Dar Williams Album

There are kids, lots of kids, who put the law inside a circle
As they jump, I hope that you will up and down, up and down
When did you cave into this role that you were cast in?
When did dress-up turn to fashion? Throw your gown up and down

There's always the sky, let it hear what you're saying
For all that you are saying
And let it take you apart, to the elements of praying
'til we are only playing to the firmament
'til we are only playing to the firmament

In the rain, in the rain, people rush around on cold streets
Here's a shell to hear their heartbeats very loud, very loud
Where's the pain? It's only rain, it's only slowing down a work day
Only singing happy birthday to a crowd, very loud

So turn on the sky, let it hear what you're saying
For all that you are saying
And let it take you apart, to the elements of praying
'til we are only playing to the firmament
Lyrics'til we are only playing to the firmament

And when did sex get so mean? When did crime get so clean?
You know I just can't seem to find the soul in this striving
Why not play to a dream? 'cause the world is too green
For all this bad driving

What's the rush? Dip your brush into this twilight
There are leaves upon the skylight, trace your hand, trace your hand
Mr. Ed, he shot ahead, he shot ahead inside a circle
On a bad day, who would you kill? Take a stand, trace your hand

There's always the sky, let it hear what you're saying
For all that you are saying
And let it take you apart, to the elements of praying
'til we are only playing to the firmament
'til we are only playing to the firmament

Step through this trampled wall
The unhinged door betrays it all
That far within our faith we were all waiting
The broken glass reflects the haze
It shines like endless holy days
Struggling to remember what they're celebrating

Well, a God descended
And the reason ended
His life was lifted just above the law
And now we have to live with what we did
With what we saw

Well, you mend your clothes and patch your roof
And slivers of God's shattered truth
Grow tender as the grass in clean-swept yards
But a savior came and told us how
The truth was all around us now
Abandon house and field and gather up the shards

LyricsWell, a God descended
And the reason ended
His life was lifted just above the law
And now we have to live with what we did
With what we saw

Well, you build your faith with strength and duty
Build your love but there's a beauty
Well you know the scriptures tell
There are a few shards left in hell
And if we want a god we had to follow, follow him down

Pictures torn out of their frames
And orgies where we lost our names
All were gone with time's real desire
Well, you ask how God can curse you thus
That's not a question asked by us
We burned our beds and books
We fear we've lost the fire

The God descended
And the realtime ended
His life was lifted just above the law
And now we have to live with what we did
With what we saw...

Go ahead, push your luck
Find out how much love the world can hold
Once upon a time I had control
And reigned my soul in tight

Well the whole truth
Is like the story of a wave unfurled
But I held the evil of the world
So I stopped the tide
Froze it up from inside

And it felt like a winter machine
That you go through and then
You catch your breath and winter starts again
And everyone else is spring bound

And when I chose to live
There was no joy - it's just a line I crossed
It wasn't worth the pain my death would cost
So I was not lost or found
Lyrics
And if I was to sleep
I knew my family had more truth to tell
And so I traveled down a whispering well
To know myself through them

Growing up, my Mom had a room full of books
And hid away in there
Her father raging down a spiral stair
'til he found someone
Most days his son

And sometimes I think
My father, too, was a refugee
I know they tried to keep their pain from me
They could not see what it was for

But now I'm sleeping fine
Sometimes the truth is like a second chance
I am the daughter of a great romance
And they are the children of the war

Well the sun rose with so many colors
It nearly broke my heart
And worked me over like a work of art
And I was a part of all that

So go ahead, push your luck
Say what it is you've got to say to me
We will push on into that mystery
And it'll push right back
And there are worse things than that

'cause for every price
And every penance that I could think of
It's better to have fallen in love
Than never to have fallen at all

'cause when you live in a world
Well it gets in to who you thought you'd be
And now I laugh at how the world changed me
I think life chose me after all

Well the mountain was so beautiful
That this guy built a mall and a pizza shack
Yeah he built an ugly city because
He wanted the mountain to love him back

Hey what do you love more than love?
Hey what do you love more than love?
When you know that you won't get your heart in that stone
When you drop your tools and you stand alone
Hey what do you love more than love?
Hey what do you love more than love?

Well when my love felt like another addiction
I held my breath and I packed my bags
And I went to the land of the monastery
And the sunshine children and the prayer flags

Hey what do you love more than love?
Hey what do you love more than love?
When you feel your soul go beyond your skin
LyricsWhen you know that's the way that it's always been
Hey what do you love more than love?
Hey what do you love more than love?

Well, I climbed a mountain and I thought about attachment
And I thought about the Buddhist King
He said, "You can keep your superpower
It just short circuits my country"

Hey what do you love more than love?
Hey what do you love more than love?
When you question what your desire is for
When you don't just figure that you just want more
Hey what do you love more than love?
Hey what do you love more than love?

Well I love the way the world is your garden
And you plant your seeds and you let them grow
And you take things out of the ground just like
You take what comes, but you never know

Yeah, and the mountain is so beautiful
And we don't know if we're any good at all
And we give our love when we think we still need it
Yeah we give and give and fall and fall

Hey what do you love more than love?
Hey what do you love more than love?
When the giving is all that you ever get back
Oh how long do you love like that?
Can you tell me oh, how to love?
Hey what do you love more than love?
Hey what do you love more than love?

I'm sorry that I left you
With your questions all alone
But I was too happy driving
And too angry to drive home
I was thinking about the easy courage
Of my distant friends
They said I could let this bridge wash out
And never make amends

Can I blow this small town?
Make a big sound
Like the star of a film noir postcard
Can I just forget the frames I shared with you?

And I can't believe what they're saying
They're saying I can change my mind
Start over on Spring Street
I'm welcome anytime

Well there are Spring Street storefront daisies
LyricsFloating on their neon stems
There are new shirts on the clothes racks
Should I feel like one of them
I can find a small apartment
Where a struggling artist died
And pretend because I pay the rent
I know that pain inside

Yeah, let's watch the tour bus stop and tell us
Here's the scene of a spring green life dream
Take the best part
Write it in your caffeine diary

And I can't believe what they're saying
They're saying I can leave tonight
Start over on Spring Street
I'm welcome anytime

This year April had a blizzard
Just to show she did not care
And the new dead leaves
They made the trees look like children with gray hair
But I'll push myself up through the dirt
And shake my petals free
I'm resolved to being born
And so resigned to bravery

Yeah the one who leaves this also grieves this
Too much rain on a prairie flood plain
Houses floating, love is like that
We built on the river

And that's to say, yeah I'm leaving
But I don't have to go there
I don't have to go to Spring Street
'cause it's spring everywhere

I am the captain and I have been told
That tomorrow we land and my ship has been sold
Now losing this boat is worth scarce a mention
I think of the crew, most of all the first ensign
For all we learned the sea

Guiding a ship, it takes more than your skill
It's the compass inside it's the strength of your will
The first ensign watched as tempests all tried me
I sang in the wind as if God were beside me
For all we learned the sea

You take the wheel one more time like I showed you
We've reached the strait once even I could not go through

I am the captain and I have been told
But I am not shaken, I am eight years old
And you are still young, but you'll understand
That the stars of the sea are the same for the land
And we came to learn the sea

I wonder if Yoko Ono
Ever thought of staying solo
If she thought of other men and
If she doubted John Lennon
Worrying that he'd distract her art

Sitting in the Apple sessions
Giving John her music lessons
Challenging the warring nations
With her paper installations
Did she guard her Yoko human heart?

Well, they could talk about me
Yeah, they could talk about me
Throw me to the velvet dogs of pop star history
But I won't be your Yoko Ono
If you're not good enough for me

Some will give their love for fashion
Others trade their gold for passion
LyricsI don't have the goods to start with
Never had the reins to part with
Still, I hope you take me seriously

'cause I think I could go
Deep as the sea of Yoko
You don't know a"person like me
I could sell your songs to Nike
And for all you know
I could save your soul
As only true love can change your mind
Make you leave your screaming fans behind

When John called the wind an opera
Making love with every chakra
When he said her voice would carry
And when he whispered old Chuck Berry
Only then would Yoko set him free

Fame will come and vanish later
Transcendental love is greater
I think if we had this somehow
We'd be feeling famous right now
We'd be saying love is all you need

And they could rag about me
Yeah, they could rag about me
Throw me to the velvet dogs of pop star history
But I won't be your Yoko Ono
If you're not good enough for me

Oh, no...and I won't be your Yoko Ono
If you're not good enough for me

The moon wanted more of my night
I turned off the engine and the headlights
The trees appeared as they'd never been gone
I promised the fields I'd return from now on
And the moon kept on rising
I had no more to say
I put my roadmaps away
And surrendered the day

And I know you'll be calling me soon
And if I don't answer I'm calling the moon
Calling the moon
I was calling her then
I'm wondering will she take me again
Oh, I am calling the moon

When I called the moon back to me
I thought she wanted my beauty
I shone in the best that vanity buys
I covered the path where my life turned to lies
LyricsAnd the moon kept on rising
But I felt nothing at all
She comes when the empire falls
And shines on crumbling walls

Calling the moon
By the name that she chose
As Tennessee wandered in moth-eaten robes
Oh, I am calling the moon
Calling the moon
Oh I'm calling the moon

Oh, make sense of me, night
I can see so much from this cold height
The moon said oh darkness my work is done
I've poured this bottle of light from the sun
But their anger keeps on rising
And they don't understand
I've shown them all that I can
That the world is at hand

And I know they'll be calling me soon
And if I don't answer I'm only the moon
I can see by her light
This one's going out to the moon tonight
Oh, I am calling the moon

Calling the moon
'cause I know what it's worth
To tug at the seas and illumine the earth
Oh, I am calling the moon
Oh, I am calling the moon

God of the poor man this is how the day began
Eight codefendants, I, Daniel Berrigan
Oh and only a layman's batch of napalm
We pulled the draft files out
We burned them in the parking lot
Better the files than the bodies of children

I had no right but for the love of you
I had no right but for the love of you

Many roads led here, walked with the suffering
Tom in Guatamala, Phillip in New Orleans
Oh it's a long road from law to justice
I went to Vietnam, I went for peace
They dropped their bombs
Right where my government knew I would be

I had no right but for the love of you
I had no right but for the love of you

LyricsAnd all my country saw
Were priests who broke the law

First it was question, then it was a mission
How to be American, how to be a Christian
Oh if their law is their cross and the cross is burning

Aaaaaaaaah the love of you
Aaaaaaaaah the love of you

God of the just I'll never win a peace prize
Falling like Jesus
Now let the jury rise
Oh it's all of us versus all that paper
They took the only way they know who is on trial today
Deliver us unto each other, I pray

I had no right but for the love of you
And every trial I stood, I stood for you

Eyes on the trial
8am arrival
Hands on the Bible

The first part of every day for me is good
I've got the bus stop in my neighborhood
And everything's on purpose everywhere they go
Hiding in my car and running in the snow
Running with the friends they'll know for years
I've seen it all from here, from here

It happens every day, before they go to school
They play until the bus drives up beside my lawn
And there's always been a mother who waits 'til they are gone
Then she turns away
It happens every day

Noon comes and turns this campus upside down
I watch the students in this college town
You would think they're carefree, I have seen their trials
Frowning into Shakespeare and practicing their smiles
Even underlining Nabokov
When I am not in love, in love

LyricsIt happens every day with their journals in cafes
Looking up at their reflection on the other wall
With every new idea wondering if they've changed at all
And then they look away
It happens every day

Well life is as hard and as easy as they say
Walking the steps we've chosen on this day
Some will be outrageous, some have rarely shown
Some will walk in couples, some will walk alone
As I think about the world I see
They stare and smile at me, at me

It happens every day at the crossing of the street
Walking out to see what's new and what is just the same
And the only word for love is everybody's name
And that will always stay
It happens every day
And every day will happen without you

Get off your cat walk, I want you to talk
To be the seer instead of the seen
There is a flower, a leaning tower
And all of the wonders standing between

I don't want to be another mystery oh no
I don't want to see who's looking at me oh no
I want to be the one to feel the sun oh oh
So if you want to see the world with me let's go

The alligator, the god that made her
And all the creatures that got left behind
In Mycnnae, Ave Maria
And everything you gotta dig harder to find
I don't want to be a vapor of heavenly light
Everybody guess if I'm an angel or sprite

I don't want to be another mystery oh no
I don't want to see who's looking at me oh no
I want to be the one to feel the sun oh oh
LyricsSo if you want to see the world with me let's go

You could pursue it, hell I could do it
I'll just be quiet when I get angry and hurt
I'm stopping traffic, cinemagraphic
With my long black coat hanging down in the dirt
And my hair clinging to my face in the rain
Like a goddess from the cult of beautiful pain

I don't want to be another mystery
I don't want to be another mystery

I could cut you off with a shoulder of stone
Smoke all night and leave the party alone
Screw myself with an inscrutable pout
But I just want you to come figure me out

I don't want to be another mystery oh no
I don't want to see who's looking at me oh no
I want to be the one to feel the sun oh oh
So if you want to see the world with me let's go)

I don't want to be another mystery

If I did not dream who would you be
And if you did not dream who would I be
Yes there is gold in this mountain
This they cannot mine
Tell me who they need it for
I'll tell you now, they need me more

O Canada girls
I have seen you in your sweaters
In the late night sun at Winnipeg
Growing up with friends and so unhurried
With your secrets I believe
Kept in the longer sleeve
Oh girls

Highways seen from hotel windows
Pumping highway blood
If I say they run from fear
Are things much different standing here?

LyricsO Canada girls
When I saw the geese flying north
I remembered the friends of my vision
And a sense I had of other wings
Like faith, light threaded through a psalm
Like our boys fleeing Vietnam
Oh girls

If I drove up eighty-seven
Up past Montreal
Following the bluest veins
Following through icy rains
Would I emerge in the present
And know just where to begin
I'm so sick of forgetting myself to remember who I am
And you say yeah, but why so cold, and so Canadian
I guess it's got to feel like some exodus
And if I succeed, well there will be more of us
And if I don't well I don't really know

Girls
Who have found our unsung nation
Where we left so much land to itself
That everyone had her own mountain

Well if you think of this girl and the dreams that made her
Write your secrets on hornet nest paper
And blow it high across the border

'cause if you did not dream, who would I be?
And if I did not dream who would you be?