Iron & Wine

[fox69]

"One Way To Pray"
(with Jesca Hoop)

"One Way To Pray"
(with Jesca Hoop)



You can see with your wounded eye
Crossing low narrow streets at night
Like a car crash fighting for road
You'd rather sleep alone
I've got arms that can't hold enough
And my love song might ask too much
How your shadow grows bitter and long if I enter it wrong
I enter it wrong, I enter it wrong, I enter it wrong, I enter it wrong
I could heal but my hands are cold
You could lend me your broken bones
Letting love keep climbing the stairs to comb your long hair
You can sleep where no dreamer goes
Build a house more of stone than home
Pray for music with a reverent ear and the song reappears
(Song reappears)
Open sky receiver (Song reappears)
Open sea receiver (Song reappears)
Open land receiver (Song reappears)
Red ember believer (Song reappears)
Open eye receiver (Song reappears)
Open mouth receiver (Song reappears)
Open palm receiver (Song reappears)
Burning heart believer
You can sing with your tired lungs
Know the wind and we'll take what comes
It's a tough road taking the name they'll call on our grave
We're alive on our thunder clouds
Taking hymns out our mothers' mouths
Swimming out to the incoming waves
That's one way to pray
(One way to pray)
Open eye receiver (One way to pray)
Open mouth receiver (One way to pray)
Open palm receiver (One way to pray)
Burning heart believer (One way to pray)

 

[fox69]

"Our Light Miles"

"Our Light Miles"


What will become of us?
Tall trees blow there in the bone white snow
Nothing but night for songs
Old miles still sucking the warm milk of summer
Love in this breath so long
Thrown against stone, we're hard to get happy
What will become of us?
All water knows leaving, hearts bleed their changing
Lightning's alive 'cause it disappears
Feel every tear as it falls away
Falls away, falls away
No one looks wrong in rain
Hope builds a house, too much prayer to tear down
Cloud comes our way, so white
Over the hill must be light miles of promise
What will become of us?

 

[fox69]

"Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car"

"Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car"


Love was a promise made of smoke
In a frozen copse of trees
A bone cold and older than our bodies
Slowly floating in the sea
Every morning there were planes
The shiny blades of pagan angels in our father's skies
Every evening I would watch her hold the pillow
Tight against her hollows, her unholy child
I was still a beggar shaking out my stolen coat
Among the angry cemetery leaves
When they caught the king beneath the borrowed car
Righteous, drunk, and fumbling for the royal keys

Love was a father's flag and sung like a shank
In a cake on our leather boots
A beautiful feather floating down
To where the birds had shit on empty chapel pews
Every morning we found one more machine
To mock our ever waning patience at the well
Every evening she'd descend the mountain stealing socks
And singing something good where all the horses fell
Like a snake within the wilted garden wall
I'd hint to her every possibility
While with his gun the pagan angel rose to say
"My love is one made to break every bended knee"

 

[fox69]

"Passing Afternoon"

"Passing Afternoon"


There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon
Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon
And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her
Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms
There are things that drift away like our endless, numbered days
Autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made
And she's chosen to believe in the hymns her mother sings
Sunday pulls its children from their piles of fallen leaves
There are sailing ships that pass all our bodies in the grass
Springtime calls her children 'till she let's them go at last
And she's chosen where to be, though she's lost her wedding ring
Somewhere near her misplaced jar of Bougainvillea seeds
There are things we can't recall, blind as night that finds us all
Winter tucks her children in, her fragile china dolls
But my hands remember hers, rolling 'round the shaded ferns
Naked arms, her secrets still like songs I'd never learned
There are names across the sea, only now I do believe
Sometimes, with the windows closed, she'll sit and think of me
But she'll mend his tattered clothes and they'll kiss as if they know
A baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone

 

[fox69]

"Peace Beneath The City"

"Peace Beneath The City"


Here's a prayer for the body buried by the interstate
Mother of a soldier, a tree in a forest up in flames
Black valley, peace beneath the city
Where the women hear the washboard rhythm in their bosom when they say
"Give me good legs and a Japanese car and show me a road"
Sing a song for the bodies buried by the riverbank
A well-dressed boy and a pig with a bullet in the brain
Black valley, peace beneath the city
Where the white girls wander the strip mall, singing all day
"Give me a juggernaut heart and a Japanese car and someone to free"
Say something for the body buried like a keepsake
Mother of million mouths with the very same name
Black valley, peace beneath the city
Where the women tell the weather but never ever tell you what they pray
They pray, "Give me a yellow brick road and a Japanese car and benevolent change"

 

[fox69]

"Peng! 33"
(originally by Stereolab)

"Peng! 33"
(originally by Stereolab)



Curiosity far greater than the fear
It felt so simple, so prodigious, at the same time

Incredible things are happening in the world
Magical things are happening in the world

Across the river there are all kinds of magical instruments
While we really keep on living like monkeys

 

[fox69]

"Postcard"

"Postcard"


This postcard tells you where we've been
And dirty dreams of pious men
Who wake in fear but sleep again
With what they've done, with what they've done, with all they've done
Some prophet died but wrote it down
Our serpent bell is on the ground
And all the ladies singing loud
"Hallelujah," "hallelujah," "hallelujah"
The meadow birds have found the bones of righteous men
Like ragged clothes, like precious stones
And fell like evil in the end, in aid of them
Those evil men, those perfect men
Some knuckle broken on disease
Which pulled a preacher off his knees
A callous whisper through the trees
Blows "patience boy," "more patience boy," "more patience boy"
And watch her children by the flame
The ones you gave your father's name
Whose evil and his love remained
Inside you boy, inside you boy, inside you boy
The meadow birds have found the bones of righteous men
Like ragged clothes, like precious stones
And fell like evil in the end, in aid of them
Those evil men, those perfect men
We'll sing a song we've never heard
Formed out of small forsaken words
And all the while that this occurs
We'll love you all, we'll love you all, we'll love you all
And for the beauty that we've lost
The measured time for love it cost
Despite our feelings for the cross
We love you all, we love you all, we love you all

 

[fox69]

"Prison On Route 41"

"Prison On Route 41"


There's a prison on Route 41
A home to my father, first cousin, and son
And I visit on every weekend
Not with my body but with prayers that I send

I've a reason for my absentee
And no lack of love for my dear family
But my savior is not Christ the Lord
But one named Virginia whom I live my life for

Because I owe mine to her
And I'd rot in that prison for sure
If she'd tossed me aside
And not shown me the way to abide

By the creed, the law of the land
So unlike my uncle, grandpa, and great aunt
Whom I'd most likely see every day
If not for the righteous pair of Virginia's legs

There's a prison on Route 41
Home to my mother, stepbrother, and son
And I'd tear down that jail by myself
If not for Virginia who made me somebody else

And I owe all to her
I'd rot in that prison for sure
If she'd tossed me aside
And not shown me the way to abide

By the precepts of her purity
So unlike the habits of my whole family
Whom I only see down on my knees
In prayer by Virginia whom I live for to please

 

[fox69]

"Promise What You Will"

"Promise What You Will"


Lately she don't care for a warmer breeze
Or shade around the base of the maple trees
Spring was on the mountain we climbed upon
Stopped to see how high and how far we'd gone
I said "love is waiting and better days"
She smiled and placed a kiss on my waiting face
Promise what you will something good for me
Time will take it all and it will you'll see

 

[fox69]

"Promising Light"

"Promising Light"


Time and all you gave
I was a jerk who preferred the sea
To tussling in the waves
Tugging your skirt singing please, please, please

Now I see love
Dragged on the floor where you walked outside
Now I seek love
Looking for you in this other girl's eyes

Time and all you took
Only my freedom to fuck the whole world
Promising not to look
Promising light on the sidewalk girls

Now I see love
There in your car where I said those things
Now I see love
Tugging your skirt singing please, please, please

Time and all you gave
There on your cross that I never saw
Well beyond the waves
Dunking my head when I heard you call

Now I see love
There in the scab where you pinched my leg
Now I see love
There on your side of my empty bed