River Child (2021)
Listening
Let's let the truth be
Let the truth be heard
Sometimes I don't know
What to think or say
So I turn away
I know the reasons
But for me it's a mistake
Not to listen
Or to speak to
Great mysteries
It's so impossible
And so foolish too
Why would a flower
Need a fly For its fruit?
And in silence
So many folded wings
Listen closely
You might hear the
Blossoms opening
Broken & United
I won't go numb on you If you won't go numb on me
We've got too much to do We've got too much to be
If it's too much for you Lost in abandoned dreams
We'll stop the parade here
You can shed your shroud of grief
We did our best and moved on
Somehow time stops around
Something gone wrong
I'm sorry we left you like that
We're singing to welcome
The broken ones back
I won't run from you If you won't run from me
We got some yarns to spin With all your energy
If your fear is strong And wrings your muscles tight
We'll wrap you up in song And sing 'til you're alright
Come to Me
Come to me
I pray for rain I pray for wisdom
My nerves aflame I try to listen
The soil is soaked I hear the whispers
The sky is broke But it delivers
Come to me
I come again To the river
To wash the sins We've been given
Bloody rivulets shimmer
I hold your name and I shiver
Come to me Oh come to me
Reach your hands down In the stream
Come to me Oh come to me
'Til the muddy river Of your heart runs clean
It's been awhile Since your breath
Took the shape of the clouds
It's been awhile Since you gave your good grief
To the ground
Come to me
I taste the salt Of our shame
You call me out Into the rain
The earth won't stop I crouch and hear them
When we rise up We move in rhythm
River Child
I have always
Been a child
Of the river
Like a braid of fate's tributaries
I recognized my life when I beheld the stream
Passing through yet belonging
A single thing and yet so many
Slow to unfold, my liquid soul,
Before I reach the sea
And they say
"Walker come softly
Holding water in your hands
Let the fire blow through me
Let the sun and raindrops dance"
Dreaming of Wheat
My heart a bud in the spring
I sought a blessing from the king
I was a young Joseph dreaming of wheat
I just thought you’d see something in me
Had a coat from the cold
All the colors of the weaver’s love
But I heard my brethren from the top of the well
Their voices echoed down into my cell
They said “Don’t you share your dreams
Don’t you think you’re special”
I just didn’t know then About consequence
What it would be like To live half my life
Walking with one foot in the dark
Nowhere to stand or run away
But I’ve seen the sun shine on
The coward and the proud Just the same
We all know it’s getting late
That tired hand is gonna turn the page
Your visions of death and redemption
I just want to learn to live with them
The wasteland grows every day
The pharaoh keeps me full of grain
There was a time my coat was all I had left
Me and Jesus and his Demons in the wilderness
He said “You best go tend your dreams
You best believe that this is it”
I just didn’t know then About consequence
What it would be like To live half my life
Trying so hard to build an ark
In the middle of the rain
But I’ve seen the sun
Burst through those clouds
Every now and again
It took three days and nights Out in the aspen grove
To admit to myself I was afraid and alone
The stones and sky They heard me wail
Opened the throat of my betrayal
I’ve seen the dawn light shine
On the dark pond At the end of the trail
With two souls we dance
On the old roads of consequence
The shadow and the spark
The feather burning in our hearts
Walking with one foot in the dark
Nowhere to stand or run away
Trying so hard to build an ark
In the middle of the rain
Given a vision And some wood and some nails
The spring buds must give themselves
To the wind and the hail
The famine times sing your dreams alive
You hear a curse on your name
But I’ve seen the sun untie those binds
And rise up again
Fisherman
This fisherman must perch On two thin legs
Learn to search The distorted waves
The currents swiftly shift And the tides do change
And the urge to drift Comes and goes away
Living upon the moment Knowing its keen blade
How will he hold it? Will he wait or cut bait...
May I fly like a heron When it's time, gracefully
May I perch there with care
Upon my branch of the tree
But when there comes
A-slidin' in the murk near my feet
Some nourishment arriving Rising from the deep
If it's an ugly catfish feeling Slippery truth or mystery
May I float like a butterfly
And sing on my knees
Twisted Old Tale
My mother was a river Ever rippling over stones
My father left tracks that My feet found in the snow
I traced and untangled All the roots and the leaves
Kept hold of a truth that Was a-trembling in me
I've seen some hard rain And I've harbored dreams
The truth is I'm innocent And I'm guilty
It's a twisted old tale As old as the stone
We've got to leave To find our way...home
My mother was a cloudburst
Her shawl over the plains
My father was a hawk perched
On a fencepost in the rain
I wandered the world Full of people full of pain
The wild ones at the edge Full of medicine they sang
If I should meet you In the riverbed of the bones
May the twining of our voices
Call the broken ones home
It's a twisted old tale As old as the stone
We've got to leave To find our way...home
All the time that I spent Digging in the dark
While my hands were working
I was waiting for a song
Now I finally see How long
You've been singing to me Singing soft and strong
My mother is the soft earth
Giving birth and taking death
My father owns the unknown
A little taste with every breath
I forget in a moment And I slip from the stream
A crow caws from the willow
And I wake from my dream
No pilgrim has known How to do this
Each step is a guess A lament and a kiss
It's a twisted old tale As old as the stone
We've got to leave To find our way...home
My mother was a river Ever rippling over stones
When the Light is Retreating
When the light is retreating
From the clear distinctions
Of the fierce day That we have faced
When the nerves burn
And turn away from all opinions
Walk with me Down to the cool dark stream
Where the birds seem to write Out their lives in flight
Call to each other like we Long to do
Where the mud accepts our feet
And we can sit in this silence
Blood drawn down To our toes
Through our toes And toward some ocean
We've never Known
I've been hunching My shoulders for years
Years without you My dear
So climb up now And wrap your soft fingers
Over my eyes And we will walk
With the slow chords Of a dream's breathing music
Rippling out on The waters
Let's push the boats out On waves of remembrance
Each bow to the sea Listening
Hearing each other
Like the earth hears our footsteps
Each one a prayer In the dark