With all the glow
Of San Francisco
Lighting up your face
Highlighting in lightning
Every word you say
I heard it then
Clear as day
“Something’s coming.”
Don’t forget it
Don’t you dare neglect it
And by God may you never try to perfect it

You say they didn't owe you anything
But they owed you human decency
Commitment or not, they owed respect to your dignity
To feel hurt doesn't say anything of fragility
It speaks of your strength to access vulnerability
You are not naive for getting involved
For trying to plant hope in a soul who had none
Your sensitivity should not be a target for deceit
I admire your boldness to share your beliefs
To take your heart off the shelf where it had been healing
To see the light that darkness works so hard concealing
When you were younger you used to be so cautious
Afraid to love in case that you lost it
I'm glad you took the risk, though you feel exhausted
I'm glad you freed your heart from the cage it was locked in
But you used to have such high standards, I think you've forgotten
That you deserve more than to be left feeling unwanted
You fear that your expectation is unreachable
But is it possible it exists, you've just yet to meet them
Your fear to hope and your fear to be alone
In a never ending struggle at each others' throats
You've always worked for the things that you want
Enjoyed the process of overcoming a difficult start
In life and relationships always willing to work hard
Don't be so addicted to the battle you seek war in your heart
Being enticed by a challenge won't get you very far
You're afraid if its too easy that it can't be trusted
If you don't have to work for it, how do you know that you want it?
But some things can't be won over, no matter how diligent
No matter the age, the timing, or distance
Your love can't be heard by someone who won't listen
So you can keep on being afraid
As long as you commit to always be brave
And know that what you have to say is worth saying
The love you have to give is worth all the waiting
And will one day lead you to someone amazing

My hopes were higher than the tide was

I just want to kiss you again
Feel the closeness of your face and the pressure of your lips
When you touched them to my forehead and gently just left them
Because you were in no rush and it felt somehow protective
I want to look in your eyes and kiss your laugh lines
I want you to hold me and say stay a while
To feel the ridge on your tongue where you bite it too much
Be overwhelmed by the security and the warmth of your touch
Was it as captivating for you, do you feel the same glow
You said that it was slow, that it was wonderful
Only two days in my life that I've kissed you
How many more will I miss you

The head is more easily understood than the heart
One person in control
Things are clearer
No love
Two careers

I try not to write songs about my children
Because I'm afraid one day I'll have to listen
Back to the tracks
Of the dreams I had
Over an empty glass
In an empty kitchen

Two world travelers, one small town
Unfinished people, unfinished house
More thoughts in my head than I should probably say out loud

Sitting there at your kitchen table
Writing backstories for all your neighbors
Talking about the things that we want to be famous for

Funny how I barely know ya
Sitting there in your Patagonia
Envisioning a world with the both of us

Caught in the crossfire of two men's love
Insecure, selfish, and helpless
Only my blood

I drove past the block you live on
It's not my fault, it's by favorite spot
I have no excuse why I pulled in the parking lot

Windows down
I'm back in town
Ocean in my hair it's only been an hour
Laugh and cry drives friends talking 'bout our lives now
Favorites play off the LANY album

I'll give this dress a new occasion
Maybe then it won't feel so painful
When I see you with her again

I'll fill these picture frames that are vacant
With new memories you haven't tainted
And I'll convince myself you've changed

I'll plan a new trip to San Diego
So I no longer think about graduation
When our families went on vacation

I'll walk away from the future that we painted
Redirect my destination
And I'll watch you become a stranger

It couldn’t have been more predictable
That you fell for her
And everybody knows
And I’ll let it go
But it still hurts

You’ve really got a thing for us Midwest girls
And distance
Which you chose
Though you and I
Could never make it work

I can see the pattern now as time goes on
To you I was reduced to just another blonde
But it took me twenty years to finally love someone
And I don't think you realized how rare that was

For a hopeful person
Learning to stop hoping was the hardest
It’s difficult to let it die
Once the hope has started

I’d only seen hope be good
Its possibilities are endless
The possibility it could not foresee
Was the reality that you and I had ended

Now instead of always seeing
What you and I are not
I pray that one day I’ll see you clearly
And I hope this hope with stop

The rain fell, pitter-pat
To the earth below
Taking its time getting there
Knowing it only had one place to go

It whispered, “There is time to spare.”
So I listened to the stories it told
Its quiet assurance, its steady pace
Calmed my weary soul

The cover of clouds a welcome blanket
Providing my eyes a much needed break
From the light that blinds and pushes me
To go from the moment I wake

All this to say I love the sun
And the growth that comes with its days
But I will never love or grow as much
As I do on the days that it rains

Like looking for a song that hasn’t been written
I’m looking for a love that hasn’t yet existed
I don’t know who, how, or when
But I know I can’t wait to meet him

I knew him 63 days
We'd been together for five
But he was never one to be afraid to speak his mind

He told me that he loved me that drive
Taking me home for the summer
That we'd spend apart each night

He said he loved the way I kissed him
We started out over long distance, I tried so hard to make sense of it
The way my heart was feeling things without my permission

It's funny now to talk about those first days
When we couldn't hang out because of your roommate
You asked him how he'd feel about you taking me out on a date

We went to the sunset but we didn't watch it
Too busy talking with our hands on each other
It was clear to me then that we were in trouble

You said I'm the only girl that you'd called baby
I said you're the first guy that I let taste me
I don't even know what we were really saying

I had one hand in your hair and one on your chest
You looked at me and said you didn't want nobody else
I said don't say it if you don't mean it

I knew on the day you picked me up from the airport
In your ripped blue jeans and your dark, black t-shirt
You were someone that I actually cared for

We were both young, but you were younger
Something that I often even forgot of
Must have been the way you talked to my father

Or maybe what you said when you left for the summer

In the first rays of sun warming my shoulders
In the crisp air that brushes my cheeks
In the colors of dawn reflecting on the water
I take a breath and feel that I too am renewing

For all the things you took
I think you gave much more
This I will always have
That I have known love before

I thank both you and myself
For letting you in
Not a day goes by
I wish that I didn’t

The only thing worse
Than feeling love’s loss
Would be to have left this life
Not knowing love at all

I've built you up in my head
I think I love you more now than I ever did
Curse of a hopeful person
In the form of a hopeless romantic

I think about calling you
But I know it would only disappoint
“Hey, what’s up—your friends not home?
Why are you calling me on the phone?”
I’d lie and say I just had time to waste
Went from my safest place to saving face
And it’s sad
Sad I no longer know you like that

I'll reinvent myself
Doesn't mean I'm trying to be someone else
Just because you haven't seen
This side of me
It feels good, it feels clean
Even if it feels a little foreign to me
Your fingerprints aren’t all over everything

Turned the radio off
When breakup songs came on
Because you couldn’t face the fact
That they sounded like us

I didn't know my steps would show that deeply
I didn't know they would be so permanent
For everyone to see

Looking for a place without any people
But the more I look, the more I see them
So I turned around

What is the meaning of a line if you don't know who drew it?
Can it really break your heart if you never really knew them?
I don't know

If I have my heart, you can't break it
But if I want to give it to you I've already committed it
Heart break, isn't that a sad way to die?

Why are you running?
It's like you're racing the ocean to the other side
Don't you know it's already there, you've fallen behind

What's the point of trying to win a race that is lost?
Don't tell me you don't believe in miracles
Because they're all we've got

If you wake up every morning to run away from the same thing
After turning back yesterday, admitting defeat,
Is it really worth it? It sounds so miserable

But I wake up every day trying not to love you
Hoping one day I'll lose feelings as completely as I lost you
I believe in miracles so one day it will be true

What's everybody running from?
Sure you don't want to tell your secrets, that's alright I can read them In your footsteps