Dar Williams Album

Yeah, there was a time I didn't like the love, I liked the climbers
I was no sister then, I was running out of time and one liners
And I was afraid, like you are, when you're too young to know the time, and
So I watch the way you take your fear and horde the horizon
You point, you have a word for every woman you can lay your eyes on
Like you own them just be cause you bought the time
And you turn to me, you say you hope I'm not threatened

Oh and that's not petty
As cool as I am, I thought you'd know this already
I will not be afraid of women
I will not be afraid of women

So now we're at a club, you watch the woman dancing, she is drunk
She is smiling and she's falling in a slow, descending funk
And the whole bar is loud and proud and everybody's trying, yeah
You play the artist, saying, "Is it how she moves, or how she looks?"
I say, it's lonliness suspended to our own like grappling hooks
And as long as she's got noise, she's fine
But I could teach her how I learned to dance when the music's ended
Lyrics
Oh and that's not petty
As cool as I am, I thought you'd know this already
I will not be afraid of women
I will not be afraid of women

You tried to make me doubt
To make me guess
Tried to make me feel like a little less
Oh, I liked you when your soul was bared
I thought you knew how to be scared
And now it's amazing what you did to make me stay
But truth is just like time, it catches up and it just keeps going

Oh, and so I'm leaving, you can find out how much better things can get
And if it helps, I'd say I feel a little worse than I did when we met
So when you find someone else, you can try again, it might work next time
You look out of the kitchen window and you shake your head and say low
"If I could believe that stuff, I'd say that woman as a halo."
And I look out and say, "Yeah, she's really blond."
And then I go outside and join the others, I am the others

Oh and that's not petty
As cool as I am, I thought you'd know this already
I will not be afraid of women
I will not be afraid of women

I threw your keys in the water
I looked back, they'd frozen halfway down in the ice
They froze up so quickly, the keys and their owners
Even after the anger, it all turned silent and
The every day turned solitary; so we came to February

First we forgot where we planted those bulbs last year
And then we forgot that we'd planted at all
Then we forgot what plants are altogether
And I blamed you for my freezing and forgetting and
The nights were long and cold and scary; can we live through February?

You know, I think Christmas was a long red glare
Shot up like a warning we gave presents without cards
And then the snow, and then the snow came, we were always out shoveling
And we'd drop to sleep exhausted, and we'd wake up and it's snowing

And February was so long that it lasted into March
Found us walking a path alone together
You stopped and pointed and you said, "That's a crocus,"
And I said, "What's a crocus?" And you said, "It's a flower."
I tried to remember, but I said, "What's a flower?"
You said, "I still love you."

The leaves were turning as we drove to the hardware store
My new lover made me keys to the house
And when we got home, well, we just started chopping wood
Because you never know how next year will be
And we'll gather all our arms can carry; I have lost to February

I've never had a way with women
But the hills of Iowa make me wish that I could
And I've never found a way to say I love you
But if the chance came by, oh I, I would
But way back where I come from, we never mean to bother
We never make our passions other people's concern
And we walk in the world of safe people
And at night we walk into our houses and burn

Iowa, oh-oh-oh-oh, Iowa, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-I, Iowa

How I long to fall just a little bit
To dance out of the lines and stray from the light
But I fear that to fall in love with you
Is to fall from a great and gruesome height
So I asked a friend about it on a bad day, her husband had just
Left her, and she sat down in the chair he left behind
She said, "What is love, where did it get me?
Whoever thought of love is no friend of mine."

LyricsIowa, oh-oh-oh-oh, Iowa, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-I, Iowa

Once I had everything, I gave it up
For the shoulder of your driveway and the words I never felt
And so for you, I came this far across the tracks
Ten miles above the limit and with no seat belt, and I'd do it again
For tonight I went running through the screen doors of discretion
For I woke up from a nightmare that I could not stand to see
You were a-wandering out on the hills of Iowa and
You were not thinking of me

Iowa, oh-oh-oh-oh, Iowa, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-I, Iowa

Amber called her uncle, said "We're up here for the holiday,
Jane and I were having solstice, now we need a place to stay."
And her Christ-loving uncle watched his wife hang Mary on a tree
He watched his son hang candy canes all made with red dye number three
He told his niece, "It's Christmas eve, I know our life is not your style."
She said, "Christmas is like Solstice, and we miss you and it's been awhile."

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able
And just before the meal was served, hands were held and prayers were said
Sending hope for peace on earth to all their gods and goddesses

The food was great, the tree plugged in, the meal had gone without a hitch
Till Timmy turned to Amber and said, "Is it true that you're a witch?"
His mom jumped up and said, "The pies are burning," and she hit the kitchen
And it was Jane who spoke, she said, "It's true, your cousin's not a Christian,"
"But we love trees, we love the snow, the friends we have, the world we share,
And you find magic from your God, and we find magic everywhere."

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table
LyricsFinding faith and common ground the best that they were able
And where does magic come from, I think magic's in the learning
Cause now when Christians sit with Pagans only pumpkin pies are burning

When Amber tried to do the dishes, her aunt said, "Really, no, don't bother."
Amber's uncle saw how Amber looked like Tim and like her father
He thought about his brother, how they hadn't spoken in a year
He thought he'd call him up and say, "It's Christmas and your daughter's here."
He thought of fathers, sons and brothers, saw his own son tug his sleeve, saying
"Can I be a Pagan?" Dad said, "We'll discuss it when they leave,"

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able
Lighting trees in darkness, learning new ways from the old and
Making sense of history and drawing warmth out of the cold

I am thinking of the woman in a century of peace
On a bright mosaic, she is washing on her knees
And she looks up at the black sky, beyond the mountain tall
She says, "Oh good, the rain is finally going to fall."
Today, this was Pompeii

And everyone has memories from the night that melted stone
The neighbor's nightgown, the screaming on the phone
And the tired man at the station says
"We can't tell who's alive.
All we ever know is that the tourists survived."
Tra la, tra la, let's go, they say, let's go, Pompeii

And I think about Pompeii when I feel an end is near
Just before the rain and every time you disappear.
And I think about a teacup, suspended and half served
All the scholars know is that it's perfectly preserved
Oh, that's all, they say, this was Pompeii

And as for my own kingdom, not a table leg was charred
I simply lost my kingdom 'cause I held it much too hard
And once I had a sadness, the sadness turned to trust
The trust turned into ashes, and to lawyers, and to dust
A century, a day, this was Pompeii
This was Pompeii

When I went to your town on the wide open shore
Oh I must confess, I was drawn, I was drawn to the ocean
I thought it spoke to me
It said, "Look at us, we're not churches, not schools
Not skating ponds, swimming pools.
And we have lost people, haven't we though?"
Oh, that's what the ocean can know of a body

And that's when I came back to town
This town is a song about you
You don't know how lucky you are
You don't know how much I adore you
You are the welcoming back from the ocean

I went back to the ocean today
With my books and my papers I went to the rocks by the ocean
But the weather changed quickly
Oh the ocean said, "What are you trying to find,
I don't care, I'm not kind
I've bludgeoned your sailors, I've spat out their keepsakes,
LyricsOh it's ashes to ashes but always the ocean,"

But the ocean can't come to this town
This town is a song about you
You don't know how lucky you are
You don't know how much I adore you
You are the welcoming back from the ocean

And the ones that can know you so well
Are the ones that can swallow you whole
I have a good and I have an evil
I thought the ocean, the ocean thought nothing
You are a welcoming back from the ocean

I didn't go back today
I wanted to show you that I was more land than water
I went to pick flowers
I brought them to you, look at me, look at them
With their salt up the stem
But you frowned when I smiled and I tried to arrange them
You said, "Let me tell you the song of this town,"
You said, "Everything closes at five.
After that, well you just got the bars

You don't know how precious you are
Walking around with your little shoes dangling
I am the one who lives with the ocean

It's where we came from, you know
And sometimes I just want to go back
After a day, we drink till we're drowning
Walk to the ocean, wade in with our workboots
Wade in our workboots, try to finish the job

You don't know how precious you are
I am the one who lives with the ocean
You don't know how I am the one
You don't know how I am the one."

Can you fix this? It's a broken heart
It was fine, but it just fell apart
It was mine, but now I give it to you
'cause you can fix it, you know what to do

Let your love cover me
Like a pair of angel wings
You are my family
You are my family

We stood outside in the summer rain
Different people with a common pain
A simple box in that hard red clay
Where we left him to always remain

Let your love cover me
Like a pair of angel wings
You are my family
You are my family

LyricsAnd the child who played with the moon and stars
Waves a snatch of hay in a common barn
In the lonely house of Adam's fall
Lies a child, it's just a child that's all

Crying let your love cover me
Like a pair of angel wings
You are my family
You are my family
You are my family
You are my family

I'm not a leader,
I'm not a left-wing rhetoric mobilizing force of one
But there was a time way back,
Many years ago in college
Don't laugh
But I thought I was a radical,
I ran a Hemp Liberation League with my boyfriend
It was true love, with a common cause
And besides that, he was a Sagittarius

We used to say that our love was like hemp rope,
Three times as strong as the rope that you buy domestically
And we would bond in the face of oppression
From big business and the deans
But I knew there was a problem--
Every time the group would meet, everyone would light up
It made it difficult to discuss glaucoma
And human rights, not to mention chemotherapy

Well sometimes, life gives us lessons
Sent in ridiculous packaging
So I found him in the arms of a
Student Against the Treacherous Use of Fur
And he gave no apology,
He just turned to me, stoned out to the edge of oblivion
He didn't pull up the sheets, and I think he even smiled
As he said to me:

"Well, I guess our dreams went up in smoke"
"Uh-huh-huh-huh"
And I said,
"No, our dreams went up in dreams, you stupid pothead!"

And another thing,
What kind of a name is Students Against the Treacherous Use of Fur?
Fur is already dead
And besides, a name like that doesn't make a good acronym!

Well I am older now,
I know the rise and gradual fall of a daily victory
And I still write to my senator saying they should legalize cannabis,
And I should know
'Cause I am a horticulturist,
I have a husband and three children out in Lexington, Mass.
And my ex-boyfriend can't tell me I've sold out
Because he's in a cult
And he's not allowed to talk to me.

If you're gonna get your heart broke, you'd better do it just right
It's gotta be raining, and you gotta move your stuff thaiyat night
And the only friend you can reach isn't a good friend at all
And you know when he says "Now, who dumped who?"
That you never should have made that call

I had blessings, there's nobody there, there's nobody home
Yeah the blessings, at the moment I was most alone
And aimless as a full time fool, the joke was on me
I've got all those birds flying off of that tree
And that's a blessing

And the blessings were like poets that we never find time to know
But when time stopped I found the place where the poiyeiets go
And they said, "Here, have some coffee,
It's straight, black and very old."
And they gave me sticks and rocks and stars
And all that I could hold,
I had the blessings, a moment of peace even when the night ends
Yeah the blessings, can we meet? Can we meet again?
LyricsAt the crossroads of disaster and the imperfect smile
With the angel in the streetlamp that blinks on as I walk on a mile
The blessings

And the best ones were the ones I got to keep as I grew strong
And the days that opened up until my whole life could belong
It's like getting the answers, when I don't need them anymore
I'm finding the pictures, and I finally know what I kept them for
I remember, I can see them
See them smiling, see them stuck
See them try, I wish them luck
And all the blessings

I was fast asleep at three in the morning
When I got the pay phone call
And she said "Did I wake you up?" I said, "Hey, no, not at all."
And she said, "I got this suitcase and I don't know what to pack,"
And I said, "You can take anything you want.
Just wait and see, it's not a release, not a reward,
It's the blessings, it's the gift of what you notice more,"
And I walked out and I watched her kick the big pile of the night
And we sat down and we waited for that strange and empty light
Yeah, the blessings...
See them smiling, see them stuck, see them try, I wish them luck
And all the blessings

There's a part of the country could drop off tomorrow in an earthquake
Yeah it's out there on the cutting edge, the people move, the sidewalks shake
And there's another part of the country, with a land that gently creaks and thuds
Where the heavy snows make faucets leak in bathrooms with free-standing tubs
They're in houses that are haunted, with the kids who lie awake and think about
All the generations past who used to use that dripping sink

And sometimes one place wants to slip into the other just to see what it's
Like to trade its demons for the restless ghost of Mrs. Ogilvey
She used to pick the mint from her front yard to dress the Sunday pork
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York

It wants to have a family business in sheet metal or power tools
It wants to have a diner where the coffee tastes like diesel fuel and it
Wants to find the glory of a town they say has hit the skids and it
Wants to have a snow day that will turn its parents into kids
And it's embarassed, but it's lusting after a SUNY student with mousy-brown hair who is
Taking out the compost, making coffee in long underwear

Southern California says to save a place, "I'll meet you there" and it
LyricsTried to pack up its Miata, all it could fit was a prayer
Sometimes the stakes are bogus, sometimes the fast lane hits a fork, sometimes
Southern California wants to be western New York

Tempe, Arizona thinks the Everglades are greener and wetter and
Washington, D.C. thinks Atlanta integrated better but I
Think that southern California has more pain than we can say cause it
Wants to travel back in time, but it just can't leave L.A.-ay-ay-ay

But now I hear they've got a theme park planned, designed to make you gasp and say:
Oh, I bet that crumbling mill town was a booming mill town in its day and the
Old investers scoff at this, but the young ones hope they'll take a chance and they
Promise it will make more dough than Mickey Mouse in northern France and the
Planners got an opening day, the town historian will host and the
Waitresses look like waitresses who want to leave for the west coast

And they'll have putterning on rainy weekends, autumn days that make you feel sad,
They'll have hundred-year-old plumbing and the family you never had and a
Hudson River clean-up concert and a bundle-bearing stork and I
Hear they've got a menu planned, it's tres western New York

She never should have rented this apartment in the Mortal City
The cold comes though every crack she puts her hand up to
The radiator's broken, so she has to use electric heat.

And tonight was the first date
With the brother of the guy she worked next to
He lived a couple streets away
He listened, he had things to say
She asked him up for dinner sometime
Sometime was tonight

The radio gave updates
On the ice storm while she made the dinner
They said, from all the talk, you shouldn't drive or even walk
And this just in
We're asking everyone to turn off their power
They need it at the hospital

She ran around pulling plugs
Then she called him up
LyricsMaybe now they shouldn't meet
He said that he would brave the streets
She met him at the door with a blanket and a candle
Saying, I heard it on the radio, I had to turn my power off

He said you're not the only one
The streets were dark tonight
It was like another century
With dim lamps and candles lighting up the icy trees
And the clouds and a covered moon

She said what kind of people make a city
Where you can't see the sky and you can't feel the ground?

I tell you something, I have this feeling that this city's dying
He said, it's not dying it's the people who are dying
She said, yes yes
I think the people are dying and nobody cares

We had all this technology our dreams were bold and vague
And then one city got bad planners, one city got the plague

He asked why did you move here? She said, for the job
For the job and I've been so lonely here, so lonely
There's no one I can talk to
You know I don't even know your brother

He smiled and said
Sometimes at night I walk out by the river
The city's one big town
The water turns it upside down
People found this city because they love other people
They want their secretaries
They want their power lunches

And think about tonight
I heard the same newscast you did
I unplugged everything
I looked out the window
And I think the city heard
I watched as one by one the lights went off
So they could give their power to the hospital

They ate in silence while she thought this over
They sat together in a dark room in the Mortal City
Shifting in their blankets
So they wouldn't get spaghetti on them

Then came the awkward moment after dinner, what to do?
The ice was still falling, the streets were still dangerous
The cabs were not running
And this neighborhood was not the greatest

They both looked at the space where a couch would've been
She felt her stomach sink
She felt like she could hardly think

She said
I never should have rented this apartment in the Mortal City
The cold comes through every crack I put my hand up to
The radiator doesn't work, I have to use electric heat

That settled it, they would both sleep in her bed
It was a matter of survival

She brought out teeshirts, sweatshirts
Sweatpants, socks, hats
If there was ever any thought
Of what would happen in that bed tonight
There was no question now
They could barely move
They were wrapped up like ornaments
Waiting for another season

They lay in bed, they listened to the pelting ice
He said my brother's not a bad guy, he's just quiet
I wished you liked this city
She said, maybe I do

I think I have a special kind of hearing tonight
I hear the neighbors upstairs
I hear my heart beating
I hear one thousand hearts beating at the hospital
And one thousand hearts by their bedsides waiting
Saying that's my love in the white gown,

We are not lost in the Mortal City
We are not lost in the Mortal City