Paula Cole

Your eyes they conjure up those Cliffs of Moher, Far away and not listening anymore, Dreaming of life on another shore, Not here, not now, with me, the bore. So I stop talking and fade to bleak, Feeling insignifi cant, atrophied and weak. Even though it's not...

We were born into this life to cry and learn and yearn and die. We lose the plot, we play the parts, But only once we have this heart, This chance between 2 lifetimes, constellations-sparkling-lectric-energy, The pull between, 2 lifetimes, blessed holy moment...

I'm siphoning gass from the high school bus Into the tank of my beat-up bug So I can drive away from the shouting and misery I drive into the night, to the hill, to the water tower To lie on my back and drink in the meteor shower Knowing that many men have lai...

The autumn leaves drift by my window The autumn leaves all red and gold I see your lips The summer kisses The sunburned hand I used to hold But since you went away the days grow long and soon now hear a winter song But now I miss you most of all My darling And...

I want to be somebody I want to make a difference Little boy caught in a drive-by Witnessed the killer who made his daddy die, And 'cause he identified and signed the dotted line, He could feel it in his stomach, he signed away his life Little boy who once wa...

It all started nine years ago You sat to my left back in school The future showed itself to me The god in you, the god in me, stood together like two trees I was so shy to inquire If you would like tea sometime Then in my Mercury Hand on hand, hand on knee, me...

Pulling on the apron strings looking up Standing on the chair to be grown up I feel so little, I need my pillow I hate time, I hate the clock I want to be a dog, or I want to be a rock Sunday's pancakes Miss Mary Mack Color Polaroid's show my heart attack In...

The snowstorm blankets Cinncinnati A black crow flies straight to my window He looks me in the eye and tells me The price for this will bring you sorrow Billy Joe, I cast a shadow, from the darkness in my soul Billy Joe, I lost control, the little girl who ca...

Why do you think she wears those black boots... Why do you think she dyes her hair black... She's awfully insecure She's trying to be cool She's hoping to be more in those, black boots. Why do I think I wear those black boots... Why do I wear three pairs of...

Blue Moon You saw me standing alone Without a dream in my heart Without a love of my own Blue Moon You knew just what I was there for You heard me saying a prayer for Someone I really could care for And then there suddenly appeared before me The only one my...

My heart is sad and lonely For you I sigh, for you dear only Why haven't you seen that? I'm all for you body and soul I spend my days in longing And wondering why It's me you're wronging Why haven't you seen that? I'm all for you body and soul I can't believ...

Carmen, I don't know I don't know I don't know if I can go back Carmen I'll never be never be never be the same again Carmen The way you set the table The way you lean to tell me something soft The way I can see into you The way you tell me i talk too much a...

Goya and El Greco, Gaugin and Van Gogh Painted light in the darkness, chiaroscuro Imagine we were a painting A woman and a man, Two lovers on a canvas One is white, one is black. Darkness and light will be married tonight in chiaroscuro Your body on mine - tw...

This isn't what I foresaw For you and me But here we are Post [?] The chickadees have come again To partake in their daily bread I look to you and watch your hands Fumbling with your golden band Fumbling with your pipe And all your notions of a twenty-year-ol...

Come on inside this empty heart and make a home… You mean the world to me, I knew that moment then. Your eyes poured into mine, I saw myself. You now are home to me, it’s in the little things. We now have years between, silences of knowing, Eternities in secon...

Lord make me a lightning bolt to burn off this ring (comin' down, comin' down), Lord make me a Skilsaw to cut through these chains (comin' down, comin' down), Lord give me the clarity to see through this smoke, And salvage the woman comin' down. Lord make me...

Tell me how the story will unfold, I know you see everything. Tell me all about the torch and scroll, I know you know everything. So why do you come to me? Why when I'm sleeping? Why am I the only one who knows you're there? Why, why? My dear, my dear Gertru...

I'm black on blacker velvet, Milk skin and veins, Like some El Greco painting, So full of pain, So full of longing for light of day. I thought I knew who I was in the world. But here I am twice blind at being born, Crawling to my buried voice, within. And I'...

Who is this hurting mother? Don’t want to be her now. Who in the hell’s that sad reflection? How did I lose myself? How many times I walk the river, wondering what life’s for, Sobbing beneath the staid performance, Too scared to let it out. Duty calls…duty cal...

I know I’m not the woman you married, those things we promised aren’t true Like better for worse and loving as well as we could. The most beautiful woman I witnessed, I knew when your eyes met my eyes, I thanked sweet Mary cause inside I died Eloise, Eloise...

Father Father Father Father is a blackout Father is a sacrificial art Ready for sacrifice The holy rite Romanticized Some distant shrine A valentine Pretty paper shine Ego stroked And stitched inside... I take it and take it And take it again I take it and ta...

Love, love You make me feel like a sticky pistil... leaning into a stamen You make me feel like a mister sunshine... Himself You make me feel like splendor in the grass... While we're rollin' Damn skippy baby You make me feel like the Amazon's runnin' between...

I keep walking down the same city streets The same city lines, to the same lonely beat People say hello but I don't know what to say I don't know how I feel, I just can't act that way I wanna hide from all these strangers I wanna run home to you All I need is...

Here I am, a black-eyed bird, remaining silent. I simply watch, your little life from high above. Wanting to call you, wanting to sing, Inside your ears and lips and eyes and soul, I dig my grave, behind the gates of Babylon. There's a Garden of Eden In your...

I'm but a lonely woman Waiting at the moor To bring home my fisherman To Gloucester Harbor Shore A kiss goodbye Upon the moor I wave goodbye to sea I'm praying every moment That you'll come home to me The [?] The numbers are too few Too far the men go ferryi...

Them that's got shall get Them that's not shall lose So the Bible said and it still is news Mama may have, papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own Yes, the strong get more While the weak ones fade Empty pockets don't ever m...

Whether it be across the sea, Kosovo,Baghdad,Korea Or here at home, right under our fingertips In new slavery prison systems Holding one in four black American brothers The one percent wealthy profiteering >From the buisness that is war Yeah,go to war God...

Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene I'll see you in my dreams Quit rambling, quit your gambling Quit staying out late at night Stay home with your wife and family Sit down at the fireside bright Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight...

I remember the pain in my mother's eyes, I remember the pain of her compromise years ago. I always wanted to help to make it go away, I didn't know it was her freedom that she needed so. And she said to me, she said to me: He hitch-hiked to Maine, We went cr...

Where's my white knight, My prince to save the day? I've always paved my own way. I'm all alone, Bringing home the bread, Raising the kid, fi xing the bed. I wanna be a star, Like Marilyn Monroe, A Cinderella Fantasy, A naive Clara Bow, A princess and the pea...

There is a diamond inside of me that lights up the sky of my soul Where fell the diamond when I believed that all of the hurt was my fault I'm opening the heart door, letting in the light Opening the heart door and giving life to me that died You ended up so...

Little boy, tries to hide, >From the fire in his backyard. Burning cross, white cloth, It's the second time this year. Hitler's Brothers are still alive, They're wearing everyday disguises. A woman runs, for asylum, She's the only one of her kind in this...

Long white arms Losing their strength and form Sixty year man on twenty year old skin Skeleton, your eyes have lost their warmth Look to your father for some support CHORUS: Hush hush hush Says your daddy's touch Sleep sleep sleep Says the hundredth sheep Pe...

I nearly died I suicided softly I saw her shadow through the cafe window I watched you lean across the table I watched you whisper in her ear And she is your holy Mary And I am so ordinary And you can use me if you want to I know you need me just like an old...

It all started nine years ago You sat to my left back in school The future showed itself to me The god in you, the god in me, stood together like two trees I was so shy to inquire If you would like tea sometime Then in my Mercury Hand on hand, hand on knee, m...

Away from the city that hurts and knocks, I'm standing alone by the desolate docks In the still and the chill of the night. I see the horizon the great unknown My heart has an ache, it's as heavy as stone With the dawn coming on make it light. I cover the wa...

So open up your morning light And say a little prayer for I You know that if we are to stay alive And see the peace in every eye She had two babies One was six months one was three In the war of '44 Every telephone ring Every heartbeat stinging When she thoug...

I wanna kiss you. I wanna kiss you. I wanna stop the conversation, I wanna kiss you. Oh, lie beside me now, Funny papers, morning sunlight streams, Oh fantasize me now, I'll kiss your neck and make your toast and tea, Oh won't you marry me? I see a little chu...

~~~♫♫♫~~~ I wish I knew how It would feel to be free I wish I could break All the chains holding me I wish I could say All the things that I should say Say 'em loud say 'em clear For the whole round world to hear I wish I could share All the love that's in m...

I'm old fashioned, I love the moonlight I love the old fashioned things The sound of rain, upon a window pane The starry song that April sings This year's fancies Are passing fancies But sighing sighs, holding hands These my heart understands I'm old fashio...

I see him in my father I sense him in my mother My sister holds it in her hands It’s the heart of the imaginary man Oh I’ll do everything I can For the heart of the imaginary man I want to give all I can I look around me, the crowd about me There’s nobody to...

(Holding on, holding on, holding on...) Here in this vacancy, Where we existed, I carry on in life like some puppet acting her part. The very core of me, An empty garden. The tree of life once flowered her arms to open sky. An angel guided you home, now I'm...

That quiet voice inside of my soul, It's rising up again. Oh I know it's the time, life is short. Gotta grab the wheel of my life. Indecision, should-haves, could-haves, Will only rip my joy away. This inner cross-roads may define me, But it's the only way....

(Didn't your Mama tell you how to behave, girl? Didn't your Daddy tell you not to wear that little thing?) Been told you never get something for nothing My stepfather Dickie say I just might get hit If I don't give The girls all whisper 'hind my back They try...

Love child accident born to children themselves, She nearly died on the table giving birth to her first back in ’63, That was my sister Irene. Moved into the trailer park in Ithaca, New York, Took another job while he was going to school, Another mouth to feed...

Spin the globe, stop and start. Come to a place that's torn apart. Here's a secret, it's my heart, Oh well, It's only... Broken shutters, whistling wind, Vultures circling overhead, Tumbleweeds fl y, Dust in my eyes, Guess it's not my feelings crying. Peelin...

Crimson cardinal sees his life, Into the glass he fl ies. The perfect partner he does spy, A moment's glance of eyes. Refl ections of a future love, Feel the pull of fate. The perfect love turned out to be, Himself in haste and vain, Passion's fl ash of red, B...

Falling North, of the Arctic Circle inside of you The bleakness, the cold eye of ice in you Tundra-heart, you banish all memories, all feeling You’re a distant cold-shoulder, I’m reeling Oh, we’re as dead as doors, we’re as dead as ashes Walking through your...

I am not the person who is singing I am the silent one inside I am not the one who laughs at people's jokes I just pacify their egos I am not my house, my car, my songs They are only just stops along my way I am like the winter I'm a dark cold female With a go...

I know I'm big and proud all over Not just on the stage My secret self has many sides That laugh and crush and sting I'm red and thick like fire I like it from behind Round to back Red to white I'm pure inside and silent Chorus: Ah, ah-ah-ah-ah-ah I know I'v...

The echo of shame, the voice inside my head, The need for love, the insecurity. Cutting me down, to a fourteen year old girl, The Father Figure criticizing me. Go on – through the darkest night, When I know inside the answer’s here in me. Go on- the shadowbo...

The very thought of you makes my heart sing Like an April breeze on the wings of spring, And you appear in all your splendor, My one and only love. The shadows fall and spread their mystic charms In the hush of night while I'm in your arms. I feel your lips,...

Never, never will I marry Never, never will I wed Born to wander solitary Wide my world, narrow my bed Never never never will I marry Born to wander 'til I'm dead No burden to bear No conscience, no care No memories to mourn No turning, for I was Born to wand...

You left me standing there At the top of the stoop Of a federal brown stone You left me standing there With my heart in my hands At Hudson & Barrow Oh, life didn't let me Oh, pity New York City You left us standing there In our favorite cafe Mon Petit...

Holding hands at midnight 'Neath the starry sky It's nice work if you can get it And you can get it, if you try Strolling with the one boy Sighing, sigh after sigh It's nice work if you can get it And you can get it, if you try Just imagine someone Waiting a...

How many times did I have to hear you say to me Self obsessed artist Center of your universe Well I believed your every word And I believed you were my god CHORUS: Nietzsche's eyes Nietzsche's kind Failed in flight to us And all my love Grandmother Mother A...

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay And at dinner time we stopped and we walked back to the house to eat And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet" And th...

Oh John, oh John, oh John Never lose the memory of April twenty-six Your hands designed my body You autographed my hip I lost all my worry I lost all sense of time My fears evaporated When you held me in your oh my god and Oh John, in a New York hotel room I...

Walking the mountain is easy for the medicine Man who follows makes sure the Indian Never returns His revenge, his revenge Rising His revenge, his revenge Rising White is the man with the pen who's writing the story of life Our revenge, our revenge, rising...

Prenup, babygirl, prenup baby, P.R.E.N.U.P. Prenup, baby, prenup baby, P.R.E.N.U.P. This is a page from my own life, Here’s some advice: Before you sign on the dotted line, Filled with hope for the perfect life, Love yourself enough for peace of mind. Prenup...

Humility on Bleecker Street Exposed my faults until I'm left defeated It's been three years into this relationship This is longer than I ever could commit But I feel I'm near But I feel my fear I'm standing at the edge of another precipice in life Gotta face...

Out on the lawn Labor Day Popsicle melts down your face Cicadas beat their wings Barbecued chicken and meat When will it snow? When will it snow? Sweat holds the pennies in place I stick fifteen on your face The soles of our feet have been baked I wish I wer...

I am not your enemy I am not your dream unlived I am just this song I have today All I have is melody and string If Frida Kahlo could see us here together, here today She’d paint us in some churches, in some feathers, in some gray She’d see us in our sufferin...

To the critics and the cynics who don't understand the lyrics To the atheists and the pessimists Wanting company in their darkness You may see me as a fool,yes,a charlatan,an egotist, But I'd rather be this in your eyes, Than a coward in His I began as Isis,...

I have this little finger Attached to the third Without independence Disparagement I learned And circled with infinity Everlasting gold 'Til I give away my freedom 'Til I reach my soul Today I have 5 splinters In finger number four The swelling and...

Dead dead dead dead walking down to the road to dead Welcome to the church of me Where they stand in a line in need Of water from my eyes And a song for comfort You say Jesus Christ Well, I feel like him I feel one, two, three Nails through me and Fou...

I'm wandering from room to room in this empty house all alone Everyone gone away to school, or work or town Oh... I'm looking for my feelings Oh... I gotta find them now Oh... I'm looking for my feelings Oh... I gotta find them soon Wandering room to room Wand...

Sometimes I'm too bold for my own good, I go out swinging hard and fast. This world is beating me broken. I need a home to rest. Too quick in the first round, Too slow in the second, Now I'm here in the third, And I need your attention. I wanna be safe in yo...

I'm but a lover I was a map for love (No) Leaders or partners They rule from all their thrones Give it a, give it a Give it a go Give it a, give it a go I will relinquish The kingdom and Queen-ship If you will have all of me I am not peace I am not ease I...

Lost in another world, oh Saturn, Saturn Girl. Far away, to an infinite world I escape I'm clear and calm, I'm unafraid. Sunless days, in my sheltered Milky Way In Saturn's rings I feel no pain. In my heart, in my head Oh, Saturn Girl has always bled No you'...

Everyone is happy here Until you walk in Tossing your poison around and Silencing with your toxicity You cannot hear me scream Morning routines, bedtime routines Going through our motions here Living inside the romanticizing That trapped us in a wicked dream...

I’ll be your secretary, oh I’ll fetch your vodka on the rocks I’ll be your secretary, oh I’ll reach up towards the highest shelf and You’ll sidle up behind me I do not know you’re there Until I feel your hands are sliding Hands up my two thighs and I… And I w...

Come down here and lie with me, Tonight the soil is wet and ready, I watched the way you danced tonight, And I’m picturing you as I touch my inside. Full pink lips and fingertips, I’m drinking you in little sips, God I love you, God I love you, I’m going to do...

She was on the floor, her face was in her mother's arms. She had said that she'd been out late with the boys. Just another evening, like every other evening Everything is all the same it seems. Danny always called her on the phone for no special reason, appar...

Skylark Have you anything to say to me? Won't you tell me where my love can be? Is there a meadow in the mist Where someone's waiting to be kissed? Oh, Skylark Have you seen a valley green with spring? Where my heart can go a journeying Over the shadows and t...

I lost but I did not lose the lesson, I was so lonely there at the top of my mountain, I can be the Joan of Arc of courage, But with one touch of lust I crumbled in his arms. Maybe I don’t understand what it takes to make it last, It doesn’t help when little...

Saturn returned to Aries and my star rose and rose I found my little town shoes walking down a red carpet Naively placed by flashing bulbs At school we were lovers then reunited in the eye of this storm But love and luck collided and I followed the work Arm in...

Strong, beautiful woman Oh, don’t let the world get you down Look within yourself and remember who you are Ten years old in braids and skirts I’m flying down the hill Down the street to Grandma’s house I step inside her world First she’d hold me, feed me, sco...

Idiot kitty to New York City Living in a kennel and lookin' big and pretty Meet the munch for business lunch But your feet bleed under the table But Suwannee Jo, you're dark and slow You dance with a broom and you're filled with ghosts You smell like liquor a...

~~~♫♫♫~~~ Hollis Brown He lived on the outside of town Hollis Brown He lived on the outside of town With his wife and five children And his cabin fallin' down You looked for work and money And you walked a rugged mile You looked for work and money And you wa...

Dorothy is my grandmother On my mother's side She outlived two husbands And she loved to be outside The book of Dorothy World War One and World War Two Depression in between Radio and television Internet and me The book of Dorothy The book of Dorothy Living...

What a fall from Grace, what a cruel deceit, What a lack of love behind the sociopathy. Used me for your secrets, used me for some dimes, Breaking blood upon this single mother’s whipping hide, And this bitter wisdom makes me quiet and still. Peace and happin...

Climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing... Look, at how futile this is, I'm so weak, so fragile, so torn. Going round and round, going inside To the circle, to the ladder, to the sky I am climbing a ladder of urgency Climbing a ladder of hope Climbing a ladde...

William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger At a Baltimore hotel society gath'rin' And the cops were called in and his weapon took from him As they rode him in custody down to the station And booked W...

So call me a bitch in heat and I'll call you a liar And we'll throw stones until we're dead There you go again you cut me off from talking You bask in the glory The center of the circle All our friends think you're a comedian So kind and generous but I am suf...

Where do I put this fire This bright red feeling This tiger lily down my mouth He wants to grow to twenty feet tall Chorus: I've left bethlehem I feel free I've left the girl I was supposed to be and Someday I'll be born I'm so tired of being shy I'm not th...

I slip out the backdoor into the night I can still feel the sun on my bare feet tonight I am waiting to meet you And waiting to see if you feel the same way about me Back in the 70's We were children of freedom Believing we'd make a difference when our time w...

Baby, please come down off the stairs You know it's gonna be all right Baby please take your hands off the air You know it frightens me sometimes And all the time And all my life And all the hours waiting It's unbroken Unbroken Unbroken Sometimes, I can't bel...

Crumbling down, my life, All these lies, I put on a pedestal. Walking around, broken down shoes, Broken down vows, my same broken heart. And I know the silence is good for me. And I know how to be alone. And I know I'm trying to wait this out. And I know, I...

Years keep dripping away (dripping away), I notice the little things, Moments in a mirror, holding the paper farther. Feeling colder and moving slower, Scared to trust my heart to another. But I realized in the bottom of my well, that I was nowhere: safe but s...

A tree it grows in Brooklyn, the force it grows in me, I’m cracking up the concrete of a life that nearly killed me. Now a woman’s just a man away from Welfare so they say, And Lord I know it to be true, when you’re married by the State. Yes I’m waiting on a...

Watch the woman's hands as she cultivates the land, As she plants the seed, as she's on her knees. Watch her fingers smile as she holds the little child, As she holds him, as she holds him. Watch the woman's hands as she holds her children back, From the dang...

I've-a been met you Now I'm a dozy doe and Inside a capsule We're lost and I am calling on Darling, it's a mystery We don't know where we are going Come along with me We don't know where we are going But we're going anyway We don't know where we are going Bu...

~~~♫♫♫ ~~~ Ooo-ooo-ooo… What a little moonlight can do… Ooo-ooo-ooo What a little moonlight can do to you You’re in love Your heart’s a-flutterin’ all day long You only stutter ‘cause your poor tongue Just will not utter the words 'I love you' Ooo-ooo-ooo...

Oh you get me ready in your 56 Chevy Why don't we go sit down in the shade? Take shelter on my front porch The dandy lion sun scorching, Like a glass of cold lemonade? - I will do the laundry if you pay all the bills. Where is my John Wayne? Where is my prair...

Don’t believe, you’re still with me How much pain, can we take? Why don’t you go? Why don’t you go? Why don’t you go a-lookin’ boy And find another girl Why don’t you go Do you really want me? All of my ugly? Seems I bleed the one The one I love this deeply W...

Willow weep for me Willow weep for me Bend your branches green Along the stream that flows to sea Listen to my plea Hear me willow and weep for me. Gone my lovers dream Lovely summer dream Gone and left me here To weep my tears into the stream Sad as I can be...

You hit the spot Like a balmy breeze on a night in May You hit the spot Like a cool mint julep on a summery day You hit a new high in my estimation I had to fall 'cause you've got so much on the ball Oh, you hit the spot Like the first embrace when the knot i...

Sweet, sweet, little man On the lake, on the boat, on your mind Dream deep through the night Take my hand and, my love, close your eyes Forever in me You will never know You will never know Forever, part of me You will never know You will never know [Missin...

You've changed That sparkle in your eyes is gone Your smile is just a careless yawn Oh, you're breaking my heart You've changed You've changed Your kisses now are so blase You're bored with me in every way I just don't understand You've changed You've forgot...

Zinnias and dahlias and strawberry wine A Technicolor ecstacy exploding my mind Oh you make me feel I’m walking nine miles high What you gonna do for the rest of my life? Take my arm and let’s aim - High, for the stars/ With our names, up in lights. Zinnias a...