I throw my fortune to the water
and watch ripples hit the shore
Each coin is a year that I squandered,
Seven years I have wandered

All I hope is to catch these waves
and beg them fix my mirror
Its cracks are pains I once ignored
Each scratch a time I wandered,
Seven years I’ve squandered

But all my wishing’s not enough
to make them change my past
Even if I could buy my luck
I know it would not last

So bury these pieces deep in the muck,
send memories down the stream
This worthless mirror which cursed me from birth
has always been my shattered dream,
One day I’ll change my luck

Another year still by the water
Out of money, I throw stones
Each moment I wish they’ll go farther
is just time growing darker,
Eight years I’ve squandered

But all my trying’s not enough
if I won’t look beyond
For if I try to buy my luck
I’d never leave this pond

So bury these pieces deep in the muck,
send memories down the stream
This worthless mirror which cursed me from birth
has always been my shattered dream

I’ll never catch those waves
They won’t listen when I pray
So maybe I’ll change my ways

So bury these pieces deep in the muck,
send memories down the stream
This worthless mirror which cursed me from birth
has always been my shattered dream,
One day I’ll change my luck

© 2012 Aaron Clift Productions. All rights reserved.

You ignited brightly into my hearth
with your roaring kerosene torch
The warmth of your flames drew me closer to you
as the pyre of our cinders grew

Then I smelled the wood you charred
and the blackened lives you scorched
And I wondered if I’d be a tree in your way,
the next one that you would raze  

I know it’s your nature to follow your whims
But when you burn the forest, don’t it sear your skin?

You say it’s just the way we have
to blaze our own trail
Then you stoke the coals in my fireplace
and claim: “together we can’t fail!”

I know it’s my nature to follow those who tell me I’ll win
But now I see I made a mistake when I let your inferno in

So find a tree that likes the smell of your smoke
‘cause your path of ashes is making me choke
Take your torch away – I don’t want your flames
And don’t tell me I’m the one that’s broke
‘cause you can’t quit your arsonist games

I know it’s my nature to follow those who tell me I’ll win
But now I see I made a mistake when I let your inferno in

So find a tree that likes the smell of your smoke
‘cause your path of ashes is making me choke
Take your torch away – I don’t want your flames
And don’t tell me I’m the one that’s broke
‘cause you can’t quit your arsonist games

© 2012 Aaron Clift Productions. All rights reserved.

These lonely hills I can’t ascend
Yet still I climb to hear you, my friend
You were once my song through this freezing rain,
but now your silence soaks me in pain

Where’s your melody,
My dove who slips away?
I know you’ve flown beyond the gray
But you once would nest with me,
Your wings stuck in love’s tree
Now you seek the sun and leave me in a haze

These lonely hills I can’t ascend
Yet still I climb to hear you, my friend
You were once my song through this freezing rain,
but now your silence soaks me in pain

My love, the raining stopped for a moment!
But I’ll never hear your melody again

These lonely hills will never end
But some day I’ll find another friend
Only your dove’s song keeps me searching in vain
to find a way beyond the gray
and see the sunshine break through the rain

Where’s your melody,
My dove who slips away?

© 2012 Aaron Clift Productions. All rights reserved.

My dream is alive
in the blossoming air,
Andalusian paths
where oranges grow

Memories of you
are reflections in a fountain,
a trickling past
where the Guadalquivir flows

I’m desire unfolding
like branches of your flowering palms
You’re an orange
bursting from the tree,
a gypsy soul
dancing and breaking the calm

My olive-skinned
sighing seductress
with a voice of wine
to my eager lips:

Open! Open your courtyards!
I’ve come again for your fountaining love
Sing! Sing your gypsy song,
torrid passionate longing
from flamenco guitars

Our voices now join
singing a tune the guitarist strums
We’re the deep song
storming from the sea,
sorrowful noise
under a trembling sun

My olive-skinned
sighing seductress,
your voice is wine
to my eager lips

Open! Open your courtyards!
I’ve come again for your fountaining love
Sing! Sing your gypsy song,
torrid passionate longing
from flamenco guitars

Strange how your orange
grows in my sleep,
And when I’m awake
the memories fade

Dreams of you
trickle away in a fountain,
But I long again
to lie in your shade

Open! Open your courtyards!
My one last drink of your fountaining love
Mi amor! Mi amor, embrace me,
One day we’ll bloom like palm trees
planted in our Spanish heart

© 2012 Aaron Clift Productions. All rights reserved.

Oh to be a shipwrecked soul
when the storm whips you around
Round and round and round
Pounding rain will breach the hull
And even when you think you’ve found
a way to stay afloat,
Clouds surround your only boat

All my life I’m fighting the tide,
sailing night to find a shore
I thought the lighthouse guided my way
but the beacon’s fire lead me astray
right into the storm

Throw me, throw me overboard!
I can’t live like this anymore

Oh to be a shipwrecked soul
when the storm whips you around
Round and round and round
Pounding rain will breach the hull
And even when you think you’ve found
a way to stay afloat,
Clouds surround your only boat

My anchor’s ripped away
by a wave that will not rest,
thrown into the ocean
like a wasted piece of bait

The raindrops fall and mock me
and the wind begins to laugh
There were days I could brave these unfriendly seas
Now my sunken hope won’t raise the mast

Oh to be alone
and never chased around
So run my boat aground,
Make me now your shipwrecked soul
Make me now your shipwrecked soul
Make me now your shipwrecked soul!

© 2012 Aaron Clift Productions. All rights reserved.

When the sea foam washed me away
I prayed for a home to stay
A place where the wind lay still

And there I’d say goodbye to the clouds
And hide in the shroud of the waves
A place to be a perfect castaway
A place,
A place to protect my heart

So I throw my broken ship to the fish and the krill
Wash ashore and crawl through the sand
Like a naked hermit crab searching for his shell
I look for a place to protect my heart

And then I see her gleaming in the tide
A queen conch rising from a watery throne
Her body could hide the cracks in my life
Even if I know I should fill them on my own
But the promise of her counsel is an ocean swell,
a pink pearl that calls me to her shell

Oh shell, will you be my friend?
Bring my days of rainclouds to an end?
Then tell me where to start

‘Cause I’m sinking like my boat in the bay
I’m tired of trying to find my way
So help me, help me to mend
Let your pearls,
Let your pearls fill my heart

When I put my ear up to her lips
To let her whisper the wisdom I’ve missed
All I hear,
All I hear is an echo
Of the sea I left behind
And when I reach into the shell
I only find,
Only find pebbles inside

Oh shell,
All you do is bring back my fears
When I listen to you
The angry storm reappears

Now you leave me with no choice
It seems it’s either you or me
I must make you end your noise
So I’ll throw you back and break you in the sea

© 2012 Aaron Clift Productions. All rights reserved.

Alone in the low tide
Melting in the heat
Water can’t cool the wounds of defeat
Sand rubbed in my pride

Let me forget . . .
Let me mend . . .
Let me forget . . .

There were days I could brave the sea
And moments I could fight
But the time I had a captain’s might
Was lost in a mutiny

I look for
Something tender, something sweet
To leave these bitter memories
Let me forget
That I feel so frail

Let me forget . . .
Let me mend . . .

I waste away in the breaking waves,
Faith thrown to the undertow
My head has never hung so low
Yet my eyes are up in the tree

I look for
Something tender, something sweet
To leave these bitter memories
Strive to regain
My will to sail

But shell, your echoes haven’t died
Your broken pieces haunt my coast
So I spend my days a sulking ghost
Living in retreat

I know you tried to be my guide
But you steered me to my fears
And I’d rather be a pool of tears
Melting in the heat,
A heat that won’t subside

© 2012 Aaron Clift Productions. All rights reserved.

Gazing at dates at the top of the trunk
My eyes raised but faith is sunk
Praying for fruit to take its place

Every day I ask the leaves
then I beg to the boughs:
“Can you make your canopy
shake me from my doubt?”

Still nothing heeds my pleas
I’m staring at fruit out of reach
So I hatch a plan to climb the tree
and bring seeds into my hand

When I’m ready to scale the tree
something holds me to the ground
I guess I’d rather melt in the sand and the heat
and the fear that keeps me down

My head has never hung so low
Yet my eyes are up in the tree

Staring at fruit out of reach,
Asleep in a dream where seeds fill my mind
Wearing out time to make them mine, all mine
If I eat just one
My life will be complete
But I can’t climb the trunk
When sand has burnt my feet

I’m tired of being disgraced
with desire that’s only waste
All I want is a little taste
and the answers in my hand

My head has never hung so low
Yet my eyes are up in the tree

Staring at fruit out of reach,
Asleep in a dream where seeds fill my mind
Wearing out time to make them mine, all mine

Are seeds what I really need
or am I just wasting time?
‘Cause the longer I gaze into the tree
the less I try to climb
I’m only drawn to the tempting fruit
to keep me from reality
So don’t cut me loose
I put down my roots
Let me stay in fantasy

If I eat just one
My life will be complete
But I can’t climb the trunk
When sand has burnt my feet

Just when I’m free, I cut my feet
on the last piece of the shell
And as blood goes into the sea
my fantasy dispels

Left again in the low tide
with hope that has capsized

If I could look past the seaboard
to a place I sailed before
I would reach inside
for the will to fight
my self-imposed exile

But my heart is silent
in the fading shore

© 2012 Aaron Clift Productions. All rights reserved.

All my life I was seeking a shore
a place to create my paradise

But I prayed for heaven in a temple of lies
Made my faith disappear
Resigned to my fear
And I can’t live like this anymore

I’m gonna wake my heart
wake my heart in the high tide
Then I’ll face the dark
and try to find my light

Too many times I let the waves toss me around
I let them drown the voice inside

But it’s time to stand my ground
Time to rebound
So come, my heart
and meet me in the tide

I’m gonna wake my heart
wake my heart in the high tide
Then I’ll face the dark
and try to find my light

I’m gonna wake my heart
wake my heart in the high tide
Then I’ll face the dark
and try to find my light

© 2012 Aaron Clift Productions. All rights reserved.

Soon I’ll prepare to leave my sand
and sail in darkness
This time I’ll hold no anger
regardless of where I land

But I hear the rumbling near me
and feel my fear churn
Like waves crashing back into place,
clouds always return
to steal away my anchor

Many tides I spent by a palm tree
staring at dates out of reach
Foolishly waiting for the fruit to fall
when nothing stirs on the beach

But if I ate them all
would my heart really be free?

Maybe I belong in the sea
‘cause sand can’t keep me afloat
If I could be the captain of my own fleet
maybe I could rebuild my hope

I could hold the anchor close to the boat
and let my heart go free
It says to me:

“Look to the edge of the water
past the reefs where horizons blur
there’s an island of peace where the air grows warmer
When your fears don’t stir
you’ll find the eye of the storm”

Winds laugh and tell me it’s over,
The cyclone says that I’ll fail
“You can stay here or voyage with a broken sail –
either way you’ll still run for cover”

But I can’t stall any longer
and I won’t fall any lower

I look to the edge of the water
past the reefs where horizons blur
there’s my island of peace where the air grows warmer
The clouds may form
but I’ll try to find the eye of the storm

I leave sand and float through the ocean
where darkness tries to break me again
Maybe I’ll find calm and maybe I won’t
But at least I’ll have some hope

“Keep sailing to the edge of the water
past the reefs where horizons blur
there’s an island of peace where the air grows warmer
The clouds may form
but don’t go back to the shore

When your fears don’t stir
you’ll find the eye of the storm”

© 2012 Aaron Clift Productions. All rights reserved.