Joe Henry

Day after day I wonder why This still should be Any kind of surprise; Nothing has changed When I open my eyes — I’m just a friend… I'm just a friend to you. Tables are turned End over end And this is a room Where no love has been; And no love live...

A dog-eared mind sniffed my heart Like a pocket full of German marks Long after the war was through Stood me on a rusted rail Turned my face and kicked my tail Up toward the yonder blue … Threw a fish up on the bank And watched him dance from the air h...

There’s a train already come, There’s a train already come, Her hands are birds, her heart a drum – Lo these many years There’s a horse upon a yard, There’s a horse upon a yard, The blooms are sweet, the stems are hard – Lo these many years There’s a...

From the mountain comes a soul And the stones grow up like trees From the mountain comes a soul And the stones grow up like trees All blues hail Mary with her roses But you're their masterpiece Cut away each blade of grass Our feet cannot tramp down...

If I know my angels, I know what they'd say. Be still my little butcher boy, you'll give us all away. Be still you wretched little freak, give us room to move. Give us milk, you little pig, we'll tell you when we're through. My love is like a mountain, he...

I see in you an animal trace That's quick in your blond and deep in your face, Mine has been tamed; I'm shamed to pretend When I'm this close to your animal skin I remember when love was something I craved Bot I settled for less and the comfort it gave,...

I’m through with this, this beautiful hat I’ve never let nothing be as easy as that I won’t let it be like the nest of a dream A cradle for a stone when all of this seems As likely as stones are to rise up and sing As likely as birds to fly out of this th...

I'm going to climb that hill and look out across Climb that hill and look out across Climb that hill and look out across A long ways off from here I'm going to dig my well from the bottom to the top Dig my well from the bottom to the top Dig my well fro...

She stands and unfurls her Clean bed clothes by the door Like a barber shakes all that falls From your shoulders to the floor; And I find a letter I’d once written Half buried in her drawer And I wonder how I’ve come to know So much less than I knew bef...

There’s something caught in my teeth And a cricket that won’t let me sleep, He sizzles like a radio Another world away; He laughs at me in my bare feet My flashlight, robe and blown TV. Reading an in-flight magazine About Bob and Ray I can see it all...

Shoot the street light out Leave the porch light on, Give away a shout From whoever's side you're on; Bury every hope you ever dreamed of Deep enough so that no dogs come around, There's a loose thread at your seam Love And a fire taking hold of your g...

How can I change the lights The color of this room Why can't this channel find A kinder afternoon I feel the fray of every letter To cross your lips that know no better Disarray, disarray I want my story straight But all the others bend From wondero...

“Long ago” is just a whisper From the eaves and the pines To the rumble-wheels once bearing Endless fortune from the mines; Still the night is for the taking When the day was barely warmer, And the girls who hurry by Cross laughing at the corner But t...

I don't know you to wear a hat But I came home late and there it sat, You rose to show what hats are for When living through a civil war, When living through a civil war Christmas mornings and New Years Days They flood with dreams and drift away, They...

Light no lamp when the sun comes down The dark will speak, has things to say Something lost and never found Hides from the cold watchful eyes of day Close no door against the cold The angry storm is alive in you It's like a story never told And it tear...

Just think what a day's rain can do A bridge once between us is lost, I set it to sway And now here I stay Till it's cold enough to cross I stand on the bank watching on You wade in the flood and I'm lost, You're calling my name But I wait just the...

My camera doesn't lie to me, I see dark tears behind its eye, My camera doesn't lie to me, I see dark tears behind its eye It looks backwards on my future, Already in the sweet by-and-by The rambler vines are climbing, They lock their arms across my wa...

There's a truck pulling up to the house next door However, I'm dead to the world, There's a hat blowing off of your head to the floor Now I'm dead to the world; On dirty old Dean Street the power is down And too cold to dig a good hole in the ground For...

There's a song we used to know A kind of weary blues Some broken tune from long ago Some of us still like to use It hangs up high in the rafters Like smoke it has no form Keep it all hid like laughter And sing out death, death to the storm Death to t...

How do you like your blue-eyed boy? How do you like your blue-eyed boy? Now the rabble have been jailed, The moon is up, had hung and paled The horses spooked, the fences failed … How do you like your boy? How do you hear your lion's song? How do you h...

A cut-out picture of a sugar tart With olive skin and a purple heart, Concrete shoes, and it's just the Start Of bigger things unseen. Heroes of our glory days Ride upon the hip-hoorays Of hometown girls who've been displayed In dirty magazines. "And...

Dear Marion, as I write this down— Dear Marion, I just make the bed then I need To go lie down. But Baby knows that I love to cry Over every little thing, I just sweep the yard and wait For the whole world to change …any minute now From across the roo...

Safely in strong arms I lie now, Torn, the flags, but still they fly now; Memories of the cold Decembers Trampled roses, cloves and embers— Gone the shadows deep divisions That trade on hopes with steep conditions… After every sorrow comes a joy, But ev...

A fence is stretched across my brow A divided country: then and now, And you the border guard My caravan waved off the track With dusty miners hid in back, Their faces glowing hard … Bruised and black and hunkered down, From sparkling fuses underground,...

Hey, look alive I’m coming down There’s no one Could stop me now No rider's pleas No riding free Just save your skin One for me Oh no, not this So close How could you miss? For the one and only Mona I keep a place Deep down in my coat And hid...

There's a fireman's wedding tonight In the Cloverland Dell There's a hook and a ladder And we'll dance 'Neath a big paper bell, And everyone will be there And we'll all wish them well As if all news will be good news from now on As if all news will be...

Take that noise out in the street, This rubble out from under my feet No rest for the weary in here, And make a fuss, you're a volunteer. These days, they lord above me Growing mean as they grow shorter, Like a flag on a closing border now... Closing ri...

Aaaah come sit beside me, That'll do for now The night has come and left me Just the light that you allow. Come speak my name, Fill my head with all such foolish dreams My flesh and blood is no more real to me Than what they seem My love for you is bu...

Of course there was no gold mine I freed the dogs, burned their sled I killed the guy asleep in bed I pushed him off into the drink Who needs to know from I told you so? Go tell it to your lord I said go tell it to the lord I was gonna be the bride Of...

Here comes the night, there go your knees, reaching for the floor. You say I'll stand guard down here, she stands in the door, With a pony on the tether pulling cold and sugarcane. There go your knees. And there she goes. She's a-hauling cane like it wa...

I like when I can stand up here When the night is cool and clear And everything is at my feet, Nothing in my head; Words, they seem so thick and slow You can kill them all before they go, Watch them tumble down and spin And leave them there for dead A...

Darkness settles on the ground And leaves the day stumbling blind, Coming to a quiet close And maybe just in time: We'd almost lost the heart to know How to keep our best in mind, We'd almost lost the heart to know How to keep our best in mind. Time h...

I will come back for my things then I'll go the way I came back down your crooked steps two at a time; And to the morning sun I will call as I run as if it waited for me now to shine. This is my good fortune now at last this is all I never knew to ask...

His foot held the door, To the alley in back Where the hotel's kitchen let out And the night butcher stood 'Neath a dim iron moon And spoke to himself right out loud Spoke to himself right out loud I gave him some room And waited for you, Sat on the...

We are gathered together, We are hidden from view— In a tangle of laurel, we tear at our sorrow Like bread and we start up anew; Where a circus stands blazing And steam engines brake and whine, In a razed hobo jungle your lost and found wonder Has risen...

Teri comes in laughing Shakes her coat off And I just can't bear to look Anymore I hear somebody laughing I just figure, I've been took She stands right behind me With one hand on my back My eyes are closed At first I think she speaks to me But when...

They're showing a movie on the side of the bank Oh, I'm in love with all creation And the warmth of the hood of the car in the dark Oh, I feel I'm an angel in waiting Where time is alive in the dark of your face, In the battles we've won, lost or misplac...

Outside your crowded doorway past the steel and mortar the avenue before you, you walk beside yourself and me. How well do you hear me and what do you recall about the dust on everything you see? If the morning leaves you with just the afternoon in t...

That old Kentucky moon was shining bright as day The stars were all alive in the Milky Way The pilot said, "If you look close, there's Frankfurt on the right" I flew over our house last night Thirty thousand feet below me, you were fast asleep Thirty tho...

I was a playboy In love with the world I walked with the angels Every stone left unhurled Every breeze took me higher Every door set me free Oh, I was a playboy And you just a plaything to me My laughter came easy And so did the days The flowered a...

If anybody asks what's new I say, "not much," and it's mostly true, But when my stars align with you Then I will write my book. I turn my face from all the rage Playing on a grim, dark stage, But you've shown me an open page And I will write my book....

I left the yard then came back in, I drank up your bathtub gin— And though I lived, it left me weak But I raise myself back up to speak… For it hit me hard, the mandolin That cried just there inside your door— And though it left me high and dry I know t...

I'd like to see your badge Who are you to be so brave? With one arm free to catch yourself And you're using it to wave; Who are you to be so strong That you can leave it all behind? Laughing in your sleep And trusting in the kindness of the word Smoke...

I might just change my mind Sometimes you can never tell Where a story will unwind How deep is the shallow ground Sometimes you would never guess Who's all talk and who just might Find a way or lose themselves On the king's highway tonight I am just...

Somehow I wound up with the keys I guess it’s still my turn to close, I’ll give the pastor hit last drink for free And maybe have my ride home when he goes. But I’ll be the last one out I’ll leave it all behind me like it was — A good night’s one that f...

The day draws a shade Pulls the thread of your frayed lace undone, It falls like the evenings That charm then devour their young— The face of the moon On the river will shiver and run, From belief to surrender And I want you to lead me on The quiet of...

I can't stay here in my room I can't hold my own against the heavy lean Of your perfume; That tries to keep your pillow down and low Across my face As if what lingers here of you could Take my breath yet still be my saving grace Lover, if you rise Love...

Oh, my dear, I’ve swallowed the moon, And left it dark like a ring Burned on a spoon. But now all the stars They fall around you, And land at your feet To light up the room The sign of the times, The rules of the road, And our coat of arms all screa...

I know she's right behind me now without looking back. I know she will untie me; how, then, will I pay for that? And like she was the railroad Like she was the lost world Like she was the big hand turning back the sea. Like she was the raging fl...

Holy cow, look what you've done You've got me now so I can't speak; I wonder how you turned out the stars I hear your laugh Like falling railway cars, Far and away, peaking through the bars Safe behind your own lock and key --safe for now from me God...

Lincoln Street is howling It's empty, growing colder, The night has come on limping and It's bleeding from the shoulder. Headlights fake a prison break Of snow that rages and dies, It's lost its will upon this hill As one time so did I. But here comes...

The ground wants you back The ground wants you badly The ground wants you still Like some lover, so madly. It pulls at your feet, Gets into your nose, Onto your bed And under your clothes, Loves you madly So madly Madly Loves you madly The sun wa...

How beautiful you've made yourself How cruel you've become, How so much like another That it's no surprise That I don't recognize you now so Beautiful and cruel You're the meanest flower… You raise me off the ground To see how far there is to fall,...

Everybody knows the crash Left me on my back, Everybody knows that this is Just my medicine; I staked it like a claim And it pushed me like a broom Now I’m straighter than a razor, Well anyway, I will be soon Come sit down beside me Your cripple litt...

I’ll keep your monkey I’ll treat him good I’ll talk to him like he talks to you I’ll cut your corn And I’ll keep it dry And maybe someday, someday, someday baby You’ll come back to me Maybe someday, someday, maybe someday You’ll come back I’ll dres...

Whose chickens are those in my yard? They pick at every shiny thing, Stitching down this earth so cold and hard, Low and tight across my wings, And when they're calling over me, Their unholy, fitful song … Odetta, Odetta Please carry me along My bone...

Just before the crash I was at the bridge I remember now, somebody shouting But I couldn't hear too well And when it went into a dive We all came off our feet And just like he meant to nose into the lake He did so, perfectly Just before the crash I...

One day when the weather is warm, I'll wake up on a hill, And hold the morning like it was a plow, And cut myself a row And follow it until I know better by God than I know now. There was no taste of spring In the breath you blew away And nothing of a...

Norman, take the wheel I’m feeling none too well A light has filled my face But I can’t feel my hands; Take my jacket and cover me And keep the birds off of my shoes. And take me back to your house And turn on the light, Everyone must pass this way,...

I saw Willie Mays At a Scottsdale Home Depot Looking at Garage Door Springs At the far end of the 14th row His wife stood there beside him She was quiet and they both were proud I gave them room but was close enough That I heard him when he said out lo...

What does this look like to you? A mark so fine, you barely see You have one just like it too A twisting vine, a mark so fine 'Cause I love you with all I am And you love me because you are As fearless as a twisting vine A mark so fine but still a scar...

Where's my sock? Where's my other shoe? I didn't know what time it was When I came o. The only light in here Is fmy flickering TV Watching back at me.. Oh, my love is here to stay Saints alive And all the saints be praised, I see them all around me...

Let's pull this piano Out from the wall, Clear the young children From out of the hall, Stuff it with tender Put 'paid' to it all … Let it stoke the fires of the world Let's beat this guitar It was meant to be heard The way a confession Is dragged...

A blind man looks out through your eye, He hears the color of your sigh Tastes a laugh upon your thigh, then roars Oh, let's be clear, my sighing balladeer I want nothing more than You to hear me now There's red iron in the sliding clay, It stains our...

This is the progress of love that I fear You retreat just as my defeat finally nears What's only to lose, myself I volunteer So all of your spoils could be mine Life takes root in the deepest dark ground Where bones blood and honor have been trampled dow...

Won’t you come and lay with we let your easy laugh undo what has risen up to leave the hole that I have fallen through. Take the pieces in your hand and let the shadows cover you, tell it so I’ll understand I’ll never ask you if it’s true. I started...

Sometimes I think I've almost fooled myself Sometimes I think I've almost fooled myself-- Spreading out my wings Above us like a tree, Laughing now, out loud Almost like I was free I look at you as the thing I wanted most You look at me and it's like y...

Just behind that wall, I think, She pulls her stockings on: The creaking floor speaks through the door Of one foot then the other The curtains wave a flag to say This afternoon is done And giving in to evening who has Beat him like a brother, Giving i...

Here's that rainy day That you said was bound to come, Funny—now you took my hat I can still feel it like it's on; O baby I wonder how You ever learned to play so rough, You left me with everything Knowing it would never be enough Now I remember—you t...

In Sault Sainte Marie The hills glow without the help of God You can almost see The river in November turn to steel; If only I knew how To wish you well in living without me, You might forgive me now And maybe I’d be free to go... In Sault Sainte Mar...

What does this look like to you? A mark so fine, you barely see. You have one just like it, too— A twisting vine, A mark so fine; Cause I love you with all I am And you love me because you are As fearless as a twisting vine, A mark so fine But still a...

I've seen the best And the worst you can be, And all while you're getting the better of me. You're fragile but wicked And fleeting as breath, And you move up behind me And scare me to death. You're fragile but wicked And fleeting as breath, But when...

She will always go Every time this story's told I know it won't ever change No matter how I rearrange; I can't make this story bend Or head it off before it ends, We all have stories, I suppose, But in mine she always goes. Well, sometimes I like to s...

This is a short man's room The better you watch your head I've still got my one good eye I keep it right next to my bed I keep my money down here I dressed it to look like a shoe I'm saving up for a pair Then I'll have more money than you I drink mor...

The song wants to repeat just now, It sings itself to show you how, It throws away its finest line Just to keep the feel and time. Just to keep The feel and time, It throws away now Its finest line. The word wants just to leave my tongue, To turn you...

I was born in Montreal, A winter's slip that bloomed in fall Due my father's lot in life, I got his name and I killed his wife As if her blood I'd broken through Had never been enough for two… So I was sent out early on To cutting black ice on the pond,...

Have you seen enough? Then go and see Have you seen enough? You might as well Leave the sun, it's dreary face Leave me something in your place And so it was you, lying down This close to me, turning your back And all it would take, for you to be free,...

Oh, cursed morning— Who told you to rise? When time's a sliding mask that may still Roll back with our eyes. Oh, blessed falling, Crawling into night— I'm learning more than I intended Try not to though I might No angels walk with me, All angels ride...

Please don't speak another truth out loud Whatever else you do, I only want you keep me lost in your cloud I'll do the same for you. Don't believe a single thing you've heard Really, I'm as good as gold. You don't need to sell me with another word I'm a...

Why look, he's getting up again Some people just don't know when to quit, He's up on his knees And someone has come to wipe his chin a bit And he'll say good night to you And you'll say, "We'll, we'll see you soon" As if it wasn't only you Leaving hi...

It wasn't peace I wanted So it wasn't peace I found, I wouldn't stand for reason And it never would sit down. The bird upon my shoulder Has not one kind word to say— My eye is on the sparrow, But she looks the other way Carry on, and me away, Hey, lo...

I could have sworn this was the way when we started down I thought we'd left a light on dear but I can't see it now I can't even find the chance when it's right here in my way La la la la la la But I remember tomorrow like it was yesterday I remember tom...

Bring me the head of John the Baptist Show it round and shine His cloudy, marble, crossed and final eyes Once more into mine. Give me a leg up high enough To see beyond this wall, To be the first to see the victors take the gate Or to be the last one s...

Tell the hour: go take another, Or go down, Moses, without a fuss Give in to the lawless water And send a later boat for us Sticks and stones, blood, ash, and bone, I shake the tree, swim out alone: Turning over the dark Missouri Now that every new lea...

Don't tell me to stop Tell the rain not to drop, Tell the wind not to blow Cause you said so; Tell me love isn't true It's just something we do, Tell me everything I'm not But don't tell me to stop Tell the sun not to shine Not to get up this time,...

I've been having wicked thoughts Terribly wicked, selfish and cruel, Imagining I stood high on a ledge And fell just out of the reach of you; Just then, we are together alone As I fall, you look up— Looking for all the world like for once It was you, no...

I keep wooden boxes like traps strung with wire In the light of old tires, piled on the fire Wearing their smoke like a flower in bloom Cut like the thread in a pipe fitter's room; I dig in the dirt and yank at the root Of the shadow's dark vein in a sto...

There's a suit on my frame like a shadow of birds Stitched all together by a murmur of words That hang like a moon in the thread of the air And speak with the sound of my every prayer There's a light at the end of the evenings that bring A fire that only...

In a scene from better times Your traitor hangs up right there next to mine. The afternoon shakes down the trees Like they owed it money –hey buddy, please: Get in line— Their promise of green fruit is gone, It's bruised out there on the lawn; He who ca...

Can you tell Is that dog tied? Are your hands that cold now Or is it mine? Time ago, it was on Meeting Street, You pulled me close to you; Now you ask "which way row here?" Like it was mine to choose. Cover me in the dining bell Where the pool is sta...

Nobody knows the man that I keep hid Nobody knows the man that I keep hid He's raised my face like a pirate's flag A phantom nation's tattered rag Nobody knows the man that I keep hid Somebody used my mouth laughed out loud Somebody used my mouth and la...

The dark great river bends below me, A void of light now tells me so Where tiny towns crowd its shoulders, Between the world and all I know … Thunder rolls beneath my feet And mountain clouds slide just for show Flashing green along the border Between t...

Well, they've torn up the streets and Burned off the fields, And turned all the dogs to the woods; They took up the cross But they lost the third reel And the picture was just getting good; Evening is crawling, Summer is Lost - They're dragging the pon...

On the afternoon That the revolution began, I was in a hotel pool with another kid And an Australian business man. And nothing there would make you say After all so much talk, today would be the day... Nothing but an upset tray Left by the pool This af...

I'll have to be As brave as you With no star to guide us Blazing above; And no moonshiner's river To carry us through And no way to speak When there aren't words enough Fair enough, You asked me for nothing Fair enough All you told me was true, I...

Oh this is my favorite cage It grows up around me like silver strands Of briar and roses, wisdom and rage To cradle my heart like a bird in your hand Of briar and roses, wisdom and rage This is my favorite cage It grows up around me like silver strands...

If you fear the angels above while you sleep Then I'll be the blood, you paint on your door Your dream is a worry that nothing will keep, But time is a story and there will be more Your dream is a worry that nothing will keep, But time is a story and ther...

You wild beasts and you creeping things Get down in your place, Down with all the absolutes God's awful grace. Who wants to see this coming? Who wants to think you do? Better to be blind when I'm Falling for you Go and tell old Pharaoh His time has c...

Now that fires have been contained These ashes are of our own making, Clouds hang up on radio towers And sirens sing one song for hours Here begins the fitting end To what we'd started over When tomorrow is October Tomorrow is October A masquerade of c...

The floor will have its way, it seems It fights me like a trampoline It won't let me on the ground So this time I'm not coming down This time I'm not coming down I've been talking in my sleep You once kissed me not to hear me speak You loved me just so...

I clawed at your skirt like it was a dirt floor And I could dig my way free of myself taking more But prisoners know nothing of victory at war Let's a call it a truce for now Georgia looks covered in blood from the air Where the clay and river fight and...

You tug at my sleep, A tangle of thread, That knots at the lock At the foot of my bed Swinging the door To a perilous view Where all my unspeakable dreams Fall to you, All my unspeakable dreams Fall to you Mt shadow stands up at the sound of my nam...

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A holy ghost hangs in our trees A cool eye watching over these, And every perfect, crooked thing; While every crooked dream Imagines that it walks between Straight arrow days… Great water lies between us, I'm bending at the knee— Great water lies betwe...

I waved to you as my boat was leaving Hats flew up and everybody cheered, But you turned as I guess someone spoke to you, And in a sea of arms you disappeared. I lived the life of a ragged soldier The secretary to a rebel king, He kept us drunk and hung...

We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when,
 But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day We’ll smile through, just like we always do,
 'Til the blue skies come and chase the clouds away So won’t you please say hello to the friends that I know, 
Tell...

You don’t have to think I'm right And chances are, I'm not tonight, But any chance at all is one we owe And it’ll be just us and who would know? We don't have to think that we know best We don’t have to answer to the rest, And even if we’ve got no more...

What can I write home about? The water's cold, the pilot's out. I keep my children out of sight And my man never came home last night. What will I learn to tell myself? We're supposed to want for nothing else; Just show the world a stoic light But my m...

I know that fan is moving air I can see it in your hair But I can't bear to Breathe it in somehow- I'll rise and fall with you Cause you can't fail me now, I'll rise and fall with you Cause you can't fail me now Salt is sweet upon my mouth And dark t...

Thought that bell was in my dream, All in my head, Until the trucks were in the Yard And the fire was in my bed. Oh, can you hear the ringing bell, Telling time like time was to tell? Can you see the smoke rise and curl All the way from your side of my...