Mary Chapin Carpenter Album

I found myself wondering today
Why do some go and some stay
Do each of our hearts know their way
Through valleys of sorrow and tears
Across oceans of longing and years
And the sound of it all in my ears

I traveled
I traveled so far
I traveled so far to be here

And you with the blue in your eyes
The storms of life leave a few lines
And squinting you search for the signs
Of kindness, of love, of someone
To walk with in rain or in sun
Until then, life's hardly begun

You traveled
You traveled so far
You traveled so far to be here

It's worth it all learning at last
The future begins with the past
Step out of the shadow it casts
And let the sun shine on your shoes
Kick 'em off in the rain if you choose
There's nothing like nothing to lose
We traveled
We traveled so far
We traveled
We traveled
We traveled so far
We traveled so far to be here

I don't know nothing, nothing today
Whether to leave or to stay
'Cause underneath sorrow, underneath fear
There's nothing that's keeping me here

'Cause I'm a zephyr on the inside
And it's a hard ride when you feel yourself tied down
Hide-and-earth bound
But there's no tether, on a zephyr

I tried to be constant just like a star
I tried to be steady and yar
But the storms keep breaking over my head
I'm aching for blue skies instead

'Cause I'm a zephyr on the inside
And it's a hard ride when you feel your heart tied down
Hide-and-earth bound
But there's no tether
I'm a zephyr

All of the wings I've ridden back home to you
All the things I've given I've wanted to
All that you see has always belonged to you
Except for the wind:

Forever and after, that's if we're charmed
You've got to hold on with more than these arms
Because love is all there is and time is just sand
And I might just slip through your hands

'Cause I'm a zephyr on the inside
And it's a hard ride when you feel your life tied down
Hide-and-earth bound but there's no tether
I'm a zephyr on the inside
And it's a hard ride when you feel yourself tied down
Hide-and-earth bound but there's no tether
On a zephyr

Who knows where faith comes from
But last night I put my ring back on
'Cause here with you is where I belong
Last night I put my ring back on

No life's without uncertainty
We both know how hard this love can be
It's just this hurting inside of me that threw it down,
Down down down

Who knows where hope comes from
But last night I put my ring back on
'Cause here with you is where I belong
Last night I put my ring back on
We can't speak like lovers we used to be
We can't change ancient history
And love wounds with such simplicity
And I threw it down, down down down, down

Your heart is all I want to see
Your hand reaching out to me
And your kiss remembers the mystery

Time was, I'd be as good as gone
But last night I didn't want to run
'Cause here with you is where I belong
Last night I put my ring back on
Last night I put my ring back on
Last night I put my ring back on

I found myself between two places neither of them home
I could not recognize the faces
I've never felt so alone.....so alone

I found myself between two choices to settle or to run
All my life I've heard the voices
This time mines the only one....the only one

Chorus:
I wanna feel what the wind feels like
I wanna go that high and feel no fear except being down here
Holding up the sky.....holding up the sky

Life astounds us in an instant
Changing all we know
Blink just once and then you've missed it
All you can do is watch it go......watch it go

You wanna feel what the wind feels like
You wanna go that high and have no fear except being down here
Holding up the sky......holding up the sky

I found myself between two lifetimes
The sunset and the dawn
I reached out and took the lifeline offered up to me
between here and gone....here and gone

We want to feel what the wind feels like
We wanna go that high and feel no fear except being down here
Holding up the sky...........holding up the sky

I wanna feel what the wind feel like
I wanna go that high and feel no fear except being down here
Holding up the sky......holding up the sky

I told them we heard singing first before we reached the Square
"Arise the wretched of the earth" filled the air
So many fists clenched to the sky we couldn't count them all
But then the sea of weeping washed over the Hall

I told them no one saw me, there was no one who would know
I was an army soldier dressed in students clothes
Between the smoking bonfires we held our rifles high
As the ashes of the banners soared into the sky

Ah, I was seventeen that spring
Ah, we were just obeying orders
Ah, I still see everything
Through the factory's yellow windows
In the dirty stinking river
In the messages that find you then vanish in the ether
They vanish in the ether:

I told them not to fear me but history tells the tale
The artists and the poets fill up every jail
Before I held a rifle I held an artist's brush
Before Tiananmen I even dreamed of love
Ah, I was seventeen that spring
Ah, we were just obeying orders
Ah, I still see everything
Through the factory's yellow windows
In the dirty stinking river
In the messages that found me, then vanished in the ether
In the messages that found me:.

I told them they'd see me walking in the rain
In Budapest, in Prague, in Soweto's lanes
Between the burning oil drums and the graffiti on the wall
I told them, yes I told them, I told them all

Ah, I was seventeen that spring
Ah, we were just obeying orders
Ah, and I still see everything
Through the factory's yellow windows
In the dirty stinking river
In the messages that find us, then vanish in the ether
Oh the messages will find us, then vanish in the ether

I was a bird that loved to fly
Catching the wind as it went south
And I could touch every inch of sky
And the sweetest songs trilled from my mouth

But I'm no bird anyone can see
And there's no wind waiting for me
It's just a dream, it's just a dream
To be a bird flying free

I was a cloud that loved to drift
Offering shade to lay upon
And the greenest grass was my gift
And a summer day was my song

But I'm no cloud anyone can see
And there's just dust instead of green
It's just a dream, it's just a dream
To be a cloud drifting free

I was a light that loved to dance
Without a care of who might see
I tempted fate and welcomed chance
And I held the world inside of me

The clouds have fled, and the birds have flown
And the light that was is all but gone
It's just a dream, it's just a dream
To be a light
To be a cloud
To be a bird
Flying free

We packed up our books and our dishes
Our dreams and your worsted wool suits
We sailed on the 8th of December
Farewell old Hudson River
Here comes the sea
And love was as new and as bright and as true
When I loved you and you loved me

Two steamer trunks in the carriage
Safe arrival we cabled back home
It was just a few days before Christmas
We filled our stockings with wishes
And walked for hours
Arm and arm through the rain, to the glassed-in cafe
That held us like hot house flowers

Living in Paris, in attics and garrets
Where the coal merchants climb every stair
The dance hall next door is filled with sailors and whores
And the music floats up through the air
There's Sancerre and oysters, cathedrals and cloisters
And time with its unerring aim
For now we can say we were lucky most days
And throw a rose into the Seine

Love is the greatest deceiver
It hollows you out like a drum
And suddenly nothing is certain
As if all the clouds closed the curtains
And blocked the sun
And friends now are strangers in this city of dangers
As cold and as cruel as they come

Sometimes I look at old pictures
And smile at how happy we were
How easy it was to be hungry
It wasn't for fame or for money
It was for love
Now my copper hair's grey as the stone on the quay
In the city where magic was

Living in Paris, in attics and garrets
Where the coal merchants climb every stair
The dance hall next door is filled with sailors and whores
And the music floats up through the air
There's Sancerre and oysters, and Notre Dame's cloisters
And time with its unerring aim
And now we can say we were lucky most days
And throw a rose into the Seine
And now I can say I was lucky most days
And throw a rose into the Seine

I have a need
For solitude
I'll never be
Safe in crowded rooms
I like the sound
Of silence coming on
I come around
When everyone has gone

I have a need
For cool, verdant spaces
Beneath the trees
Secret empty places
Nobody knows
So no one will intrude
I have a need
For solitude

But you can find me, when the light is changing
At that time of day when there's
Little day remaining
You can find me where I've been waiting
Waiting here for you

I never was
The pretty girl in school
I never was
Fast, tough and cool
All I was
All my life it seems
Was hard to love
Harder now to keep
But you can find me, when the light is changing
At that time of day when there's
Little day remaining

I have a need
For solitude
I'll never be
Safe in crowded rooms
I like the sound
Of silence coming on
I come around when all the rest have gone...

What you look for on a dirty street
Is a patch of green beneath your feet
A stubborn weed or a traveling rose
Either one lives to grow

What you look for in a stranger's eyes
Is if he sees through your disguise
How we long to be revealed
To be known we might be healed

Send it out into the Universe
A humble plea, a wish, a broken verse
Be a seed that lands inside the cracks
Seek the sun and it shines back

What you looked for when you were a girl
Was a window out into the world
From a speeding car or a passing train
You were hypnotized just the same

And what you look for now that you are grown
Is proof of how time has flown
An empty house, a strand of grey
And an endless longing for yesterday

Send it out into the Great Elsewhere
A kind of hope, a chant, a simple prayer
Be the child whose dreams won't ever fade
Shout and storm the barricades

What you look for in your darkest hour
Is a dirty street with just a flower...

Send it out not knowing where it went
Into the blue, into the firmament
Be the one who wonders at it all

Send it out into the Universe
A humble plea, a wish, a broken verse
Be a seed that lands inside the cracks
Seek the sun and it shines back
It shines back

Last night I dreamed of icy cliffs
Standing on the precipice
I leaned to see just where the edge would take me
The wind came up, I closed my eyes
I heard a shout and to my surprise
A hand reached out and pulled me back to safety

What's a hand, what's a dream
Who can say what it means
When everything that you know
Can disappear
Don't look back, the spirits cry
Just be glad to be alive
Everything that you love is right here
Everything that you love:

Life feels smaller than this stone
Worn smooth inside my palm
I keep it like a charm inside my pocket
I keep thinking I'll flame out
Leave no one with a doubt
That I was meant to fire like a rocket

What's a stone, what's a flame
There's always someone else to blame
When everything that you know disappears
Don't look back the spirits cry
Just be glad to be alive
Everything that you need is right here
Everything that you need:.

When I'm left here on the shore
The ancient basalt moor
Will beckon me to sleep among its heather
Who's not tempted to fold in
So that sleep may come again
Where the fire and the ice hide their treasure

Everything that you love
Everything that you need

The past comes upon you like smoke on the air
You can smell it and find yourself gone
To a place that you lived without worry or care
Isn't that where we all once came from

Green leaves and tall trees and stars overhead
And the sound of the world through the screen
But now you sleep with the covers pulled over your head
And you never remember to dream

You think you're just standing still
One day you'll get up that hill
In the age of miracles
Is one on the way

Greenland is melting, the west is on fire
But don't ever stop praying for rain
It's a curious place between hope and desire
Different gods, but the prayer is the same

And thousand-year storms seem to form on a breeze
Drowning all living things in their paths
And when a small southern town finds a rope in a tree
We're all once again trapped in the past

It seems we're just standing still
One day we'll get up that hill
In the age of miracles
Is one on the way

We can fly through space with the greatest of ease
We can land in the dust of the moon
We can transform our lives with the tap of the keys
Still we can't shake this feeling of doom
But I woke to find monks pouring into the streets
Marching thousands strong into the rain
Now if courage comes dressed in red robes and bare feet
I will never be fearful again

If I'm just standing still
One day I'll get up that hill
In the age of miracles, is one on the way

Seems we're just standing still
One day we'll ride up that hill
In the age of miracles
There's one on the way
There's one on the way
There's one on the way
There's one on the way
There's one on the way
There's one on the way

I'm heading out without a tear
I'm heading out without a fight
Nothing like this empty road
To take some trouble off my mind

Had enough of sad days
Had enough of sleepless nights
I only need a tank of gas
Babe I'm going for a ride

Cause when I'm all alone on a midnight highway
There's nothing like two hands on the wheel
And the radio playing I Won't Back Down
Baby that's about the way I feel

Might be gone a couple of hours
Might be gone a couple of days
I won't know til I turn around
We'll have to see just how it plays

All the way down 81
I've got some friends in Nashville
Atlanta it's been way too long
By morning I'll make Asheville

Cause when I'm all alone on a midnight highway
There's nothing like two hands on the wheel
And the way the wind blows just before a rainstorm
Baby that's about the way I feel

Don't know if you tried to call
My phone ran out of signal
I don't know if you miss me at all:

'Cause I'm out here all alone on a midnight highway
And I've got both hands on the wheel
Passing darkened towns the world's forgotten
Baby that's about the way I feel
Just a little speck on the far horizon
Baby that's about the way I feel
And I won't back down

[No lyrics]