i’ve done this all before i stood here at this door it’s the least i know how to do i can walk away from anyone i choose and i know how this all ends a tired man begins again and i’ll have this feeling like i’ve forsaken someone i've never even been and i know how to step away from others and i know how to step away from the ones i don’t deserve and i know how to step away from lovers but i just don’t know how to step away from this hurt it just takes a second i can be just walking down the hall and i’ll see someone’s eyes and i’ll remember and that’s when things begin to fall i’m leaving this city i’m leaving on the first i’m leaving if it kills me just hoping somehow i can make it work cause i know how to step away from mercy and i know how to step away from the things i haven’t earned and i know how to step away from heaven but i just don’t know how to step away from this hurt yeah i know how to step away from others and i know how to step away from the ones i don’t deserve and i know how to step away from lovers but i just don’t know how to step away from this hurt no i just don’t know how to step away from this hurt

it’s cold at the window and the rain falls upon the soil and i’ll be the one lord i’ll be the one just draw the evening down let it burn like scented oil and i’ll be the one lord i’ll be the one and there’s a passage in the heart that knows no sorrow and there’s a passage in the heart that knows no hollow and i’ll be the one i’ll be the one i’ll be the one to keep you warm like the burning sun i’ll be the one i’ll be the one that you can hold on to i breathe in the light from your eyes just to hold you inside me it’s as if i’ve been chosen lord i’ve been chosen and there’s a passage in the heart that knows just to follow and there’s a passage in the heart that knows no tomorrow and i’ll be the one i’ll be the one i’ll be the one to keep you warm like the burning sun i’ll be the one i’ll be the one that you can hold on to there’s a passage in the heart that knows no winter and when i’m with her lord when i’m with her...

i can feel the winter age i can feel it fall away and i can feel the dawn as it’s turning and you know i wish the same for you i plan to rise up in the bloom and stand and face the sky as it’s burning a haunted soul can hide away can close the door and keep the pain can leave their home but it won’t ease them and don’t you get to thinking that the ghosts you kept could be made to rest just cause you step away cause you can’t please them you just live with them and they go wherever you go so go on sweet Virginia go on and make your way your past it can’t ever kill ya your loving eyes, your heart, your flame they’re yours and they will always remain and i can see the morning star it hangs above the boulevard and i know there’s no shadow that could take me and i can feel the light kiss the ground when i stand ther i hear the sound of life beneath the earth growing and shaking and i know it feels like a vacancy to hide and seek to keep your grief to disbelieve that you can be delivered my hope is that you leave behind the doubt that binds you into thinking you can’t find a way out of your corner you can go much further than you ever thought you could go so go out west Virginia go on and stake your claim your debts are just phantoms they can’t kill ya your evening eyes, your heart, your dreams they’re yours and they will always be so go on sweet Virginia go on and make your way forgive yourself your sadness it will never fill ya your youthful eyes, your heart, your flame they’re yours and they will always remain

well i don’t know what happened but with a flashing i saw you there standing back leaned on the glass and i felt like i was flying you turned right to me and smiled with your eyes the way snow falls in silence and i reached out but all i could touch was a photograph and man how i’ve missed her i approached her, i kissed her i asked her how she’s been since she passed that winter she spoke like the living and looked right into me and in her own way tried to reassure me and i reached out but all i could touch was a photograph and i remember that cabin that fire and those aspens nightfall could not blacken the blue eyes she had then and slowly at morning the slant sun on the flooring would stir me to waken and since you always woke before me the first thing i’d see was our wedding photograph and there like a vision i saw you in the kitchen making cinnamon rolls for both of our children a Saturday morning, i stood there yawning you called to Sophie and Warren: “come on and get ‘em” and i reached out but all i could touch was a photograph and the waters rise… and the waters rise… and the waters rise… they don’t look back and just like a memory i was back with her near me she wrote on my hand: “with love from Leah” and i went off to work she called me that evening with news from the doctor i refused to believe in after months by her bedside her hands growing weaker i prayed for an angel to please let me keep her and i reached out but all i could touch was a photograph i packed up our things all of your belongings and put your ring on a string so i could always wear it on me the house now empty i stood by the door with albums of memories you made for safe keeping and all i have left now are just those photographs all i have left now are just photographs and the waters rise… and the waters rise… and the waters rise… they don’t look back

because the heart is such a restless messenger because the night is such a solid thing because tomorrow is such a very long time i dream you near me like winter dreams the spring and know these hands have reached for no other know these lips have only spoken your name know that in the sands that catch the furthest oceans we stand and are not washed away i fall in a melody and i teach it to sing of your simple graces, your curves and things i know who, it’s you i remain to when i’m holding you and all the world just falls away because a song is such a simple messenger because these strings are such trembling things because yesterday was such a very long time i keep you with me like rivers keep the springs and know these hands still remember your hands know these lips still remember your lips know this heart still remembers your heart know that love never forgets i find a melody and i teach it of you your whispered glances, your shades of blue and i play and i play until i remain true until i’m holding you and all the world just falls away

he stands and looks upon the city graffiti up on the bridge and it seems like everything there don’t mean as much as it did he could turn away forever he could leap into a storm he could let go a hurricane on all the things that he’d once had before it ain’t that hard to do you just gotta pay the fare and if you can take half of your heart a bus’ll take the other half there i don’t know but if i saw him i would tell him yeah it’s hard to deal but there ain’t a man standing here who’s ever felt completely filled yeah and sometimes we tear things down when we don’t know how to build it’s on every street in every city it moves every wheel and every tire it’s on every voice, on every telephone wire for every thousand hearts beating there’s a thousand on fire her dad called the other day it had been twenty years said he’d thought about the things he’d done and said he’d done them all out of fear she believes he wants amends she believes he wants a change but she can’t believe that after all these years her father expects from her the same it’s a hard thing to do to give him the words he needs cause she finally has something her father wants that’s all hers to keep i don’t know but if i saw her i’d tell her yeah it’s hard to take but there ain’t a soul standing here who’s never seen someone walk away and yeah it’s hard thing but the past don’t ever stay in yesterday it’s on every street in every city it moves every wheel and every tire it’s on every voice, on every telephone wire for every thousand hearts beating there’s a thousand on fire he made a call to an old lover but she never said hello he still has some love left but it’s too late for him to let it show he’s been reading lots of books he’s been studying the page he’d been wishing he could write himself a new beginning or just a new part to play it’s a hard thing to do you can change your name try to give up everything you need and find another place to stay i don’t know but if i saw him i’d tell him yeah it’s hard to know but there ain’t a man standing here who’s never felt completely alone and it ain’t enough to give things up, you gotta let them go and it’s on every street in every city it’s on every voice, in every wire it moves every wheel, it moves every tire for every thousand hearts beating there’s a thousand on fire yeah i know what it was like back when you were just a kid you dreamed you’d be flying like all of your heroes did yeah i been there before feeling sick and feeling tired i know how the mystery of darkness feels when you’ve walked in it for miles it’s a hard thing to do to remake the life you made but there ain’t a soul standing here that ain’t never felt the same way and yeah you gotta carry some weight but you don’t gotta carry all that pain and it’s on every street in every city it moves every wheel and every tire it’s on every voice, on every telephone wire for every thousand hearts beating there’s a thousand on fire for every thousand hearts beating there’s a thousand on fire for every thousand hearts beating there’s a thousand on fire for every thousand hearts beating there’s a thousand on fire

in Texas the sun shines in December when the land is quiet i go walk it alone i hear the river lying waiting to remember the heavenfall of rain to make its way upon the stone yeah i guess that’s just like me sometimes i am empty i wish and wait for something to bring me more but at times like these i can feel you with me and i feel at ease i feel like i am reborn yeah and morning always came when i needed and you were always morning to me thank you for the life and love you left inside me these things i keep these things i keep i have a memory of a trail we walked within the forest i have another of some lights around a tree i have still a memory of candles and Handel’s chorus and i from you and you from me we held the new gifts we received and i can play back a long walk through the city or the times when we skipped rocks upon the sea i can play back the awakened voice of your laughter or the way you cried beside me from the death that we had seen i know no other way to reach you now than this i know no other way to hold you than to sing i know no other way to feel your gentle kiss i know the sure way to find you is to reach inside of me yeah and the stars were always shining when i needed and you were always the stars for me thank you for the life and love you left inside me these things i keep these things i keep i won’t pretend i am not fearful of final endings or of the thought that some things never end or of the thought that there are no new beginnings or of the thought that some things can never begin i have always struggled with points of confusion many times i’ve stumbled to places i never wished to see i do not know how a man finds absolution but in the minor works of tenderness so i hold to that belief yeah and the morning always came when i needed and don’t you know that you were always the morning to me thank you for the life and love you left inside me these things i keep these things i keep well tomorrow i’ll go flying on a jet airliner and i may not ever feel the land again i feel so near you i could fly and just keep flying like an eagle upon the wind i have heaven in my hands yeah and heaven always came when i needed and you were always heaven to me thank you for the life and love you left inside me these things i keep these things i keep

nights like these i wish i could take the poetry from the woods and take a melody from your eyes and make it sing the way i know you like but this rain it is slowly stealing and in the morning i’ll be leaving i’ve been staying up all night staring at the shadows for the words to write before i leave here tomorrow i’ve been up all night wishing i could see you again i’ll send my love out in the wind i got your picture right by my bed i got memorized the words you said i play the scene over again the last touch of your loving hand but this fog it is slowly stealing and tomorrow i’ll be leaving i’ve been staying up all night leaning on the window trying to make it right before i leave here tomorrow i’ve been up all night wishing i could see you again i’ve been staying up all night looking for the reason i made in my mind before i leave here this season i’ve been up all night wishing i could see you again i’ll send my love out in the wind

i walk through streets unnamed and winding holding pieces of things i can’t leave behind me they are corners of pictures, they are last night’s dream they are tears and graves and loves and scenes and i remember being somewhere on a desert highway with windows down and a sunset skyway i was younger and about to be anything i wanted to be i stopped for minute on the roadside rest to freeze the frame, seven stars overhead and if i’d known how much life owes to death i would’ve put down the camera and taken another breath i now want to put down my grief and take a breath and i pass by houses with numbers on the doors i don’t know this road but it’s like i’ve been here before i can see through it all and know i want something more and i stand up on a hill above a foreign city under evergreens in an old cemetery and look out on the city lights, it’s like they’re on some kind of stage i see how easily the dark can be turned away so mother and father, sisters and brothers i call to you now, for me there are no others i have words for you as they’ve come to me there is a place in you that knows no grief and you hold the light to make the dawn you hold the light that makes dawn

i guess a heart is just a river both wild and still i guess it shoulders the rain toward a sea never filled i guess a song is just a sign we set out on the road to mark the miles we’ve gone and how far we’ve got left to go it’s cold out here but the river’s on fire and sometimes like this morning i can hear it echo for miles the river has many voices… the river has many voices… i guess a heart is just a window cleared and dirtied by the past i guess it shatters and reflects like any other kind of glass i guess a song is just a highway we take from town to town i guess a town is just a place where we build up from the ground it’s cold out here but the leaves are on fire and sometimes like this morning i awake to hear the birds on the wire the river has many voices… the river has many voices… the river has many voices…