Lyrics from “Room to Grow”

GoldenOak / 2021

Paradise 

Some say Paradise it ain’t that far / Across the midwest, through the great plains / Second home or a broke down car / Same stories, different faces / But this money isn’t all that it seems / It will buy us nothing, but a big house / or a fence to lock away our dreams / Here’s to hoping /they were nothing / They were nothing

Through the valley, there's a winding stream / Little river, in the springtime / But the grasses don’t keep their green / When the rains, not fallin’ 

It’s in the water (x2) / It's in the water where the dirt breaks free  / It’s in the water (x2)

Poison soil and a fruitless tree / Wildfire and a law degree / All the pictures that they paint for me / Of the world and how it’s supposed to be

It’s in the water (x2) / It's in the water we can see these things / It’s in the water (x2)

Low lake, Dry Stream / Arid Land, Built on dreams / No place to hide / All these lives, burnt like trees

It’s in the water (x2) / It's in the water where the dirt breaks free / It’s in the water (x2) / It's in the water we can see these things / It’s in the water (x2) / It’s in the water to reach the sea / It’s in the water (x2)  

Black Feather / Silent Spring 

Calling bird - by the lakeside - In the valley - of the mountain-

Calling bird - Black feather - Come the snow - Where will you go?

This water is the only home I know - This water is the only home I know-


In-between the Maiden Mountain and the valley Spring / Wandering beside the ocean, in the summer wind / There is a lonely hunter, singing to the hills / I have seen these things / Change before my eyes / Silence in the spring / Silence in the night 

Black bird, Red-eyed mourner in the watered woods / Once was the only daughter of her mother's blue / Displaced by waves of wardens, crash into the shore / 

I have seen these things / Change before my eyes / Silence in the Spring / Silence in the night 

Islands

Bet you’re gonna rule the world one of these days / Wake up in the early mornin’ out in Santa Fe / It’s only been a year or so since you gone away / But we don’t seem to talk much like back in the day / Bet you’re gonna build yourselves a home  / Workin’ young fingers to the bone 

Oh ya, me oh well, I’m doin’ fine / Write a lot of words these days, not a lot of time / Spent a few days or so lost in the pines / Cool water, swimming feet, fruit from the vine / Truth is I think I found the one / Smooth soul and a whole lotta fun / living by the water treats us well / The sea has a whole lot to tell

How have your poems fared in your desert landscape? / Do you miss the eastern streams and the green pathways? / Or did you trade them in for the dry wind and the high mountains? / Restless feet have always been a word fountain / Do you write a lot about climate change? / I can’t get it off my mind these days / Trying to find a way to fit it on every page / Feels like there’s nothing else to say

It's hard to find a friend like you in your early twenties / I meet a lot of folks these days there sure are plenty / But none of them feel the wind like you and I do / Chasing dreams and saving streams a drink or two / I hope that these words find you well / When I’ll see you again I can not tell / But give a lot of love to the world my friend / And I’ll do the same on my end

Falter 

Said listen here, little one / There's a lot of good people living under the water / Screaming out what's to come / A few people who can’t be bothered  / Listen here, little one / Many stories to be told / A few hands wrapped in gold / But there’s a lot of good people living under the water- 

And the house, on the hill / Can’t see the light that is still / Shining through all that's below / Think they oughta know- 

Take my hand, little one / See the greed drilled in the mountain / “Koch was here” carbon stain 

Still a lot of good people living under the water / And the life on the line / And the truth that will come in time / That the first to feel this change / Aren’t the ones to blame- 

See the tides begin to falter / All along the coastal line / Seems this land is getting smaller / As the sea is on the rise

And there's a lot of good people living under the water 

These Old Shoes 

These Old shoes, They don’t seem to care / Which way I roam, As long and I get there / But my young heart, Chases after Wind / Over mountain Streams, And back round again 

All my dreams, Shaded by these trees / What I could be, If the rent was free / A home in the woods, A poet since my birth / First comes the earth, First save the earth

In this life, there’s no time for twice / Always on your way, always on your way / My only hope, is when I find my voice / It sounds like me, it sounds like me 

Only One 

Thrown into the fire / Years of careless mind / Desolate and dire / I’m not the only one / Searching for coral / A glacier turned to sea / Poisoned from the oil / Only two degrees 

Forget all this greed / It's not gonna change / Power is what we need / You’re not the only one 

In this fight for the morning / All of these things drowning  / Helpless feelings surrounding 

Let these stories / Be a beacon / Let the earth / Know who's speakin’ / For the ocean / For the creatures / For the forests / We’re not the only ones 

Only one / Only one / Only one / Only one 

Little Light 

Little Light / Pouring down / See the Life / All around / On a Home / Or across the ground / See the path / That it builds / That it builds 

Blowing wind / Stuck in motion / Moving through / Everything / Across the land / Or across an ocean / See the bridge / That it builds  

Let the sun / Be a guide / Let the wind / Turn these minds / Ancient Answers / To a question / For a future / We can build 

We can build / We can build / We can build 

Ash

Burn Down / All the places I have found / Deep roots in the northern ground / Only ghosts know their name / They haunt the woods from where they came

Warm sun / Shining through the winter months / Flowing stream, tree trunks / With bored holes right through / Tall trees once grew

It's all gonna fall away / One of these days / Grooves, diamond shapes / Colored in grey

But all that bends does not break / When all the grain / Runs straight

Life line / Baskets covered in cobwebs / Paddles rotting in their sheds / Tall tales, soon to be /  Memories of the Ash tree 

The Light and Loneliness 

I feel the changes / Comin’ round the bend / And I’ve felt the wind since I was a young girl / Like the Ocean / Caught in Waves / Somewhere in-between the light and loneliness / Ooh, Child / Poison river / Poison sky / Same story told my whole life / But who’s burden? / Who's blame? / Everywhere I turn the greed runs the game

Ooh, Child / Caught between the waves and the ocean / Constantly in change, and the mountain / Washing off the stains of a conqueror’s hands

Blessed with Conscience / To feel the trees / To guard the life that has no words to speak / But like a river / We’re trapped in land / We’re caught between the light and loneliness 

Ooh, Child / Caught between the waves and the ocean / Constantly in change, and the mountain / Washing off the stains of the conqueror’s hand / Ooh, Child / Caught between the waves and the ocean / Constantly in change, and the mountain / Washing off the stains of the conqueror’s hand

And it's so sad to see / The whole world agree / They’d rather take their debts / Than only what they need / But in-between the light / And the loneliness I see / A place to put these hands  A place for all to be 

Room to Grow 

Pardon my fears, I’ve seen gardens turn to grey / And I always dreamed I’d be a father (mother) one of my days / But now I don’t know, if there’s room for my kids to grow / In this home that we’re turning to stone.  

High on the mountain, seeds in the wind / Searching for somewhere, to start again 

Head in the clouds, we felt love sprout from the ground / She's got my soul through the smooth times and the rough / But how can we, turn two lives into three / When tomorrow might only be a dream? 

High on the mountain, seeds in the wind / Searching for somewhere, to start again / Where it’s all going, I don’t know / But I’m still looking for Room to Grow