"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 pies

And we 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 gone 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 gone to look for America

All gone to look for America

All gone to look for America

 

 

 

The Mississippi Delta was shining

Like a National guitar

I am following the river

Down the highway

Through the cradle of the civil war

 

I'm going to Graceland

Graceland

In Memphis Tennessee

I'm going to Graceland

Poorboys and Pilgrims with families

And we are going to Graceland

My traveling companion is nine years old

He is the child of my first marriage

But I've reason to believe

We both will be received In Graceland

 

She comes back to tell me she's gone

As if I didn't know that

As if I didn't know my own bed

As if I'd never noticed

The way she brushed her hair from her forehead

And she said losing love

Is like a window in your heart

Everybody sees you're blown apart

Everybody sees the wind blow

 

I'm going to Graceland

Memphis Tennessee

I'm going to Graceland

Poorboys and Pilgrims with families

And we are going to Graceland

 

And my traveling companions

Are ghosts and empty sockets

I'm looking at ghosts and empties

But I've reason to believe

We all will be received In Graceland

 

There is a girl in New York City

Who calls herself the human trampoline

And sometimes when I'm falling, flying

Or tumbling in turmoil I say

Oh, so this is what she means

She means we're bouncing into Graceland

And I see losing love

Is like a window in your heart

Everybody sees you're blown apart

Everybody sees the wind blow

 

In Graceland, in Graceland

I'm going to Graceland

For reasons I cannot explain

There's some part of me wants to see Graceland

And I may be obliged to defend

Every love, every ending

Or maybe there's no obligations now

Maybe I've a reason to believe

We all will be received In Graceland

 

 

 

 

A winter's day In a deep and dark December

I am alone

Gazing from my window

To the streets below

On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow

 

I am a rock

I am an island

 

I've built walls

A fortress deep and mighty

That none may penetrate

I have no need for friendship

Friendship causes pain

It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.

 

I am a rock

I am an island

 

Don't talk of love

Well, I've heard the word before

It's sleeping in my memory

I won't disturb the slumber

Of feelings that have died

If I'd never loved,

I never would have cried

 

I am a rock

I am an island

 

I have my books

And my poetry to protect me

I am shielded in my armor

Hiding in my room

Safe within my womb

I touch no-one and no-one touches me

 

I am a rock

I am an island

And the rock feels no pain

And an island never cries

 

 

 

Here is my song for the asking

Ask me and I will play

So sweetly, I'll make you smile

 

This is my tune for the taking

Take it, don't turn away

I've been waiting all my life

 

Thinking it over, I've been sad

Thinking it over, I'd be more than glad

To change my ways for the asking

 

Ask me and I will ply

All the love that I hold inside

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