again in the sky

My days here are not over

On earth, I'm still doing my time

One day I'll get my golden wings

And be next to you flying 

The nights are getting colder 

September has come to an end

Headlights cast over the rolling desert

Time crumbles back into sand

The roots of the plants here are shallow

When the wind comes, I watch them take flight

History connects them to the earth

But destiny ties them to the sky

I'll wait for my wings and be patient 

Rooted for now here on earth

I know my way through the darkness now 

You've shown me the places to search

I grow my roots to stay shallow

Never quite tied to one place

The horizon approaches, the road disappears 

I live in an in-between state

Like two points of light in the darkness 

Your sky connecting with mine

Taking flight from the surface of earth

Like a dark-winged butterfly.

If I could hold the golden sun

And I could catch the wind

If there was nowhere left to go

And nothing left to dream

I'd set sail across the sea

Pulled by the ivory wind

The promise of another coast

The shore of another dream

A white dove flies above me

My only tie to land 

She sings her songs of freedom to me 

Not fighting the course of the wind

The ocean covers over me

I take a deep breath in 

In the dark, I hear her breath 

The waves crashing down on the sand

The river has begun to flow

Silence settles over the golden coast

So many miles away from home

And I begin to dream

So much I took for granted

Before the storm touched land

How quickly history disappears

When water runs over the sand

Nothing here was meant to keep 

History dissolves on the shore 

Time is just a single breath

An island surrounded by water

A white dove flies above me

My only tie to land

She sings her songs of freedom

Not fighting the course of the wind

The white clouds move above us

We rise, then fall again

So many miles left to go

Before we touch land again

The ocean hushes me to sleep

I take a deep breath in 

In the dark, I hear her breath

In the silence, I understand.

There's a song where I come from

That carries on the air 

And runs along the currents

Where the water's deep and clear

In the meadows and the forests

In the ripples on the bay

It rises with the fireflies

And comes down with the rain

In the ocean's waves, it opens

From the river's mouth, it flows

With the sun, it travels west

It lights the way back home 

In the stillness, I can feel it

Lifting with the cricket song

Hovering over the garden

A dragonfly's wings in the sun

In the silence, I can hear it

It matches my heartbeat

And any other song I'd sing 

Would never sound as sweet

The sun is moving westward

The night herons are fishing

Where the river meets the sea

The silver bay is shimmering 

It moves out with the ocean

And flows inside my blood

In the stars, it gathers

When the heaven opens up

It lingers in between my lungs

And flows out with my breath

In the night, with feathered wings

It lifts out from my chest

It rises with the fireflies

And comes down with the rain

I only need to sing it

To be back home again.

He said not to be afraid

When the angel came

In the halls of ancient spirits

That are echoing your name 

He said it will get darker 

That land will wash away

He said it will get darker

To find the light again

I walk upon the cold, gray stone

Beyond the walls of dreams

The salty fog soaked in my hair

Seaweed tangled around my feet

He said all souls would lose their way

But we are not our earthly pain

To remember who we are again

On earth, unbinds the chains 

No hope can grow in bitter soil

Remember who you are, my child

It's only pain and nothing more

A shadow from outside

It's never been the way you are

To be afraid without the stars

Forgive yourself your broken heart 

The light comes from inside

No doubt can grow where love is wild

Dark horses on the beaches, white

Captives of the boundless night 

Running on the earth 

Faith is proven when you're lost

When there is not a single star

But there's no shadow that exists

Without a source of light

Where seabirds fly, the sky is gray

My feet erode the land away

The spirits of the ancient ones

Are singing out my name

They say it will get darker 

That land will wash away

They say it will get darker

To find the light again

The north wind hits with all its might

Birds unsteady in their flight 

In the heavy arms of night

I'm caught by the angry sea

I looked down on the crashing waves 

On the night the angel came

He said I shouldn't be afraid

No shadow exists without light.

The rust of my conscience

I am shaking it off

The birds flying higher

A crack inside the earth

I come to the ocean 

To let it fly away

The weight of an anchor 

Dusty wings covered in clay 

And I don't have to deserve it

The things that God can see

We are all fallen angels 

Fruit from the original tree

The wind shook the branches

And we came tumbling down 

A world of confusion 

A fractured, splintered ground 

And the wind is against us

Crashing in from the north

I let it blow through me

I don't fear it anymore

The salt and the iron

Have shocked all the roots

So I let them grow deeper 

A mountain forms from the earth

The cracks in my conscience

Are filled in by the sand

I stand on the mountain

The wind builds again 

And I don't have to deserve it

The things that God can see

We all have our anchors

And we all have our wings.

Those who come from flesh and bone

Can't exist in more than one place 

But that's the way the story's told

Inconsistencies all get erased

My hands became withered 

My skeleton shivered 

I laid my bones down on the ground

And all of the monsters 

They said I'd concocted

Came crawling and spilling out

They roam lonely places

And liminal spaces

Walking the barren rock lands

They wouldn't believe me  

Like rain, they look through me

The proof buried deep under land 

An old tree cracked opened 

And it started snowing 

Silence fell over the moors

The midsummer birds

Had become my deserters

Stealing the song from the forest 

I go to the clearing

To get my own healing 

When there's a scream deep in my heart

I dance with the ghosts 

Of the ones that I love

From me, they have never been far

They are the healers

My trusted revealers 

When the feeling, I cannot contain

I build up the scream

And the monsters inside

Buried deep, spill out again

The clearing has shown me 

All that's below me

And how to align with the sky 

For I was the haunter

The oldest of monsters

The most terrible thing in the night

I heard the earth screaming 

The ancestors keening

From a hollowed out, broken down tree

Returning the song back to the sky

Releasing, we howled and we screamed 

And all of the monsters

They said I'd concocted 

Have always followed me

From the highest point of the wind-worn cliffs

I scream and they drop to the sea. 

And I'll meet you there

In the indigo mountains 

And we won't remember 

Carrying the pain

Our souls will unfurl

Like the petals of a rose 

Only on earth 

Is there ever an end

And it won't matter

That we have died

No one told us

It's like coming alive 

And those we loved

We'll never have lost

For heaven was closer 

Than we ever thought 

Once we departed

We were set free

The stars in the sky

The wind in the trees

The little red birds

That come with the snow

The song is the sky

The way the heart knows

In all of these things

You will find me 

For heaven was closer

Than you ever believed

All of our paths 

Will lead to one road 

So keep your heart open

And mind how you go

I'll see you again

In the indigo mountains 

And we won't remember 

Carrying the pain

The little red birds

Will come with the snow

And you will remember

The way the heart knows.