Revived

There's the promise of a taut blue sky
Blue like a bridge pier, blue like a storm tide
Like we're holding our breath at the same time
Pregnant with hope, eyes turned skyward
Don't be silent
Trust in the well of the mind
You never know when some things are stored then revived

I was born and I lived for twelve years
Then something turned the light off that life
So I walked on without even blinking
The next fifteen years were a study in learning to die
Then I stood with a magnifying glass on the sand behind
And like a green leaf unfurling
I was revived

Oh when I had to break down my mythology
Had to rebuild without turning to stone
And to fashion my own creation
Was to know I was walking alone
Then I found home

You said never give up what you're hoping
Just don't hold too fast, curl your body around
Lest the life you are trying to shield from the world
Withers in darkness in the crook of your arm
Let it go, watch it walk on and wave you to follow
Like a reed in the light you are revived
You are revived

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Hope

I hope I never love this land so much
I would lay you down to die
I may not have paid the price in defense before
Except to watch my country try
And it is not to ignore those before me
Or to stand a little higher
Just hope I never love this land so much
I would lay you down to die

I hope I never love another so much
I make them promise me ‘til death
That they will always feel the same love about me
As the love they wondered then
I hope I never make you scared to go
If it should help you in the end
I hope I never love another so much
I make them promise me ‘til death

I hope I never love my children so much
I make them tell me back to me
And dress them in the flags of where I’ve been
So they’re too heavy to run free
I hope I never make them afraid to grow
Into something I might fear
I hope I never love my children so much
I make them tell me back to me

I hope I never love myself so much
I make your pilgrimage to me
And make you think that every wondrous thing about you
Is never really yours to keep
I hope I never make a masterpiece out of killing someone’s dream
I hope I never love myself so much
I make your pilgrimage to me

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Good Life

We'll have a good life
When we get older we will move down the lane and buy a house
I'll make you happy
We'll take photographs and keep them in albums with pressed flowers
And we'll grow apples in the backyard like my daddy
We'll plant carrots in the spring in seven rows
We'll try not to be unkind to each other as time goes by
We'll stand hand and hand and watch it snow
Watch it snow

We'll have a baby
We'll sing her lullabies, we'll teach her the world and hold her close
We'll do it better
You won't raise your voice and I won't let her praises go untold
And there'll be laughter in the backyard in the summer
Then the autumn will move in before we know
And before we have steeled ourselves for winter
The whole world around us has turned to snow
Turned to snow

It's getting late now
And after all this time the smell of fall still makes me weak
You bought a new house two blocks away from mine so we could make it easier on the kids
Maybe now you'll find the boy inside still frozen
At the place he was told his father died
Maybe now I'll find the little girl snowed under
From the years the years the whole winter moved inside
For now I find myself standing at the window
Wondering how in the world I'll ever know
And as I press my hand to my reflection in the glass
The sky opens up and starts to snow
The sky opens up and starts to snow

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Weather Vane

Maybe I know it but I can't take that it turned out his way
Now you're tripping that light in your town
I slept a few days but the rain never came
So I read fictions about thunder and floods

But it's not enough
I want these black skies to come
Want it heavy and thick like this pain
Well you took up and left
You were never my rest
You were my weathervane

So I go about my mornings leaving cold cups of coffee
I'm never hungry I'm starving I'm so full
It's been grey for two weeks but everything is still frozen
And I just want to be through

Maybe you're not enough
I want these hard skies to come
Want it black when you come back and say it
And it will pierce through my heart
Like a bolt in the dark
You're my weathervane

You'll hollow out and turn east
And I will finally face what I keep

So let's bring it on
I want these dark clouds to come
Want the sky to sob itself to sleep
When we all wake up clean you will know what I mean...

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Row Him Home

Across that river through the orange squares of light
Past the streetlamp like a beacon in the rain
You've stopped in all this motion
You're heavy with news too sudden
You're breathing through this undertow of pain

And all your friends will gather soon
And you'll surface then to bring them through
You'll say "it's better this way" and "at least we knew"
But this practice in leaving
All these small moves to grieving
Does it ever really promise what's deserved?

You want to take him in your arms
And carry to the river
Find the boy he once was and row him home
You want a majesty restored
Find the place where love was born and let him go

Many Sundays passed since the day of his first leaving
You stopped asking for the rule to be reversed
And with the grace that follows those who know what love is
You held his hand and walked towards this strange rebirth
And as the friends gather round to bear witness
You struggle with the fight to find some peace, to make it worth it

You want to take him in your arms
And carry to the river
Find the boy he once was and row him home
You want a majesty restored
Find the place where love was born and let him go
Let him go

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Fireflies

Met you only a short time ago
But I'd been readying for years before
You took my hand and showed me to the world
I didn't know I hadn't yet been born

Yet our hopes flickered with the passing nights
They led us through the dark like fireflies
I said if you must go I'll be alright
I guess I'd hoped that you might sit a while

And I don't mean to sound ungrateful
This life we have is such a precious thing
But if you will not be my mooring
When will my ship come in?

So meet me at the door of this old house
Meet me at the trees where we lay down
It's getting late we may not find our way
The days are short, they're closing up the stage

And I'm not angry, there's no cold injustice
Just something holding in the air like rain
You said I cannot be your mooring
But your ship will soon come in
You're ship will soon come in

Your face is heavy with the weight of pain
I smooth its creases with a steady hand
Loved you before I ever knew your name
And love will follow when you turn away

And I don't mean to sound unable to let this weary heart begin again
But if I wait outside your shores
Will I let my ship come in?
How long will I haunt your shores 'til I let my ship come in?

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I Know This (For J.)

I've written you in so many years, you think you'd recognize yourself
Poised on planks, head thrown back
Body arched in youth
But after all these years it would make sense
The edges may seem soft but it still burns in my chest
All I know is I will love you until the lake runs dry
I'll love you 'til the end of the sky
I know, I know this...I

So we folded our predictions and we packed them away
But I can see your hope and mine is wavering
For me it's learning how to let my heart rest
But for you it still seems such a fight to let yours live
And all I know is I will keep you always in sight
Even as the car slowly pulls down the drive
I know, I know this...I

When did we step down from our rightful royalty
And was it for a lack of guts or a newfound humility?

For now I'll let you pour a drink, we'll keep this August night
Tomorrow we'll pretend we're not saying good-bye
And I know this like the injured know the rain
I know this like darkness trusts the call of day
I know, I know this...I

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The Reckoning

Seems we're finally breaking through this season we could not trust
Heavy trucks are spraying water to clear away the dust
I had started to wonder if it had settled down on us for good

Everyone is talking new things as the old still lingers on
Could it be it keeps us waiting until the weak of us are strong?
We may run ahead like children but even good things can be hard to take when they come

Oh out in the dark, in the clear night sky
Is something on the reckoning of all these lives
Will we wake up from dreaming and know that it all turned out right

You came to me half-frozen because I understood it well
All this waiting for the thaw still needs company to tell
But when you moved on to your own spring it took everything in me to wish you well

Oh out in the dark, in the clear night sky
Is something on the reckoning of all these lives
Will we wake up from dreaming and know that it all turned out right

I feel the pulse of roads to travel as I stand before my life
And as I thank my stars the city center crumbles in the night
I am wondering if leaving always means that someone else is left behind

Oh, out in the dark, in the clear night sky
Is something on the reckoning of all these lives
Will we wake up from dreaming and know we tried everything we could to make it right

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Together Lost

Please Daddy rub my back
No, with just one finger
If you don't the whole world will surely end
Two hours outside of Winnipeg
these highways are my safest bet
I know you understand,
You've been a chosen guest at that same roulette

Well, tell me your story
Over and over
Until I know it by my steel-trap heart
Hand me the book, let me in on the rules
Though I know them like I know your back
Retreating into that dark

Happiness
This will be my greatest gladness
We will find each other
No matter what the cost
And if there is no way out of this
We will stay together lost

There's an acrid smell in the air
Made sharper by the heat in here
It's like medicine left open after the death
You know I tried to beat this path
But you taught me to be a better man
And now you can't believe I followed you here

So just tell me your story
Over and over
Until it burns to tell in my own throat
Don't hide all this sadness
Don't whitewash the madness
I am man enough to be the one who took it on

Happiness...

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Truly (live)

It may be when you find a man in a field
Sitting upright still belted in his seat
More than angels fall from the sky
Though they were surely angels on that flight
Or it may be when you pull a suitcase from the sea
Or when things are sorted in a makeshift infirmary
Though no one will be walking up that frigid beach
You fold the clothes neatly for safekeeping

It may be when you realize their last moments
And you feel their lives in yours for just one second
And the strangest thing is to arrive half-beckoned
You think you may know finally, what it is to love truly

It may be when a man lets it go for half a second
Grieves beyond the details ever mentioned
Or when we're done wondering how these things ever got by
Our careful, constant vigilance, our ever-watchful eye
Cause she was a girl in dance school and a boy we never found
He was a silent, hurting father and a mother unrenowned
Well no one is coming back to this empty house
They closed the door behind them and we're forever locked out

It may be when you realize their last moments
And you feel their lives in yours for just one second
And when you choose to surrender all of this anger
You may just know finally what it is to love truly

Some were awake...Some were sleeping
Some will always wonder what their husbands were thinking
And our children will never know the gift of love's painful teaching
We received

It may be when you realize their last moments
And you feel their lives in yours for just one second
And when you choose to live instead of all this suiciding
You may just know finally, what it is to love truly

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Kite

This room carries the colour and the smell of grief
And I walk through it on my toes
Every now and then I lift my face to it, full lungs, eyes closed

Cause no one knew me better than you
You would wipe your fingers along my ledges,
my grey-boned cellar edges and bring them to your lips

And I know I will never be forgotten
Even as I strain to recall your voice
And as I sit here with your strength in me the whole world opens up

Tell me how when I hid inside myself
You turned to me with a heart I could almost see, red and soft beneath your skin
And the only thing that woke me was hard it was for you to let me be

Oh I can hear the trains just beyond the field
Soon we'll be fast asleep before we ever had the chance to really feel

No one loves you better than I
And you will never be forgotten as long as I can write
As I lie here with your dreams in me
As I lie here with every breath you ever wanted me breathe
The whole world lifts like a kite

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