America

by Paul Simon

'Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together
I've got some real estate here in my bag'
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner's pies
And walked off to look for America

'Kathy,' I said, as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
'Michigan seems like a dream to me now
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've come to look for America'

Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said, 'Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera'

'Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat'
'We smoked the last one an hour ago'
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

'Kathy, I'm lost,' I said, though I knew she was sleeping
'I'm empty and aching, and I don't know why'
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come to look for America

Running on Empty

by Jackson Browne

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by, like so many summer fields
In '65 I was 17 and running up 101
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on

Running on empty
Running blind
Running into the sun
But I'm running behind

Got to do what you can just to keep your love alive
Trying not to confuse it with what you do to survive
In '69 I was 21, and I called the road my own
I don't know when that road turned onto the road I'm on

Everyone I know
Everywhere I go
People need some reason to believe
(I don't know about anyone but me)
If it takes all night
That'll be all right
If I can get you to smile before I leave

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I don't know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels
I look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through
Looking into their eyes I see them running too

Honey, you really tempt me, the way you look so kind
I'd love to stick around, but I'm running behind
You know I don't even know what I'm hoping to find
Running into the sun, but I'm running behind

Add to the Beauty

by Sara Groves

We come with beautiful secrets
We come with purposes written on our hearts
We come to every new morning
With possibilities only we can hold

Redemption comes in strange places
Small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

It comes in small inspirations
It brings redemption to life and work
It comes in loving community
It comes in helping a soul find its worth

This is grace, an invitation to be beautiful
This is grace, an invitation

Redemption comes in strange places
Small spaces
Calling out our best

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

Little Gidding (Pt. V)

[Pt. IV here]
by T.S. Eliot

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. And every phrase
And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together)
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph. And any action
Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat
Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.
We die with the dying:
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them.
The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree
Are of equal duration. A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails
On a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapel
History is now and England.

With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this
Calling

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

The Rainbow Connection

by Paul Williams

Why are there so many
Songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?

Rainbows are visions
But only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide

So we've been told, and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see
Someday we'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me

Who said that wishes
Would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star?

Somebody thought of that
And someone believed it
Look what it's done so far

What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me

All of us under its spell
We know that it's probably magic

Have you been half asleep?
And have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name

Is this the sweet sound
That calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same

I've heard it too many times to ignore it
It's something that I'm supposed to be
Someday we'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me

Why are there so many
Songs about rainbows?
That's part of what rainbows do

Rainbows are memories
Sweet dream reminders
What is it you'd like to do?

All of us watching and wishing we'd find it
I've noticed you're watching too
Some day you'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and you

Heart of Gold

by Neil Young

I want to live, I want to give
I've been a miner for a heart of gold
It's these expressions I never give
That keep me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old

I've been to Hollywood, I've been to Redwood
I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold
I've been in my mind, it's such a fine line
That keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old