Sample of Week 2 - Folk Lyrics Submissions

Time will begin by walking in slowly
and slipping your home in her hand
changing the stations of the rich and the lowly
for reasons the true rich understand

when the starving are nourished, 
where the stagnant have flourished
you have lost your prime
the death, the hourly day,
such things will circle your way
all in good time

I've been a rich man, I've been a pauper
I've crossed desire deep into crime
I've stone weighed gold, silver and copper
on scales opposite the sands of time

when the starving are nourished,
where the stagnant have flourished
you have lost your prime
the death, the hourly day
such things will circle your way
all in good time

home becomes a shallow pool of hunger
that empties even as it's filled
men regret when they were younger
temper burned what time wouldn't rebuild

when the starving are nourished,
where the stagnant have flourished
you have left your prime
the death, the hourly day,
such things will circle your way
all in good time
 

After my stretch overseas
I brought my Miyo home
but 'til my dear wife passed away
I was all but disowned
then Sis started driving out
when I canceled my phone
she offers to do my laundry
while sharing news from home
I know she means well
with the stories she brings
but sometimes meaning well
don't mean a thing

no, I was never whole
born vacant for haunting
waiting for something to search me
and find me wanting
I reach out and call
as I lie here alone
if she's so near me,
why can't she hear me
she's just a dream
born of stories from home

most of the servants are dead
now Mother wants me back
half those rooms she won't even walk
by, since Daddy's heart attack
I'm saved a seat for dinner
a grave in the fam'ly plot
and Sis says she won't mind a bit
giving up my old spot
but all I believed
a fam'ly signified
became foreign to me
when Miyo died

now, some nights faces of
my fam'ly surround me
when I'm drunk and unaware
they're even around me
I reach out and call
as I lie here alone
if they're so near me,
why can't they hear me
they're only dreams
born of stories from home 
 

(chorus)
Is it too much to ask to want someone to hold me?
Is it too much to ask to want somebody's touch?
Is it too much to hope that a woman will love me?
Am I dreaming a dream? Do I wish for too much?

Ive spent my whole life always looking for something
Which would fill up my heart and sweep me away.
Always looking for joy in all the wrong faces
Always searching for exactly the right words to say.

(chorus)

My previous woman kept her favors from me
She used them like weapons, she used them so sly
I tried to pretend that my life was so normal
I could never complain, I could never ask why

(chorus)

So now I found someone who makes me so happy
She fills up my heart, she makes me feel whole
But the same old reluctance to indulge in relations
Has me searching so deeply into my very soul

(chorus)
 

You dont give me 
The reassurance I need
The hooks in the water, and the bait is set.
Like a fish from the deep, 
You wont bite so you cant bleed
You keep it tight inside, you cant seem to forget.

(chorus)
Im paying today, for the pain of your past
Your doubts linger on, but the pain cant last
If you could but unlock
Your heart and set free
The troubles that bind you
And keep you from me

How much they have hurt you
I cant understand
That kind of pain is beyond what I know
To me its so simple
Its like tilling the land
We plant our seeds of desire, then we feel our love grow

(chorus)

Ive told you before
That Im willing to wait
Though at times you may see me pacing the floor
I may push hard sometimes
I know you've set the pace
I could never hurt you as those who've done before

(chorus)
(repeat last 4 lines)
 

I hear the son's of god, whispering in the trees.
They tell me what I'm doing.
Isn't good for you or me.
I hear the son's of god, telling us how we should think
But, I never hear them tell me, how they could be.
They're too busy, looking after you and me.
I hear a preacher calling, for peace, no guns.
I hear a prophet saying , yea my son.
I see the people fawning, sheep in a fold.
It's been this way forever, so I was told.
I hear the son's of god, whispering in the trees
They tell me, this is the way it should be.
But, I 'm damned in hell, if I don't care.
I've listened to, too many, whispers in the trees.
But still the fold keeps walking, summers at a end.
Bring down the herd, they'll feed at the trough again.
No questions, just a doe's eyes look up,
who questions, when you're leading the good life.
I still hear the whisper of god in the trees,
And I don't listen to the son's of bitches that he call's-
But I still hear the whispers in the trees.
 

There's a cold fog looming
o'er the sleepy harbor
'Neath the cold moonlight.
And I'm the only man rooming
in this run down trucker's motel tonight.

Chorus:
This motel room was like a home to me.
This motel room
This motel room

I hear the fog horn blowing.
I hear her briney beckon echo 'cross the bay.
And I think that I'll be going;
Get some miles behind me before the break of day.

This motel room was like a home to me.
This motel room
This motel room

Bridge:
This motel room was like a home to me,
Like a harbor sheltered from a stormy sea.
This ain't no place for anyone to be.
A motel room is not a home.
And this motel room is not my home.

See the cargo tanker
anchored in the harbor;
No, she's not going to stay.
Soon she'll be pulling anchor,
And I'll be pulling out from this motel hide-away.

This motel room was like a home to me.
This motel room
This motel room
 

He came down here, to dust off his soul,
to take a vacation from a world so cold.
He left a job, and he left his girl,
back in the city, he left behind his whole world.

He stared at the stars, and he stared at the sun,
wonderin' from what he was trying to run.
He couldn't put his finger on it, but man did he try
till he burned out his brain and thought he could fly.

So he jumped off a cliff one Saturday night,
they said it was tragic, but I think its all right.

Chorus:
Cause we don't make spaces for what we don't understand,
you rewrite the program, or you throw up your hands,
and there are some rules that you must live by:
You don't get to understand,
and you don't get to fly.
No you don't get to understand,
and you don't get to fly

Kimmy worked down at the old liquor store,
they said she was easy, yeah they called her a whore.
She'd go out to parties with some of her friends,
she'd stay a few hours and then she'd leave with a man.

She picked the wrong guy to go home with one night.
They never did find her, but we hope she saw the light.
Cause Kimmy was not a bad person, you see.
She was just kinda lost, kinda like you and me.

She just wanted some hapiness, so she looked where she knew,
that some could be found for a minute or two.

Repeat Chorus
 

Well we left on Monday nite, thought it'd be easier 
Didn't know we'd hit the wall by quarter to 10.
We decided not to rest at the next station, 
just to travel down the road to who knows when.

When our spirit died we headed for New Jersey, 
Just across the Delaware from Delaware.
The sun came from the east and cast a shadow,
Behind us on the road to who knows where.

Like sailors often do we shouted, "land!"
As it overlapped below the steady sky.
We didn't have a clue to where we're going, 
just a-marchin' down the road to who knows why.

Passed gardens, trees, and horses, pigs, and people, 
the only way we knew: straight through the gut.
Then we pushed the pedal down a little further
as we sped across the road to who knows what.

Meandering through life we breathed in wonder,
never really knowin' what we were 'posed to do.
One road diverged to two--I grabbed the wheel,
and hooked a right down the road to who knows who.

Now all the roads we've traveled are behind us, 
Don't feel like we were ever truly there.
But what, when, who, and why don't really matter, 
when you're mappin' out the road to who knows where.
 

When it takes you hours to fall asleep
And you blame it on the memories you keep
Your dear old friend has come to reap
So the sweat inside begins to sleep
Because all it does is remind you
And every friend you've ever had
Becomes a silly nomad
And they don't seem to be so sad
Finding a niche in their new pad
They'll feel green while you feel blue

<chorus>
I'm sailing under false colors
As long as I hold up my chin
I'm sailing under false colors
As long as I keep giving in

<verse2>
Old movie stubs seem to make you cry
Feelings of pain you're too tired to defy
With a heavy heart you'd rather just die
Instead of bein' a loner you can't classify
Surely you must be the only one
And you'd think you'd hit the streets
Go to the places where people meet
But they're not the friends you wanna see
Hiding their colors under deceit
Finding the person inside everyone

<chorus>

<verse3>
Living two lives but what can you do
One in the open, one in your room
And your smile becomes a heavy costume
Run from the present back to the womb
Cause time seems to have passed you by
You had no idea what it meant
Taking advantage of the time you spent
But now stranded in your lament
Friends are more than lifes ornament
And you never took the time to say bye

<chorus>
 

Hey, hey Mary.  I knew you.
I see you in my mirror, I see you in my mind.
Your so much like me it hurts,
to think you suffered as I.
But you choose another way out,
you took the drugs they offered.
Sought shelter in your mind,
it was always beyond you,
somewhere you never found.

Well hell Mary, I loved you.
And your always on my mind.
I see you as a little brown bird,
flying for the sky, 
until the earth swallowed you.