Faith

Key: G

G, C, D, Em, B5 (x2440x), Bm7 (x20202), Am9 (x07500), Cmaj7-5 (x32032), Bm9aug5 (x20023) Em4add9 (0xx075), Am7no3 (x0x053)

Faith - how far can I trace myself
to impulses and expressions
not mentioned
until I'm too tired to fight?
I roll over like a wave breaks and
in the little time it takes
I sustain my breath from the atmospheres
of doubt and fear
in and out -- crashing in and out
Who taught me such fearsome tenacity?
Seeking total knowledge of insatiable certainty...
I can't wait any longer
I can feel my heart growing stronger

Does my soul shine bright enough
to catch your attention
or does my ounce of prevention
keep me less than whole?
In the end will I find
that kindness is healing
but healing is not always kind?
I saw something like a god
in the energy I know
when you're putting on your clothes
and it's always too soon
always too soon
too soft, my gentle love, my fragile faith.
Too soon, and gone
by the afternoon

When you can't recall why
you should
Faith doesn't care for your blank stare
it's right there
just little and just late enough
to lead you on to the next bluff
testing the legs you use for walking
while you're praying to a god it's just your
devils talking
but sometimes just when you accept defeat
it swoops down
and sweeps you off your feet
and you're safe in the strong arms
in the long, loving arms
of a theory
or lost in a dream of reality.
without faith, what are you?

Some friend you are, make me love you like that.
You make me purr like your kitten
like you're the cat...
like your tongue is so rough...
and your love is so tough.
But every decision I make is never firm enough
for you
Ah, the great escape from freedom,
well, it's easy to be lost.
It's easier to be found but it's a long walk
from face down in doubt
to your coming out -- got to face up
to what you're about
blind when you're alone
blind when you trust that there is more
if I say I'm lost then who am I waiting for
to find me

Faith, my love
everything's all right
let's get deeper tonight
we'll hold it right down there
center our love like a potter
until we learn to breath water
everything is just how it seems
Faith knows exactly what I mean

California

Key: G

G, D, C, G, F9-5 (133000), C9 (x32030), D/F# (200232), Em, Am7

They've got peace in their hearts
you can feel it in the songs they sing
They don't mind if you stop by
just to say hello
cause they know
it don't mean a thing...
Well it means everything now
cause I'm back in California
once again.

It's still your best bet for an open mind.
You can leave those mid-west blues behind
If you give me some water
I'll pass you some wine
and you know
it don't mean a thing
But it means everything now
cause I'm back in California
who gave this to me?
I can smell those trees
once again.

Well I was raised in Ohio
on those sparkling streams
with the forests so quiet and gentle
that they rock you to sleep
and they carry me on through
through to California
well it's pretty tough to beat
when I can feel the ocean
over my feet.

I have not returned to my family
my friendships are scattered and few
I'll not hold the hand of a lover tonight
there's still so much work to do
and I'm not thinking of you
I'm just back in California
that's enough for me
cause don't you know the basics
they're all you need.

It's been raining so long now
that I've lost track of the days
there's clouds moving in off the headlands
to start their battles again

but springtime will win

because I'm back in California
well, we'll see what we can find
out on the sunset coast
one more time.

Bird in a Storm

Key: Am

Am9 (x07500 and x07507), Cmaj7, G, F-5 (133200), Dm7 (xx0211), Am

I remain unconvinced.
Tell me why I should melt like weak wax into a mold.
Tell me why I should walk with the dream of history that we fortold.
History, mother, history led me to you
sliding sideways with the momentum of a movement
toward the finish line.
Who dares to slow down just a bit before?
To taste even a tiny drop of the loss
of less not more...

Patience, Mother, you gave us the freedom that we demand
and we will test your love 'till we understand.

But I remain unconvinced.
A perfect purity keeps knocking around up inside of me,
sly, behind a soft curtain of fear,
asking, "Did you forget? Did you even hear?
Did you fall asleep again? Now, you wouldn't up an walk out
on your best friend?"

So next time you catch me chosing the lazy way
like I'm about to defect, but my calculations were correct
you just tug on my rug just a little bit
to remind me of the shifts in the plates that I forget;
to remind me that my anger is my deceptive disguise

That ain't nothing but your same soul
in your enemy's eyes

Oh, but I remain unconvinced yet.
I'm so sick of the cold comfort compromise.
I don't want this beautiful earth to kiss us goodbye
with her cracked lips
and her sad eyes.
I want to make a baby in a meadow in a springtime
I want to die as tragic and anonymous as a freshly fallen tree
across a trail, waiting to surprise,
and slip back into the simple blur of time.

There's too much poetry in this world
to pretend that it doesn't rhyme.

But how could we know what's to blame?
Everyone's seeking the root,
chasing the root like we're chasing our tail...
Who could we ever attack but the worst sides of ourselves
on the wide screen of the global scene?

But I know who did all the killing.
I know how it all went down.
I know how our president was willing.
All the stories are the same; it's just the details shift around.
It's an ugly mess of guilty fingers pointing
money buying power problems egos trying, trying

We are wide eyed at whatever is starting
grow our love like a garden
just trying to keep warm
we've got to turn like a bird in a storm.

Love like the river loves the mountains
Love like the river loves the sea.

Precedent

Key: C

Am, C, G, F9 (1330xx), G/B, E7

Our country was not stolen from us.
Our government was not hijacked
and flown into the ground.
Our voices have not been lifted from our tongues
or sugar coated and turned around.

Our public office is just as noble
our industry exactly as pure
and our wars have not been tainted
by the powers we're fighting for.

Maybe if we all chant it together
the best memories will rewrite the worst
but if we want to grow up
we've got to give it up.
You can't find it if you don't lose it first.

Unimaginable damage and unrestrained concentration...
It's a new world record in a very old game.
So we have no reason to be so suddenly sad
You can't lose what you never had.

It's just the same damn story of our human fears.
These nightmares have been in reruns for ten thousand years.
So don't you dare be surprised
by the current events.
We are not setting a cultural
precedent.

Song of Being Empty

Key: Am (verse), G (chorus)

Am, Am9 (x07500), Bm+5 (x2403x), G/B (x2003x), C9 (x3203x), D9sus4 (x5405x), D9sus4/A (554030), C/G (332010), G, D/F# (20023x), Em, Am7, D7, G/D* (xx0787), C9* (870088), E7, D9sus4 (xx0010), E6 (024100)

I'm trying to lose track of myself.
I'm trying to make love
to a fear of honesty
and it feels just like running
out into the sea
but i've not felt so cradled since my infancy.

i flex my aura in the mirror like an anxious saint
and i regulate the fingers that i use to paint.
The holy man's always got so much to say...

All i want to do is tell the truth one day.

I jump to my feet and i say "the hell with it all.
We're just egos, fears, and animals"
but they've got something on us
and i laugh when i say

"Don't make it what it isn't or it fades away."

Why would I chase what isn't there?
Could I see the bottom if it's too far?
How can I love you for what you are?

What i should have told you
I said to the street
but I know
stone is softer than concrete
I regress to a child
who's losing the game
but the Earth won't remember my name.

Old and Dying

Key: G

C, G, G/B, Am7, Em, Bm+5 (x24030), Am9 (x07500), Em* (079000), Cm7 (x24232), Bb- maj7 (x13231)

What am I scared of now?
What am I gonna do?
How can I change the rules
when I'm old and dying?

You must not have heard what I said.
You must not have understood.
Or you got a little confused
as the last sun caught the tops of the trees.

The last sweet shred of sensibility
slipped through the crack in my fist.
Now I don't know who to trust
between you and me and the rest of us.

What should I do with this energy?
Do you know a judge who could judge me?
Which is the priviledge I should abuse?
You toys are the tools you didn't use.

What am I scared of now?
What am I gonna do?
How can I change the rules
when I'm old and dying?

Light Like That

Key: Bb
Guitar Key: G

Capo 3
D, Em, C, G, A7, F, C

It was an old piano
and though i'd not have known the words
we fit that house perfectly
bare feet on rough wood floors

always too much pedal
but the pedal felt so good
sun slants late day amber glow
and the moms are making food

long days, bright and early
nice and late
with the uneven porch wood
creaking underneath the weight

of brimming adolescence and dusty rugs
rocking Patience on the guitar
for all the lightning bugs

there should be a word for light like that
there should be a word

now we're patching a screen
my father and me
weaving a needle back and forth
to each other quietly

getting little seminars on where not to step
how to turn the lamps on
how to flush the toilet

the insane summer thunderstorms
and the long humid days
pushing a tiny motorbike
on our little boy legs

trying to pop the clutch
on a downhill straight
but there was no gas in the tank

there should be a word for light like that
there should be a word

now we're trying to start a fire
that won't light down at the shore
he wants to know if she
"put out"
the day before
but i'd been too scared to meet her eyes
much less the lessons they might teach
and then she told me the racist name
of the rocks just off the beach

but before i could disappoint him
there's a sound like a ghostly train
and a black snake smoke of mosquitoes
swallowed us in a biblical plague

they didn't bite us once
as we stood there in awe
and the waters of that Great Lake erupted with fish
who could not believe what they saw

and i forgot everything

there should be a word for light like that
there should be a word

Pearl

Key: E (C#m)

B, C#m, A9 (x06600), E9 (0x6870), B6 (7x687x), C#m6 (9x8990), Amaj7add6 (x02122), E, E7/G# (420100), A, B7add9sus4 (x21220)

All you adults out there
wherever you are hiding
you've got a big god damned job to do
we need some protection provided

it starts like this: another child
given another body
to find his way in this strange world
and given the circumstance
and given half a chance
another leaf on the tree
just like you and me

When you see
what shouldn't be happening
it's everybody's business
it's everybody's business
so don't be afraid kid
to step right in for me
cause i'll be waiting
and i'll be watching

half crazy and half dead
half asleep for the visions in my head
too tired for the smiles i got to crack
cause no one knows the courage that it took
to splinter instead of snap

it's the hardest road i know
when you've got to reap the pain they sow
but if you've got the strength to lift your eyes
you'll see the lights of the world are by your side

why did you let me kiss those lips?
how could i earn such a fancy pearl?
when will the world ever see a strength
like that between a woman and a girl?

i know the kind of monsters that men can be
but never feel ashamed with me

she said "remember the day
you said no more;
Child, your healing is important to this world,
and I know you can
cause i seen it done before.
What else would you hold it
together for?"

Chrysalis

Keys: Dm, Bb

Dm9 10-x0-10-10-0, Dm9/C 8x0-10-10-0, G6 (320030), C9 (x32030), G6/B (x20030), Bb6 (x1303x), Ebm6 (11-x-10-11-11-x), Gm (3x033x), F, A7+ (x0302x)

Don't stand there like that
as if you can deny
five fingers on your solid stick
your spray, your fire
your social weapon

clicking its metal teeth
as if it can deny
who has the loudest voice
and why
how came the privilege to amplify
what's the reduction we can apply?

what's with the air now?
crouched in a sky blue with fear?
what's with the lump secretly growing
just behind my ear?
Everybody smiles in retrospect
everybody martials the shells
of the souls now paraded like dolls
in somebody's careful little house

oh, i know that you'll stand there like that
we already know most of the words
and how they do or do not intersect
but you better be careful
you're my blood red like wine

but what but a birth
could see us sacrifice like this?
could shake our stasis like a chrysalis?
could tear our fabric till we lose our mind
in the opening we find?

You Loved me Anyway

Key: G

G, C9 (870080), Em, C

I can't believe you listened through that fever i contracted
as we were running our protracted evening scene down on the beach
and the feelings ebbed and flowed like a very confused ocean
and there's no word in German for that complex combination i could say

but you loved me anyway

in the early days, when i'd make lists of all the things
that seemed so hard at the time
on the backs of old receipts and bills to pay
and you'd laugh and then we'd check them off like groceries one by one
till i finally had no man-made things to say

but you loved me anyway

that first time we stayed up talking through the night in your big bed
with your old guitar between us and your blanket wrapped around
although we talked for hours, i do not recall a sound
and then we turned out the light and as you glided into sleep
i layed wide awake and trembling till the day

but you loved me anyway

I didn't always understand it or have the guts to let it ride
I'd stop the action in mid-stride with some uncertain fear of danger
darling, my heart was so afraid
to betray

but i loved you anyway

i loved you
and you loved me anyway