Keith Hampton

from HOPEFIRE (2002)

everybody's got some kind of sweetness
everybody's got somebody's hand to hold
i keep marking days with red x's
and with every step i take i walk alone

when love comes around i'll be here waiting
when love comes my way you know i will
and until then you can be my silver lining
until the sun comes out
until love comes around

everybody's searching for a partner
we're halfway empty halfway crazy rarely found
i keep counting crescent moons
thinking maybe someday soon
i'd stumble into you on my way down

and when love comes around
i'll be there waiting
when love comes my way
you know i will
and until then you can be
my silver lining
until the sun comes out
until love comes around

just when you least expect it
feeling broken and rejected
love will always find a way to lead you home

just when you think you've lost a good thing
another dream another life you had in store
you'll feel the winds are changing
future rearranging
until somebody better comes knocking at your door

that's when love comes around
you'll be there waiting
when love comes your way
i know you will
and until then
i can be your silver lining
until the sun comes out

from HOPEFIRE (2002)

same old friday evening
and we waste it every week
i meet you at your front door
and we head down to the street
where the bitter winter chill
invades like a cancer in the night
you put up your trench coat collar
and i pull my gloves on tight

so we catch a train to somewhere
it never matters where we go
we just try to spend more time
apart from the pain we know inside
you don't share confessions and
they stay silent on my tongue
so we're never second guessing
how much we revealed
when the morning after comes

but tonight i held your gaze
a bit too long
and in your eyes i recognized
the refrain of an ancient love song
don't you know how long my heart
has been tangled up in make believe?
oh to break the bonds of circumstance
we might move a little closer to free

there's a ghost behind your eyes
some spirit that dwells in times gone past
and i wonder how many others loved you
who you never could love back
so i go before you saddened
for you leave me with no peace
and even if i'll never be your precious one
you'll always be precious to me

and maybe i've been foolish
but these days each breath i breathe
makes a testimony to a love
that faded away like some forgotten dream
though i'm powerless to kiss you
i gain strength each time you're near
and i need you to promise
even if it's a lie
you're never
never gonna disappear

same old friday evening
and we waste it every week
what would i give for another?
what would i say if we should speak?
see the spirit in your eyes is gone
as you think of me and laugh
and i become the last to love you
though you never
never loved me back

from HOPEFIRE (2002)

there is one who'll make you laugh
one who'll set you free
one who'll bowl you over
in that secret heart you keep
there is one who'll watch you suffer
waiting in the room next door
and let your love go by
'cause there is one who needs you more

and the first time you feel that way
will always set the scene
so next time you always say
i'll be wise i'll be brave
oh let me be

some may fault your childhood
others cite your soul
like you were looking for subversion
since you were sixteen years old
but there is one who'll carry hopefire
and lead you through the haze
as the last of your ancestors
leaves you in your living days

and the first time you feel that way
will always set the scene
so next time you always say
i'll be wise i'll be brave
oh let me be

it's a delicate disaster
when your heart bleeds through the skin
it can shine you up for glory
before the story can begin
but there is one who'll turn your pages
one who'll burn them black
and some might call you crazy
for wanting that one back

but the first time you feel that way
will always set the scene
so next time you always say
i'll be wise i'll be brave
oh let me be

from HOPEfire (2002)

come a little closer
you seem so far away
days are getting colder
dawn rising late
baby you're the sunshine
when my shadows settle in
standing on the outside
of this crazy life we live

but i'll never let you go
i'll never let you down
you'll never be alone
because i'll always be around

we get a little foolish
when we're laughing to the sky
it's coming to a breakdown
we speed up and pass it by
it's that kind of situation
two lovers who were friends
same infatuation
but we'll break before we bend

it's like waking from a dream
and you're drying out your eyes
but it never was a dream
and that's your silent sweet surprise

all the snowfalls and the roses
of yesterday are gone
it's the chilling in your heart
that remains
until the fear you remember
frees the pain you forget
you'll be frozen like a work of art
as your beauty slowly falls apart

so come a little closer
you seem so far away
nights are getting colder
and we're dying every day

but i'll never let you go
i'll never let you down
you'll never be alone
because i'll always be around
so come a little closer

from HOPEFIRE (2002)

let me be your minstrel honey
let me play a little song for you
i won't judge your misbehaviour
i'll let it pass right through
and i'll be honest
if you let me tell the truth
no one loves you quite the way i do

don't give me your cold heart, honey
don't scold me with those eyes
we crash and burn but we never learn
love comes as a surprise
and if you're lucky
reveals itself to you
but no one loves you quite the way i do

if you can feel the calm before the storm
if you can feel the passion once it's gone
if you don't quit the game each time you lose
oh believe me
that's when you'll see me shining through

so let me be your minstrel honey
you can follow me for now
take some time
shed the tears you never could let out
i will listen if you want me to
no one loves you quite the way i do

if you can feel the calm before the storm
if you can feel the passion once it's gone
if you don't quit the game each time you lose
oh believe me
that's when you'll see me shining through

from HOPEFIRE (2002)

what is the secret of youth?
it won't stay long enough
to give answers to anyone
let's reveal it
let's reveal it
it's the wonder you feel
when it snows in the spring
or a song rushes forth from your mind
so fast you can't write it down
but you know you'll remember
before you can judge
and before you can hate
you just love to taste and to touch
to feel and to look and to listen
to all that's around you
your magic is real
and your love is divine
you are stillness in motion
no walls no windows can keep you inside
you just run run run
as you stand on your own
start to know your own face
the storybooks close for a time
and the world says you're growing
and you still love to hide
but you don't fit the space
you make plans make demands
on this impossible future
that suddenly rains down
and who will you be?
what's your belief?
surviving those questions
used to be easy
now it's all you can do
to meet the morning
little by little you can
lessen your pain
as shades of serenity settle
and let you move on
maybe you'll love someone
maybe you'll love someone
what was the secret of youth?
will you know when it's passed?
or maybe it stays
like a lingering spark
in your eye
maybe

from HOPEFIRE (2002)

maybe i've been wrong
about the morning
when the darkness dissolves
and daylight takes its place
i made it better through the night
than i ever have in years
i wonder what's been missing
until now
now that i'm leaving
for the last time
my hometown

you can travel light
and still walk heavy
or you can fly through the air
to where you long to be
but let your buildings kiss the sky
i'd rather watch the road unwind
between here and there
in the air
or on the ground
yes it's one way or another
to my hometown

maybe this time will be different
if i take the time to get it right
and i couldn't help but laugh
at my hatred for the past
there's no room left
in my heart
to harbor bitterness
i'll be a guest when i return

and i made it better
through the night
than i ever have in years
i wonder what's been missing
until now
now that i'm leaving for the last time
leaving for the last time
leaving i am leaving
my hometown

from HOPEFIRE (2002)

if i could wrap you
in silver and gold
bind you up tightly
with ribbons and bows
if i could somehow
preserve you
then would i then would i
somehow deserve you?

maybe i fell too soon
maybe my love was not
meant for you
maybe we all have
a little more left to learn
we've got a lot less to lose

if i could hold you
with a lover's touch
no words could describe
what's inside and besides
we don't say very much
if i seemed a bit
unsure at times
it's all i can do to
remember my name
when i've got you in sight

maybe i fell too soon
maybe my love was not
meant for you
maybe we all have
a little more left to learn
we've got a lot less to lose

we don't make promises
and we don't break promises
but if you should come to me
i'll be here
i promise it

silver and gold
dance in your eyes
how long is a day in the dark?
dance with me tonight

maybe i fell too soon
maybe my love was not
meant for you
maybe we all have
a little more left to learn
we've got a lot less to lose
we've got a lot less to lose

from HOPEFIRE (2002)

i seem to be wounded
by your presence in the universe
it's something i should rise above
but it's nothing i can put to words
you are like summer days
you storm and shine and then
fade away so soon

i made these valentines and
birthday songs for you
but they're only paper flowers and
empty tunes
empty tunes

can i be the one to leave this time?
can i go back to nowhere?
i was only searching for a home
i still can't wait to get there
but is this love to blame for
every time i lose my way
with you?

i made these valentines and
birthday songs for you
but they're only paper flowers and
empty tunes
i may be the last leaf to fall
i was the first branch to bloom

i seem to be running
back in time
the ghost of all that's in me
gathers up the dust that
seeps inside
and clouds my eyes
in daydreams
i was unfair to you
it colored everything

i made these valentines and
birthday songs for you
but they're only paper flowers and
empty tunes
i may be the last leaf to fall
i'll be the first branch to bloom

from HOPEFIRE (2002)

bernadine, i took a drive
to your house down by the lake
in the afternoon of a summer sky
all your sons and daughters
sisters and your brothers took the stage
we ate and drank your memory
in rosy clothes and cleo laine
years ago and miles between now
the teachers and the teenagers
and everyone who loved you
just like me

we've come to comfort one another
you'll know us by the lack of light in our eyes
and when the ceremony fades
something still remains
it's the words on the page
for you

oh bernadine i left my home
i still come around and it's bittersweet
when the best of friends i used to know
have scattered all away
like the tender dust
on the wings of a honeybee

but i'm still sitting in your junkyard sofa
writing down the bones
of love and harmony
and the ceremony fades
but something still remains
it's the words on the page
and bernadine
bernadine

steady now
steady now
hold steady

ceremonies fade
but bernadine remains
in the words on the page
bernadine
bernadine