Album: All My Time is Spoken For

I saw you up late last night, wrapped in shadows from the hall nightlight
Nursing our baby slowly back to sleep, an Iris flower fed by living streams
And I’ve seen you in your fancy clothes, your pretty face when you forget to pose
Yet tonight, I’m taken by surprise, feel like a stone hurled up against the sky
 
‘Cause you look divine, so sure and soft, like a saint cut straight from Mary’s cloth
Our baby girl, so close to you, I’ll never see you the same way that I used to
Your beauty gives life…. restores…renews
 
I’m viewing you through a radiant lens, I’m slowly sifting through the evidence
There’s a mystifying power that you hold,
one that nourishes the lambs within our fold
And I’ve been taken by your sexy ways,  when just one look can whisk your man away
Yet tonight, I’m taken by surprise, feel like a stone hurled up against the sky
 
‘Cause you look divine, so sure and soft, like a saint cut straight from Mary’s cloth
Our little one, so close to you, I’ll never see you the same way that I used to
Your beauty gives life…restores….renews

My image is broken and all that I am.  The money’s in ashes can’t further this sham
And I can’t remember it costing so much.  But faith has a furnace that’s hot to the touch
 
Oh, why does it burn…the fear and longing, the grace and the scorn
Oh, how can it blend…the joy and the shame and the love and the sin
 
My worries soak through and my hang-ups are framed.  I’m stuck on the bases, can’t manage the blame
And I’ve known stretches when hope’s left to die.  But, faith is a phoenix…a sacrifice fly
 
Oh, why does it burn…the fear and longing, the grace and the scorn
Oh, how can it blend…the joy and the shame and the love and the sin
 
My mosaic of will…I nurture true peace and then kill.  The traitors turn in once again
‘Till love reaches out to defend.  Oh, it’s worse than I thought deep within, yet your song sings again
 
I’m lost in the desert, right back where I’m from.  You can wrestle the past, it will never succumb.
There’s cracks in the slab and walls that still shift.  But faith is a builder, a ram-shackle’s gift
 
Oh, why does it burn…the fear and the longing, the grace and the scorn
Oh, how can it blend…the joy and the shame and the love and the sin
The joy and the shame and the love and the sin

When you’re bruised to the bone, and your melodies groan
And the future is flooded with endless rain
When your mind won’t be still, like a mouse in a wheel
And you’re worried, tired, and under strain

Chorus
I’ll always be there, when you’re all out of choices
I’m coming even if you don’t call
Oh I’ll always be clear, cutting through all the voices
I’m coming even if you don’t call
 
When you’ve nothing to share, and the cupboards are bare
When you’re empty, wounded, and wearing thin
When you’re waiting out storms, but the waters just swarm
And you’re losing all of your hope within

Chorus

-Bridge
When hell leaves its mark, when oceans unleash their tide
Their floods will recede, you will not be swept aside
 
When you’re exiled and lost, and your mourning the cost
When it’s desperate, and feels like the worst will show
When the heat will not wain, and your whole town’s in pain
And your flag is unraveled and hanging low

Chorus (2X)

Glen Williams mother, wrote him out of the will.  Said she would leave it all to his three only kids.
He’d left them years back in Phoenix, Arizona, when he jilted his family and fled.
 
Glen pleaded to his momma for her to change her mind, there were no more women, he was good this time.
 
He’d do right by his children, when he had the means again.  Oh, and she’d live to regret it, if she died without him in.
 
Glen William’s mother had a change of heart.  She gave her estate back for her son’s fresh start.  And right after she died, he quickly hooked his new wife…while his children grew rawboned inside.
 
Oh, the sins of the father…sow thorns in the garden.  Stunt roots in the soil, cause soft hearts to harden.  Oh, the sirens are calling to every man’s ear…’cause the sins of the father lay near.
 
His new wife grew tired of his running around.  She told him she’d sue and drain his inheritance down.  He threw back a drink and laughed…”I’ll mind my own affairs.”  Well, she sued for half his money and the lawyers ate his share.
 
Oh, the sins of the father…sow thorns in the garden.  Stunt roots in the soil, cause soft hearts to harden.  Oh, the sirens are calling to every man’s ear…’cause the sins of the father lay near.
 
His children always waited, longing for him…to make amends, to simply enter in.
His plans always stalled like an overdraft check…just leaving receipts of neglect.
 
His oldest son found a father, in serving the Lord.  His only daughter hated men until the day I was born.  And their little baby brother, well he raged inside…estranged from father even as he lay dying.
 
Oh, the sins of the father…sow thorns in the garden.  Stunt roots in the soil, cause soft hearts to harden.  Oh, the sirens are calling to every man’s ear…’cause the sins of the father lay near.  Oh, the sins of the father pay dear.

Verse 1
 
It gets lonely when I’m suffering, like a footprint on the moon
Just hoping to be rescued, but I’m stranded…marooned
 
Verse 2
 
Like a map that leads me homeless, I draw worries into focus
I can’t subjugate this feeling, hook is swallowed, mind is reeling
 
Chorus
 
Cause there’s a place that traps the mind, where telescopes and myths collide
A weathered land of ill extremes, a bridge washed out by flooding streams
An anxious night, a troubled day, a warning light in cloaked array
Like panic in the waiting room, there’s no telling what I can assume
Hey…
 
Verse 3
 
I go weeks with tunnel vision, tuning worries, with precision
I’m so low, I’m in the canyon, chasing echoes, I should abandon
 
Verse 4
 
Then some days I’m in the clearing, nothings’ pressing…rearing
But I worry that they’ll come back, just keep praying, persevering
 
Chorus

Verse 1
I want to know, you more than discretely
I want your lips smiling proud
I want to know, that you want me
I want it yelled to a crowd
 
Chorus
‘Cause you’re all I ask for, when I close my eyes, down by the shore
The wind and the surf, the spray of the waves
I’m just a castle of sand, whose walls simply cave
‘Cause baby it’s you, and only me too, in this love we’ll sail through
 
Verse 2
I want to know, you more than completely
I want to set us adrift
I’ll move the waves to explore you
the waters, just warm, but not swift
 
Chorus
‘Cause you’re all I adore, when I close my eyes down by the shore
The wind and the surf, the spray of the waves
I’m just a castle of sand, whose walls simply cave
‘Cause baby it’s you, and only me too, in this love we’ll sail through

Stumbled on a midlife crisis, sliding in a daily trance
I’ve been paying for my sacrifices, can’t afford to take a chance
 
Come inside my midlife crisis, nothing here but a living wage
Not trying to find where paradise is, just ready to turn the page
 
All my time is spoken for, growing up and growing old
Some choices you can live within, and others where the heart, gives in
 
How to fix my midlife crisis, move away and change careers
Not interested what your advice is, I’ll figure out a cure
 
All my time is spoken for, growing up and growing old
Some choices you can live within, and others where the heart, gives in
 
I’ve been faithful working hard, got a house, a new backyard, but I can’t press on, feels like it’s wrong
 
Buried lists and deadlines looming, where’s the time when you can choose to do what you love, ask what you love
 
Come upon a midlife crisis, only so much time to waste
Whittled down to my devices, lets carve another path today
 
All my time is spoken for, growing up and growing old
Some choices you can live within, and others where the heart, gives in

Verse 1-  Out on the road, phoned my wife goodnight
The kids are in bed, my motels in sight
Get the key to my room, lock the door chain hitch
I don’t have money, but I feel so rich (2X)
 
Verse 2-  Still, there’s limitations that can feed my fears
Brand new worries and a tough career
Got some time to spend, got ideas to pitch
I don’t have money, but I feel so rich (2X)
 
Chorus-  ‘Cause I’ve broken odds into smithereens
    I can savor joy even without means
    I’ve got dreams gaining inch by inch
    Oh, I don’t have money, but I feel so rich (2X)
 
Verse 3-  Gotta son like me, and my girl’s her mom
Get’s crazy at home, but the chaos turns calm
She tucks them in, the next night, we switch
I don’t have money, but I feel so rich (2X)
 
CHORUS  -I’ve broken odds into smithereens…
 
Bridge-  Life costs all I got, be it bills, my debts, or the plans I plot…
   Or my gifts, my loss, or the things I’ve sought…
 
Verse 4-  We’ve worked 10 years at wedded bliss
    There’s broken pride in between each kiss
    Like a patch work quilt, with a master’s stitch
    I don’t have money, but I feel so rich (2X)
 
CHORUS- I’ve broken odds into smithereens…

Something That’ll Last
Broke down in Johnson City, and my wisdom won’t defend
I used to think that finally all my sudden breaks would mend
And I’m laughing through my anger, my mouth is turning mute
I could try and use some humor, but you wouldn’t find it cute
 
It’s smoking from the engine and oils in the street
All these plastic fittings, they just can’t take the heat
Now I’m stranded and I’m reeling, flying lower than half mast
I’m just looking for something that’ll last
 
There’s temporary pleasure in finding new frontiers
And travel advertisements, they just want to buy me beers
I throw bottles in the ocean, it just sends me back a text
Oh, I used to sit and ponder, now I’m posting my regrets
 
I’m just looking for a deal where I can make up what I’ve spent
Figuring a formula, to straighten what I’ve bent
And you might feel it in your bones, but next you’re plastered in a cast
I’m just looking for something that’ll last
 
There’s the changing of the guards and there’s the keepers of the game
I wish that I’d do better, just remembering a name
But the faces they all blend, I come up empty in the clutch
My good friendships are in limbo, hanging on, but loosing touch
 
It gets broken in the middle, and it’s busted by the end
And even if you fix it, oh it’s obsolete by then
And my future’s growing younger, yeah it’s racing by so fast
I’m just looking for something that’ll last.
Yeah my future’s growing younger, racing by in a flash

I’m just looking for something that’ll last.

Verse 1

I’m pacing at your door.     Never had to knock but once before

That all seems years ago…     like younger pictures that I used to show.

Pre-chorus

But still you call me in…   I feel my heart has grown so thin.

There’s my picture still upon your wall.  But, it’s of me right now…

Yet, without my many flaws.

Chorus

Your pictures hanging look like perfect beauty…there’s no flaw, there are no flaws at all.

Your pictures hanging look like perfect beauty…there’s no flaw, there are no flaws at

all.

Verse 2

 Failures had gathered on my heart…   like scattered junk mail in a vacant yard.

Couldn’t see myself without disease. Couldn’t bear to find you ill-at-ease.

 

But still you call me in…   I feel my heart has grown so thin.

There’s my picture still upon your wall.  But, it’s of me right now…

Yet, without my many flaws.

Chorus

 Your pictures hanging look like perfect beauty…there’s no flaw, there are no flaws at all.

 Your pictures hanging look like perfect beauty…there’s no flaw, there are no flaws at all.