For A Dancer
by Jackson Browne
(dedicated to my Mother Lee)

Keep a fire burning in your eyes
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down.
I don't remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must have thought you'd always be around.
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you're nowhere to be found.

I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
I can't sing
I can't help listening.
And I can't help feeling stupid standing 'round
Crying as they ease you down
'Cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrows away.
Right on dancing
No matter what "fate" chooses to play.

Just do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own.
No matter how close to yours
Another's steps have grown
In the end there is one dance you'll do alone.

Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down.
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
Just as easy it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found.
Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
The world keeps turning around and around
Go on and make a joyful sound.

Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie the reason you were alive
But you'll never know.

From the album "Late for the Sky" by Jackson Browne
(C)1974 Swallow Turn Music (ASCAP)
All Rights Reserved

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