3:39 PM

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.

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