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Mark Heard songs

I just heard some Mark Heard songs and I was reminded of the amazing lyricist he was. Like a lot of my favourite songwriters Mark’s songs are best heard in their context. However, I’ve included a couple his lyrics here:

The Dry Bones Dance

Everybody’s living in the brave new earth
Prisoners of the small worlds that orbit in our skulls
Native sons of a no-man’s land
Friends and lovers in the cold, cold ground

Every now and then I seem to dream these dreams
Where the mute ones speak and the deaf ones sing
Touching that miraculous circumstance
Where the blind ones see and the dry bones dance

Everyone surrenders to the brave new scarecrows
And waits for them to hand us cigarettes and blindfolds
All lined up for the firing squad
Paper fills the cracks of the Wailing Wall

Every now and then I seem to dream these dreams
Where the dead ones live and the hurt ones heal
Touching that miraculous circumstance
Where the blind ones see and the dry bones dance

And I’m gone, gone, gone
Carried away by the midnight wind
And I long, long, long
For a world without end
The kind of thing that I’ve never seen
but in my dreams

Spend your life and live to tell
tarnished coins in the wishing well

Every now and then I seem to dream those dreams
Where the orphans suckle and the slaves go free
Touching that miraculous circumstance
Where the blind ones see and the dry bones dance

From Dry Bones Dance

House of Broken Dreams

Hear the whistle blow
It echoes down my soul
It’s something I have always known
Nothing sounds so sad
A cry to the unknown
The fundamental sigh of all who’ve gone this way before

Lay me down to sleep
Come and comfort me
I’ll sleep in peace
In a house of broken dreams

I’m old enough to know
That dreams are quickly spent
Like a pouring rain on warm cement
Or fingerprints in dust
Nectar on the wind
Save them for tomorrow and tomorrow lets you down again

Lay me down to sleep
Come and comfort me
I’ll sleep in peace
In a house of broken dreams

Give me the reasons to go on
Soften the sorrow that shatters and bends
And mend broken dreams

Sentimental hearts
Hungry for the past
Penniless at the wishing-well
Memories will last
And cover certain scars
Acquired in the daily grind of being what we are

Lay me down to sleep
Come and comfort me
I’ll sleep in peace
In a house of broken dreams

From Dry Bones Dance

Ah, one more…

Nod Over Coffee

All the unsaid words that I might be thinking
And all the little signs that I might give you
They would not be enough
No they would not be enough

So we nod over coffee and say goodbye
Smile over coffee and turn to go
We know the drill and we do it well
We love it, we hate it
Ain’t that life

Ain’t that the curse of the second hand
Ain’t that the way of the hour and the day

If I weren’t so alone and afraid
They might pay me what I am worth
But it would not be enough
You deserve better

So we nod over coffee and say goodbye
Do whatever has to be done again today
Get in the traffic and time will fly
Look at the sun and pray for rain

Ain’t that the curse of the second hand
Ain’t that the way of the hour and the day

The dam of time cannot hold back
The dust that will surely come of these bones
And I’m sure I will not have loved enough
Will not have loved enough

If we could see with wiser eyes
What is good and what is sad and what is true
Still it would not be enough
Could never be enough

So we nod over coffee and say goodbye
Bolt the door it’s time to go
Into the car with the radio on
Roll down the window and blow the horn

Ain’t that the curse of the second hand
Ain’t that the way of the hour and the day

From Second Hand