1 - The Lifting

Grounded, 5 A.M.
the nitelite is comforting,
but gravity is holding you.

Once settled into sleep
you have watched, on repeat,
the story of your life
across the ceiling;
and in review,

You've said the air was singing
It's calling you, you don't believe
these things you've never seen

"Good morning, and how are you?
The weather's fine, the sky is blue -
it's perfect for our seminar..."

"Now close your eyes,
and start to breathe.
Allow the noise to recede...
...allow yourself to drift and fly away."
But you just stay.

You've said the air was singing
It's calling you, you don't believe
these things you've never seen, never dreamed.

Did you hear these voices calling

Locked into the conference room,
"We're only what our minds assume..."
and rationale is leaving you.

This conceit, these systems of belief,
your counselor agrees,
"You've always marked these boundaries, now you're free..."
and with relief.

You've said the air was singing
It's calling you, you don't believe
these things you've never seen, never heard, never dreamed.

You've said the air was singing
It's calling you, you don't believe
these things you've never seen

Never, never, never.

Once you had a dream
of oceans, and sunken cities;
memories of things you've never known
and you have never known.


2 - I've Been High

have you seen?
have not, will travel.
have I missed the big reveal?

do my eyes
do my eyes seem empty?
I've forgotten how this feels.

I've been high
I've climbed so high
but life sometimes
it washes over me.

have you been?
have done, will travel.
I fell down on me knees.

was I wrong?
I don't know, don't answer.
I just needed to believe.

I've been high
I've climbed so high
but life sometimes
it washes over me.

so
I dive into a pool so cool and deep that if I sink I sink
and when I swim I fly so high

what I want
what I really want is
just to live my life on high.

and I know
I know you want the same
I can see it in your eyes.

I've been high
I've climbed so high
but life sometimes
it washes over me.

washes over me
close my eyes so I can see
make my make believe believe
in me


3 - All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star)

humming
all the way to Reno
you've dusted the non-believers
and challenged the laws of chance
now, sweet
you were so sugar sweet
you may as well have had 'kick me'
fastened on your sleeve

you know what you are,
you're gonna be a star
you know what you are
you're gonna be a star

wing
is written on your feet
your Achilles heel
is a tendency
to dream
but you've know that from the beginning
you didn't have to go so far
you didn't have to go.

you know what you are,
you're gonna be a star
you know what you are
you're gonna be a star

you know who you are
you know who you are
you know who you are.

humming
all the way to Reno,
you've written your own directions
and whistled the rules of change

you know what you are
you're gonna be a star
you know what you are
you're gonna be a star
you know what you are
you're gonna be a star
you know what you are
you're gonna be a star

humming
all the way to Reno
all the way to Reno
all the way to Reno

you're gonna be a star, you are
you're gonna be a star
you're gonna be a star, you are
you're gonna be a star


4 - She Just Wants To Be

it's not that she walked away,
her world got smaller.
all the usual places,
the same destinations,
only something's changed.

it's not that she wasn't rewarded
with pomegranate afternoons
and Mingus, Chet Baker and chess.
it's not the stampeding fortune,
of prim affectations.
she's off on her own
but she knows

now is greater than the whole of the past
is greater, and now she knows

she just wants to be somewhere
she just wants to be
she just wants to be somewhere
she just wants to be.

it's not that the transparency
of her earlier incarnations
now looked back on, weren't rich
and loaded with beautiful vulnerability
and now she knows.

now is greater
and she knows that

she just wants to be somewhere
she just wants to be
She just wants to be somewhere
she just wants to be

now is greater, now is greater.
and she knows that

she just wants to be somewhere
she just wants to be
she just wants to be somewhere
she just wants to be.

it's not like if angels
could truly look down
stir up the trappings
and light on the ground.
remind us of what, when, why or who
that how's up to us, me and you.
and now is greater than the whole of the past

is greater, and now she knows that.
now she knows.


5 - Disappear

I've dragged my feet
across the seat
and jumped out the passenger side.
the only thing worth looking for
is what you find inside.
but that had not yet appeared.
lost, invisible, here.
tel aviv and agadir,
taroudant or olomouc
before i learned to see
the vanishing point appear

I looked for you and everywhere.
I looked for you and everywhere.

there is a calm I haven't come to yet
I spent half my life figuring what comes next
I telescoped in.
I'll finally win,
I'll finally win the prize.
that now my eyes see
a comic's perfect timing squeezed.
I'm headfirst fighting everything
the crushing force of memory
erasing all i've been
the vanishing point appears

I looked for you and everywhere.
I looked for you and everywhere.
tell me why you're here
I came to disappear.

look at this face.
can you believe it?
am I living in a beautiful vacuum?
because I can't see it
the vanishing point appears.

I looked for you and everywhere.
I looked for you and everywhere.
tell me why you're here
I came to disappear
tell me why you're here
I came to disappear
I came to disappear


6 - Saturn Return

easy to poke yourself square in the eye
harder to like yourself, harder to try
these elvis poses, postcards and neopryn
roses a dollar a stem
everyone's sleeping or pulling a long haul,
the keys in the cooler, it's 3 a.m.

and Saturn is beckoning no one
is off on its own
is offering up

late shift convenience store
cut out the lights
telescope roof towards the
northwestern sky
you pull the ladder u
no one's the wiser
tou find your sights and discover

that Saturn is orbiting nothing
is off on its own
is breaking from home

harder to look yourself square in the eye
easy to take off

you found the ladder in the pattern of your wrist
you've seen and you've marked horizons
mother was difficult, she made you cry
cover the mirror, look to the sky
you climbed into your rocketship triumph
lift up and hold out your hands

Saturn is orbiting nothing
is off on its own
is breaking from home

Saturn is orbiting nothing
is off on its own
is breaking from home

Saturn return when you chase down its moons
throw them into a new gravity

harder to look yourself square in the eye
easy to poke yourself, easy as pie
easy to take off, harder to fly
harder to wake Galileo


7 - Beat A Drum

the sun reflected in the back of my eye
I knocked my head against the sky

the dragonflies are busy buzzing me
seahorses if we were in the sea

halfway from coal, halfway to diamond.
my fall knocked a mean chip out of me.

I'm gathering as far as I can reach
we're perched up on the precipice
and this is what I've seen

this is all I want it's all I need
this is all I am it's everything
this is all I want it's all I need.

a bluejay hectors from the felled catalpa tree
doctorate in science and a theologian's
dream

the dragonflies are trying to lecture me
seahorses if we were in the sea

this is all I want it's all I need
this is all I am it's everything
this is all I want it's all I need.

beat a drum for me, like a butterfly wing
tropical storm across the ocean

but don't explain, I'm sure I'll want to know.
but don't forget, we're just halfway from coal

this is all I want it's all I need
this is all I am it's everything
this is all I want it's all I need.


8 - Imitation Of Life

charades, pop skill
water hyacinth, named by a poet.
imitation of life
like a koi in a frozen pond
like a goldfish in a bowl
I dont want to hear you cry

thats sugarcane that tasted good
thats cinnamon thats hollywood
c'mon c'mon no one can see you try

you want the greatest thing
the greatest thing since bread came sliced.
you've got it all, you've got it sized.
like a friday fashion show teenager
freezing in the corner
trying to look like you dont try

thats sugarcane that tasted good.
thats cinnamon thats hollywood
c'mon c'mon no one can see you try

no one can see you cry

thats sugarcane that tasted good
thats freezing rain thats what you could
c'mon c'mon no one can see you cry

this sugarcane
this lemonade
this hurricane, i'm not afraid.
c'mon c'mon no one can see me cry
this lightning storm
this tidal wave
this avalanche, i'm not afraid.
c'mon c'mon no one can see me cry

thats sugarcane that tasted good
thats who you are, thats what you could
c'mon c'mon no one can see you cry

thats sugarcane that tasted good
thats who you are, thats what you could
c'mon c'mon no one can see you cry


9 - Summer Turns To High

mercury is rising still
turn the fan on high
I won't step on my own shadow
no one wants to cry

someone put a pox on me
I'll spit in their eye

summer turns to high

with my bedsheet cape and sandals
circle citronella candles
summer's here, the light is raising
hopes and dragonflies

If those hopes are overshadowed,
cotton candy, caramel apple.

summer turns to high
summer turns to high
summer turns to high,
summer high

after wine and nectarines
the fireflies in time
move like syrup through the evening
with a sweet resign

I won't pine for what could have been-
I'm preoccupied!

summer turns to high
summer turns to high
summer turns to high,
summer high.


10 - Chorus And The Ring

hey there now young one wholly, swing along
quote the scriptures, keep them guessing
which pit you crawled from.
just defy it, just deny it, was it fun?
your time has come-
what have you done? what have you done?

that's when the insults start to sting
you can't remember anything
the chorus chime in, the greek chorus,
the machine of god singing

it's the poison that in measures brings
illuminating vision
it's the knowing with a wink that we expect in
southern women
it's the wolf that knows which root to dig
to save itself
it's the octopus that crawled back to the sea

that's when the insults start to sting
you can't remember anything
the chorus chime in, the greek chorus,
the machine of god ring!

hammered, shooting plywood in the backyard
laughing 'cause the racket makes the
blackbirds sing
write the holy terror, suck the marrow from
the bone- singe
your own wings burning books, you got the
chorus and the ring

that's when the insults start to sting
you can't remember anything
the chorus chime in, the greek chorus,
the machine sings
that's when the insults starts to sting
you can't remember anything
the chorus chime in, the greek chorus,
the machine sings

that's when the calibration brittle as a stick
gets you the gold ring
and the tar museum che guevera wink,
gold ring
gold ring.

sing.
sing.
sing.
sing.


11 - I'll Take The Rain

the rain came down
the rain came down
the rain came down on me
the wind blew strong
and summer's song
it fades to memory.

I knew you when
I loved you then
in summer's yawn, now hopeless
you laid me bare
and marked me there
the promises we made

I used to think, as birds take wing,
they sing through life, so why can't we?
we cling to this, and claim the best
if this is what you're offering
I'll take the rain, I'll take the rain,

the nighttime creases
summer schemes
and stretches out to stay
the sun shines down
you came around
you love the easy days

but now the sun,
the winter's come
I wanted just to say
that if I hold
I'd hope you'd fold
and open up inside, inside of me

I used to think, as birds take wing,
they sing through life, so why can't we?
we cling to this, and claim the best
if this is what you're offering
I'll take the rain, I'll take the rain, I'll take the rain.

this winter's song
I'll sing along
I've searched its still refrain.
I'll walk alone
if given this
take wing, and celebrate the rain.

I used to think, as birds take wing,
they sing through life, so why can't we?
we cling to this, and claim the best
if this is what you're offering
I'll take the rain, I'll take the rain, I'll take the rain.


12 - Beachball

tonight's alive
the beach ball's set to fly
those well tequila'd guys
who smile at strangers

ŕ tes souhaits
ŕ tes amours chéri
you give a little sneeze
and dance the rhu-rhu-rhu-rhu-rhumba

this life is sweet
we're dancin' in the street
who knows who you might meet?
you'll do fine.

the little weekend's here
thursday has an ear
her coffee klatch career
she talks to strangers.

and kissing by the sea
particular to me
'ti punch, mojito, sling and
dance the rhu-rhu-rhu-rhu-rhumba.

this life is sweet
we're dancin' in the street
who knows who you might meet?
you'll do fine.

we flash the seaside sky
with starfish butterflies
to cast a spell and welcome locals,
weekenders and strangers.

You'll do fine
You'll do fine
You'll do fine