1. THE ART OF LOSS

Shaken
Blind to your deceit
But I finally learned
That there won’t be a happy ending
Meeting your stare
There’s no answer there
Yet it’s clear on your face
That there isn’t a happy ending

Sometimes it pays
Not to give up
But it heightens the pain
When all is lost

Falling
Totally out of reach
And I can’t return
So there won’t be a happy ending
Is it my destiny?
A fate that’s designed for me?
Must I accept
That there isn’t a happy ending?

Sometimes it pays
Not to give up
But it heightens the pain
When all is lost

We can try to insulate ourselves
But there’s a truth that we can’t hide
Unless we open up ourselves to pain
We never truly are alive

Choices
All along the way
Shape what will come
So there might be a happy ending
I have my will
And sometimes my way
In control of my view
I will make my own happy ending

We can try to insulate ourselves
But there’s a truth that we can’t hide
Unless we open up ourselves to pain
We never truly are alive
With realization comes empowerment
And the truth will set me free
I’m an author in my story
And its end depends on me


2. SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM

Turned and tossed in this widening flight
And I can’t find my bearings
The voice that called me once is lost
And the silence left is tearing at me

Everything’s starting to fall apart
The center cannot hold
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed upon us
And innocence is drowning

All around the best of men are lacking in conviction
While the wicked and the worst are full of passion and intent

All we have is falling apart
The center cannot hold
The blood-dimmed tide has covered us
And the innocent are drowning

Surely there’s some revelation coming close at hand - A second coming
I can barely mouth the words before the images assault me
Somewhere in the desert, a monstrous affront turns its pitiless gaze to me

Its blinding stare is like the sun
I turn my eyes and fight to shake it but it’s frozen in my mind
The darkness drops again, but now I know
Twenty centuries of sleep have been shaken to a nightmare

(x2) What rough beast, its hour come ‘round at last
Slouches towards Bethlehem, waiting to be born?

All we have has fallen apart
The center could not hold
The blood-dimmed tide was loosed
And the innocent have drowned


3. DAMAGED

You have your reasons for waiting for the worst
Our learned behavior is so difficult to break
I have my reasons for clinging to my hope
Chances I have to take

The only conclusion is love over fear
Without it we’ll never live

I have my reasons for pushing way too hard
Solving a problem where one may not exist
You have your reasons for wanting your own space
Just don’t confuse yourself

The easy solution is letting us grow
So simple but yet so hard

I know you’ve been so damaged by the choices you have made
I know you don’t believe that you deserve what I would give
Please recognize that love must conquer fear
And that the struggle there is all life is

I understand that I can push things
To a self-defeating point
It’s hard to make myself let go
In order to hold on

The last resolution is simply to be
Embracing the possible

I know I’ve been transformed by all the choices I have made
I know I’ve been afraid to make the leap of faith I need
One day perhaps we’ll recognize that love must conquer fear
That’s what life is


4. HOPE DIES LAST

Love can be beautiful and true, and it’s said it is enduring
After what you have put me through, I’m not sure that I agree
Put faith in enemies more than in friends – they’re much less likely to betray
But faith is quick to fade, and when it ends there’s almost nothing that remains

Faith is quick to die these days, so often misplaced
With emptiness and sorrow, it quietly gives up the ghost
Leaving cynicism grinning in its wake

Love holds on a little longer; its death is more violent
In the end, with choking sobs we pick up the pieces and grow
And in time we just might learn to love again

Hope has no plans of going quiet into the night
Hope dies screaming and fighting with all it has
Hope dies last

There’s no dignity or shame when hope is put to death
There’s no words to soothe the pain and you’ll beg for the end to your breath
And yet hope will have you coming back for more

Hope has no plans of going quiet into the night
Hope dies screaming and fighting with all it has
Hope dies last

I am hurt but have not fallen
I am wounded but unslain
I will lay me down and bleed for a while
Then I’ll rise and fight again

Is it just being stubborn in the face of futility?
Is it lack of self-respect? Or is it bravery?
Maybe it’s foolish to hold on in vain
But hope is not prepared to lose its fight

Hope has no plans of going quiet into the night
Hope dies screaming and fighting with all it has
Hope dies last

It fights without concern for vanity
Dignity is sacrificed to desperation
But it might be the finest part of me
And I’ll thank God that hope dies last
Though it’s broken and bleeding
Hope dies last


5. THAT GOLDEN LIGHT

A random happenstance so much against the odds
But we both know that’s always how it is
Afraid to open wounds, tentative yet hopeful
We somehow still decide to join the dance again

Broken individuals yearning to be whole

One day I’ll be standing in that light again
One day I will feel the glow
And all the things I’ve struggled with will fade away
And I will feel its warmth heal me

Memories are made, and then reduced to bits
Will I forget our story? Will you remember it?
A part of us dies every time
But without death we never are alive

One day I’ll be standing in that light again
One day I will feel the glow
And all the things I’ve struggled with will fade away
And I will feel its warmth heal me

Each time it feels like we’ve given too much
But without risk we’ll never know real love

One day I’ll be standing in that light again
One day I will feel the glow
And all the things I’ve struggled with will fade away
And I will feel its warmth heal me

One day I’ll be standing in that light again (I will stand)
One day I will feel the glow (and feel the glow)
And all the things I’ve struggled with will fade away
And everything I’ve ever done that led me to this day
And all that I might do could bring me back to you
And I will feel your warmth heal me


6. THIRTY SILVER

Push came to shove
The allegiant trust we built took center stage
Needed a lifeline
But you watched me as my body slipped beneath the waves

There’s a special place in hell for the disloyal
Who cut and run when needed most

So much invested
I thought you had my back as I had yours
Now that it’s tested
Your loyalty is just a bunch of empty words

There’s a special place in hell for the disloyal
Who cut and run when needed most
Stab the flesh, still it will heal
Time repairs even a broken body
Your betrayal cuts much deeper
Cast your silver in the field
And measure out your noose

We lash our craft to those of others
And place our faith in the rising tide
But in the storm you were revealed
Your humanity’s a lie

Less out of malice
And more just a sin of your omission
Your moral cowardice
Exposes you and all your insecurities

There’s a special place in hell for the disloyal
Who cut and run when needed most
Stab the flesh, still it will heal
Time repairs even a broken body
Your betrayal cuts much deeper
Cast your silver in the field
And measure out your noose

Stab the flesh, still it will heal
Time repairs even a broken body
Your betrayal cuts much deeper
Cast your silver in the field
And measure out…
And measure out…
And measure out…
And measure out your noose


7. THE CENTER OF THE FIRE

Don’t tell me what you do – tell me what you ache for
Do you dare to dream of meeting what your heart is longing for?
And I don’t care how old you are – I want to know if you will risk
Looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for life itself
Have you touched the very center of your sorrow?
Has betrayal opened you, or shut you off?

Can you sit with pain – mine or yours
Without attempt to hide it, fade it, fix it, or make it go?
And can you sit with joy – mine or yours
Dancing with the wildness and filled with ecstasy
Without cautioning that we should be more careful?
Or remembering that we are limited?

It doesn’t matter who you know or how you came to be here
Will you stand in the center of the fire with me, and don’t shrink back?
It doesn’t matter how you’ve learned, tell me what sustains you
Will you stand in the center of the fire with me, and don’t shrink back?

Can you still see the beauty when it’s not there?
Can you source your very life from its abiding presence?
And I don’t care where you live or how much you have
But can you rise from bruises of despair and do what must be done?

Can you live with failure – yours and mine
And still stand at the water’s edge shouting your defiance?
Can you be alone, and in those empty moments
Truly like the company you keep?

It doesn’t matter who you know or how you came to be here
Will you stand in the center of the fire with me, and don’t shrink back? (Don’t walk away)
It doesn’t matter how you’ve learned, tell me what sustains you (Well, I really want to know)
Will you stand in the center of the fire with me, and don’t shrink back? (Don’t walk away)

Don’t walk away
Don’t walk away
Don’t walk away


8. LOVE REIGN O'ER ME

Only love can make it rain
The way the beach is kissed by the sea
Only love can make it rain
Like the sweat of lovers laying in the fields

Love, reign o’er me
Love, reign o’er me
Rain on me
Rain on me

Only love can bring the rain
That makes you yearn to the sky
Only love can bring the rain
That falls like tears from on high

Love, reign o’er me
Rain on me
Rain on me
Love, reign o’er me
Rain on me
Rain on me

On the dry and dusty road
The nights we spent apart alone
I need to get back home to cool, cool rain
I can’t sleep, and I lay and I think
The night is hot and blank as ink
Ooh God I need a drink of cool, cool rain

Love, reign o’er me
Reign over me, over me, over me
Love, reign o’er me, o’er me
Love


9. AT DAY'S END

In quiet hours, still awake
I listen to each breath you take
And I wonder what you dream about
How far we’ve come, since we were young
Our preconceptions now undone
So I wonder what you dream about

I’m mine, I might be soaring
Pushing things to greater heights
But like Icarus, the flames are real
And dreams turn into nightmares

I know my wings might falter once up in the sky
But I don’t want to fall – I want to fly

I never saw myself as one who went outside the lines
Our life’s momentum takes us, and in an instant it’s behind us

It’s sacrilege to take advantage of the blind
But what about uncertainties that work to cloud our mind?
If our perception causes us to go astray,
who can help us try to find our way?

I never saw myself as one whose life was just a race out of control
But in the mirror I see the lines grow deeper on my face

It’s sacrilege to take advantage of the blind
But what about uncertainties that work to cloud our mind?
If our perception causes us to go astray,
who can help us try to find our way?

When I look back on all that’s happened
When I look back on choices I have made
Should I regret the contours of my path?
The broken cobblestones that I have paved?

We’re only given just so many sunny days
We’re only given so much time to build a life
Our choices all along the way construct a maze
And when our time is up we could be trapped inside
Lost in fantasies and never to return

While we are building, tearing down or making plans
The days are vanishing, the world won’t fail to turn
Choices have consequences, limiting our future
And yet the weight of outcomes cannot be discerned
Make them wisely, child

It’s hard to look around me now at everything I have
And not derive contentment from it all
Dreams made real, and the future unforeseen has played out well
But is contentment the enemy of growth?
Could I have overlooked what might have mattered most?

(x2) You must have been something else when you were younger
You must have been something else when you were free
When all that you had was time and the world of choices was yours
And you chose me

We spend half our lives repairing bridges that our selfish actions helped destroy
But it’s still so hard for us to recognize that a life is such a fragile toy
We spend half our lives making disguises; we perfect and use them as our tools
Then spend all of our remaining years searching for something we cannot fool

At day’s end we’ll throw out our disguises with nothing to defend
At day’s end we’ll pick up all the pieces and learn to live again

When you look back on all that’s happened, would you do it all again?
That’s the honest measure of our lives
Knowing then what you know now, would you choose me once again?
That’s the question carrying most weight at day’s end

I know my wings have faltered once up in the sky
But even if you’re falling, there’s still time to fly
And looking with dispassion at the choices I have made
I know it’s self-defeating to carry regret onto my grave

I know that there’s a reason why my road returns to you
And why, despite the obstacles we both had to fight through
We both have had our doubts, but I think we know it’s true
That you remain the best of me, and I the best of you

And all our struggles, and every time we’ve cried
They’re rendered meaningless in our embrace
‘Cause we’re still standing, and nothing can prevail
Against a love that’s meant to be

(x2) At day’s end we put down our disguises with nothing to defend
At day’s end we pick up all the pieces and learn to love again