Be What You Dream

I discovered my love of Frank Turner last October whenever he opened for Flogging Molly.  Seriously, who doesn't love a Brit with a tattoo in the shape of Texas -- yes, I'm completely serious.  All of his songs have great lyrics, but below is one of my favorites (Journey of the Magi).  It takes a great songwriter to include Moses, Odysseus and Balthazar in a song. 

Moses was old, chill in his bones

Falling apart, he knew in his heart

His time had come.

He lay in his tent, on hot desert sand

He smiled at how he would never see

His Promised Land

He sang "I could've lived and died an Egyptian Prince,

Could've played safe

In the end, journeys brought joys that outweighed the pain.

 

Odysseus sat, tired and alone

Always held out against all the doubt that

He would come home

Now he was here so found it strange

His wife and his dog, his son and his gods

And everything changed

He sang "I could have stayed and ruled an Ithican Prince

Could've played safe"

In the end, journeys brought joys that outweighed the pain.

 

Now, Balthazar rode for seven long years

Eastwards and far, he followed his star

And it brought him here.

A stable in ruins, some backwater town

To a Virgin defiled, no king but a Child

Too small for a crown

He sang "I could've lived with my gods as a Persian Prince,

Could've played safe."

Paupers and kings, princes and thieves

Singers of songs, righters of wrongs

What you believe.

Saddle your horse, shoulder your load

Burst at the seam, be what you dreamed

And take to the road.