The Old Year (of Denial)

There’s so much to be thankful for
And so much to be forgotten
There’s no perfect secret
To the things that bring us joy

Ha ha! to the old year
Goodbye to the cold fear
Gonna cry when I need it, smile when I need it
Goodbye, denial

The mind is a wanderer
It slips off into a false world
Never stopping for a minute
To take a good look around

Ha ha! to the old year
Goodbye to the cold fear
Gonna cry when I need it, smile when I need it

I’m gonna live like a living soul
Gonna write it on my wretched bones
And stop waiting for happily ever after

Ha ha! to the old year
Goodbye to the cold, cold fear
Gonna cry when I need it

Ha ha! to the old year
Wave goodbye to the cold fear
Gonna cry when I need it, smile when I need it, laugh when I need it
Goodbye, denial, goodbye

Lost and Found

Like a child without reality
Alive within the mirth and mire
I want to lose my sense of gravity
And see with recovering eyes

Children hide themselves behind their hands
And peek through to be found once again

This is the world turning upside down
When the light that was lost is found
Come see the dawn with the darkness refused
Today is yesterday made new

Here I fell on impoverished floor
And came to rest beyond the reach of light
Though the world would not think twice of me
You searched for me in your own peculiar fight

Fathers wait for a long, lost child
Scanning dawn and its bright horizons

This is the world turning upside down
When the light that was lost is found
Come see the dawn with the darkness refused
Today is yesterday made new

This is the world turning upside down
When the light that was lost is found
Come see the dawn with the darkness refused
Today is yesterday made new

Don’t Hold Your Breath

Don’t hold your breath
Don’t hold your life
Even though I let you down
Even though you know me now

Don’t blink an eye
You’ll be surprised
I got caught up in the storm
I got so caught up in me

Everything you ever wanted
I could not be

It’s been a long time since I kept my word
A long time since the flooded earth
Draw near when the waters rise
We’re learning how to be alive

I’ve been knocked down
Been made a wreck
Everything my fingers touch
Turns into an awful mess

Everything you hath provided
Is an endless sea
Everything the world demands of me
Is fear and loathing

It’s been a long time since I kept my word
A long time since the flooded earth
Draw near when the waters rise
We’re learning how to be alive

It’s been a long time

It’s been a long time since I kept my word
A long time since the flooded earth
Draw near when the waters rise
It’s been a long time since I kept my word
A long time since the flooded earth
Draw near when the waters rise
We’re learning how to be alive
I’m learning how to be alive

Where Would I Go

Where would I go, what would I do
If I lived in a world that doesn’t include you?
Like a Caesar in Rome, sacked and alone,
Dressed to the nines atop a plastic throne.

Where would I go, what would I say
Could there be a song if all the notes were the same?
Live like you’re found lost in the cure
‘Cause the life you live was never yours

Have you ever thought you’re so far gone
That you need no one?
Here’s something that’s true: you’re worth clinging to
I’m living proof

Where would I go, how would I find
My way through the dark to be by your side
I would be lost, adrift on the sea
On a homemade craft at the mercy of me

Have you ever thought you’re so far gone
That you need no one?
Here’s something that’s true: you’re worth clinging to
I’m living proof

Where would you go and what would you do
To live in a world that won’t give up on you?
Time takes its soul from you.
Last thing I remember I was falling apart
A little bit crazy and a hole in my heart
Time takes its toll on you
Time takes its toll on you

Have you ever thought you’re so far gone
Here’s something that’s true: you’re worth clinging to
You light up a room and make the whole thing new
When I’m with you there’s nothing to lose,
And nothing to prove
It’s true, you’re worth clinging to
I’m living proof

Sing like you feel it
Breathe like you mean it
Live like you need it
(Don’t forget to) breathe like you need it

Voices

Voices, when I listen to the voices
Every shroud of anger is sorrow in disguise
The voices, when I believe the voices
That convince me I am worthless, bent on my demise

Hear, oh hear the saints’ and angels’ voices

Everything about my weakness that is strong
Everything about the heart that could go wrong
Every hope that ever lived there but has since flown
I’m finding again, finding again

In the garden, when we lived inside the garden
Creatures bright and shining, we were, dust brought to life
In the silence, when we lean into the silence
We choose the things that hate us most, and rest upon the lies

Everything about my weakness that is strong
Everything about the heart that could go wrong
Every hope that ever lived there but has since flown
I’m finding again, finding again

We choose to love the things that hate us most

Everything about our weakness that is strong
Everything about our heart that has gone wrong
Every light that ever shone in darkened halls
Is shining again, I’m finding again

Oh, the voices
When I listen to the voices
I listen to the voices
Of the saints and angels

Today Dream

The thing about daydreams
When they stop you in your place
It takes all your maybes
And turns them into present state

Turn it over and inside out
Repeal the thoughts that steal right now

Lost in a daydream and gone far away
Am I just a shadow to cross your face?
No one needs you more than I do now
To wake up from your daydream

The thing about beauty
When it moves you from your place
With eyes open wide
You can see the world through common grace

There is nothing so profound
As this moment here and now

Lost in a daydream and gone far away
Am I just a shadow to cross your face?
No one needs you more than I do now
To wake up from your daydream

There you go, you disappear off to some place better
And you pretend it’s forever and always
So you disengage

Lost in a daydream
No one needs you more than I do now
So wake up now ‘cause it only gets better
And live your life just like a purloined letter
Wake up from your daydream

Soul and Flesh

We’re a couple of codependents
Like the span over Pontchartrain
We saw the stars in the latent sky
And set out to stake our claim

At first light when you see me there lying next to you
Surely burdens will have their day, but baby don’t be fooled

She loves me for my smile
And for the crow’s feet on my eyes
She loves the song inside my chest
She loves me soul and flesh

The more I see, the older I wonder
Why life should be so good
And what in me is worth an ounce of care
And is worth holding onto

At last light when you feel me there crumpled next to you
I’ll always be your hopeless half-full glass, so lover come pour into

She loves me for my smile
And for the crow’s feet on my eyes
She loves the song inside my chest
She loves me soul and flesh

I’ll be your mystery beneath these vagrant clouds
But you see right through me and all my flagrant doubts
She knows me so well now

She loves me for my smile
And for the crow’s feet on my eyes
She loves the song deep inside my chest
She loves me soul and flesh
She loves me soul and flesh

Different, Separate Lives

Don’t got money, we don’t need fame
But we all want something like it anyway
Power is a monster with a charlatan smile
We all lead different, separate lives
We all lead different, separate lives

Leave your bones in the desert, your soul in the sand
We’re a thousand-piece puzzle scattered into the wind
Like barrier islands, distant and alone
The world is so much cleaner when it’s less that you know
The world is so much better when it’s less that you know

We are different branches of the same vine
Living out our different, separate lives

A blaze on the levee, a vessel out at sea
One guides the other safely into the lee
If all men are islands, then each of us is bound
To the crooked, deep depths of the lost and the found
To the infinite depths until we’re all found out

We are different branches of the same vine
Living out our different, separate lives
Living out our different, separate lives
We are different branches of the same vine
Living out our different, separate lives

No Stone Unturned

I’d forgotten what it’s like to be alive
Laying down to live and rising up to die
They say you get one chance to prove your name true
That’s why I fell in love with you

I was lost and gone, a man without a name
I’d lie awake in dreams, drift in and out of graves
The heart of hearts, no longer clothed in black
But all this skin on the outside is a god that turns its back

I am ashamed (of my less-wild lovers)
Deserted was my name (until you gave me another)
But you pursued (all the torches left to burn)
In the midnight searching you leave no stone unturned

We are rough and ready, primed to steal the show
Though we’re prone to doubt it, we are selves of our former shadows
I was listing and listening in the wind:
It was not that God was enemy, but that I had not been friend

I am ashamed (of my less-wild lovers)
Deserted was my name (until you gave me another)
But you pursued (all the torches left to burn)
In the midnight searching you leave no stone unturned

That is how you found me,
You pulled me from the clutches of my

Shame
You gave me a name
But you pursued
When I was ashamed (of my less-wild lovers)
Deserted was my name (until you gave me another)
But you pursued (all the torches left to burn)
In the midnight searching you leave no stone unturned

The New Year

This is the year that something changes but nothing ever does
This is the year that all my failures turn into a pile of dust
This is the year, with fallen faces, we learn we’re not enough
This is the year to hold each other up

Oh, oh, oh it’s a new year
Oh, oh, oh it’s a brand new light
Oh, oh, oh can you believe it?
It’s the skies that we dream of.

This is the year when laughter douses charred and burnt-out dreams
This is the year when wrens return to nest in storm-blown trees
Is this the year of relocation from boughs of old despair?
This is the year to perch on hope’s repair

Oh, oh, oh it’s a new year.
Oh, oh, oh it’s a brand new light.
Oh, oh, oh can you believe it?
It’s the skies that we dream of.

I was pale and weary sad, tired of ghost debates
A slave to voices old and vile, bitter bones in the grave
But this is the year, it’s the year that something changes
This is the year, the year that something changes

Oh, oh, oh it’s a new year.
Oh, oh, oh it’s a brand new light.
Oh, oh, oh can you believe it?
It’s the skies that we dream of.
Oh, oh, oh it’s a new year.
Oh, oh, oh it’s a brand new light.
Oh, oh, oh can you believe it?
It’s the skies that we dream of.

Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh (it’s a new year)

Fighting For Life

In a little while, in a little while
The ghosts return to noise.
But not right now, no, not right now
The sky must be enjoyed.

Fighting
I’m fighting for
I’m fighting for my life
Fighting
I’m fighting for
I’m fighting for my life

Another way, is there any way
To multiply our years?
Here to stay, I am here to stay
My eyes are bright and clear

Fighting
I’m fighting for
I’m fighting for my life
Fighting
I’m fighting for
I’m fighting for my life

Like a secret hope that is forcing me awake
Dust and quiet rake the ground that I have claimed
Where I’m fighting

I’m fighting for my life

I go into the darkness carrying a light
I will have no fear because I’m not alone
I got angels’ voices and friends who love me for who I am
So when the waters come
I fly above this flooded earth looking for a sign of life
And I relocate on boughs of hope,
Like a living soul, remember that
In a little while, in a little while
The ghosts return to noise
Ooh, but not right now, not right now
The sky must be enjoyed.