Music

come on inside

make yourself at home

but don’t linger too long

before you move on

slide through those doors

back through the lens

forevermore? you ask

well, that depends

the woods are calling

the deep deep green

and I’m guessing you

might think you know what they mean

follow my lead

follow my voice

there is no road

there’s only choice

take a nickel

turn it around

rub it tenderly

toss it down

step back carefully

and make a wish for something good

and follow me down

deeper deeper

deeper into the wood

beyond the glass

beyond the pane

beyond the painted moon and stars

beyond the frame

follow my footsteps

if you dare

shadow my every move

or don’t, and see if I care

picture a penny

flat in your palm

glance at it stealthily

while the party rattles on

then excuse yourself graciously

like a good girl should

and follow me down

deeper deeper

deeper into the wood

catch that stallion fast as coal dust

she won’t heel to silver and gold

there’s no admission there

the roads give out

the lights disappear

and drown

deeper down

you’re a forty-five record

spinning around

close your eyes raptured

lost in the sound

remove yourself deftly

and lower your hood

and follow me down

deeper deeper

deeper into the wood

She grew up on the street

On the street where I lived.

There’s a place we used to meet

Down by the muddy river

The neighbors they all said

There’s something strange about that girl

She seemed to move through glass

She seemed to live in her own world

No more will I walk the sidewalk

Past open windows, shuttered doors

No more will I search the boardwalk

Farewell forever, Eleanor.

Outside the winds are pounding

The cold war’s blowing in

There all heading for the creek

But me, I’ll just stay in

Her daddy drove an ambulance

And he sent her to ride the rail

He once paid her a hundred dollars

Through the Certified U.S. Mail

No more will she walk alone

Up in the attic, pacing the floor

And no more, our names carved with a stone

Farewell forever, Eleanor.

The fields are turning brown

And the skies are turning gray

I don’t know what people want

I never did care what they’d say

Sometimes it’s hard for a man to make a living

Selling songs and selling lies

I know in the end we’re all forgiven

If in the Good Lord we’ll abide

Mama take this sun from me

The wolves are hounding at my door

She was the only one for me

Farewell forever, Eleanor.

I used to search for rainbows

Among the stormy skies

Through all the rainy clouds

For colors sung in lullabies

But since the day you left us

A cloudless sunny day

And a bow of vibrant colors

Hung to brighten all our way

I ponder in my mind

This wondrous mystery

Of how a rainbow shone there

In skies as blue as they can be

And since you left, dear brother

A million tears I’ve shed

Did they evaporate into the sun

Create the colors o’er my head

Perhaps your cheerful spirit

Sends a message from above

That you remain among us

Fill our hearts with joy and love

I used to search for rainbows

Only in the rain

But now I look on sunny days

And know that you remain

Well it’s just a dark season. I’ll be back around soon.

It’s just a dark season. I’ll be back around soon

It’s just a dark season. You’ll see me soon,

Or maybe on occasion like this daytime moon.

It’s a cloudy day in New York, but I don’t mind the mist and rain.

It’s a cloudy day in New York, but I don’t mind the mist and rain.

It’s a cloudy day in New York, but I don’t mind the mist and rain.

You know the company’s nice and it masks my pain.

Mother Nature my comfort now

As she seems to be aware

Providing cloud and mist and moon…

A nod toward my despair

How I love you daytime moon, no matter what shape you’re in.

I love you daytime moon, no matter what shape you’re in.

How I love you daytime moon, no matter what shape you’re in

For not to pause and wonder would surly be a sin.

And it’s good to be thankful even when you’re feeling blue.

It’s good to be thankful even when you’re feeling blue

Yes, it’s good to be thankful even when you’re feeling blue

And when the sun don’t work I got the daytime moon.

When the sun don’t work I got this daytime moon.

Sun don’t work…daytime moon.

Flower say “Rabbit, don’t’cha pick on me;

just sittin’ here waitin’ onna Honey-Bee,

Takes my pollen to my family,

and we all grow just for the love.”

Rabbit say “Dog, don’t’cha pick on me;

just sittin’ here waitin’ onna  Honey-Bee,

Bee feed-a Flower anna Flower feed me,

and we all grow just for the love.”

And, here comes Honey-Bee

Singin’ her song

Works all day

Just buzzin’ along.

She did what she do

an’ she do what she does,

An’ she does it all just for the love.

Dog say “Bear, don’t’cha pick on me;

just sittin’ here waitin’ onna Honey-Bee,

Flower feed’a Rabbit anna Rabbit feed me,

an’ we all grow just for the love.”

Bear say “Man, don’t’cha pick on me;

just sittin’ here waitin’ onna Honey-Bee,

Bee make-a honey anna honey feed me

an’ we all grow just for the love.”

Chorus

Man say “Bee, don’t’cha pick on me,

I come t’ get the flowers

‘cause I get ‘em for free.

Sell ‘em in town, feed my family:

the money is somethin’ that I love…”

Well, Man picked Flower,

an’ dog got the Hare,

Bear got the Dog,

an’ Man shot the Bear,

Bee stung the Man

an’ he died right there…

Ev’r’body knows

when the Honey-Bee stings

it’s the end of her life

It’s the very last thing.

She did what she do

and she do what she does

An’ she did it all just for the love:

It all happened just for the love.

Well, they picked up that Man

An’ they carried him away.

Took him up the hill

An’ they laid him in his grave.

They planted some flowers

on the place where he lay,

An’ they did it all just for the love.

Chorus

And all you can say:

“Well, for the Love.”

Love me like you loved me back then

Kiss me like you kissed me again

Take my hand a walk a while

Before this summer ends

And love me like you loved me again

Just two kids playing in the sun

We spent the summer in each other’s eyes

And every kiss was a star in God’s sky

We held hands through the streets and everyone

Who saw us gazing at each other on the train

Knew we were crazy in love

Love me like you loved me back then

Kiss me like you kissed me again

Take my hand a walk a while

Along this golden mile

And love me like you loved me again

They say Paris is the city of love

But with ten euros between us, when push came to shove

We took the train to Berlin and walked up to the broken wall

The month of August came, and we dried up fast

We stole some candy from a kiosk, babe

Ran through the alley and joined the street parade

We tumbled over, honey, headlong in the grass

I fell asleep next to geraniums

When I awoke you were already gone, gone, gone

Love me like you loved me back then

Kiss me like you kissed me again

Take my hand a walk a while

Before this summer ends

And love me like you loved me again

Three graceful birds of paradise, my love has gone to war

Three graceful birds of paradise have passed this way before

The first one was blue as heaven’s blue

My love has gone to war

The second one was white as fallen snow

And the third one was wrapped in bright red glow

Three graceful birds of paradise, my love has gone away

Three graceful birds of paradise, what brings you this way?

“I bring thee a glance of the Azure

Thy love has gone to war,

I’ll place upon your snow white brow

A fond kiss yet purer still.”

Thou bright red bird of paradise, my love is gone from me

Thou bright red bird of paradise, what do you bring for me?

“A faithful heart all crimson red

Thy love has gone to war.”

Ah, I feel my heart growing cold

Take it with you when you go.

If you should wish to marry me for money

My wealth is an illusion, I confess

And if I ever appeared a proper gentleman

It’s only because my mother taught me how to dress

Fly to me, my thrifty spinstress

You always found my affections kind of

funny

Fly to me, and we’ll laugh till we’re in

tatters

But don’t try to marry me for money

If you should wish to marry me for the

name

You should know it has no high pedigree

It was drawn up by an old Jewish lawyer

Not carried on clay tablets across the Red

Sea

Run to me my grasping Baptist

We’ll climb to fortune and/or flame

Run to me, and we’ll welcome the Sabbath

bride

But don’t try to marry me for the name

You who would marry for the flowers

The satin gown, the gold champagne

The buds will burn, the wine will turn

The gown may never fit the same

Step to me my aging socialite

We can roam the galleries for hours

Step to me while our rose is still in bloom

But don’t try to marry me for flowers

If you would marry me for love

So pure and true, it never dies

You should know our love is free

And it can’t necessarily be institutionalized

Reach for me my emotional accountant

We can tally the stars above

Count on me in tender moonlight

But don’t try to marry me for love

If you would wish to marry me for the music

You should know I only know one song

It was written in a time of gentle desperation

And it’s very, very, very, very long

Pull me close my discerning listener

Here’s the menu, go on, peruse it

Call a tune, and I will muddle through as best I can

But don’t try to marry me for the music

I don’t need your money or you music

I was standing right there when they both went bust

I already have a name and a garden full of flowers

I only wish to marry you because I must

Kiss me now my patient puzzle

Kiss me till our faces fade to dust

Walk with me by the river’s golden edge

And marry me if you must

There is dark, there is light

There is black, there is white

Where we all stood, the chained and the free

Born into a place

Marked by name and by face

As was cast by divine lottery

There are books that contain

Every word every grain

And all knowledge that fell down from the tree

And the poets, they say

That there will come a day

When the veil will be lifted away

And everything’s great

Everything’s grand

Everything sits just where it stands

I looked at you

And you looked at me

And we set off across the blind blue sea

There was iron and gold

Some buying some sold

The dust and the crack of the leather

One road a boxcar

With a silver samovar

And we all ended up here together

Sometimes I dream of the country

Sometimes I think of her town

Sometimes I get the notion

To walk back into the ocean

To the sea to the sea

We’ll return when we’re free

Unshattered, unshackled, untied

From the land, from the land

That will scatter in the sand

In the tide in the tide in the tide

And everything’s great

Everything’s fine

For each thing a season, a place, and a rhyme

I looked at you

And you looked at me

And we set off across the blind blue sea

You looked at me and I looked at you

And we sailed off to the red, white, and blue

O blue-eyed boy of mine

You were born in the summertime

When lightning split the air

And etched a crystal bare

With water churning fast

The murky color of lime

Into the clay was cast

O blue-eyed, blue-eyed boy of mine

O blue-eyed boy of mine

How did you catch the shine

And all the blue of sky

Into your very eyes

And holy secrets steal

When you appeared so fine

Into your lips conceal?

O blue-eyed, blue-eyed boy of mine

O blue-eyed boy of mine

You came to me in the bright sunshine

So many lives ago

That distance cannot know

What spiraling mystery trail

Separates then recombines

O who did write the tale?

O blue-eyed, blue-eyed boy of mine

O blue-eyed boy of mine

Where were you all this time?

How did that ancient spark

Forge you from dark?

And then how did it grow?

How scaled that faithful climb

When every seed did sow?

O blue-eyed, blue-eyed boy of mine

Somewhere north of here there’s a sapling

The last of its breed, of its kind

It’s clinging to the side of a mountain

It’s trying to escape the clutches of a vine

Locusts gather on the horizon

With a native desire to feed

Things aren’t looking good for the sapling

Things aren’t looking too good for the seed

And somewhere in the world there is beauty

Somewhere they look at art

Somewhere in the world they are drowning in the flood

And somewhere in the world there’s an ark

Somewhere there’s an old street fiddler

Dogs sniffing around his stumbling feet

He’s eagerly undressing a sandwich

And the crumbs are spilling out into the street

His back is bent, his breath is shallow

Flies buzzing round his trembling lips

If he’s not dead yet, they wouldn’t know it

And the bow arm keeps spasm-ing in fits

And somewhere in the world they take donations

Someone lights a candle in the dark

Somewhere in the world they are drowning in the flood

And somewhere in the world there’s an ark

Somewhere north of here lovers tangle

And make promises in their sleep

Somewhere they quarrel over china

Somewhere they discuss the Middle East

Somewhere there’s a room with tinted windows

Where you can go just sit and stare

Each one in his own virtual confusion

Breathing the last unsullied air

And somewhere in the world they get ideas

Somewhere they keep the spark

Somewhere in the world they are drowning in the flood

And somewhere in the world there’s and ark