POET IN MY WINDOW





Back to the album listing

Marilyn Monroe/Neon And Waltzes

 (Nanci Griffith)


The sun will stop shinin'
Hearts will stop poundin'
The screen is so lonely tonight
The men are out prayin'
The women are sayin'
She died for the loss of her prime
And lived on DiMaggio time

(chorus)
Farewell you old tinsel city
With your waltz in the mornin'
& your neon at night
I've bathed in your loneliness
Drank of your wine
I lived on DiMaggio time
Hearts felled to paradise still rest in her eyes
She was no fading light

Hot night in August
So Long to the Goddess
"America's fatherless child"
Immortal's forever
That Queen of the camera
The master of winkin' a smile
And leaving her shadow behind

(repeat chorus twice)

Back to Track Listing:

Heart Of A Miner

 (Nanci Griffith)


Well, it's harvest time out on this Amarillo highway
Daydreamin' the South of France
I could whistle you out waltzin' there
Would you still say you can't?
Heart of a miner here takin' her last chance

(chorus)
Heart of a miner, kept her feelings buried deep
Heart of a miner, could there be something she needs?
Just a treasure that could hold her
That's not fool's gold
What could the miner do when her heart was made of crystal?
She used to keep it on the shelf
Now she dreams of you high up in your mountains
It was that treasure that you held
Look at this lonely miner here who finally fell

(repeat chorus)

Tell me he's not fool's gold
It's still harvest time out on this Amarillo highway
Just a lonely miner still a thousand miles from home

Back to Track Listing:

Julie Anne

 (Nanci Griffith)


An urban light hit's a bartender's smile
'Cause it's closin' time again
Last call rang out such a long time ago
In the heart of Julie Anne
Now she waits inside this midnight glow
to steal her dance of grace
White satin gloves on her hands these days
to cover the dancer's age

(chorus)
The wintertime's so sweet
Even wino's have their needs
They pretend that she is younger
when they are lonely
The bar room floor's her home
When the light's are low they'll call for more
How it hurt's to hear them say she is only
old Julie Anne
Men don't fear the well's of time
for the years will bring them something
(something)
While the women count their wrinkles
and the children in their homes
But if I'm blinded here tomorrow
I am blessed in the beauty of chance
To remember the hands of a bird in flight
In the dance of Julie Anne

(repeat chorus)

Oh Julie Anne
Don't go to sleep
Just pick your heart up off that wino's knee
And let the whiskey be your lover
who makes the winter sweet
and warms a dancer's feet

Back to Track Listing:

You Can't Go Home Again

 (Nanci Griffith)


So much silence to my hometown streets
Gonna put my cheek to the window and watch it sleep
Where the shadow's fall from sycamore trees
Fight off this north wind and I'll be headin' back east

(chorus)
Let the Colorado River roll on the sea
I will be crossing it in changes
This 'ole town never did really care
that much for me
I don't know why I always come here
in my dreams
It's the hardest to hold but it's the easiest to find
If you'll slip for the dollar I'll fall in the wine
But you cannot save your past for today
It will leave you cold on an outbound train

(repeat chorus)

Folded memories in my soul
It's that old blue line that you can never go back home
So I'm waiting for the moon to rise
He'll kiss my tears away and set my heart in line

(repeat chorus)

Let the Colorado River roll on to the sea
I will be crossing it in changes
This 'ole town never did really care that much for me
I only come here to remember my dreams
Sleep tight
Hill Country town
Goodnight

Back to Track Listing:

October Reasons

 (Nanci Griffith)


I'm gonna open up the window and let in October
And roll up my sleeves in the rain

Roll out on the freeway with a heart a little harder
Breezes gettin' cooler by the day
5 a.m. travellers, bleary eyed and lonely
We're all countin' miles and tradin' lanes
But if I stopped to call you
What would I say?
Hell, I know I'd feel the same
I can open up the window and let in October
Roll up my sleeves in the rain

Gonna tie up the pieces and sleep out in the country
Where the phone don't ring my dues to pay
And the echos of your city
No longer call my name
I said I wasn't happy anyway
The ghosts in the closet
You need to drive away
Ain't gonna take this pride I've saved
I can open the window and let in October
And roll up my sleeves in the rain

Ain't it gonna be hard when you realize
You're still the same old fool inside
I ain't gonna let your blues take the prize

So honey open up the window and let in October
You may never love quite the same
And it's yesterday's mornin's
Lord they'll always remain

Back to Track Listing:

Wheels

 (Nanci Griffith)


He took a plane to New York City
To chase his fortune on the Wall Street plan
Now he is stranded in Manhattan
Yet the Southeast Texas coast still calls his name

(chorus)
He said come on wheels, give up a ticket
Hello thunder, won't you roll him home
Oh a needle and thread could mend his heartache
Old moon give way to the day and hand him the sun
There is no shelter for the lonely
And the Northeast women speak of a different tongue
There are days he cries so loudly
That the southern rain blows north to ease his heart

(repeat chorus)

Northern harbor take care of my blue boy
Let your city give him warmth for his hands
He will be happy, his heart won't long for
His home on the Southeast Texas coast again

(repeat chorus)

Back to Track Listing:

Workin' In Corners

 (Nanci Griffith)


It's a southern road west of New Orleans
I'm fightin' off a cold
from these winter rounds
Houston
She's just around the corner
But I think I'll stop off here in Lafayette
Lord and have me another round

(chorus)
I've been workin' in corners all alone at night
Pullin' down whiskey
Keepin' my eyes away from the lights
I'll never be a fool but I will gamble foolishly
I've never let go of love
till I lost it in my dreams
I don't want to go to sleep
'Cause I just might dream
I'm stronger now, there was a man in my hometown
He sang so pretty
I'm glad he turned my head around
But I'd forgotten how to play a one night stand
Lord I didn't have a word to say
Just holdin' that stranger's hand

(repeat chorus)

These city streets at five in the mornin'
I would've stopped to phone you
but I'm almost home
At my back door
there's a porch light that's shinin'
I just don't mind livin' here by myself
If I leave it on

(repeat chorus)

I don't want to go to sleep
'Cause I just might dream
Don't want to go to sleep
You know I sure can dream
And I sure can dream
Sure can dream

Back to Track Listing:

Waltzing With The Angels

 (Nanci Griffith)


She's just a hill country girl home from the city
Her pocket's full of plenty of those neon lights
And her mother's smile shines on her youngest child
Though she is just a barroom singer
with her father's eyes

(chorus)
The city streets are harder understandin'
It would be easy for the devil to pass by
But she can close her eyes and dream about
the country boy
Chain of gold and a lullabye
Because he's waltzin' with the angels tonight
It's a harvest moon when she's home to count her blessings
She's saved that love from passing
Though it's now ten years gone by
He is buried in these hills, folded all around her
It still's a heart of hunger with his memories inside

(repeat chorus)

In the mornin' she'll move on 'cause it's April on the wing
It put's feathers on her strings and her voice will fly
But that necklace of gold
She wears of his protect's her soul
From the barroom brawls and the late night drinkers
When the devil's passin' by

(repeat chorus)

They will be waltzin' with the angel's tonight

Back to Track Listing:

Trouble With Roses

 (Nanci Griffith)


I worked hard for that rose
You may have it when you go
'Cause it's the dreaming it lends
worth holding here
And when the outbound lane brings me trouble again
if my heart's in the wind
I wanna hold it near

(chorus)
Don't say no, it's not part of this show
When the lights were down low
Your eyes were closing too
Now the bar is closing
I can leave here knowing
That the dreams are still growing
As long as you're holding that rose
My pockets are clean
Though they're empty half the time
I spend my half times in dreamin'
Least I ain't wastin' lines
And the boys that I know, Lord their questions get old
'Cause it's the boys who ask questions
& the Man who knows

(repeat chorus)

Take care of that rose, it's my dreams that you're holdin'
When you hold that rose

Back to Track Listing:

Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown

 (Jimmie Gilmore/John Reed)


Tonight I think I'm gonna go downtown
Tonight I think I'm gonna look around
For something that I couldn't see
When this world was more real to me
Tonight I think I'm gonna go downtown

My love, my love has gone away
My love, my love what can I say
My love would never see
that this world's just not real to me
Tonight I think I'm gonna go downtown

I told my love a thousand times
Why I can't say what's on my mind
But he would never see
That this world's just not real to me
And tonight I think I'm gonna go downtown

Back to Track Listing:

Poet In My Window

 (Nanci Griffith)


Goodbye gray sky
I see my heart comin' round the bend
The sun's comin' up on the Poet In My Window
Her saving grace is my old friend

I'll never lose if my heart goes flyin'
If I sail it true and set it free
it'll come flyin' home
be waitin' in my window
callin' for the poet in me

I wish you well for your old lines
I've watched you change within the new
You've got a pocket full of gold dust
waitin' just around the corner
To free that poet in your moon

You'll never lose if your heart goes flyin'
If you set it free and you sail it true
It'll come flyin' home
be waitin' in your window
callin' for the poet in you

I never lose if my heart goes flyin'
If I sail it true and I set it free
It comes flyin' home
it's waitin' in my window
callin' for the poet in me

Fly your poet's wings with a freed heart
Love'll find you strong and young again

Back to Track Listing:

Back to the album listing

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1