1.Under the Shade

Let us begin by talking a little bout myself

Since I'm always asked if I need a little help

I'm not much lovelier than the eye see

And my desires refuse to let me be

Some folks would say I was alright until you came along

True or untrue, that's not the reason why I wrote this song

The days are going by faster than they used to do

But time drags it feet a little when it passes you

Though nations rise, and kingdoms fall

In your eyes, there's not a care at all

Speak to me now, let me in a little on the deal

Only you keep me believing that all this is real

I've been spending time

Under the shade of a lilac tree

Looking for Ninevehs to burn

Looking for words for songs to learn and

Sing to you

I want to sing to you

But what can I sing to you

Morning, Good morning

Evening, In the evening

 A young king far from his throne

Now that I am not with you

I will do what I can do

Stay on this path our angels drew

That I believed was made for two

Where's the security I had

The light to keep me from the bad

Was it all made up in my head

Am I still wicked like they said

Now that you have gone away

My spirit yearns to go astray

My mind is tortured everyday

By what the devil has to say

When I kept vigil at your side

Your eyes were peaceful and so wide

But then you saw me and you cried

Now that I am not with you

I'm just waiting for my cue

To come and find you when I'm through

With all the things I'm set to do

In the glass when the sun is low

My eyes seem distant in that glow

What's there you saw that grieved you so

I can't wait to find out anymore

Now that I am not with you

I'm cold and dry and black and blue

My blood has marked this avenue

Now that I am not with you

I take a long walk down liquored avenues

And arrive at a room I've just come to know

Where strangers meet and trade how-do-you-dos

And all the yellow lights are turned way down low

Like sweat-bees my thoughts itch, my memories ache

With all the crap that has gone before

Just one more dance, it'll be a piece of cake

To drop to my knees and say "no more"

And now chief among my fears

Is that I'm bored beyond my years

I can't bring myself to tears

In this land that I now roam

And it don't matter what I see 

It don't matter what I touch

Baby I know this much

I'll be bringing it all back home

Laying still in a spinning room

My skin feeling like it's six days old

A friend on the phone foretold my doom

Well not all tales end well or so I'm told

Like dancers on the street, deaf to the tune

Caterwauling to the very end of time

I don't know when it all ends, but I hope it's soon

All this waiting's enough to blow my mind

And now chief among my fears

I still got a lifetime of years

To leave behind a trail of tears

In each forsaken place I roam

And it don't matter what I say

It don't matter what I do

Baby this much is true

I'll be bringing it all back home

Well I shuffle out to the place next door

Call it a hijrah if you will

The guy there sleeps with the lost and poor

These are some funky shoes I get to fill

Satterfield's his last name, I call him Walker

But I think his mother calls him Sloan

Last thing he says, he's going off to Alaska

He's gonna find a piece of mind to call his own

And I ain't decided since then

But for now I call him friend

And I guess it does depend

On the highways that we roam

It don't matter what he'll perceive

Or the lies that he'll believe

It's been written what he'll receive

He'll be bringing it all back home

Summer comes, the memories begin to fade

I play the part of the guilty child

Stumbling around in every evening shade

Like Nebuchadnezzar in the wild

Preparing them tables and hauling those trays

Setting up a banquet of emotional flux

Glancing aside in cautious ways

That girl looks just too damn good in a tux

It was hard to decide back then

What to do to be the perfect friend

But sometimes it don't depend

On where your imaginations roam

And it don't matter what I fear

It don't matter what I feel

But half of this is real

Consider a while everything I ever did

The ticket's in my hand and it plainly tells

The information's there, it has not been hid

But each time I look I see something else

The damn plane's left now, oh what have I done

The midnight Greyhound is all I've got now

To get to Detroit before the noonday sun

Before my spirit is completely shot now

In my seat I bowed and prayed

For every second I've delayed

A black lady said every debt's been paid

For every bad road that I roam

And it don't matter what I do

It don't matter what I've done

I'm there before the stroke of one

Soon I'll be bringing it all back home

Now I feel safe in the colors and skin

Of a two-story shop lot and a round-the-clock din

But I should know I can never quite win

Yeah she comes and invades the state I am in

Making up signs to hang over the can

Exaggerating pouts just to catch her eye

Of frustration, I'm an undisputed fan

I'll be leading that charge til the day I die

In my seat I bowed and prayed

That the term won't be delayed

I learned she had not stayed

When I upped and left to roam

It don't matter if she's not there

I'm not there to care

I'm on the road to anywhere

I'll be bringing it all back home

Yes the pages look full to me now

Oh my head feels full to me now

The pages look full to me now

My head feels full to me now

By and by the pages turn

By and by they turn

I don't lift a finger

But by and by they turn

And chief among my fears

I'm getting ahead of my years

I have no right to shed my tears

Over the distances I roam

And it don't matter how I ache

It don't matter how I break

There's mercy for each mistake

Though I'm bringing it all back home

Now I spend my time in a room I rent

With four good friends that I've got

Their names are Moira, Grover, Brent

Well Mutley really lives on the parking lot

But something comes a-rattling my skull once more

The calm of evening bites me to the core

Where on earth have I seen this lady before

I won't get to ducking out anymore

And chief among my fears

It'll be like this all of my years

A different thing each time to start the tears

In every mockery I roam

And it don't matter if I end up bound

It don't matter if I remain alone

Baby it's all set in stone

I'll be bringing it all back home

I think I want you 
I think that's true 
That is to say I think it's true I think I want you 

I think I want you

But how can I be sure

Something ails my heart, do you have the cure?

Oh girl you got me waverin' 
It's the break of dawn 
You got me waverin' 
It's these minutes I am sure I'll be savorin' 
Every tick tock tick you got me waverin' 

I think I want you 
I think that's true 
That is to say I think it's true I think I want you 

I think I want you

If push comes to shove

I will seek the nature of ergodic love

Now I'm certain that my prose is a trivial thing

Like a million other love songs people sing

A flight of fancy, a plastic fling

But don't imagine that's the way that I now feel

At this time all this confusion is so real

On this street I have a measure of fame
A battered veteran at this guessing game
The onlookers wave and cheer my name
The old, the young, the fit, the lost, the lame
But each time I've tried the conclusion's been the same
And I have myself
And no one else to blame

I think I want you 
I think that's true 
That is to say I think it's true I think I want you 

I think I want you

And I'm feelin' blue

In a champagne supernova made for two

Woh oh, I think I want you

Woh love, show me up for a fool

Woh oh, I think I want you

Woh love, show me up for a fool

ERGODIC:(l) of or relating to a process in which a sequence or sizable sample is equally representative of the whole (as in regard to a statistical parameter); (2) involving or relating to the probability that any state will recur, especially having zero probability that any state will never recur. (WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY)

Ergodic - a definition: "A term from sstatistical mathematics referring to a system that, after a sufficiently long time of wandering from one state to another, returns to states similar to previous ones. That a system being studied is ergodic is a standard assumption in modern dynamics, statistical mechanics, and atomic theory." (c) 1996, Science Service, Inc.

If we were alone together

If we could feel each other

Share a breathe beneath one name

Would you treat me the same

If we had known each other

Another place or earlier

Would you have given me mind

Would you have treated me kind

It's not really your fault

That deep within

The dust of wild carnation

Is under my skin

Now within the seven days

That I remain

What is there for me to say

What is there to gain

Now I've done this all before

And I think I swore

To not let a reckless heart

Oh this loneliness

I try to understand

If we were alone together

Wouldn't be in the plan

Oh this loneliness

It don't make no sense

If we alone together

Would it make a difference

Where do I run to now

Should I be alone?

Run any further now

I'll lose my way back home

Oh this loneliness

I try to understand

If we were alone together

Wouldn't be in the plan

Oh this loneliness

Now we're having fun

I know I don't need that woman

But I need to love someone

Love, precious and fine

Bound out of time

In kisses and wine

Wielded as a fetter

Around my heart

Caught in a wintery light

By the scarves of a wight

Thrown out to the night

It's gotten no better

Since the start

What's there to fear now

She's a girl, and I'm a guy

And we're both mortal

Aren't we now

The facts are right in front of me

I need take things logically

And do it now

But the guy who runs my heart

Is certifiably insane

He laughs at all my logic

And despises my brain

I'm overwhelmed

It's all too large

And it all works to sabotage

My confidence

The facts are right in front of me

Should be a cup of tea to

Make it all make sense

But the guy who runs my heart

Is brutal to the core

He keeps me up all night

Caught in a moment of time

Your eyes locked with mine

In kisses and wine

Til we meet our maker

We will not part

Love, deep as a prose

Promise enclosed

Joy presupposed

There've always been takers

Since the start

I talk to you

You pout at me

I shout at you

And when we're through

What did we gain

It's so unlike a movie scene

Repeating where we've been

No kissing in the rain

And the guy who runs my heart

Is driving me insane

He keeps crawling to your door

Where there's nothing to be gained, or is there, or is there

I know I don't need you

Yet I still feed you

And guard your side

And though you don't need me

You still try to heed me

You know I've lied

And the guy who runs my heart

Maybe has a point

There's something here worth saving

Though the whole looks out of joint

I slowed down after a day's driving

Wandering strange country without a map

Pulled over at the station

Needed a bath and wanted a nap.

Around ten thirty I changed my tune

Random bitchings are nothing new

I sat and stared into my glass

My head was filled with thoughts of you.

The dreams I had were not my own

I'd never dream of being alone

When your spirit's low it's hard to care

If you're on the road to Anywhere.

With you it was quite hard to tell

Would I burn in heaven or sleep in hell

The glass kept asking insistently

While whispering words of advice to me

They say the hardest chains to break

Are not of steel or crafter's make

The links welded in heart and mind

Are joined in places hard to find.

But if I heard the bull that people said

Or to such wisdom gave a care

I'd have different sorrows in my head

What is the purpose of the night?

It scares the young

It cages the light

Yet the simplest comfort around

Is in its arms where you can't be found

The sun gives way so the stars may shine

And quiet the soul of whoever they find

If men never feel the darkness above

Can they really understand love?

Now my glass is dry, it's getting late

The table's run out of things to say

Dawn's done breaking at the stroke of eight

I'll get to face another day.

I've no excuses for the things I did

Just some sadness, no real regret

For all the thoughts and finds I hid

For all the jokes I didn't get.

Come morning I'm back on the road

With less to dream but a heavier load

Here's hoping I'll meet you in the air

Or at least once more on the road to Anywhere

Close your eyes and dream

About the place where you want to be

That can be reality

When you abide in me

Go where I say to go

I will stop the river's flow

Do anything to make you see

You can abide in me

Lay all your burdens down

All the gold you need is in my crown

Pearls you dive for in the sea

Will not match the pearl in me

You feel alone, misunderstood

Feel like you're just no good

Oh, you break so easily

You can abide in me

I know you're still lingering

Your mind is still figuring

But look on my love

I can lift you up above

Where you can see

Where you can clearly see

By the Father's good design,

I've called you friend, I've called you mine

By the Spirit in your breast

"Emmanuel!" you have confessed

I'm the lighthouse in the storm

I'm the prayer in your palm

I've gone thirsty I've gone dry

I will come if I hear your cry

Close your eyes and dream

About the place where you want to be

Dream that you're there with me

I will abide in thee

I know you're still lingering

Your mind is still figuring

But look on my love

I can lift you up above

I know you're still lingering

Your heart is still figuring

But look on my love

I can lift you up above

Over the storm

And over the rolling sea

Over powers

And principalities

Then you can see

Then you will clearly see

The song has stopped, the music's fading

The dream is over, time to wake up

The memories of a roaring din

That we were in, they'll stay with me

"Stop the world, I want to get off"

That's what you wrote, On the noticeboard

You took from me my share of guilt

I didn't try to argue, What good does it do

When the earth is shaking like a disco crowd

And the sun has disappeared behind a shroud

When the moon is red and the stars are falling down

Maybe then I'll know what I've been asking for so long

Does it take a lonely heart to write this song

There's no path in that dark forest

Do you find comfort in being sad

I played along to your tuneless song

When the earth is shaking like a disco crowd

And the sun has disappeared behind a shroud

When the moon is red and the stars are falling down

Maybe then I'll know what I've been asking for so long

Does it take a lonely heart to write this song

This song's been done before

A hundred times before

It says I can't have you

But that makes me want you more

Everything was just alright

I could play the fool every night

Now every minute's a losing fight

To not think of you

When the earth is shaking like a disco crowd

And the sun has disappeared behind a shroud

When the moon is red and the stars are falling down

Maybe then I'll know what I've been asking for so long

Does it take a lonely heart to write this song

Does it take a lonely heart to write this song

Jesus

Speak beneath the breath

Of a day that has nothing left

No one knows what it's all about

Nothing helps to speak it out

Not the poet with the see-through heart

Not the lady with the tarot card

Not the news on the tv screen

Not the news that we haven't seen

Not a meal and an asbestos roof

Not the priest in the confessional booth

Not the books sitting on my shelf

Not the words springing from myself

Not the martyrs of a holy war

Tell me now is someone keeping score

Not the girl at the cigarette store

Or the Jew crying at the door

Jesus

Come and be a friend

Is this how you meant it all to end

There's a book by someone you knew

Folks say it's all coming true

They're pointing to the writings on the walls

Pointing to the tanks at Tienenmen

To the healers on TBN

Pointing to genetic clones

Pointing to sexual overtones

Pointing to the Year of Jubilee

To everything the eye can see

Pointing to China's nuclear power

Saying be "on guard every hour"

Everything's just turning sour

Soaking in an April shower

But we know something

Yes we know something

We've heard something

We're in on something 

Aren't we hey hey hey

It all points somewhere

It all leads somewhere

It all starts somewhere

It all ends somewhere

You alone

You alone

Stand there

I'm not a prophet

I'm a word-writer

I'm not the prospect

I'm a word-writer

I'm not the promise

I'm a word-writer

I'm not the message

I'm just the messenger

I walk unseen

And whisper into your ear

For each broken dream

I shed a single tear

For each newborn stream

I raise a single cheer

As I was made to do

As I was made to do

I'm not a prophet

I'm a word-writer

I'm not the prospect

I'm a word-writer

I'm not the promise

I'm a word-writer

I'm not the message

Do you recall the little ones

Whom Jesus would not turn away

They came to him with laughter, joy, and song, and rhyme

With naught to boast off, or to give

Just "Hosanna!" on their lips

They sang it loud with an uncomplicated mind

Now I'm not saying that we all 

Ought to be thinking simple-like

Sometimes it's hard for a man to know what's right from wrong

But do not doubt the good Lord knows 

What's going down every single time

Oh let Him guide with an uncomplicated mind

Uncomplicated, that's what I'll be

When I let my Lord and Savior abide in me

Uncomplicated, I've heard it's true

We may stand and do the things we're meant to do

So may you always walk in grace

Let His light show on your face

Always do for others and let them do in kind

If you falter or you stray

Trust that He will show the way

Take His hand with an uncomplicated mind

Take His hand with an uncomplicated mind

Not too long ago

You smiled at me 

And said hello

It was getting late

At the cigarette store

It was time to go

The dry skin peeling from your wintered lips

The hard flesh healing on your fingertips

You were beautiful to me

You were wonderful to see

With moans we wrote our play

Of monkey talk

And monkey say

It was something new

To know someone the way 

That I knew you

The walls of sand we made around our souls

Were built from grains of memories getting cold

(And in those walls)

You were beautiful to me

What is trifling to the mind

For the flesh may be too much

What is warming to the eye

Can be freezing to the touch

What is searing to the skin

Keeps alight the flame within

It spits what's neither hot nor cold

It swallows everything we've sold

In our imperfect light

We barely see the shadows 

Dancing, howling

In a harsh and fragrant night

In these hollow flames

We strain to hear the angels

Deafening recitation

Of the book of names

Beneath our moans there is a lion's roar

Lift your head my love and sleep no more

(And in this light)

You are beautiful to me

You are wonderful to see

You are beautiful to me

As forevermore you'll be

And in the end do you think you'll know

If you've bled enough badness

And have something to show

Stop for a moment , just be child

Trust for a moment you're not on trial

You tore at walls 

Inside your head

You stabbed at your conscience

And left it for dead

You raised up the lantern

To see what it held

What let out the light

Or the heat that you felt

You stared at the towers

The beacons of wealth

You wept for your nation

You wept for yourself

You made the world out to be something that it's not

You cried out for mercy

And fell to your knees

Your thoughts were a carcass

Your faith the disease

You had all the answers

But the questions were wrong

You based your assumptions

On a rock and roll song

You promised it all

To one you never met

You nailed all you passions

To a cross of regret

And every time you took a memory and hung it out to dry

And every time you kissed a mouth and didn't have to hear it's lie

Every time you were so dried up you had nothing left to cry

I was watching you

I was watching you

And in the end do you think you'll know

If you've bled enough badness

And have something to show

Stop for a moment, just be a child

Trust for a moment, be with me a while