1. |
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I tried to hold it all together
The future you deserved
I gripped the soil with my fingers
Dug furrows in the earth
I knelt and watched the pillars crumble
I was there when the walls fell
I hope you know that I thought of you
I hope you remember me well
And for this year, and all the years to come
For all I did, and all I left undone
For how we tried, as if trying was enough
Forgive me for the weakness in your blood
As January closes like a tomb
As long as I am able, I will carry you
I tried to shelter you in silence
I was the tightly fitted door
I was the cloth over the windows
To keep you safe, to keep you warm
I placed my words like they could bolster
I nailed sentences like boards
But when the barricades were broken
I knew what they were truly worth
And for this year, and all the years to come
For all I did, and all I left undone
For how we tried, as if trying was enough
Forgive me for the weakness in your blood
As January closes like a tomb
As long as I am able, I will carry you
When they stain the sky, we will be watching
When the roots give way, we will be watching
When the waves have dried, we'll wave our goodbyes
When the creatures die, we'll read their last rites
When they stain the sky, we will be watching
When the roots give way, we will be watching
When the fires have died down to embers
When all that's left to do is to remember
We will remember
And for this year, and all the years to come
For all I did, and all I left undone
For how we tried, as if trying was enough
Forgive me for the weakness in your blood
As January closes like a tomb
The first chapter of a story read too soon
As long as I am able, I will carry you
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2. |
They Didn't Belong Here
04:30
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Put down the newsprint pages
They have nothing good to say
The world you loved is dying
Prepare your speeches for the wake
Awake to find another human dead with lifted hands
"Let's order a coffin."
It's dangerous to walk out your front door
When you don't look like you belong
"Try harder to fit in."
Keep your head down and hide your face
When "all made in God's image"
Means "all of those who look the same"
Pledge your allegiance like it's a prayer
What does it mean to love a country
But refuse to love the ones who live there?
Read the Bible to your daughter
Sing the hymnal to your son
Teach them to hide the ways they're different
Teach them the narrowness of love
Awake to find a vacant house, your neighbors disappeared
"They didn't belong here."
When those who speak a different tongue
Or use a different name for God are finally gone
Whose turn will it be then?
Keep your head down and hide your face
When "all made in God's image"
Means "all of those who look the same"
Pledge your allegiance like it's a prayer
What does it mean to love a country
But refuse to love the ones who live there?
"My hands are in the sky.
Please do not shoot, don't end my life.
I cannot breathe again.
Remember what you promised."
Keep your head down and hide your face
When "all made in God's image"
Means "all of those who look the same"
Pledge your allegiance like it's a prayer
What does it mean to love a country
But refuse to love the ones who live there?
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3. |
Stay
04:37
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You've darkened your hair
It's longer than I remembered
But your eyes haven't changed
They still contain our forever
And cautiously, as our fingers meet
We move carefully
Still, and slow
Here at the edge of the unknown
Stay the night
Tell your roommates not to wait up
Tell your work you’ll be in late
I would trade my life
Every moment before this one
Sink the past into this lake
Tie it down with concrete weights
If you would stay
The wind took the shore
Its fingers brushing your body
I wanted the same
I wanted all of you, always
And I can breathe when you're here with me
I can finally breathe
Don't let go
This is the sway before the fall
Stay the night
Tell your roommates not to wait up
Tell your work you’ll be in late
I would trade my life
Every moment before this one
Sink the past into this lake
Tie it down with concrete weights
If you would stay
I want your fears and your mistakes
The things you love, the things you hate
I want to hold, between my hands,
All that you are, all that you’ve been
To share your joy, to share your pain
The silence and the words you say
I want to hold you in my arms
The heights and depths of who you are
Stay the night
Tell your roommates not to wait up
Tell your work you’ll be in late
I would trade my life
Every moment before this one
Sink the past into this lake
Tie it down with concrete weights
If you would stay
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4. |
Echo Screen
04:17
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When I felt my foot break the ice
I’d been walking so softly
I’d been testing my steps, staying inside the lines
All these years I was carefully calm
I would swallow my wrongs
I was choking on all that I couldn't become
And now I see
It meant less than nothing
Call it what you want
I’m done staying quiet
I’m done playing along
And if you didn't love me before
Just wait for tomorrow
Just brace for the storm
The whispers swell to a roar
In my bones is this aching for home
Some place I can't remember
Where I could feel safe, or at least not alone
Instead I had sunk into the ground
Soil filling my mouth
But I clawed my way back, and I’m coughing it out
So don't you leave
I’m not finished speaking
Call it what you want
I’m done staying quiet
I’m done playing along
And if you didn't love me before
Just wait for tomorrow
Just brace for the storm
The whispers swell to a roar
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5. |
The Great Somewhere
03:59
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Horizon-eyed
With distant cold
Are you here with me?
Are you somewhere I can follow?
Don't lose your way
Your way back home
If there's a whispered somewhere
If there's an ocean wide and cold
Just take me with you when you go
And I will be enough for you
If there's enough in me to be
Just take me with you when you leave
Flakes of ash
Drifting down like snow
On the windshield glass
There’s a fire somewhere close
Your hands on mine
Are all of hope
Or meaning that
I've ever known
If there's a whispered somewhere
If there's an ocean wide and cold
Just take me with you when you go
And I will be enough for you
If there's enough in me to be
Just take me with you when you leave
Your hands on mine (your sleeping warmth)
Are all of hope (your breathing close)
Or meaning that (I love you more)
I've ever known (than you’ve ever known)
If there's a whispered somewhere
If there's an ocean wide and cold
Just take me with you when you go
And I will be enough for you
If there's enough in me to be
Just take me with you when you leave
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6. |
How The Light Changed
04:26
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There is a hollow in our home
An echo where you used to be
I drift from room to room as if
To catch your footsteps next to me
The silence piles up in drifts
The quiet soaks into our shoes
If I could shovel free a path
If I could find a passage through
My hands are heavy with the weight
Of trying not to reach for you
I think in circles and in shapes
Infinities and bounded loops
Out past our driveway I could see
The very edges of the earth
The water flowed over the rim
Carried away all we had learned
I didn't know that it was time
I know that no one ever does
I wasn't ready to let go
I know that neither of us was
So stack the memories like stones
And build a wall against the dark
And I will stay here, where you were
Here in the place that once was ours
There is a hollow in our home
An echo where you used to be
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7. |
Elegy
05:17
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Let go
There are some things you cannot hold
And know
What you have lost will find a home
And they will sing again, who have not sung in years
And yearn again for something more than this
There are places where the mountains bruise the sky
Where the wind moves through the forests like a tide
If you remember me, let it be in this light
There are chords no other hands have ever played
Somewhere the echoes still spread outward through the waves
If you remember me, remember how we sang
Let go
There is a shelter in your soul
A home
What we remember, we still own
And you will hold this love, a quiet memory
These years remain to carry when you leave
There are places where the mountains bruise the sky
Where the wind moves through the forests like a tide
If you remember me, let it be in this light
There are chords no other hands have ever played
Somewhere the echoes still spread outward through the waves
If you remember me, remember how we sang
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8. |
Wallflower
04:45
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I am fusing with the background
I promise I was never here
I was never sweating fiercely
Never stumbling and weird
I am facing up to conflict
I am confident and sure
I'm not hiding in the bathroom
I'm reacting like I should
Why do you love me?
Why does anyone?
I always mumble or I talk too loud
I’m quiet or I can’t calm down
I can’t believe you want me around
I'm always listening to bands that you don’t like
Or writing songs you’re not too impressed by
The things I love are only mine
Most of the time
Am I missing some instructions?
Some kind of manual for this?
Intro to Small Talk With a Stranger
The Rudiments of Blending In
If I could pull myself together
Quell the shaking in my hands
I'd try acting like a person
Or pretending that I can
I always mumble or I talk too loud
I’m quiet or I can’t calm down
I can’t believe you want me around
I'm always listening to bands that you don’t like
Or writing songs you’re not too impressed by
The things I love are only mine
Most of the time
I am nervous, I am nerveless
I am fragile, I am frightened
I am careful beyond caution
I am altogether frail
I will rise to the occasion
Hobble through these conversations
I will operate correctly
I will try to be okay
Just please don’t lose faith
I will bend but never break
Don't give up on me
I always mumble or I talk too loud
I’m quiet or I can’t calm down
I can’t believe you want me around
I'm always listening to bands that you don’t like
Or writing songs you’re not too impressed by
The things I love are only mine
Most of the time
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9. |
Some Imagined Safety
04:17
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The truth is rolled up in the hollows of our bones
We are the same
The truth is printed inside out beneath our skin
Spelled out in veins
So when they come to take you I will take your place
So when they come to take you I will take your place
Of course I am afraid, but fear will never be my name
Our lives are wasted if all we build are barricades
If we destroy ourselves to make ourselves feel safe
Our love is worthless if love has driven us to hate
Tell me a story where the heroes turned their guns
On unarmed kids
Show me where Jesus said that money matters more
Than caring for the sick
As long as those we kill are someone else's kin
As long as those we kill are someone else's kin
Of course I am afraid, but fear will never be my name
Our lives are wasted if all we build are barricades
If we destroy ourselves to make ourselves feel safe
Our love is worthless if love has driven us to hate
We will tear a father from his family
Grind up the destitute in our machinery
Let the strangers die outside our boundaries
In the name of some imagined safety
Of course I am afraid, but fear will never be my name
Our lives are wasted if all we build are barricades
If we destroy ourselves to make ourselves feel safe
Our love is worthless if love has driven us to hate
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10. |
Always, Always
05:34
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When the mountain gave way
And buried our home
Sealed all we had carried
Under forest and stone
You were younger than I was
When I first knew the weight
I had hoped you had longer
Before you felt your heart break
When you sleep, if you happen to dream
Dream of water and daylight
Dream of shadows and trees
And I will be right here when you awake
Always, always, I promise
To the very last day
When the clouds ate the sun
For the very last time
I watched you squint at the brightness
As it faded from sight
I will try to remember
How the world used to be
I will tell you the stories
When you ask them of me
When you sleep, if you happen to dream
Dream of water and daylight
Dream of shadows and trees
And I will be right here when you awake
Always, always, I promise
To the very last day
Don't be afraid
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11. |
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The floor beneath our feet gave way
I don't know how we made it out
Now we speak sentences in code
And "safe" is only "safe for now"
Tell me how the night will end
How the ground will wake to life again
That love will somehow break through all this hate
Tell me tomorrow will be better than today
We move through window-shuttered towns
With every wagon circled close
A world seen through parted blinds
They fear what they refuse to know
Tell me how the night will end
How the ground will wake to life again
That love will somehow break through all this hate
Tell me tomorrow will be better than today
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This Glass Embrace Phoenix, Arizona
This Glass Embrace sings wordy indie-punk songs about the human condition.
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