All the Light in Autumn

GoldenOak / 2025

All the birds

Voiceless feet, pressing footprints in the mountains / Old as a dream, young as the river in the dawn / These days are just held together by their passing / All the birds around us surely have gone

In the Autumn time

What a dream to gather gifts in the summer / What a dream to gather gifts of the spring / To hear the stream flowing down from the mountain / All the birds around us surely have flown

In the Autumn time / All the birds / And the changing tides / In the Autumn / I’ll Stay / In the Mountains / I’ll wait / For the light / And the birds / To return

Masquerading as a Star

There’s a ghost in every corner / But our picture’s on the wall / And we talk a big story / But we’ll be here in the fall / When all the leaves are golden / And returned to the ground / Lightning strikes around us / But we don’t make a sound

Almost all my demons / They come to me at night / They tell me I’m a stranger / They say I have no right / To tell myself these stories / About my little life / A cardinal in the evening / Golden in the light

Oh- every river dreams of gold / Every desert longs for snow / Every planet drops low / Masquerading as a star’s glow

The nights drag slowly / But the years feel quick / A dream I never started / A friend that didn’t stick / All the dust around me / Floating in the air / Falling on my shoulders / Turning grey my hair

Oh- every river dreams of gold / Every desert longs for snow / Every planet drops low / Masquerading as a star / Shining down to where we are / Giving life to all we know / Drying up the desert snow / So why am I still here? / Planting seeds I’ll never bare? / Laying flowers in my hair / Masquerading as a star / Orbiting around in circles

Always coming, Always going

Snow is falling, the country's dead / And I’m in the kitchen, just baking bread / Can’t stop thinking about what you said / Something’s always coming, something’s always going away

I want to live in both of these worlds / One where I listen and one where I’m heard / But for every window, there’s a dying bird / Something’s always coming, something always going

Don’t you think for a moment, / That it’s the same old news / Passing over, / It’s a new bruise / On our shoulder / It’s a Borderline Blues / We’re in now

Passing over the county line / A broken mirror, a painted sign / Every doorway, another Life / Something's always coming, something's always going

Don’t you think for a moment, / that it’s the same old news / Passing over, / It’s a new bruise / On our shoulder / It’s a Borderline blues / We’re in now

Snow is falling, the country's dead / And I’m in the back room just playing dead / Can’t stop thinking about what you said / Something’s always coming, something’s always going

Glass Bottles

So you wanna be a rockin' roll star / Well, it starts in the heart, they say / So you wanna drive the getaway car / Well, it starts in the heart, they say / And I know everything down here feels hard/ digging up old glass bottles in the yard / Trading them for 1 to 2 cents on the dime / But you know what they say, “it takes a little time” / But every single day is another war crime / Pressed in between a needle and a thread / Sweeping up the glass from your parents' bed / Don’t end up like us, it’s all they ever said

So you wanna be a rockin' roll star / Well, it starts in the heart, they say / So you wanna drive the getaway car / Well, it starts in the heart, they say / All wet clothes hanging on the line / Heavy with the weight of the passing time / Wear a little thin on all of the seams / When you’re born in the mud, it’s hard to get clean / All these bright lights, like a movie scene / Make all this love extra hard to see / Too many hands to find the one that feeds / Sold them your heart, but you got it for free

So you wanna be a rockin' roll star / Well, it starts in the heart, they say / So you went and crashed the getaway car / Well, it starts in the heart, they say / Just a glass bottle placed on the ledge / The slightest bit of wind could catch the edge / But could we ever dream to be much more / Than just broken glass, washed on the shore

I’m not the only thing

I’m not the only thing, I’m not the only thing / I’m not the only thing, I’m not the only thing / I’m not the only thing, I’m not the only thing / I’m not the only thing, I’m not the only thing / I’m not the only thing, I’m not the only thing / I’m not the only thing, I’m not the only thing

And I saw a lie / Blowin straight up the coastline / It said “Your life’s on fire, you better figure it out” / A crack in the pain / Of a colonial window / A recurring dream / Of a lonely sparrow

The Flood

Getting old and getting wise / It's the only thing I’d bet on my whole life / Might have been here once or twice / But I was born this time a child crying my eyes out / Been afraid my whole life / Of the rise in the tide / Don’t know how to get it right / Must be something I can’t find

Let it out and let it in / Planting every seed I find, deep in the garden / Soon the light will return / And the birds will come home, and pull my seeds from the ground / Is there no one else around? / That sees the face in the flood / Reflecting back from above / Shady lines in the mud

Moving / Mountains / Searching for dreams / Counting / Raindrops / Building a stream

But it's hard to see this far / From the place where we are / All the dust in the air / Turning grey our hair

Geese (Fall)
God knows I’m a liar / I’ve been telling you the same thing / Polaroid in the fire / Burns a special kind of light / And all the geese are going / In the same direction / No way of knowing / No matter what I say, hey

We moved into a small town / Just below the mountain / We built this house / In just a day / Caught a glimpse of an aspen / All its leaves were quaking / Felt like a sign / To settle in

Some say dreams / They can get you by / A golden road / To a paradise / But all the birds are leaving / In the autumn light / Oh, in the autumn light

So set the table / In the country kitchen / So the light / Bends just right / Cracks in the window / Just below the mountain / Watching birds / Pass me by

Some say dreams / They can get you by / A golden road / To a paradise / But all the birds are leaving / In the autumn light / Oh, in the autumn light

Dream

I saw Jesus / Back in January, standing in the cold / He said, “Don't be facetious / This car is just my temporary home / I'm just passing through / Making sure the sky is green / And the grass is blue / And can I bother you / For a little bit of food to spare”

You came up singing, / With your eyes wide and hands up in the air / With the rain still falling / Every drop stealing color from your hair / You said, “The water’s rising fast, and swallowing all the lands that's in its path / If we stay down here / We’ll surely be swept away”

I’ve been told / All the light we bend turns gold / But I don’t know / If that’s the truth for all of those / Wrapped up in this American / Dream / Dream

They are the queen / Of dandelion wine and ghost stories / So it felt like a dream / When they turned their head and whispered quietly / “It feels like I don’t exist, the government sees a threat where I see gifts / It's hard to resist / The urge to disappear”

I’ve been told / All the light we bend turns gold / But I don’t know / If that’s the truth for all of those / Wrapped up in this American dream

Red wing, blackbird

Red wing, blackbird / Did you ever notice / Everything around you moving / Slowly, backward / All the light in autumn / Softly makes its way to the

Red wing, black bird / Did you see the river? / Swallowing the mountains flowing / softly, downward / Covering the valley / And all the life that’s in-between

Red-wing, blackbird / Did I hear you calling / It’s been such a lonely winter / Floating, inward / Golden is the forest / Just as the sun’s descending

Red wing, blackbird / Did you ever notice / Everything around you moving / Slowly, backward / All the light in autumn / Softly makes its way onto the ground

Room to Grow

GoldenOak / 2021

Paradise

Some say Paradise it ain’t that far / Across the midwest, through the great plains / Second home or a broke down car / Same stories, different faces / But this money isn’t all that it seems / It will buy us nothing, but a big house / or a fence to lock away our dreams / Here’s to hoping /they were nothing / They were nothing

Through the valley, there's a winding stream / Little river, in the springtime / But the grasses don’t keep their green / When the rains, not fallin’

It’s in the water (x2) / It's in the water where the dirt breaks free / It’s in the water (x2)

Poison soil and a fruitless tree / Wildfire and a law degree / All the pictures that they paint for me / Of the world and how it’s supposed to be

It’s in the water (x2) / It's in the water we can see these things / It’s in the water (x2)

Low lake, Dry Stream / Arid Land, Built on dreams / No place to hide / All these lives, burnt like trees

It’s in the water (x2) / It's in the water where the dirt breaks free / It’s in the water (x2) / It's in the water we can see these things / It’s in the water (x2) / It’s in the water to reach the sea / It’s in the water (x2)

Black Feather / Silent Spring

Calling bird - by the lakeside - In the valley - of the mountain-

Calling bird - Black feather - Come the snow - Where will you go?

This water is the only home I know - This water is the only home I know-

In-between the Maiden Mountain and the valley Spring / Wandering beside the ocean, in the summer wind / There is a lonely hunter, singing to the hills / I have seen these things / Change before my eyes / Silence in the spring / Silence in the night

Black bird, Red-eyed mourner in the watered woods / Once was the only daughter of her mother's blue / Displaced by waves of wardens, crash into the shore /

I have seen these things / Change before my eyes / Silence in the Spring / Silence in the night

Islands

Bet you’re gonna rule the world one of these days / Wake up in the early mornin’ out in Santa Fe / It’s only been a year or so since you gone away / But we don’t seem to talk much like back in the day / Bet you’re gonna build yourselves a home / Workin’ young fingers to the bone

Oh ya, me oh well, I’m doin’ fine / Write a lot of words these days, not a lot of time / Spent a few days or so lost in the pines / Cool water, swimming feet, fruit from the vine / Truth is I think I found the one / Smooth soul and a whole lotta fun / living by the water treats us well / The sea has a whole lot to tell

How have your poems fared in your desert landscape? / Do you miss the eastern streams and the green pathways? / Or did you trade them in for the dry wind and the high mountains? / Restless feet have always been a word fountain / Do you write a lot about climate change? / I can’t get it off my mind these days / Trying to find a way to fit it on every page / Feels like there’s nothing else to say

It's hard to find a friend like you in your early twenties / I meet a lot of folks these days there sure are plenty / But none of them feel the wind like you and I do / Chasing dreams and saving streams a drink or two / I hope that these words find you well / When I’ll see you again I can not tell / But give a lot of love to the world my friend / And I’ll do the same on my end

Falter

Said listen here, little one / There's a lot of good people living under the water / Screaming out what's to come / A few people who can’t be bothered / Listen here, little one / Many stories to be told / A few hands wrapped in gold / But there’s a lot of good people living under the water-

And the house, on the hill / Can’t see the light that is still / Shining through all that's below / Think they oughta know-

Take my hand, little one / See the greed drilled in the mountain / “Koch was here” carbon stain

Still a lot of good people living under the water / And the life on the line / And the truth that will come in time / That the first to feel this change / Aren’t the ones to blame-

See the tides begin to falter / All along the coastal line / Seems this land is getting smaller / As the sea is on the rise

And there's a lot of good people living under the water

These Old Shoes

These Old shoes, They don’t seem to care / Which way I roam, As long and I get there / But my young heart, Chases after Wind / Over mountain Streams, And back round again

All my dreams, Shaded by these trees / What I could be, If the rent was free / A home in the woods, A poet since my birth / First comes the earth, First save the earth

In this life, there’s no time for twice / Always on your way, always on your way / My only hope, is when I find my voice / It sounds like me, it sounds like me

Only One

Thrown into the fire / Years of careless mind / Desolate and dire / I’m not the only one / Searching for coral / A glacier turned to sea / Poisoned from the oil / Only two degrees

Forget all this greed / It's not gonna change / Power is what we need / You’re not the only one

In this fight for the morning / All of these things drowning / Helpless feelings surrounding

Let these stories / Be a beacon / Let the earth / Know who's speakin’ / For the ocean / For the creatures / For the forests / We’re not the only ones

Only one / Only one / Only one / Only one

Little Light

Little Light / Pouring down / See the Life / All around / On a Home / Or across the ground / See the path / That it builds / That it builds

Blowing wind / Stuck in motion / Moving through / Everything / Across the land / Or across an ocean / See the bridge / That it builds

Let the sun / Be a guide / Let the wind / Turn these minds / Ancient Answers / To a question / For a future / We can build

We can build / We can build / We can build

Ash

Burn Down / All the places I have found / Deep roots in the northern ground / Only ghosts know their name / They haunt the woods from where they came

Warm sun / Shining through the winter months / Flowing stream, tree trunks / With bored holes right through / Tall trees once grew

It's all gonna fall away / One of these days / Grooves, diamond shapes / Colored in grey

But all that bends does not break / When all the grain / Runs straight

Life line / Baskets covered in cobwebs / Paddles rotting in their sheds / Tall tales, soon to be / Memories of the Ash tree

The Light and Loneliness

I feel the changes / Comin’ round the bend / And I’ve felt the wind since I was a young girl / Like the Ocean / Caught in Waves / Somewhere in-between the light and loneliness / Ooh, Child / Poison river / Poison sky / Same story told my whole life / But who’s burden? / Who's blame? / Everywhere I turn the greed runs the game

Ooh, Child / Caught between the waves and the ocean / Constantly in change, and the mountain / Washing off the stains of a conqueror’s hands

Blessed with Conscience / To feel the trees / To guard the life that has no words to speak / But like a river / We’re trapped in land / We’re caught between the light and loneliness

Ooh, Child / Caught between the waves and the ocean / Constantly in change, and the mountain / Washing off the stains of the conqueror’s hand / Ooh, Child / Caught between the waves and the ocean / Constantly in change, and the mountain / Washing off the stains of the conqueror’s hand

And it's so sad to see / The whole world agree / They’d rather take their debts / Than only what they need / But in-between the light / And the loneliness I see / A place to put these hands A place for all to be

Room to Grow

Pardon my fears, I’ve seen gardens turn to grey / And I always dreamed I’d be a father (mother) one of my days / But now I don’t know, if there’s room for my kids to grow / In this home that we’re turning to stone.

High on the mountain, seeds in the wind / Searching for somewhere, to start again

Head in the clouds, we felt love sprout from the ground / She's got my soul through the smooth times and the rough / But how can we, turn two lives into three / When tomorrow might only be a dream?

High on the mountain, seeds in the wind / Searching for somewhere, to start again / Where it’s all going, I don’t know / But I’m still looking for Room to Grow