I've Been Delivered

by Jakob Dylan

I could break free from the wood of a coffin if I need
But nothing's as hard as getting free
From places I've already been
I've been waist-deep in the burning meadows of my mind
In the engine, in cold December
Shooting fire from the hose

Now turn off your lights
'Cause I'm not coming home
Till I'm delivered for the first time

I was first-born to a parade that follows in rows
Down a narrow, cold black river
Faceless shadows moving slow
I would move swift when the sounds of a trumpet would blow
I've been the puppet, I've been the strings
I know the vacant face it brings

Now the bells of curfew
They may ring before I'm through
But soon I'll be delivered for the first time

You might keep clean in the back of an angel motorcade
It doesn't matter who walks in
You know, the joke is still the same
You'll just wake up like a disposable lover, decomposed
I've been gone, I've been remembered
I've been alive, I've been a ghost

So now if downtown explodes
I'll still be on this road
Till I'm delivered for the first time

I have drawn blood from the neckline when vampires were in fashion
You know I'd even learn to cut my throat
If I thought I could fit in
'Cause I once heard that you gotta learn how to blend in to this mess
Where nothing's hard, nothing's precious
And nothing's smooth or flawless

Now no more amused
Just screaming to
Be delivered for the first time

Now I'm 10 miles in the deep and mighty blue sea
Looking back, towards a long white beach
Burning up into yellow flames
And I just wave back like a little boy up on a pony in a show
'Cause I can't fix something this complex
Any more than I can build a rose

So just keep on letting go
'Cause I must be close
To being delivered for the first time

Now I'd rather bleed out a long stream from being lonely and feel blessed
Than drown, laying face down
In a puddle of respect
I was once lost in the corridors of the arena in blindfolds
I've been the bull, I've been the whip
I just pulled down the matador

So now, turn on your lights
'Cause I'm coming home
I've been delivered for the first time

Feels Like Summer Again

by Jakob Dylan

My mind is open, and my heart is full
I ain't got any weight that I can't pull
And right now I know that anything is possible

I'm gonna bang my drum, blow my horn
I forget what these pills were ever for
I believe I won't need them anymore

I used to burn candles at both ends
Now I just throw the whole damn thing right in
Playing in traffic is easy once you learn where you get in

You want to come with me, then get on board
Get in or get out, use either door
The future is calling, and it's me that it's looking for

'Cause it feels like summer again
I was thinking that it just might never begin
After winter and spring
It's good to have the sun on my face again

I wear big boots, I know I do
I ain't envious of anybody's shoes
I wear them loose, maybe that's why it bothers you

I'm building my ship stick by stick
And where the waters get rough, I'm getting in
The motion of the waves, it does not make me sick

I buried my horse in a shallow a grave
I said a few things, I had champagne
That beast gave me everything that nobody gave

I got high hopes, tomorrow came
I won't look back on anything
I just found out that my bird can really sing

'Cause it feels like summer again
I was thinking that it just might never begin
After winter and spring
It's good to have the sun on my face again

Nearly Beloved

by Jakob Dylan

Last night I dreamt one thousand lies
I could see the dawn through a different set of eyes
There in my slumber passing time
Long live the world resting on its side

I walked the orchard with you
Your hand in mine
In the evergreens drinking wine
I saw the snow fall in black and white
From the auburn sky
Last night I lived more than one thousand lives
Not one of them survived

Up through the earth at dawn I came
I crossed the kingdom through venom-pouring rain
When the vacuum of my own brigade
Resurrected to make you mine again

Orpheus looked back once
She sailed the underworld
No second chances will be earned
I have returned as a phantom now
To walk the bow and stern
Last night I lived more than one thousand lives
Not one of them survived

If we could do better, I know that we would
Maybe admit it now: we're not that good
We keep the needle between zero and one
You play your fiddle, I'll play dumb

Into the pastures of our minds
Goes my nearly beloved and I
Blazing two parallel white lines
Through this broken heart spilt open wide

Time may be on my side
But it's mostly far behind
I was the apple of your eye
Now I'm the boy spinning on a wheel
There stuck with knives
Last night I lived more than one thousand lives
Not one of them survived

When You're on Top

by Jakob Dylan

I need a bed that nobody's slept in
I need some air nobody's been breathing
I need a thought that I can believe in
Is this fog or is the building really burning?

I need you now much more than ever
I'm making new friends, but none of them matter
Maybe now we don't fit together
But you've got your arms around no one but strangers

I feel fine with the sun in my eyes
The wind in my hair
I'm falling out of this sky
I'm doing better than I thought I would
But nothing's ever as good
As when you're on top

I want to wake up and just start running
Into a ditch or straight up a mountain
I want to get what no one's been getting
Make it deeper than hell or make it higher than heaven

I need someone whose price hasn't been met
When everybody's disappearing by the minute
There isn't anyone left I haven't met yet
I remember when they hadn't gotten to you yet

I'm half-way up and over this rainbow
I heard a shot fire up from the ghettos
As I drop, I didn't think you'd follow
Just didn't know the sky was this shallow

I need a garden where nothing's forbidden
I need an apple that no one's been eating
I want to start again back at the beginning
I had a vision that this feeling maybe has an ending

I need you now much more than ever
I want to start again back at the beginning

Sleepwalker

by Jakob Dylan

Maybe I could be the one they adore
That could be my reputation
It's where I'm from that lets them think I'm a whore
I'm an educated virgin

Sleepwalker, don't be shy
Now don't open your eyes tonight
You'll be the one that defends my life
While I'm dead asleep dreaming

Cupid, don't draw back your bow
Sam Cooke didn't know what I know
I'll never be your valentine
The sleepwalker in me and God only know that I've tried

Let me in, let me drown, or learn how to swim
Just don't leave me at the window
I could be the one to be your next best friend
You may need someone to hold you

Sleepwalker, take this knife
You may see someone tonight
You'd be the one that saves my life
When I'm dead asleep dreaming

I'm in your movie, and everyone looks sad
But I can hear your voice in the laugh track
But you never saw my best scene
The one where I sleepwalk into your dreams

Sleepwalker, what's my line?
It's only a matter of time
Until I learn to open up my eyes
When I'm dead asleep dreaming

Cupid, don't draw back your bow
Sam Cooke didn't know what I know
I'll never be your valentine
The sleepwalker in me and God only know that I've tried

All Things New Again

by Jakob Dylan

New heaven over a brand new sky
New breed of wonder on the vine
Among the living
There is new promise in this night

New arms to hold back the revolution
New eyes to recognize what you've become
New blood to recover
A new will to honor all God's creations

All things are new again
Within and without
All things are new again

New shepherd roaming through the tall grass
A new temple rising through the fallen ash
That buries the tracks
Of millions of boots marching in packs

Clear water rolling through the dam's collapse
Out to the harbor where they're sailing back
New flag on the mast
Without any secrets, without any past

All things are new again
Within and without
Sooner or later the end begins
Just then it can be said
That all things are new again

New ghost returning to the earth beneath the haze
New poets burning through the lines of every page
I'm an unpainted portrait
I am staring at a new sunset
Without any memories yet

All things are new again
Within and without
Sooner or later every season ends
Then forever it can be said that all things are new again

Days of Wonder

by Jakob Dylan

Cherry-picking through the stars and falling cannonballs
Waiting for the break of dawn to start its morning crawl
Polluted rays of filtered light, tropical and warm
Making shadows through the snow-white, resin-covered skulls
Happy birthday to the war

Standing by the wall, a rainbow made of stars
Under seven different shades of grey spreading out across the arc
Days of wonder spent out there killing time
Now this may not leave a mark on me, but I sure as hell was there

Caravanning on the moonlit, locust-covered trail
We came out like a stream of bats exploding from the well
Slipping through the whirlpools of trees and floating cars
Behind a winter-coated mule down record-breaking falls
Into oblivion's open jaws

Days of wonder spent by a rainbow made of stars
Under seven different shades of grey spreading out across the arc
Standing by the wall out there killing time
This may not leave a mark on me, but I sure as hell was there

Educated under God to walk a neutral line
Give me neither poverty nor riches in my time
Take my body and my mind, my heart is far behind
With one dozen poems in my ears ricocheting wild

Days of wonder

Letters from the Waste Land

by Jakob Dylan
(edited by Steven Mitchell)

Now coming down from out of this swan dive to your arms
I make no sounds when I move through your reservoir
But I wake up quick
And I wake up sick
As you abandon me into these fields of rank and file

Through this crowd I hear you breathing
And through these bars I watch them bring more in

Now I send back letters from the waste land home
Where I slow dance to this romance on my own
It may take two to tango, but boy, it's one to let go
It's just one to let go

Now boy, keep still, don't spread yourself around
Get back in line, eat your bread, and just work the plow
'Cause you're not through
They're not done with you
Did you think you were the only one that's been let down?

So sleep tight, little boys of the new damned
Another drop in the tidal wave of quicksand

Now I send back letters from the waste land home
Where I slow dance to this romance on my own
It may take two to tango, but boy, it's one to let go

Now another bad idea gets through
Down the assembly line to you
You're every bridge I should have burned
Every lesson I've unlearned
In this smoke-filled waiting room
With incarcerated lovesick fools
I will wait for you to cut me loose
Till then I...

Send back letters from the waste land home
Where I slow dance to this romance on my own
Now I send back letters from the waste land home
From where I slow dance to this romance on my own