Field of Reeds On the Judgment Day they took me down to my grandma's house at the break of dawn. It had been so long. The chairs were cracked and the curtains were torn and nothing remained of the laughter I’d grown up on. All of it gone. And they said, “Look around, for this is all to show that love is not a returning. Love is learning to let go.” I saw where it leads, the river of my trembling heart! Down to a field of reeds, back to the place where the ending meets the start. Start, start, start. Then they led me upstairs down a hallway and I heard a woman laugh taking a bath. I pushed open the door, I saw her there in the tub. Her head underwater, she didn’t make a sound. Already drowned. And they said, “Can you love her, now that you've been shown that love is not a yearning? Love is learning to let go." I saw where it leads, the river of my trembling heart! Down to a field of reeds, back to the place where the ending meets the start. In the beautiful sun, the bodies shrivel and souls take their release. A field of reeds in the morning of an everlasting peace. Peace, peace, peace. And when I tell you about my visions I notice you don’t look me in the eye. And I know why. You run your fingers along my back but you feel the crack in loving what has to die. But don’t you cry. For they told me to tell you what you already know: That your love is forever burning in the stillness of your learning to let go. Look where it leads, the river of your trembling heart! Down to a field of reeds, back to the place where we never have to part. In the beautiful sun, our bodies shrivel and souls take their release. A field of reeds in the morning of an everlasting, everlasting, everlasting peace. Tam Lin

Waiting to Touch the Ground Sometimes I feel happy, but I wonder what that’s worth. In my little balloon I drift on without a place on earth. I’m waiting, waiting, waiting for my feet to touch the ground. Waiting, waiting, waiting 
for my feet to touch the ground Please don’t leave me, baby. Don’t look at me with regret. I’ve got a beautiful life to give you, 
I just haven’t found it yet. I’m waiting, waiting, waiting 
for my feet to touch the ground. Waiting, waiting, waiting
 for my feet to touch the ground. I see the children playing and I think, "What a strange thing to be born!" They seem so much older than I am. They seem to know what this living is for. I love so many people. Good friends, I’ve got so much to repay. So load me with your burdens. Don’t let me float away. I’m waiting, waiting, waiting
 for my feet to touch the ground. Waiting, waiting, waiting
 for my feet to touch the ground Waiting till I touch the ground (etc.) Tam Lin

Fever Birds Oh Lord I am sick and I will not be well. I’m spitting blood and coughing up bread. And my father’s men wait at the gates of my cell. There’s black water seeping through the sheets of my bed and the fever birds are coming to swarm round my head. Oh Lord I was born in the mouth of a mountain and I lived with my mother in a house made of tin. But my father came in the cover of moonlight. He brought me to his mansion and he locked me in. Now the fever birds are coming to scratch at my skin. Oh Lord how I wept to be kept from my mother! My body grew wasted, my lungs filled with tears. But I learned how to fly on the wings of my sickness, back to my mother and back through the years with the fever birds coming to shriek in my ears. One morning I woke and looked up above me. I saw a girl with the brightness of a hundred Julys. She wiped off my head and she said she would love me. And I felt a white light come creeping up through my thighs. I felt the fever birds coming to claw out my eyes. We lay there together in the blindness of passion. But in the morning I turned and saw what she’d done. There were sores on my body where her lips had kissed me. And I started to scream but no scream would come for the fever birds had torn out my tongue. Oh Lord I am sick and I will not be well! So listen you lovers who seek solace from pain. Watch how you fly on the wings of your sickness! Your dreams of beauty will just drive you insane and the fever birds are coming to roost in your brain. Tam Lin

Garden in Flames My love is a garden in flames. It blooms as it burns away. It dies and still it remains for you, my baby. I held a picture of the morning we met, my hands aching with an old desire. It hurt so much to see your picture's hold on me. I set that photograph on fire. My love is a garden in flames. It blooms as it burns away. It dies and still it remains 
for you, my baby. I went down to the house you live in now 
but nothing but an empty lot remained. I saw your husband too, and I asked him about you. He said, "I've never known anyone by that name." My love is a garden in flames. It blooms as it burns away.
 It dies and still it remains 
for you, my baby. And I see time is like confetti scattered in the sky. Limitless worlds are drifting side by side. And the lives that might have been live on in each of them but I couldn’t gather them if I tried. So come to my garden in flames, 
oh you, who never really went away. In the flowering blaze, I'll give all my days 
to you, my baby 
to you, my baby 
to you, my baby Tam Lin

Lionheart All things must break. All things are outgrowing 
the shapes that they take. 
Life just keeps going. And our bond may break, against all of my hoping. But my heart won’t break. It will only break open. All things must lose. The war ain’t behind us. The mistakes we ignored 
are going to hunt down and find us. But if it’s you I must lose, 
let me lose you with kindness because my heart won’t lose. It will just lose its blindness. So roar, lion of my heart, till you know why love is real. Roar, till you know why you have to feel 
every bit of this deep inside. All things must stop 
and lay down their burdens.
 The clenched fist must drop, 
the eye close its curtains. And our love may stop, 
but of this I am certain: 
My heart won’t stop. It will only stop hurting. So roar, lion of my heart, 
till you know why love is real. R
oar, till you know why you have to feel 
every bit of this deep inside. Tam Lin

Song of the Maharaja I see my friends assemble around my ivory throne and a thousand voices tremble at my every dying moan. But none can feel what I feel as my life is withdrawn. I’m going to miss this world, miss this world, miss this when I'm gone. I’m going to miss this world, miss this world, miss this when I'm gone. My time has been victorious. I’ve plundered pearls and musk and a thousand jasmine bodies disrobing in the dusk. But all my naked happiness has put its clothes back on. I’m going to miss this world, miss this world, miss this when I'm gone. I’m going to miss this world, miss this world, miss this when I'm gone. And I hear a hissing in the garden and the lonesome jackal's screams. And I feel my body start to harden as the night folds into dreams. As one lamp lights another in the hours before the dawn, I can feel my soul reach for new flesh, dying to be reborn dying to be reborn dying to be reborn In the dimming of my senses I behold great, future things: A world where buildings kiss the sky and men fly with metal wings. And maybe I'll be a young man there but I'll singing the same song: I’m going to miss this world, miss this world, miss this when I'm gone. I’m going to miss this world, miss this world, miss this when I'm gone. Tam Lin

Solomon's Baby The days keep on splitting and the hours are filled with strife. I see you crying in the kitchen, cutting up onions with a knife. And the rings fall from the table, but I don’t know which one makes you a wife. You’ve become so many people, 
and it’s so hard to hold them all in one life. But I’m still so in love, honey, so in love. I’d do anything to keep you from pain. Oh I’m still so in love, honey, so in love. I’d give you up, never doubting I’d get your love again. The nights keep on splitting. You share some with me and some with him. I just try to feel things deeply.
 I don’t complain or ever ask you where you’ve been. But if a bucket has no bottom,
 what’s the use in trying to fill it to the brim?
 You’ve become so many people,
 and it’s so hard to hold on to all of them. But I’m still so in love, honey, so in love. I’d do anything to keep you from pain. Oh I’m still so in love, honey, so in love. I’d give you up, never doubting I’d get your love again. I’ve read King Solomon loved a woman. 
He loved her more than his own throne. H
alf of her wanted to stay with him; 
the other half wanted to roam. But he would not cut his love in half, 
so he let his woman wander on alone. 
He had a heart that stayed whole,
 and there’s nothing greater any man can own. Don’t you see I’m still in love, honey? so in love. I’d do anything to keep you from pain. Oh I’m so in love, honey, so in love. I’d give you up, never doubting I’d get your love again. Tam Lin

Money I know I never loved you, but I was on a losing streak. I was looking for reassurance, or maybe just looking to feel weak. Your boot heel it was waiting and I took what I could get because I waited so long for happiness and what'd I have to show for it? Money, you ain't the one I'm waiting for. But Money, who's gonna hold me when I can't hold on any more? I made music for you but you were not impressed. You don't care much for beauty if it can't be possessed. You'd think I'd be disenchanted or have more dignity, but your scorn made you that much more beautiful to me. Money, you ain't the one I'm waiting for. But Money, who's gonna hold me when I can't hold on any more? I keep chasing at shadows. I keep swinging at the air. I keep looking for something deeper when there's nothing deeper there. Now I claim I am wiser and my taste is more discreet. But sometimes I look up and find I'm right back on your street. They say, "Seek where the warmth is," and often times I do. But part of me still wants to know I mean something to you. Money, you ain't the one I'm waiting for. But Money, who's gonna hold me, who's gonna hold me, who’s gonna hold me when I can’t hold on anymore. Tam Lin

One Woman, Many Women, No Woman: Love I. I danced one dance on our wedding day. It was over in a moment and I felt you pull away. It was over in a moment but a moment was enough for my life to be lit up in a flash of your love. And I thought: One woman, one feeling, to follow wherever it goes, to follow wherever it goes. I'll follow wherever it goes. Then a snake bit my ankle and I sat down on the grass. It was over in a moment and I felt the pain pass. But the flower girls were crying and the stars burst above. And I saw my life fading in a flash of your love. And I thought: One woman, one feeling, to follow wherever it goes, to follow wherever it goes. I'll follow wherever it goes. And I went down, down, underground, underground. I went down … II. I lifted my head in the land of the dead. I felt in the darkness where the bodies meshed. There were hands on my eyes. There are hands on my thighs and for a moment, a moment, I was nothing but flesh. And my soul went swimming in a sea of women. There was a sea of women running through my heart. My soul went swimming in a sea of women. There was a sea of women running through my heart. What was I looking for? What was I looking for? I was trying to remember before it shut me down. Was it her? Was it her? 
No, it was all a blur! And I prayed my love would never let me drown. And my soul went swimming in a sea of women. There was a sea of women running through my heart. My soul went swimming in a sea of women. There was a sea of women running through my heart. You better quit your sinning! You better quit your sinning! Can't you see those women are going to break you down. No, no, no, all will be well, although I drift through hell because if I love, my love will never let me drown. If I love, my love will never let me drown. If I love, my love will never let me drown. Let me drown. Let me drown. III. "Wake up, Mr. Silverbeard, can't you see you're getting old?" "Yes, I see the window's frosted and the winter air is cold." "What will you do for company when your maid goes for the day?" "I'll climb up that old mountainside, and there, this song I'll play: "I've got no woman, I've got no wife, but I've got my heart and I've got my life and I don't give a damn about the worry and strife that comes from wanting more. I don't want no more." "Tell me, Mr. Silverbeard,
did you let her slip away?" "All things slip away, my dear, 
you'll discover that some day." "Tell me, Mr. Silverbeard,
 is there nothing that you regret?" "I don't regret the past, my dear, because I don't understand it yet. "I've got no woman, I've got no wife, but I've got my heart and I've got my life and I don't give a damn about the worry and strife that comes from wanting more. I don't want no more." "So what can I do, Mr. Silverbeard, in the hour before I go?" "Just sit right there. You look so much 
like a girl I used to know ..." IV. I woke up and it was still there. Our love was still there. Our love is everywhere. I saw the empty room in the cold morning glare. Our love is still there. Our love is everywhere. You didn't come home, no, you didn't come home, but honey, I don't care. Our love is still there. Love is everywhere. I just wanted to tell you that last night, I dreamed three dreams, and I woke up aware that love is still there, that love is everywhere. First, I dreamed I was a young man, a lover, and I died in despair. But love was still there. Love is everywhere. Then I dreamed I was a dead man, a lost soul, drifting lonely and scared. But love was still there. Love is everywhere. Then I dreamed I was an old man, all alone. I had a life no one would share. But love was still there. Love is everywhere. Do you hear what I'm singing? I know you hear what I'm singing, though I'm singing it to the air. Our love is still there. Love is everywhere. One woman, many women, no woman, oh Lord, it's the same heart, I swear. Love is still there. Love is everywhere. One woman, many women, no woman, oh Lord, it's the same pain to bear. But love is still there. Love is everywhere. Love is still there. Love is everywhere. Love is still there. Love is everywhere. Tam Lin