I am the wind

I sweep the streets

I call the rain to fall in sheets

To cool the blisters in my heart

To ease the torture in my feet

I sing the anthem of silent people

The song that has no words

I am the dancer in that dream

The steps that can't be heard

I am the dust

I am the mill

I am the wine the sweetness and the swill

I am the one who takes a drink

And I am the one who never will

I sing the anthem of silent people

I am the dancer in that dream

I have no truth

I bring no friends

I sire no children to start again

For every raindrop falling

There is a river's end

I sing the anthem of silent people

The song that has no words

I am the dancer in that dream

The steps that can't be heard

©1974 Lonnie Knight Songs

If you close your eyes as you listen to this song, you can sort of see this story panoramically unfold, just like you were really there, really…

This is the story of a small boy named Sidney, and the dog who barely tolerated him for the sake of having a warm place to sleep, and a hot can of dog food every morning. The dog never once, in Sidney's first four years of grade school,  followed him to class, so one day Sidney tied a strong rope around the hound's neck and dragged him all the way to P.S. 127.

Arriving there ahead of his classmates (who hated him), he untied the dog, and stood over him as his classmates and teacher (who didn't care a whole hell of a lot for him either) arrived, and Sidney started yelling, "You bad hound, you're not supposed to follow me to school, now go home.” Whereupon the dog (who was a lot smarter than Sidney, and most of his classmates for that matter) jumped up and bit old Sid in the nose, and left ear, and just below the jugular vein. Sid's classmates rushed to the stricken lad’s side yelling, "Nyah, nyah (sic) hey, Sidney, didn't you feed your dog today?”

Meanwhile, the smiling canine licked his chops and waltzed off with the teacher, and neither of them were ever heard from again. Rumor has it that they're married, or at least living together, somewhere in South Carolina.

As for Sidney, he got a job in a side show in El Paso, drinking grape juice through his nose, and spouting wine out of his left ear from a squeeze bottle he keeps in a fold of loose skin just below his jugular vein. Everybody in El Paso thinks he's crazy, and he still doesn't have any friends.

Always find the time bus station waiting room

For a lonely ride to nowhere

So far from home I used to know

Windblown slowly walk along another old stone

Nowhere so far from home

Seems like I never get there

Spend another day goodbye to somewhere

Fading away to learn a word I've never heard

Never get to use but l'm losing nothin’

Nothin’ but days to look back on

And question their passing

Life everlasting's a dream that I've seen

Days without number no waking no slumber

And here's one more ticket stub

To show where I've been

Just to show where I’ve been

Always take the time friendly smile

Touching on a wild chance to be someone

So far from home that disagreed let go baby

Don't know baby go slow baby

Once more once more alone

Stoned again my lonely friend

One more dead end coughed up on the sidewalk

Can't feel the tears like salty raindrops come

And beat the days on a silent drum to warn me

Days turn to years to look back on and question their passing

Life everlasting like smoke on the wind

Years without number no winter no summer

And here's one more broken heart to show where I've been

Just to show where I’ve been

Some roads never bend

Some songs never end

©1974 Lonnie Knight Songs

Abel let the cat outside and loosened his suspenders

Sat down with his pipe

And let his stories sweep away the cares

He'd always get to talking

When the evening breeze was blowing

While his wife would sit there sewing

In the big chair by the stairs

Unaware of the Indians and the dusty brown foot soldiers

Shadows ‘round to light the night to ease

The time in a small New Jersey town

Abel was a farmer and the earth was his protector

The good sun was his father and the green fields bore his sons

Now with all the good black topsoil

In his heart and in his fingers

Still his gypsy spirit lingered on a dream

Bright as the sun to be on the run

With the Indians and the dusty brown foot soldiers

Shadows 'round to the light

The night and ease the time in a small New Jersey town

While the Jersey turnpike ran right outside the door

Still he lived his life on smaller roads

From the farm to the family store

And he cried Oh Lord, help me now

I've tried to understand this life you gave me

Oh Lord in the end I beg of you what glory will you save me

Abel was a farmer 'til the seasons look his vision

Came the winds and their cold decision

And gave him shadows for his eyes

And then he sat down and he died among his children in the garden

Made his peace with Mother Nature

Now he's run off with the tribe

With the Indians and the dusty brown foot soldiers

 Shadows 'round to light the night

To ease the time in a small New Jersey town

While the damn old turnpike ran right outside the door

Still he lived his life on smaller roads

From the farm to the family store

And he cried oh Lord help me now

I've tried to understand this life you gave me

Oh Lord in the end I beg of you

What glory will you save me will you save me

©1974 Lonnie Knight Songs

There's a man in the sand sailing his life away

With the eyes of a child who has seen more than his days

The tears of a woman whose fears are each sound in the night

And his answers were never right

I live in a bottle I live in a paper back shell

With one eye to see through and

One wing to carry me very well very well

I'm haunted by an old lover's shadowy face on my wall

She said look out boy you're bound to fall

Why don't you go home you're bound to fall

How can you say there's a way home

When all of your damn dreams have gone wrong

Love there's a way tell me there's a way

I need to know something now everything's gone gray

Love is there time love can we find a way to go home

Love no love no love am I blind

Down to the seaside I thrill to the roar of this shell in my hand

Waiting for high tide and lying alone in the sand

Gone are the sunny-skied dreams that I dreamed as a child

Lost a family in the wind and I'm running wild

Lost a family in the wind and I'm running wild

Running wild

Love there’s a way tell me there’s a way

I need to know something

Now everything’s gone gray

©1974 Lonnie Knight Songs

Can you  make me laugh before I make you cry

Open up my eyes and bend this bitter smile

I still remember how to laugh

Put the stars back in my eyes if you‘re so wise

Could you surprise me

Who could take her place

Would you take mine

I had a life before could you make it shine

You’re just a face to me today

Would you take the chance and say you understand me

Or just glad hand me

But I’m really not that hard to please

But sometimes sugar makes me sneeze

And sometimes I can’t see too clearly if you lie

Still I’d like to think you care

I’m standin‘ here you’re standin‘ there

If you got more then we will share it

But if not we might still bear it

If we try if we try

I still think livin‘s fine I’m lookin‘ for my own

Been said a thousand times a house is not a home

So if I’m goin‘ home with you

I’d like to know just what you’ll do

Try to know me if you show me

You can make me laugh

©1974 Lonnie Knight Songs

I want to be a child forever and always

In sunshine and small ways

In bright dusty hallways I want the lamplight

To shine out so brightly from high up above me

Higher than I can see

And I want to be three feet tall

But on top of it all lost in the childsmiles

May I please for a while

May I please for a while

I want to kick off this age and that cough

And bend to the new ground

And thrill to each new sound

And once again be up and running so freely

Where no one can see me

That's what I'll be and I want to be very small

Just a child on a wall lost in the childsmiles

May I please for a while

And I wanna be very small

Just a child on a wall

Lost in the childsmiles

May I please for a while

May I please for a while

Can I please for a while

©1974 Lonnie Knight Songs

Tina she's a laughing time in summer

Sits upon a sylvan sky in a land of rainbows

Bright before the morning

And golden eyes cry a single tear

To help the time in passing

Tina dance Tina run

Tina make the sky your home

Even though you're all alone

Tina she's imprisoned by her sunlight

Rides upon a mistral fell the wind

The only lover there to greet her

And golden eyes cry a single tear

To rain upon the autumn

Tina sing  jeremiad

Tina lie upon your clouds

Very lonely and very proud

Tina flies alone and brings you joy in slumber

Tina cries for freedom Tina longs to die

And she cries to you in silence who's your lady

Who’s your lady

Tina was a laughing time

A rain bridge in the darkest sky

Alone to the magic of my dreaming

And Golden Eyes closed forever

Long before you'd known them

Tina dance to the sky to each life a time to cry

Tina smile Tina die fare thee well Golden Eyes

©1974 Lonnie Knight Songs