Song Lyrics by Braden Canfield

The Simplest Things We Do

Dying is easy
You just let go
Feel the pain
Join the flow
Jump in the river
Float to the sea
Find the ocean and you’re free

Falling is simple
You just go down
You feel the pain
When you hit the ground
We’ve all been falling
Since our day of birth
It’s the primal motion of the earth

Loving is nothing
But letting go
Same as dying
You join the flow
Same as falling
You just go down
You might feel some pain when you hit the ground

Nothing to cling to
Nothing to know
No one to follow
Nowhere to go
Of all the quandaries
We struggle through
These are the simplest things we do

Day 2 of the Rest of My Life

I woke up to see the red leaves falling
On the edge of winter’s cold white breath
I walked out beneath the wild geese calling
Kicked my way through the silage of the summer’s lonely death

I’m too old for one more brand new day
I’m too tired to ride the edge of the knife
And I’m looking for a longer way
Day two of the rest of my life

Every morning I’m as dry as these fallen leaves
Every night I’m as wet as the rain
At the dawn I’m as pure as the driven snow
By the evening I am covered with this god forsaken stain

I’m too old for one more brand new day
I’m too tired to ride the edge of the knife
And I’m looking for a longer way
Day two of the rest of my life

I’m a child wading waist deep in the river
I’m an old man standing at the ocean’s edge
The flow of time takes everything I give her
It doesn’t wait around for yet another daily pledge

I’m too old for one more brand new day
I’m too tired to ride the edge of the knife
And I’m looking for a longer way
Day two of the rest of my life
Day two of the rest of my life

Johnnie and Bennie (The Spark and the Fire)

It was Johnny by the river’s edge
Upon a misty morn
Saw Bennie on the other bank
Bare as when she was born
She sat upon a mossy rock
Wet with the morning dew
That he must have her for his own
Was all that Johnny knew

Bennie leaned upon her slender hands
Breasts towards the rising sun
Her golden hair fell down her back
And Johnnie was undone
But never will he touch her skin
Nor know her heart and soul
For he killed her with his two bare hands
Some thirty years ago

Now Johnnie walks the river’s edge
On every single day
And see’s the specter of his want
A river’s breadth away
He killed her with his anger then
In a spark of jealous ire
She kills him with her beauty now
In a slowly burning fire

Oh Johnnie, oh my Johnnie
Don’t you see what you have done?
You drowned me in the river
Now I am forever young
See me naked by the water’s edge
Near where my cold bones lie
May my beauty burn into your mind
Until the day you die

It was Johnny by the river’s edge…
Upon a misty morn.

Leviathan

My daddy, he was a fisherman
He would walk waist deep in the brine
Squinting his eyes to the gleaming sea, he’d cast out his line
Sometimes he could feel the leviathan
Mostly his line came in bare
But my daddy, he was a fisherman
He knew it was somewhere out there

My daddy, he was a soldier man
He struggled through that big old war
He’d move out ahead of his company to find out what they’re aiming for
Sometimes they could feel the leviathan
Aiming their guns in the air
‘Cause the soldier man, like the fisherman
Knows it’s somewhere out there

He moves further away from the shore…
I can’t see him anymore

Jonah, he was a fisherman
He was a fisherman body and soul
When he cast himself off of the storm chased ship
And let the ocean take him whole
Face to face with his leviathan
He learned to calm the wild sea
Just like my daddy, the fisherman
Gave himself to the tempest for me
Gave himself to the tempest for me

He moves further away from the shore…
I can’t see him anymore

What I Got

This is the only body
I have ever known
Won’t you help me keep it warm
When it’s chilled to the bone?
This is the only skin
I have ever worn
Won’t you help me keep it mended
When it gets torn?

When the sirens wail
On a windy night
And the windows shudder
Won’t you hold me tight?
I can’t pretend to be someone I’m not
I got nothing to give you but what I got

This is the only brain
I have ever had
Won’t you help me keep it sane
When I think I’m going mad
Cause you are the only prize
I have ever won
Could not believe my eyes
When the wrapping came undone

When the sirens wail
On a windy night
And the windows shudder
Won’t you hold me tight
I can’t pretend to be someone I’m not
I got nothing to give you but what I got

At the End of the Day

At the end of the day we want justice
At the end of the day we want peace
At the end of the day we just want all
Of the yammering voices to cease
At the end of the day we are tired
At the end of the day we are pissed
At the end of the day we all start to wonder
What piece of the puzzle we missed

At the end of the day there’s a rainbow
In a meadow by a cool waterfall
Where the angels alight to rest their wings
Swap stories, slap hands and guffaw, boys.
Swap stories, slap hands and guffaw

At the end of the day we are hungry
At the end of the day we make love
At the end of the day we turn on the TV
To watch the fire reign down from above, boys.
Watch the fire reign down from above.

At the end of the day we are weary
At the end of the day we have dreams
At the end of the day we are wary
Of how strange this whole spectacle seems
At the end of the day we are lonely
We are broken and twisted and bent
At the end of the day we are looking to find
A good reason to get up again

At the end of the day there’s a golden sun
On the edge of the ruby red sky
Where the ghosts of our dreams huddle up to the light
To say a prayer as the day slowly dies, good boys,
Say a prayer as the day slowly dies.

At the end of the day I look for myself
In the eyes of the one that I love
So I’ll know who I am and who I am with
When the fire reigns down from above, good boys.
When the fire reigns down from above.

Sublime

Deeper than night
Bluer than rain
Finer than light
Stronger than pain
Richer than loam
Pure as a tear
Closer than home
Older than fear

Sure as an arrow
Piercing the curtain
Finding the marrow
Rending the certain

Here on the Earth
Scratches and scars
Dirt from an infant’s hand
Hurled at the stars

Lighter than mind
Darker than soul
Stretching to find
Too much to hold
Insatiable wonder
Unflagging unwearied
The whole, the asunder
Exquisite query

Forged in the sun
Anvil of time
A blacksmith awakens
Shapes the sublime

Quiet as stone
Odder than love
Naked as bone
More than enough

Everything Shines Brighter
See how everything shines brighter in the fading light
See how everything shines brighter in the fading light
And I wonder what kind of dream I’m gonna have when I go to sleep tonight
See how everything shines brighter in the fading light

See the firmament bend the twilight like a bow
Give the sunset mountain an incandescent glow
See the rocks light up like thunderbolts just before the shadows grow

See how everything shines brighter in the fading light
See how everything shines brighter in the fading light
And I wonder what kind of dream I’m gonna have when I go to sleep tonight
See how everything shines brighter in the fading light

See the setting sun set the prairie grass on fire
See the tree in the meadow burning like a funeral pyre
See the stars appear like sparks from the flames rising higher and higher….

Oooo, the night’s gonna fall
No matter what we do
Don’t close your eyes too soon
It’s bound to be… a lovely view…

See the shafts of sunlight leaning on a little patch of lawn
See my lover shimmer on our bed with nothing on
See how every single nighttime leads to every single dawn
It’s gonna be like that everyday till I’m dead and gone
It’s gonna be like that everyday till I’m dead and gone

See how everything shines brighter in the fading light
See how everything shines brighter in the fading light
And I wonder what kind of dream I’m gonna have when I go to sleep tonight
See how everything shines brighter, everything shines brighter,
Everything shines brighter in the fading light.
Everything shines brighter in the fading light