The Lyric Poetry of Greg Greenway "this is how you learn about love, everything begins and ends"

D tuning (DADF#AD) Capo on 3

I will not, I won’t be bought,
I will not, I won’t be broken,
even though, yes, I know, I’m the living hell
for the ones who are holding the keys to my cell.
I remember the wind must blow,
and the river will have its way,
and I will walk out of this cell one day

Free at last, free at last.
Shadows on this land will pass into the light.
Oh, in this life,
I will be free at last.

As year after year goes by,
I will not, I won’t doubt my reasons.
Even though, yes, I know they have taken my life,
it’s these very walls that keep saying I’m right.
I remember the wind must blow,
and the river will have its way,
and I will walk out of this hell one day

Chorus

I will heed this fate, walk this road,
take this stand and the world will know.
I will heed this fate, walk this road,
take this stand and the world will know.

I remembered the wind must blow,
and the river will have its way,
and we will walk out of this hell one day

Chorus

Piano
Tennessee sat down at her piano,
her hands lay there so gently and light.
With far away eyes she stared into the dimness,
and played me a day in her life.
Of boats on a crystal green lake in Kentucky,
sails unfurled, swolen in the wind,
and the freedom she felt
and the space all around her,
and the feeling of life rushing in.

Tennessee, even after you had come and gone
I needed your laughter for so long
I won’t believe, I won’t see you again, Tennessee.

Tennesse, things go so quickly now,
you turn your head and the days just pass you by.
There’s so little time and so much confusion,
people don’t know where to try

Chorus

These sun washed days have brought a whispering intrusion,
voices from the distance finding their way home,
from days with desire so fiercely in confusion.
Times when I was first out on my own.

Tennessee sat down at her piano.
I asked her why it had been so long since she had played.
She said the music had turned into notes upon the pages,
she could not stand to play it that way

Chorus

G tuning (DADGBD) Capo on 5
Long before the world would wake up
he would walk down to the beach.
He would sit and watch the ocean,
that’s where he would always be.

Later on, we all would find him,
and stake our blankets on the sand,
by the infinite blue ocean,
wishing days would never end.

I say, “don’t go, don’t go.
Don’t go, don’t go.”

Somebody had to keep us laughing,
somebody had to show the way,
somebody had to tell us stories.
There’s nobody on the beach today

In the world of laughing children,
he was always on the side.
Half of him the instigator,
half of him the passerby.
But for one golden week each summer,
he belonged to us alone,
every ball thrown up to heaven,
every wave broken to foam.

Chorus

Ways of life, talk with speaking,
ways of life, teach without teaching.

As the end was getting nearer,
he would tell me everything,

by the infinite blue ocean,
I was lost in listening.
This is how you learn about love,
everything begins and ends.
Every moment is so precious,
every footprint in the sand.

Chorus

DGDGBD no Capo
I have seen my brother stumble,
I have seen my father fall,
like shadows from behind me,
reaching out so far that
I always have wondered,
my feet are so blinded,
if ever they’ll find their ground
on a road worth walking down.

I have walked these empty sidewalks
without a trace, without a sign,
past windows with their shades drawn tight
over thousand of lives, thousands of lives.
And I wonder, my eyes are so blinded
if ever they’ll see somehow
a road worth walking down.

Sometimes it rises up inside you s
ometimes I feel that I may drown
and vanish without ever saying
this is my life, this is my ground.
And I wonder if my mind is so blinded
I won’t know it when I’ve found
a road worth walking down.

Down in Virginia, ‘neath a holly tree
by the river that gave him his youth,
my father lies saying what he always said, “please yourself.”

I have seen my mother’s courage.
You give them life, you let them go.
And I have chosen my own direction
so far away, so far away from it all.
And I wonder, my heart is so blinded
I won’t know it when I’ve found,
a road worth walking down.
I say, my love, my heart is so blinded
I won’t know it when I’ve found,
a road worth walking down.

what’s that shouting all about.
Just more bad news, just another preacher,
just another lost cause crying out.

I have taken what I was given,
I did what any other man would do.
I never asked too many questions.
That was never good enough for you.

You say you want justice, freedom,
stand up, what’s fair is fair.
There are just too many people,
too many people without a prayer.

I’ve never asked for another man’s troubles,
lord knows, I’ve got enough of my own.
When your heart bleeds for every sad song,
then your life is just an open wound.

Chorus

No matter what you do, you take a side.
You can’t hide, hide, hide.

Hey wait a minute, what am I seeing.
What am I seeing from Tiananmen Square.
I see people standing up to tanks and guns,
I see their face in any one of ours.

Telling me about justice, freedom
Chorus

Gm/C tuning (CGDGBflatD)
Yesterday’s impressions etched into my mind,
though much of what I did was just the same.
It was an ordinary morning on an ordinary day,
when a friend of mine just washed away like rain.

I sat beside my window to catch the morning light,
something so familiar seemed so strange,
like I was born into this very room with infant-like dismay,
Feeling the moment slip away.

Oh I am falling, no reason or rhyme.
Oh I am falling, it’s so much a matter of time.

So much frustration, so much gone to waste,
so much love emptied into space.
It was an ordinary morning on an ordinary day.
Nothing will ever seem the same.

Chorus

DADF#AD Capo on 3
The days are growing longer,
there’s a warm breeze coming on,
something inside seems to come alive,
singing a summer song.

Hola, Maria. Show me that soft smooth skin.
It’s mystical rite on a warm gusty night.
I hardly know where to begin.

La la la...

The sun is growing stronger,
we’ve got every reason to smile.
The child in me, feels so frisky and free,
i hope he can stay for a while.

Chorus

It’s been so long since I’ve seen a day like today,
so long, gonna throw these clothes so far away.

I had a friend like the winter,
with a clear winter day in her eyes. S
easons are bound to be seasons,
you can only wave them goodbye.

Chorus

G tuning (DGDGBD) Capo on 3
Lately I just can’t control this thing, stop this rain from happening.
I got all wound up
until it sprung like a spring
it doesn’t have to be that way.

You say the way, the way,
that’s what they all say,
when trouble comes, trouble stays
When that rain begins to fall,
it pours down like a waterfall

Because every day, it tries my soul
to reach up out of this hole,
it makes you strong, but it makes you cold,
it comes down from me to you.
Cause it’s a soulless city behind that door
with the “I’ve got mine, you get yours,”
makes you blind to what you’re living for, i
t doesn’t have to be that way.

I will not bend, I will not break,
no matter what those people say.
In my darkest hour, I feel afraid,
it’s always going to be that way.
it doesn’t have to be that way.

Chorus

G tuning (DGDGBD) Capo on 2
How many time has it been,
time of great changes in the lives of your friends,
full of empty traditions that all in the end
seem like words. Just words.

One day two people stood by a bay,
by a house on a hill full of shadow and light,
with a vision so strong, it lifted us out of our lives.

And the sun shone down on an endless sea.
And the look on her face was forever, forever.
Forever was all you could see.

And it lifted us out of our chairs,
it lifted us out of our skins and our names,
it lifted us up, over the walls of our sight.

All the eternal we would know in our lives,
all we could do was open, open our eyes.

Chorus

Yes, all the eternal we would know in our lives,
and all we could do was just open,
open our eyes.

Chorus

D tuning (DADF#AD) Capo on 2
What the hell is a rotary,
what are these people trying to do to me.
I was almost killed by my own courtesy.
On the first day, I knew I was done,
when I was sideswiped by Attila the Hun.
In passing, he cast aspersions on my ancestry.

Driving in Massachusetts, Driving in Massachusetts,
Driving in Massachusetts, I’l make it known.
I think I’d rather stay at home in Massachusetts.

Every morning until 9:30, it’s an urban demolition derby.
The winner lives to try again that night.
Oh and just to make it more of a sport.

they leave pot holes the size of foreign imports.
They take down the signs, just ignore the traffic lights.

Chorus

Every taxi driver I’ve seen,
puts me to mind of Charles Manson on Halloween.
Twelve hours in traffic, what a way to go.
If you can find a place to park in the snow,
if your car hasn’t been stolen or towed,
you’re going to love this halfway house of the road.
Massachusetts.

Chorus