You Know The Night

You know the night I met you

My eyes had been

Looking for you all over everywhere.

Over low roads.

Down highways.

Bald deserts.

But looking

Without finding you.

That was it.

And the season why this was so

was because

I had seen so much troubled

waters and storms on the streets.

And this caused me

To want to do

Something about it.

Something to help not only just us

But people of all kinds come closer and

closer

and closer together.

You know the night.

Your eyes had this same shine

about them I noticed

and when I first looked through

the wild wayward mist

I felt such a warm friendly cool

sunny smile

That I wanted to look in your

Eyes for all time

I just felt like you feel when

you feel like the angels are curling your

hair and you feel like the devil is

scratching your heel.

But if my jellied brain turns to

ashes and sand

There will still be such night smiles

across all the land

There will still be

Such faces

Meeting here in this dark

and there 'round the corner or

maybe the park.

It is when we meet this way

and look

at each other

we get hold of our scattered aims

and

Bring them

and beat them

and wrestle

and fight them

and heat them

and beat them and weld them

together

Like iron from the valley

and fire from the skies

This blast furnace heat burns

in our peoples eyes.

And from a raw aimless hunk

of dead matter

our love gives it vision

and love gives it shape

and it's born and it works

Like a new little baby

It sputters

It mutters

It goes and it stutters

and walks on the sidewalks

and falls in the gutters.

But it always and always seems

to move and be able

To get up. To raise up.

up on its feet again.

Did you feel this way too when I met you?

Did you look at me

and think

Here's me a guy

That hopes like I hope

and sees the same kind of new

dreams I see?

Because you wondered, I know

If your hopes could find shape in

the words that we used there

to work back the fog -

Your hopes and your plans for the

good of the people

Could all of your hundred and one

Dreams just as bright as the sun

and all of your wants and your hottest

desires

Find shape in the flow of my talk?

and there by ourselves while the bronze

statues watched us

We talked some. Kept still for

a time. Talked a little more.

Your hair had the smell of cleaness

about it and the wind helped my fingers to

play with your curls -

and the wind and the mist caused the

night to blow colder and we brought our hopes

there a little bit closer -

Hopes that we hoped

Work that we wanted

Jobs we were doing, aimed to do.

Quiet idle words, of the church and

the steeple. The union. The war.

And the world full of people.

And you gave my mind such a

deep kind of light

It blasted the fog.

It blew up the night.

It pulled back the curtains of

clouds from above us

and all of the stars came out and

winked at us

and I yelled up at the stars

and said

You stars! Go ahead! Shine as

bright as you want to!

Light up this round world and shine

if you want to!

And it was brighter than usual

and for some reason or other

The night

Turned off clear. And so cold.

It caused me to snuggle up closer

and hold

Hold on

Hold on to the ground we had gained.

Hold on to the new inch of life we discovered.

Hold on to the night.

We exchanged our dreams as we sat

there a while

word by word.

Plan by plan.

Mile by mile.

You looked a bit hungry and skinny to

me but

I had me the notion you'd soon fatten up.

You know how love is and you know

how dreams are. If you don't stay in love you

soon wilt away and you get sort of hungry

looking they say. So I thought you'd fill out

and look a lot better with a little work and

the right kind of weather.

You knew I was raily and some out of

shape. And you knew that my eyes and my

feet didn't mate. I was hunched and walked

crooked - but you overlooked this because

with the right kind of home life and care

my old carcass and brain could be good

for more wear.

Your grace of walk and action drove

me into fits. I tried to, but couldn't

think about anything else. This world

is an awful big machine and it moves

all together. No force on earth can

hold it back - and I am in all of this

and moving with it - and I feel the

motion and the rhythm of the universe

moving with these planets.

And moving the earth along with them.

And the earth moving the people

Along

With it

And the attraction of your face and

your form

Pulled me. Pushed me. Drew me.

It was ten thousand times stronger than

all of the rest of these

Powers multiplied by ten.

And I felt harmony and sweetness

and felt strife

And wanted to walk with you as my wife

Down to the foamy docks to ride a

good boat

Across the troubled waters of this

life.

You know the night I met you.

You know the night I met you

My eyes had been

Looking for you all over everywhere.

Over low roads. Down highways. Bald deserts.

I just felt like you feel when

you feel like the angels are curling your

hair and you feel like the devil is

scratching your heel.