The Wild Places

There's thorns on the cactus tree
There's thorns on the rose
There's thorns in the heart of me
That nobody knows
They tear at the flesh until
The tears start to rise
They form in my heart
But they fall from anastasia's eyes

And i was lost in the wilderness
Without courage or hope
I was setting my signal fires
And watching the smoke
When out of the smoke appeared
The sweetest surprise
And i knew i'd been found
When first i looked into anastasia's eyes

There's thorns on the cactus tree
There's thorns on the rose
There's thorns in the heart of me
That nobody knows

But finally i've found out where my salvation lies
It lies in the love that lives in anastasia's eyes
It lies in the love that lives in anastasia's eyes

They came from scandinavia, the land of midnight sun
And crossed the north atlantic when this century was young
They'd heard that in america every man was free
To live the way he chose to live and be who he could be

Some of them were farmers there and tilled the frozen soil
But all they got was poverty for all their earnest toil
They say one was a sailor who sailed the wide world round
Made home port, got drunk one night, walked off the pier and drowned

My mother was of scottish blood, it's there that she was born
They brought her to america in 1924
They left behind the highlands and the heather-covered hills
And came to find america with broad expectant dreams and iron wills

My granddad worked the steel mills of central illinois
His daughter was his jewel, his son was just his boy
For thirty years he worked the mills and stoked the coke-fed fires
And looked toward the day when he'd at last turn 65 and could retire

And the sons become the fathers and their daughters will be wives
As the torch is passed from hand to hand
And we struggle through our lives
Though the generations wander, the lineage survives
And all of us, from dust to dust
We all become forefathers by and by

The woman and the man were wed just after the war
And they settled in this river town and three fine sons she bore
One became a lawyer and one fine pictures drew
And one became this lonely soul
Who sits here now and sings this song to you

And the sons become the fathers and their daughters will be wives
As the torch is passed from hand to hand
And we struggle through our lives
Though the generations wander, the lineage survives
And all of us, from dust to dust
We all become forefathers by and by

Instrumental

In the overcrowded cities where the nights are bright as day
You spend your weekly paycheck and turn your eyes away
From the crisis we've created with our self-indulgent ways
Living like there's no tomorrow, well that just might be the case

Now they're tearing down the forests and the jungles of brazil
Without a second thought about the species that they kill
But extinction is forever and still the forests fall
And push it ever closer to extinction for us all

But you're so blind to the truth, blind to the truth
And you can't see nothing
Cause you're so blind to the truth, blind to the truth
And the judgment day is coming

Now the politicians bicker on the early evening news
Pledging their allegiance to whoever they can use
The corporate bosses snicker as they watch the profits soar
They don't care what they make next month just as long as it is more

They take our farms and marshlands, drive nature to the wall
Just so they can build another goddamn shopping mall
And it doesn't seem to matter if they cannot see the stars
As long as they can keep on building obsolescent cars

They're so blind to the truth, blind to the truth
No they can't see nothing
They're so blind to the truth, blind to the truth
But the judgment day is coming

Now you cannot drink the water and you cannot breathe the air
The sky is ripping open and you still don't seem to care
The soil is tired and toxic and unable to provide
The clock is running out and there is nowhere left to hide

Now there's laws that we must live by and they're not the laws of man
Can't you see the shadow that moves across this land
The future is upon us and there's so much we must do
And you know i can't ignore it and my friend neither can you

Unless you're blind to the truth, blind to the truth
And you can't see nothing
You're so blind to the truth, blind to the truth
But the judgment day is coming

Up through the branches
The stars shine above
On the arroyos
And mesas you loved
And as the moon rises
The black mountain mourns
For the old friend
He'll look on no more

Jacks-in-the-pulpit
Bones in the sky
Long winding rivers
That never ran dry
And the secrets she gathered
From the wild blowing sands
Breathed in her heart
And her hands

I sing to your spirit
Where all my dreams dwell
The vision, the freedom
The life lived so well
And i sing in your canyons
And the echoes ring clear
And i wish somehow
You may still hear

May the trail rise up to meet you
May your heart rejoice in song
May the skies be fair above you
As you journey ever on

Ever on, ever on
Ever on, ever on

In this planetary circle
We are but a single stone
Spinning on our fragile axis
Through the endless night alone

Ever on, ever on
Ever on, ever on

May your love be there to guide us
May it always keep us strong
May we walk within your footsteps
As you lead us ever on

Ever on, ever on
Ever on, ever on
Ever on, ever on
Ever on, ever on