Laura Veirs

How can it be so cold out here in America? Everybody's packing' heat in America Training their barrels in the city streets of America America, America The cart has come unhitched from the horse in America Down the hill and off the course of America Founding...

Been traveling all too long this bear-cat trail But the love in me's grown stronger than this steel rail That I ride back to your bedroom eyes Been gone so long baby I wrote you this love song My heart the engineer now she's running strong Taking me back to...

Goodbye black butterfly You can take those perfect wings Into outer space 'Cos there's no place left in this blood For your restless fluttering Your sleepless ways Black butterfly flutter me by Kick a little bitter into the night Spark of the stars leaving on...

Bird of prey Gonna float away To a feather cloud formation I'm gonna dig For pretty and strange Gonna open me up A black gold vein Arrow on fire Flash the night Gonna fade away To the trees and caves Salt-salt lamp Romance the spark And you'll shine shine shi...

Twenty days walking so lonely and talking to myself and the rocks And sand got me to thinking 'bout going and drinking in a tavern with a clean-shaven man Just when i thought all souls had been bought by the devil here long ago There did i see when i knelt t...

I'm falling off the barstool mama in this old ghost town saloon Where sunlight moves like sadness across the room Oh my sweet mama if you could only see me Now drunk as a skunk falling out of this rundown lacy gown This blue ink this blue ink this blue ink A...

I will not have a child, I will be wild And not produce meat for your slaughter No more cannon fodder Company whip cracks at the break of dawn Back break work the whole day long They're coming for my daughter Innocent cannon fodder Every war is brutal, stup...

Breathe life to the street from the mouth Those ruby red lips have much to give Pull life from the land with your capable hands Those life loving beautiful broken hands Oh, I'll stand with you and marvel At the cosmos pink and bright All the pages flipping bac...

I’m a chimney sweeping man You see the black lines On the backs of my hands I planted all the gardens I sent off all the hand-typed letters To the empty shells on high How i want to make things better Maybe you thought i’d be president With my cheshire grin,...

Cool water… I want to fly like a scroll unfolding Float to a stone ledge Wait for a moment 'fore spilling Words to a hedge And going away Like a poem closed in a dresser drawer You could say that's what they're for You want to melt like bullion in a golden f...

I was walking through the snow When I saw a distant glow Of a farmhouse nestled down beneath the trees With a guitar on my back I thought it sure can't hurt to ask If I could stay the night And sing a pretty song for free I walked up to the house And then I k...

I felt my vocal chords weakening I felt my concave thoughts I felt my voluntary blindness For staring straight into the sun The romantic air of your eye patch Called me across the room I clung there and danced with you silent Admired your divine tattoos We sl...

Dorothy of the island, Dove down, dove down deep, Silenced all the brave world, And now she sleeps. Her two sons left behind above, Living in a cabin with their dad, Who loves them. Motherless children have a hard time, When their mother is dead, Motherless...

Now the raging of the forest fires end And all the mammals fled I smell in the charred darkness A little green, a little red When you sing your song Your voice washed over the sea Glacial land of Beautiful blue light came o'er me Came o'er me Drink deep, my...

My wooden vibrating mouth Sing me your lover’s song Come with me we’ll head up north Where the rivers run icy and strong The empty theater is lying cold In the shadows of the past A church group enters to touch the molding With a burst of song and a simple r...

Here's to real emotion Here's to tears I've cried Your wheels are now in motion I tried to stop you, I tried Finster saw the angels Flying day and night Finster saw the angels Oh why can't I? Oh hand of love Come guide me Hold my trumpet up In the sky Are y...

Mermaids Shimmer in the waves Wanted to share a word Course they only waved Left me alone With the blood in my mouth To paw and to pray To tear at the fray for a thundercloud To dress up your wounds Wash off the salt Freshen the blooms At your sea-rusted alta...

When you sing, when you sing The stars fill up my eyes Galaxies pour down my cheeks Galaxies…they flood the street Galaxies When we dance, when we dance Eels and sea grass float on by I’m 10,000 leagues beneath the sea 10,000 leagues…beneath the green 10,000...

Watch, i can flash across the sky A lightning bolt from up on high And i can crash into myself Now a flower blooms in reverse And a song takes back a verse A photograph fades to white I can hold a thunderhead in my heart And in my bed i can dream a winter’s g...

Did you see that lady there they stripped her to her underwear She took it one step further and stripped to bare through the rising flames And smoke she laughed as all the police choked And then she danced in the government pyre the jailhouse is on fire She...

Hear the whistle blow far off in the still night without stars see the tracks laid flat With a hammer's might they're the spike driver's scars they're the spike driver's scars By the railroad ties there a hammer lies it's all painted in red it's all painted...

July Flame Firey kind Will always Lead me through the night July Flame Sweet summer peace High up in the breath Just out of my reach Can I call you mine? Can I call you mine? Can I call you mine? Can I call you mine? July Flame I'm seeing fireworks They'r...

Lake swimming Shucking free our deadened selves Like snakes and corn do Our bodies tore off swimming suits And all the old notions The cold ocean far away Enter the sun Marching like a matador Flashing her yellow velvet suit Throwing a red cape on the sky Old...

life is good when you dance all night and the world transmits electric power messages you send to mars came from a crown of flowers have we danced away the hours? have you danced away the hours? life is good when the band is smokin hot the drummer dr...

Sure is hard to dance across The room when you've got One foot on the floor And one foot outside the door I want nothing more Than the dance with you The peace I've known floating along Deep green river with you and the song Something like the peace I...

Come up horsey, hey hey Come up horsey, hey hey Come up horsey, hey hey Come up horsey, hey hey Mama's gonna buy you a little lap-dog Mama's gonna buy you a little lap-dog Mama's gonna buy you a little lap-dog Gonna put him in your lap when she com...

The rose is not afraid to blossom Though it knows its pedals must fall And with its pedals fall seeds into soil Why toil to contain it all? Why toil at all? Ice crystals form from flakes of heaven Fall down weightless to the earth To them it’s worth the fall...

Oh the dirty wordless fingers come again Where the mermaid singers Oh when I need them Oh how I need them Pretty words doled up on silver platters Chanting sea shanties the words that matter Oh how they shatter me Tattooed sailor man pull that net from the s...

Slain By your zirconium smile I was slain By your olivine eyes Slain I was lying in piles Hoping shovels would cast me Furnaces burn everlasting Black tattoos of you onto me Furnaces burn everlasting Black tattoos Burn Brand my memory Black A tattoo of you Wa...

I wanted to make something sweet The blood inside a maple tree The sunlight track inside the wood, Make something good. I wanted to make something strong, An organ pipe in a cathedral That stays in tune, through a thousand blooms, Make something g...

Oh midnight singer Outside my window Oh how your songs Come in strange and low And in my bed I lay silent Hoping you'd stay Hoping you'd go Oh midnight singer Just outside my door Oh how your song Waves on the shore Making a sound oh then silent Making a s...

Light of the morning day Sadly it will not stay This perfect pink for too long couple of hours from now All the sunflowers will frown and turn For the sun is too strong I'll be movin' along yeah i'll be movin' along I'll head for those distant hills Find s...

Nightingale sing though it's blacker than the bog Nightingale sing to me, I need to hear your song Nightingale come and perch upon my tree A terrifying light's been flashing over me I would not bear to rest I would not dare to dream Till the Nightingale...

A handful of dream dust for my pirate He can hear the pacific singing The sea meets the light in his salt water eyes Icy pictures of the water are captured in his frame The paddles of night are unfolding A mermaid's map floats by on the rolling green Japanese...

Roll Ohio clouds oh roll on in Wash the cigarettes the smell from grandma's skin Clear the dank and dusty kitchenettes The bourbon bottles resting empty on the chest Empty on the chest Grandpa's on the outside of the fence He's calling to his son again he's...

I don't know where i come from but i know it's a place here on earth Somewhere in a desert near a mountain was the place of my birth If you could tell me i would cry if you could tell me I would fly there if you could tell me my oh my my oh my Somewhere ou...

You're paintings scratch lines of blue and gold and open me up was folding into myself a deck of cards face down empty on the shelf your song with emphasis on one and two then i couldn't keep time you took me into a dream an exploding soundtrack the trea...

Sorry I was cruel I was protecting myself Drifting along with my swords out flying Tattering my own cells then I tattered yours, too Took you and rocked you around me like a spell Oh, how now the cold seeps in, oh Oh, how now I cast you into the wind Wracked...

With photographs And magnetic tape We capture Pretty animals in cages Pretty flowers in vases Enraptured And doesn’t the tree Write great poetry? Doing itself so well Do you blame monet? His gardens in giverny He captured And lovely basho His plunking ponds...

The sky's a raven marching band black blizzard blowing across the land Come darling take my hand i'm whiskey poured into the sand Star blossoms bloom the night falling now burning fire bright Come darling take my hand i'm whiskey poured into the sand The s...

Check out the skylark Riding and singing alongside Salt cool breeze coming from the West Ships and their lawlessness Running wild and the waves Wearing their bright blue summer best Here come the sailors Marching two by two by two They pressed their pants And...

Riptide pulls me out into the open sea My toes dangle for a place to stand and be Oh starry night come and chart a course Or send me a boat with an anchor set I’ll pull myself ashore Left with essence Of the moon and stars and night There’s no other route...

Sadako is folding cranes The color Spills from the bed Golden paper Fold one thousand Gods will grant you a wish One mile from Misasa bridge The Atom Bomb explodes She is blown out of the window She is two years old This is our cry This is our prayer This is...

Serpent tails and flying fish sup up all the wishes That you sent to the stars Chinese dragons, incandescent mirrors in the waves I want to put them in jars With my saltbreakers (Ringing all the underwater, underwater, underwater bells) Saltbreakers (L...

Dead eye from the wood of life Hold the ropes and the rigging lines Red-eye a.m. Here i lie Shipwreck passing underneath What of the sailor and her spinning wheel? What was she thinking being Swallowed by the water whole? Red on the left, green on the right...

Oh, where did you get them high top shoes? And that dress you wear so fine, I got my shoes, from a railroad man, And the dress from a driver in the mine, And the dress from a driver in the mine. Starch While you get drunk and lie in the shade, I'll sing my so...

I’m climbing up the stairs I’m circling the waves The broken ceiling paint The broken windowpane O a smile would melt Me to an asphalt strip Where all would travel Where all would tread and trip Where all the rolling rollers roll And all the secret someones g...

There’s a shadow beneath the sea There’s a shadow between you and me I’ve learned that love is scared of light Thousand seeds from a flower Blowing through the night Your blackened kiss on my cheek Your blackened kiss runs river deep A stranded fish dear, i’...

Shape shifter Thousands in the air Moving as one Magic flocks the reaches I'm speechless on the ground Black blizzard round a cold grey sun Winter's on the way I think we're gonna make it out If we stick together now If we stick together now Too many times w...

I saw the violet turn to night I saw the water turn to ice A thousand snowflakes hovered ‘round me The world aglow I heard a distant songbird singing A song the words i used to know And as the melody went ringing I felt my bones on the rocks below The weigh...

Struggling like a fly against the glass It's not clear why I can't blast Straight through Behind all the brightest smiles Twist the tortured, tortured souls who I'll never, never know Who I'll try and try to know You show me smoke and mirror eyes And behin...

The tiny midnight caravan Made its way across the black hills As I watched from a distance The slow-going glow Their wandering you know Made me pine For the lamplight Where you lie If I took you darling To the caverns of my heart Would you light the lamp dear...

Honey wax, melt it down Make your heart molten somehow Turn the fields of stone to magma Swinging out on the breeze I hear you singing, you're coming home I can see you now Summer is the champion Let's get dizzy in the grass Makers and melters, oh, m...

First rays of light are coming through Been seven months since I saw that much blue Water rushing in the banks Freed from the ice, it has the sun, the sun to thank It has the sun, the sun to thank Matches inside your golden hair Catch all the light, I f...

Dancing al-ways brings joy Dancing al-ways brings joy Tear after tear Will fall from ya', boy But dancing brings joy Who is not a little worried? One or two dreams that they dug and buried? The sky turnin' black Put the wind at your back Who ain't worried? M...

I survived the desperate toll dark depression takes I may not break even but babe I'll never break Golden coins and smiles no they cannot tip my scales Cuz this land, this love will never be for sale Brass hats and soldier boys whiskey on your breath Drop yo...

Music in the air Plucked from the centuries Presented in the form Of a song by you to me Seagull in the air Floating on the updraft See me on the ground Think I just heard her laugh Up in the air Up there, up there, in the air Twelve floors up In the camlin...

The Fox went out on a chilly night And then he prayed for the moon to give him light He had many a mile to go that night Before he reached the town-o, town-o, town-o Many a mile to go that night 'Fore he reached the town-o He ran till he came to the farmers p...

Birds were falling from the sky all leaves had turned to brown The heartless cold froze everything and took my poor red down Poor old red she's dead and gone her eyes I do remember at least i have this old guitar To get me through december through december...

Flat stone skipping the surface sink Into the golden deep Crawl inside like a honeybee Creep into the heart Give me snow and give me salt Troubles cracks and creaks Watch 'em tumble to the sea Come back 'round you see Can you hear the cliffside's heart Bubbl...

I see you there, your purple hair And the rosy cheeks that I adore Tiger tattoos, my how they suit you I hope you'll let me see a little more Will you come down, down to the river And take a swim, a swim with me Will you come down, down and deliver And let me...

Don't recognise my face Everybody knows your game Feel like I'm running in place Everything's changed, everything's changed I'm gonna move to the country She's gonna move So I can see the stars Heavenly stars, the heavenly stars, the heavenly stars She's gonn...

Tumble, tumble into my a-a-arms Fumble, fumble can't keep the g-g-grip Trouble, trouble baba on l-l-lips Humble, humble now that you're g-g-gone You can't keep this bum-bum-bum-bum, bum-bum-bumble bee 'Cause she'll sting me as she lo-lo-longs to be free Tumb...

Billy was a young man gone astray bottle at his lips all night And day mama said they're gonna send you up the river someday Whiskey ate big holes in billy's head summer's day he shot spud murphy dead He said i'm headed up the river as he watched the blood p...

A strange July, storm came down From the north and pulled out the salt And it tore out the leaves From the pear tree and my canopy In the twigs and the bugs of sow I knew somehow I was free I held a stone above my bones I was shaking In the blue stained glas...

Where gravity is dead And the airplanes fly around Above the roaming bees And the buzzing town Above the tattered flags And the rotten show posters Above the clubs and microphones Above the jealous mouths That's where you've found yourself Riding into the sun...

Abundant life That's this life Lush life That's this life Did you see the cherry tree Take to blooming' waters freeze Arms open to the wind wide Trembling black eyes I moved one city south Just one street away Saw some things deep down Never ever...

Clear as ice, oh clear as ice Dripping down from a rock Spring will come and so will fall All my enemies have finally fled They’ve finally fled and gone Take your pick, oh take your pick And dig into the earth You’ll find a muted pearl its worth It will nev...

Looting the destroyed Vessels of the sea I wondered if the waves Had taken all of me All of me back Down to the black Down to the where the worms reign silent and green Silent We can do some wrecking here Til a little color Comes into your face We can do some...