Poets in the Streets

Poets in the Streets

SONG LYRICS

(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)

FADE AWAY TO INVISIBLE

VERSE

Look into a mirror and see no one passing by,

Look into forever, feel the quicksand of your life

Hold on for a moment and it slips right through your hand

Floating on a river of beginning, now, and then

CHORUS

Fade away, fade away, fade away to invisible

VERSE 2

Something waits behind you, it's the ever present past,

Guiding you and leading you and taking you at last.

Pictures, words and memories all fading now from view,

Melting into monuments, memorials to you,

CHORUS

Fade away, fade away, fade away to invisible

VERSE 3

See what's left remaining when the lights go down at last,

The essence of your meaning lies beyond what you can grasp,

Make yourself a promise let your heart complete the task,

Fade away from everything that draws you to the mask,

CHORUS

Fade away, fade away, fade away to invisible

HOW’D YA KNOW?

VERSE 1

I believed in all the things you said,

and everything you meant to me,

I watched you as you raised your head,

and challenged us to live with dignity

Wo ho, how'd ya know?

CHORUS

Climb up the mountain, walk through the valley,

Look up into the sky,

Find your own vision, your inspiration,

Live with your head held high

VERSE 2

I remember when you led the way,

And how sometimes I thought that you were mad

You were so different I didn't realize,

That what you gave me I had never had

Wo ho, how'd ya know?

CHORUS

VERSE 3

I believed that we would carry on,

And keep your words and ways alive,

I believed, but I was wrong

For I was caught completely by surprise,

Something happened that I can't explain,

Somehow everyone just went away,

But when I thought it all was lost,

I found you in a different time and place,

Wo ho, how'd ya know?

CHORUS

I DON'T UNDERSTAND AT ALL

VERSE ONE

Everywhere I look, everything I see,

Tells me I don't understand,

Why we let things stay, just the way they are,

Even though the pain will never end

Ever wonder why, it came to be this way,

Ever wonder why, we let it pass,

Could it be that we, really don't believe,

We belong together now at last

CHORUS

And I don't understand, No, I don't understand at all,

No, I don't understand, Don't understand--

Where do I fit in? How will it begin?

I need you to show me

How and where to start? Who's to play the part?

To bring us together

VERSE TWO

Every time you smile, Any little smile,

It gives me hope to carry on,

Looking for a way, Any little way,

Leading to the place where we belong

Take away the pain, Take away my heart,

Take every moment of the past,

Let it all begin, with a brand new start,

Let every moment be our best

CHORUS

I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY

VERSE ONE

I haven't time for war, I haven't time for pain,

I tried them all before, and I won't try again,

CHORUS

I want to learn how to play,

I want to live my old life a new way,

I want to learn how to live,

Take my life as a gift,

Every day, every day

VERSE TWO

I'm tired of chasing dreams, that others say succeed,

I'm tired of chasing things, that I don't even need,

CHORUS

BRIDGE

Somethin' happened, I don't know how,

My heart changed, I turned around,

Lost my fire, my desire,

For anything and everything

That tries to shut me down

VERSE THREE

I've got a lot to learn, I've got a lot to see,

I want to try it all, and see what I can be,

REPEAT CHORUS

I'M GONNA LOOK YOU IN THE FACE

VERSE

I been told I shouldn't go there

I been told I can't turn back

If I ever open that door

I'll never get my life on track

BRIDGE

(But) I've been running too long

Been hiding from that siren's song

It's time to open this place

Look you in the eye and state my case—

CHORUS

I'm gonna look you in the face

Gonna live my life with no disgrace

I'm gonna look you in the face

And let myself join the human race

I'm gonna look you in the face

And put those fears in their rightful place

VERSE II

I'm gonna look at those feelings

That lie repressed in me

I'm gonna face all those fantasies

I'm not supposed to see

VERSE III

I never could see the good things

I only heard I was bad

But now I'm ready to see myself

Just for who I really am

BRIDGE

CHORUS

IN THE NATURAL WORLD

VERSE

I stand before the mirror completely naked,

I raise my arm and wave with my right hand,

I make a face and wiggle all my fingers,

This body heeds my every thought command.

And somehow I have long forgotten,

The wonder of observing who I am,

I've come to take it all for granted,

What I cannot explain or understand.

I'm coming to life, I'm learning to live,

In the natural world…

VERSE

Secret codes work night and day inside me,

Creating every cell within my frame,

I never even stop to think about it—

My heart keeps beating,

I keep breathing in,

I go about my day unconscious

Of the miracle of life that's given me,

And even though I have abused it,

Somehow the gift of healing forgives me,

I'm coming to life, I'm learning to live,

In the natural world…

BRIDGE

I know that I can, take these eyes and these hands,

And make my own vision with my very own plans,

But I didn't suspect, while I was working it out,

I had been creating my very own route

In the natural world… in the natural world

I'm learning to live… in the natural world

I'm learning to dream… in the natural world

I'm learning to love… in the natural world

I'm learning to see… in the natural world

I'm learning to be… in the natural world

I got it all before me… in the natural world

VERSE

I feel the pangs of hunger and before me

Are foods of every taste and shape to try,

I thirst and feel the rain drops from above me

Wet my lips as I look to the sky,

I fill my lungs with air and voice an answer,

I was given from the moment of my birth,

I take these hands and make my own creation,

From the infinite materials of earth,

I'm coming to life, I'm learning to live

In the natural world…

MY EXPANDING UNIVERSE

VERSE

I have always dreamed of flying

To the distant stars above

I had hoped that in my lifetime

I would see that dream come true

Yet each day the sky is changing

And there's nothing I can do

A million years from now the stars will disappear

Leaving darkness as they slip away from view

CHORUS

Well, I'm sitting here on planet earth

Watching my expanding universe

Slip away, drift away, fly away

VERSE

If I could travel to the speed of light

I would take you by the hand

We would visit ever wonder in the sky

It would never have to end

But I know my time is only--

Just a few years on this globe

I am bound by time and space and must remain

Waiting for a way to go

CHORUS

VERSE

Maybe someday in the future

When the North Star fades to night

There will be a generation riding high

On their laser beams of flight

CHORUS

NOW AND FOREVER

VERSE

When I think about tomorrow,

I think about the things that I have done wrong,

I think about the difference,

If I had just thought what I had begun,

Now and forever, now and forever…

We set into motion, so many things we never see,

We forget that our actions,

Can ripple like rings out into the sea,

Now and forever, now and forever

…

BRIDGE

And I wonder, how much violence comes through me?

How much ignorance am I afraid to see?

Do I care enough to recognize the key?

That what I do, and what I say, plays out in what will be

VERSE

I see little children, learning to hate, learning our greed,

I watch my indifference as I'm steppin' over

that man in the street,

Now and forever, now and forever…

When will we open

Our hearts and our eyes to the ways of peace?

When will we listen to the sound of our echoes

Traveling through space?

Now and forever, now and forever…

SO PRECIOUS

VERSE

This isn't a song about movie or rock stars,

This isn't a song about making the scene.

This is a song about people forgotten,

Or maybe, just maybe, never seen

CHORUS

And you have become so precious in my eyes,

You have become so precious in my eyes (life) (mind) (heart)

VERSE

David walks the streets of the old University District,

He's got his daily routine, he knows how to play,

He knows where to sleep, where to shower,

Where to find warm food,

And on weekends he sleeps in the tent he hides in the park,

He writes poems on death and avoids any offers of friendship,

Abused as a child he has learned many times not to trust

CHORUS

VERSE

Anthony waits for the bus still refusing a wheelchair,

'Though the muscles in his legs are taut and bent with CP,

He's proud to own his home after years working on the night shift,

Cleaning and sweeping floors while everyone sleeps,

It's difficult work to accomplish without falling,

But Tony's got friends who watch to see he's okay

CHORUS

VERSE

Laetitia gently places a towel on her mother's forehead,

Her mother is dying with the advancing effects of AIDS

Her father died two years before when she was just thirteen,

And now very soon Laetitia will be all alone,

She lives in a country overcome with the AIDS epidemic.

In Botswana there's little reason for any hope at all,

CHORUS

VERSE

This isn't a song about movie or rock stars,

This isn't a song about making the scene,

This is a song about invaluable lives each lived one at a time,

Each with a story, a hope, and a dream

CHORUS

SWEEP IT UP

VERSE ONE

Old man livin' in the city streets, keeps his routine down,

Takes his stubble of a broom each day and sweeps his part of town

And no one ever asks him why

They turn their heads and pass him by,

Blinded by the trash in their own lives

Sweep it up!

VERSE TWO

Rich man livin' in the suburb, with his wealthy bride,

Spends his days with a broom in his hand, sweeping up outside,

He carefully sweeps every leaf,

It gives his tortured mind relief,

Clearing up what he can never leave

Sweep it up!

VERSE THREE

Rich man, poor man, just alike, just like you and me,

Making up our rituals to live what we believe,

And never getting to the things

That keep us living half insane

Playin' like there's nothin' we can change

Sweep it up!

--sweep it all away

--sweep it everyday

--sweep it your own way

--make it all okay

TOO MUCH INFORMATION

VERSE 1

I got too much information, tofind my way to you

Igot too much information, tosort it out into--

A meaningful perception of what I need to do,

I got too much information, and I just can’t get it through

BRIDGE

Oooooh, how am I supposed to breathe?

Oooooh, in this sea of make believe

Chorus I got too much information,

Got too much stimulation,

I got too much information from you

VERSE 2

I got your data streaming through me,

on your microwave highway

I got your stimuli surrounding me,

my every waking day,

Until I can’t tell the difference,

Between what is true and false,

You completely overwhelm me,

And everything gets lost

BRIDGE

Oooooh, how am I supposed to breathe?

Oooooh, in this sea of make believe

Chorus I got too much information,

Got too much stimulation,

I got too much information from you