When you were young you held on for life / and you swung to a spot in the sky / and you never told anyone why / you just felt it inside / reaching for something you sensed in a dream / like the rings of some planet that’s never been seen / and who says the grass can’t be green / when you’re over eighteen / send in the lions they screamed in a roar / but you won’t find me playing those games anymore / and I won’t wear the irons / that I sometimes wore in the past / take off the jackets that hold you inside / of some person your childhood never supplied / remember the spirit / that laid down and died on the way / stand by me tree / I just wanted to see / how high my footsteps could go / can I climb you back to the things / I used to know / come to me light / and say it’s all right / to be running away from the pain / will the sunshine give me sight again / and how can we say / that there’s life on this earth / when we’re losing our minds / from the moment of birth / losing the fire that inspires the heavens to shine / let’s build a swing set that soars to the sun / and go swinging above what’s already been done / swinging to where the living’s just begun / when you were young / you held on for life and you swung.

Watch as the sun / goes down in the west / the shadows start filling / the wide open spaces / I’d like to run / and spend all my breath / just chasing the light / of the morning to come / would you be there / to run right beside me / wind in your hair / and a gleam in your eye / find me tonight / my traveling girl / we’ll ramble right over / the edge of the world / you be a bird / and I’ll be the breeze / I’ll carry you back / to a love you remember / there on a mountaintop / under the trees / the river will run / and a feeling will rise / what was that song / your heartbeat was singing / does it belong / to anyone new / find me tonight / my traveling girl / we’ll ramble right over / the edge of the world / there is a light / that shines in the east / it could be a star / or a piece of tomorrow / maybe we’ll find / the journey has spun / the door opens wide / and the morning has come / would you be there / to wake right beside me / sun in your hair / and a dream in your eye / find me tonight / my traveling girl / we’ll ramble right over / the edge of the world / find me tonight / my traveling girl / we’ll ramble right over / the edge of the world.

Opening the front door it runs out / I grab my shoes and chase it down to the corner / out in the traffic now it leaps between the cars / the black tar flows beneath my feet / stepping back I see a city bus / there it is now staring out of the window / I take a taxi and I follow it downtown / the sun goes down beneath the street / and still it runs all night / until I feel that tap on my shoulder / the party is over / and when I come back home and lock the door / I’m wasted and reeling / now facing the ceiling / now chasing that feeling / all over again / driving down the freeway in my dreams / with no plans I spin my hands on the wheel / whichever way they land is where I’m gonna go / I’m drawn onward by the flow / now the stars come out across the sky / each one has a heart that’s beating so real / and now the moon comes out to wink its waking eye / the willow trees are sweeping low / and as my cup is filled / some wine gets spilled / out over the field / and God is revealed / and when I come back home and lock the door / I’m wasted and reeling / now facing the ceiling / now chasing that feeling / all over again / yeah when I come back home and lock the door / I’m wasted and reeling / now facing the ceiling / now chasing that feeling / all over again.

There’s a small movement in the bedroom of night / the curtain is parted in two / she looks down / he stands in the street with a look on his face / and a weight on his heart / and a speech on the tip of his tongue / but there’s no need to hear what the messenger brings / she’s already read it aloud / she’s a seer of things / he moves to the door with the wind at his back / and his collar turned up / and his eyes staring out of his head / trapped in the glass / he sees a reflection / that causes him to tremble / causes him to holler / hoo-hooo / and there’s no need to wonder why the doorbell rings / she’s already heard it before / she’s a seer of things / he stands with his mouth like a hole and he says / there’s a barn owl that screeches / a dark hand that reaches / to sever my planet in two / there’s a long shadow / a long black shadow / that follows my footsteps / devouring all that I do / these are the fears of the fools and the kings / these have already been seen / by the seer of things / up in the bedroom the four walls are seasons / that turn as he’s turning his head / there’s sand on the floor / and there’s hills at the foot of the bed / stars on the ceiling / fall down when they’re feeling / like lining the fields with light / when the cricket has sung / there’s a creaking of springs / then it’s quiet tonight / in the house of the seer of things.

Well there’s a road that winds into the piney hills / a river runs there so I’m told / and when she leaves I’ll lay my head back and go up / to climb those piney hills alone / because her road isn’t going where I’m going / and her dreams they don’t seem to think about me / I feel bad but I guess I’m better off knowing / that what won’t be / just won’t be / it never will be / now there’s a woman who is lying on the bed / her blue eyes full of thoughts untold / she sings a love song somewhere deep inside her breast / but that’s not mine to know / because her road isn’t going where I’m going / and her dreams they don’t seem to think about me / I feel bad but I guess I’m better off knowing / that what won’t be / just won’t be / it never will be / now there’s a feeling that I’ve felt so many times / a lonesome swirling kind of hole / and when it finds me I’ll climb up into the pines / as she drives by below / because her road isn’t going where I’m going / and her dreams they don’t seem to think about me / I feel bad but I guess I’m better off knowing / that what won’t be / just won’t be / it never will be / it never will be.

Well I don’t want to live without you / but I don’t want to take your freedom / last night I had a dream about you / here’s how it goes / we both were standing in a field / when suddenly you started growing / you tried to keep the change concealed / but still you rose / don’t say you don’t want to see me crying / don’t say you’ll be back cause we both know / that old love we knew is slowly dying / now I’m standing in the wrong place / if you need some space to grow / say let me go / let me go / say let me go / let me go / say let me go / let me go / say let me go / I tried to wrap my arms around you / but found I couldn’t clasp my fingers / there in that field where first I found you / I was alone / and then I brought an axe to cut you / but never found the strength to use it / and so I turned back to my music / and played so slow / don’t say you don’t want to see me crying / don’t say you’ll be back cause we both know / that old love we knew is slowly dying / now I’m standing in the wrong place / if you need some space to grow / say let me go / let me go / say let me go / let me go / say let me go / let me go.

And if you die right now / I know somehow the soul of you is gonna rise / and I believe the bird inside your chest / is gonna take you free / the sun is spinning in a whirlpool of glass / and as it turns / it burns the same unleaded gas / that makes you dream / the shadow underneath your perching pole / is sometimes called the hemisphere / the whirlpool outside your windowsill / goes spinning down below / and as you journey down / you balance on the wind / you taste the darkness / ‘til your conscience pulls the covers back again / bright and yellow comes the morning / it takes the mountain by surprise / beneath your feet a hole is forming / but if you die right now / you’re gonna rise / rise again / the doctor gives you sleeping pills to sleep / but they don’t keep the fear away / it lies beneath your bed / and fills your head with shadows from the plain / your bird is singing in a forest of its own / you tear the sheets away / and stare into a light you’ve never known / bright and yellow comes the morning / it takes the mountain by surprise / beneath your feet a hole is forming / but if you die right now you’re gonna rise / rise again.