Not Lost

On a highway

not lost

Looking for an innocence

I might drive all night Past the people
The exit signs

I might pray for everyone

I might cry at the break of dawn

I’ve been listening from way out here

I’ve been watching from way out here

I might write it all down
I might burn it to the ground —-

See the hawk on the power line

Will he get his Will I get mine

Pink light in the bare trees

What is being asked of me?

©2024 Jennifer Jane Niceley

Made of Tears

I came here as a stranger

Among your least considered

Unprotected from forces in this world

I prayed to become a flower

Allowed to die and disappear Regenerate, recover
Get a handle on the situation here ——

Oh all of these endless searches

For what was lost, left behind

Something taken, forsaken, stolen, defiled

Ah but one day all of these beautiful, broken pieces will unite
And come together like an ocean

Made of tears

©2024 Jennifer Jane Niceley

Gold Dust

Gold was kicked Into the dirt
Dust in the shadow

Ghost of a road to follow Nowhere —
No one knew why
No one cared

Why the songbird disappeared

The kids are high
They flirt with death
Wild geese fly in all directions

Was it lost in the dark? Beat down, broken

Pushed back, left out

Forgotten

Gold Dust Gold Dust

No one knew why
No one cared
Why the songbird disappeared

Kids are high
They flirt with death
Wild geese fly in all directions

Was it lost in the dark? Beat down, broken

Pushed back, left out

Stolen

Gold Dust Gold Dust

©2024 Jennifer Jane Niceley

Winter Song

I saw myself from a far off place What is this reclamation?
Let me turn, let me change
Let me fade, then burn bright again

Let me sleep
Let me disappear
Let me dream between the stars —

The body’s weak but the spirit’s strong

Let me sing my winter song —

May I be so bold to rise
Out of the shadows, into the light?

The horses hooves will make no sound

As we ride across the land

Searching for signs of life

We will circle every fire...

Oh I saw myself in a far off place What is this taking shape?
I saw myself in a far off place What is this reclamation

©2024 Jennifer Jane Niceley

Desert Dreams

Did the body know before the mind?
You took it all — now what’s yours is mine

No wolves in the distance

but faces everywhere —-

Did I come here to remember

Did I come here to forget

Did I come here to acknowledge

the living and the dead ?

These desert dreams are hard to explain
But these desert dreams are all that made sense

And I came to be found

No longer hidden —-

To inherit such emptiness

can lead you down a road that never ends

I look to the sky
past the limits of my mind

These desert dreams are hard to explain

These desert dreams are all that made sense

And I came to be found

No longer hidden

©2024 Jennifer Jane Niceley

Built to Last

There are times that you can beckon. There are times when you must call

You can take a lot of reckoning
But you can't take it all

There are times when I can help you out. And times that you must fall
There are times when you must live in doubt And I can't help at all

Three blue stars rise on the hill Say no more now, just be still

All these trials, soon be past Look for something built to last

Wind held by a collar
Yes, a cloud held by the breeze
You can walk on coals of fire
But sometimes you must freeze There are times when you offend me And I do the same to you
If we can't or won't forget it
Then I guess we could be through

One blue star sets on the hill Call it back, you never will
One more star sinks in the past Show me something built to last

Built to last til time itself

Falls tumbling from the wall Built to last til sunshine fails And darkness moves on all
Built to last while years roll past Like cloudscapes in the sky Show me something built to last Or something built to try

There are times when you get hit upon Try hard but you cannot give
Other times you'd gladly part
With what you need to live

Don't waste your breath to save your face When you have done your best
And even more is asked of you
Fate will decide the rest

All the stars are gone but one Morning breaks, here comes the sun

Cross the sky now, sinking fast Show me something built to last

Writer(s): Garcia Jerome J, Hunter Robert C

Flight Patterns

I see flight patterns in my mind Invisible patchwork, adorning the sky
I hear the sound of wings

Through the night through the day
Tiny hearts beating so fast through my brain

Don’t tell me it’s

Impractical

Debatable

Mythical

Like fenceless land, old forests, wild rivers—

Weaving through worlds unrecognizable Will we all fall together

through the smoke and the wire?

Still, somewhere a Cuckoo calls for the rain
Trying to lead us back home again

Don’t tell me it’s
Impractical
Debatable
Mythical —

Like fenceless land, old forests, wild rivers—

©2024 Jennifer Jane Niceley

Snakeskin

I took the light

I took the dark

the medicine, the poison

Say goodbye now, to what is done

Welcome in, a new season

Arms outstretched, feeling for the edges

Seems like love, and sorrow too
just touch my skin, then
keep passing through —-

Would you take my hand, lead me back
The right direction, on the mountain path

See the snakeskin
in the grass
Hurry, come on, see the clouds moving fast —

Arms outstretched, feeling for the edges

Seems like love, and sorrow too
just touch my skin, then
keep passing through...

I take the light

I take the dark

the medicine, the poison

©2024 Jennifer Jane Niceley

From the EP Depending on the Light

BRIGHTER

I came a long way 

To cry 

To climb the highest mountain 

I could find 

And way up on a windswept, steep and stony ledge 

I get to sleep up on a big high bed 

And as winter slowly becomes spring

All my tears will have anointed everything 

Higher, higher, higher 

Higher and higher and higher 

Now don’t think for a moment 

I’ve forgotten you

So many nights my heart’s cried out 

Just for you 

But I don’t want to try and change you 

Darlin I don’t blame you

You said you always knew, I’d fly away 

And though winter’s bound to become spring 

I cannot promise you   anything 

Lighter, lighter, lighter 

Lighter and lighter and lighter 

I came a long, long way 

To cry 

To walk alone 

Along the Platte River side 

And way out on a windswept, steep and stony ledge 

I get to watch the sky turn pink and red 

Brighter, brighter, brighter 

Brighter and brighter and brighter … 

© 2020 Jennifer Jane Niceley, BMI

TURN TO YOU 

As the flower turns to fruit 

I’ve turned away

I’ve turned to you 

Now watch the days

Rush by again

Like water running from the dam 

From the outside 

Of the wide world 

To the inside 

Of the river bend 

Still willing to try my hand again 

Like sowing seeds in the wind — 

It’s a long walk 

From the valley 

Twisting through strange countryside 

Always something lost 

Something found 

On your way up to higher ground 

Past the highway

There’s a freeway 

It never sleeps, it never ends 

You can drive straight to California 

And wind up right back here again 

As the flower turns to fruit 

I’ve turned away 

I’ve turned to you 

Now watch the days 

Rush by again 

Still sowing seeds in the wind 

© 2020 Jennifer Jane Niceley, BMI

DEPENDING ON THE LIGHT 

The stakes are high 

And getting higher 

Each day the wheels are turning faster 

I pay the price, the rising cost 

With love and hunger, pain and wonder 

I see you land on the valley floor 

You fly away

You come back for more…

When you climb the mountain pass 

Where sun and shadow collide 

I have to close my eyes 

Are we crossing — 

Depending on the light? 

Are you going, are you coming back 

Depending on the light 

The world is big

But it’s getting smaller 

Can I hold you all night 

Then a little longer 

I promise we won’t have to feel bad 

When you turn east 

And I go west 

Are we crossing 

Depending on the light? 

Are you going, are you coming back 

Depending on the light 

The stakes were high

And now they’re higher 

Each day the stones are turning faster 

I pay the price, the rising cost 

With love and hunger, pain and wonder 

© 2020 Jennifer Jane Niceley, BMI

TWO RAVENS 

We drove slow

Through clouds of dust 

Past red stones 

And wildflowers 

We walked down 

To the Cottonwoods

Sat by a little sparkling stream 

We watched two ravens

Fight the wind 

Dance with the trembling leaves 

I wanted love

So bad

I would have done

Almost anything 

Cry of a hawk 

In the distance 

I saw 

I saw it change direction

Now my heart remains 

A storm cloud 

On the plains —

Will my heart remain 

A storm cloud 

On the plains? 

© 2020 Jennifer Jane Niceley, BMI

From the album Angels, Demons, Red-Tail Hawks

WING TO WING

Jennifer Jane Niceley

Is it true -- we've got to be alone

to be free?

Is it wrong to wonder

what it'd be like

to fly wing to wing --

There's a power in choosing words

There's a power in turning away

But out here at the edge of the sky

I've just got pictures in my mind ---

Well I may have smothered some seeds

in the ground, with tears and desire

And I may have let the darkness

of disappointment, nearly put out my fire

But each season has its own surprises

And the storm clouds might just

give way to the sun --

Am I crazy

again

Or am I just

human? 

CHILD OF GOD

Jennifer Jane Niceley

I went back home again

I was looking for something

I was running from the world

I was seeking comfort

I went back to the beginning

I went back to my roots

I went back to the land

of bitter fruit ---

And I know I should've known better

than to look so long, in vain

I just kept walking in circles

through the fog, and the rain --

Through the fog, and the rain. 

There's fire and there's water

And sometimes you've got to choose

What is your heart's true desire

What are you not willing to lose --

 I hear voices on the wind

They're saying Wake up from the dream -

They're saying You are a child of God --

You were born free -

You were born free -

DESERT PLAIN

Jennifer Jane Niceley

To dwell on the border

can be a way of life

Borders keep changing

so you learn to travel light --

And if you meet another out there

who matches your flame

Full of tender desire and no promises to break -

You just take what you need

And you give what you can

And you rest for a moment, in the language

you know you both best understand --

Stranger, like a brother, like a lover, like a friend

Stranger, like a brother, like a lover, like a friend ---

When you've walked through fire

only the core of you remains

A wide open heart can become

a desert plain -

But what if we just let love fall down on us

like a gentle rain -

Give those flowers forgotten there

a chance to bloom again

Give those flowers forgotten there

brand new names --

Stranger, like a brother, like a lover, like a friend

Stranger, like a brother, like a lover, like a friend

HIDDEN GEMS

Jennifer Jane Niceley

Strands of sunlight falling through

tangled Cedar limbs

Always a door just in view

I know I must open --

Walking through a pink sky

Leaving the past behind

Things I thought were standing still

have been moving all this time

Beyond the walls, beyond the wars

Beyond the scars, beyond words ---

What if love's just an intersection

on our journey as souls?

What if I only have more questions

when I get to where I'm going --

Sounds of water passing over

stacks of ancient stones

Remember no matter how it seems, 

we're never all alone --

Beyond the walls, beyond the wars

Beyond the scars, beyond words

I'll be using my night vision

Still looking for

hidden gems

DOG STAR

Jennifer Jane Niceley

Will the Dog Star come back to us?

In its proper season, time and place

Will the locusts sing their wild lullaby

just as sure as night follows day? 

Will I step out of my silence

Will I walk into the chaos

Will I let myself look beyond the loss --

Maybe like a river seeking

the limits of the land

We don't remember the beginning

and forget about the end --

Wonder where love will lead me now

Wonder where love will lead me now

Wonder where love will lead me now

Wonder where love will lead me now

HIGHER POWER

Jennifer Jane Niceley

When you break apart

you break open

Doesn't have to mean

you're broken --

Put my faith in a higher power

Found the nucleus of my desire

Learned you can't transmute it

til you've owned it, first --

And the crows drop from the trees

Into endless, fields of green

I accept the beauty

I accept the pain

Will that mean someday

I'll be free? 

And the crows drop from the trees

Into endless, fields of green

MOUNTAIN SPRING

Jennifer Jane Niceley

Bubbling from the mountain spring

old wounds, new love

Shifting in the dying light

will I recognize my reflection?

Cut away, cut away

see what I've become

Don't look away, don't look away

from what's been done --

It's never over, it's never enough

We're just layer, upon layer of love ---

Dancing in the winter fire

old dreams, new visions

Angels, demons, red-tail hawks

keep on circling the roads unchosen --

A sister told me, she said sometimes

to find your way back out again

you gotta go deeper, you gotta go further in --

It never ends, it never ends, it's never enough

We're just layer, upon layer of love

We're just layer upon layer of love ---

ANOTHER COUNTRY

Jennifer Jane Niceley

There's been something beautifully fierce

about our love so far

The lows have sunk me deeper, the highs have let me soar

And I know if you could you'd help me find what I'm still looking for --

Now is this where life meets art

at the crossing of our hearts

Where the dawning day lights up

two paths, instead of one

And when you hold me tight, it's like being in another country

When you let me go, will you let me cross the ocean --

Is it wrong, is it right

the broken wing still tries to fly

And in the shadows of time passing

what will we choose to see?

Wild geese in flight, or the owl at night

Wild geese in flight, or the owl at night -- 

They say matter follows spirit

there is no other way

And the river shapes the land

by what it takes away --

When you hold me tight, it's like being in another country

When you let me go, will you let me cross the ocean

~~~

From the album BIRDLIGHT

NIGHTBIRD

Jennifer Niceley

Let the Nightbird sing

Let the Nightbird sing

Just beyond the windowpane

I believed in what I couldn't see

Now here you stand before me --

What do I do with this key in my hand?

Hard not to give you my power

When I come down will I miss the view

From my lonely tower...

Let the Nightbird sing

Let the Nightbird sing

Wait for what the new day brings --

Let the Nightbird sing

Let the Nightbird sing

I'll fall back into the mystery

The air has changed, the winds are moving fast

I turn my face away from the past 

Would you walk, would you walk with me

Through these forbidden gardens --

Are you willing to really seek

Such illuminations...

Let the Nightbird sing--

Guide me to the land of my dreams

Wonder will you come with me

Can you hear the Nightbird sing? 

GHOSTS

Jennifer Niceley

Sweat mixed with rain, tears

A few things remain

untamed

Caught walking in a field

I cannot claim

Beyond the claims 

of love

Oh the bonds of love…

Watching the water rise

Dammed up river rolling by

Released, running fast

Picking up pieces of our past —

***

When something small gets lost

And it goes unnoticed

What does it do

to the bigger balance? 

There’s the invisible

Over here’s the vanished

There must be ghosts 

all around us…

Watching the water rise

Dammed up river rolling by

Released, running fast

Picking up pieces of our past — 

Sweat mixed with rain, tears,

A few things remain untamed

LAND I LOVE

Jennifer Niceley

Standing on a hill

I see so many things

Crow in the field

Hawk in the tree

Fox on the bluff, on the run

Deer in the wood

Sun coming up

Land I love

Standing in the river

I see so many things

Reflections on the water

Worlds I cannot reach

One move and the fish all slip

Quick into the black

Reminds me of so many things

That are never coming back 

Standing on, standing on

the solid earth

For better, for worse

No promise of return—

In a dream I see everything lost

Nothing left

But the love that was felt

WHAT WILD

Jennifer Niceley

What wild is left keeps coming in

What wild is left keeps coming in

It’s summertime in Tennessee

And the vines and weeds own everything

Coming up from the cracks in the concrete

Standing tall beside abandoned buildings--

Rain, rain, rain, makes them stronger

Come a drought and none will last longer

Trumpet, Passion, Love, Honeysuckle vines

Pokeweed, Chickweed, Thistle, Dandelion

What wild is left keeps coming in

What wild is left keeps coming in

I see them filling up the ditches

All along the railroad tracks

In little forgotten corners

Among beer cans and plastic bags

They just climb over fences, squeeze through the sidewalk

Pay no attention to our little lines

All our little laws---

Makes me think about you and me

We’re trying to stay strong, we’re trying to live free

Gotta keep our hearts full of love

Let our souls shine no matter what

Say what we’ve got to say and let the world look away

If it must —

What wild is left

keeps coming in

GOODBYE KISS
Jennifer Niceley

When did you learn
life can be savage, and unfair
When did you learn
no number of tears
can bring back the lost lamb?
When did you learn
not every fallen feather
needs to be gathered…
When did you learn
although the road goes on somewhere
you don’t have to take it there —-

Well I wish I’d learned
long before this
Every breaking morn
arrives like a goodbye kiss …

Songs from the East
Birds I cannot name
bringing in a new day--
See how the creatures
seem to just carry on
in the face of so much lost

Well I wish I’d learned
long before this
Every breaking morn arrives now
like a goodbye kiss —
Unanswered questions
Unfinished visions
keep hanging around like fog
in the trees —-

STRANGE TIMES

Jennifer Niceley

Twisting river still cradling

this whole valley, all our vanities

Idle hands, vanished dreams

Paving over flowers and graves

Garbage settles between the hills

It’s okay, it’s how we live

In these strange times

In these strange times

Leaning against a Poplar tree

In a small, important wood

Animal tracks around me

Grace is what they say God gives

But will we remember to ask

Or just remain

bewildered

In these strange times

In these strange times

Surely the wind will continue to moan

for those who have lost

what will never be found —-

******

From the EP Body + Soul

One

Jennifer Niceley

One wanted to be two

Two wanted to be one

Came with the morning dew

Flew with the setting sun

So I erase the records and the roads

From my body and my soul

Lost to you now 

forever

Like a question

never answered

But things still matter like love

in this world

Oh even if everything ends—

Things still matter

like love in this world

And I’d do it, all over again

EARTHLY LOVE

Jennifer Niceley

The bee and the flower go together

Just like the bat and the dark

The seam that God has woven for the world,

we're tearing it apart---

But covered in the mist that comes

up from the summer storm

I'm casting my luck on this land,

I've opened my door ---

Oh Earthly Love

You know that big red sun is coming up

But there's a west wind, following us

It's gonna blow away

Every trace of us

The seed and the sparrow

Snake skin in the grass

The deer and the arrow

None of us none of none of us---

Nothing's here to last

Oh Earthly Love

I see that big, red sun coming up

But there's a west wind, following us

It's gonna blow away

Every trace

NOT LEAVING THIS TIME

Jennifer Niceley

So many hours lost to the fuss

Flowers and animals know better than us

Standing at the gate

With my heart opened up---

I'm not leaving this time

Winter comes with its ice and its gray

Dreams of Spring won't shorten the wait

Feels like everything's slipping away

But I'm not leaving this time

I'm not leaving this time

I'm not leaving this time

The wind will carry my fever away

I'm not leaving this time

SLEEPWALKING

Jennifer Niceley

In the morning light the spider webs

glow from the hills

And the fog will take its time to rise

from the river and the fields--

It's the soil, it's the air

It's the sky looked at, from exactly there...

I was just sleepwalking

through the world

Until I found my way back home

All my dreams were dreams of you

Your slopes, your groves, your twisted roots

Til I slept again, in solitude,

among your beauty

among your wounds--

And the time I was trying

to run so free

You were beckoning, "come,

tend to me"

I was just sleepwalking

through the world

Until I found my way back home

****

From the album Luminous

A LITTLE MORE

Jennifer Niceley

Sitting in this empty house

looking out, at the trembling leaves

I love to hear

the cicadas sing--

But somehow that bright, white,

late-afternoon sun looks like

It don't want to give, nothing

to no one

But all I've been asking

All I've been asking for

Is a little more,

a little more--

It's a wonder we can hear the freight train

when it blows

There's so much new noise

in the air

Sometimes I start to feel

I start to feel old

Wishing things would slow down,

just slow down

And all I've been asking

All I've been asking more

Is a little more

a little more

a little more

SHADOWS AND MOUNTAINS

Jennifer Niceley

For him

she sacrificed her visions

Like a lioness, laying down her strength

In the name of love

and passion

She's given up most everything

What sad quest

has this been

She asks, looking back

What endless night

without stars

Trying to make his eyes

a mirror

Now she's standing by the lake

looking in

Searching for herself

again

She remembers

as a little girl

Feeling just like

a rising star

Who knows where it was

along the way

But somehow something got

rearranged

Now she's standing by the lake

looking in

Searching for herself

again --

Last night she went driving in the rain

Said she needed time to think

Streetlights turned into starlight

She just kept on going straight

Into the shadows

and mountains

Shadows and mountains

Shadows and mountains

all around

BEAUTIFUL

Jennifer Niceley

All dolled up

Little girl's grown up now

Feeling tough

Longing for that deeper cut--

All the lights of the city

And the stars up in the sky

Cannot compare tonight

To the desire in her eyes

Oh you know it's hard to walk

But it's easy to run

Down the dark back alley

of love

He said let's take a drive

get out of town

Going fast, with the windows down

She had honeysuckle vine

twisted all around her mind--

And just like the orchid flower grows

better in the shadows

There were things she would just let be

Call it the cost of living free

Oh you know it's hard to walk

but its easy to run

It's hard to walk

but its easy to run

Down the dark backroads

looking for love

Past the bones in the ditch

sun-bleached, half hidden now

by the leaves

fresh from falling --

On to the fence laying down

by the path, half overgrown

that leads to the quarry

She was feeling good

until something in the reflection in the glass

made her wonder:

Am I beautiful?

Am I beautiful?

Am I beautiful?

DARK EYES

Jennifer Niceley

Grew up singing underground

Drifting off every night

to those sad, faraway sounds--

I spent so much time

spent so much of life

dreaming of the sunlight

instead of just

feeling it

Dark eyes, dark eyes

Do you still like

what you see?

Dark eyes, dark eyes

will you wait just a little longer

for me?

When I was a little girl

I walked right up

to the alter

I put out my heart out, gave it away

wanting so bad to believe--

Something about that scene

oh that little church

in the country

You know it still haunts my dreams

Dark eyes, dark eyes

Oh when will we remember

how to fly

Dark eyes, dark eyes

I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it

Nothing can stop me--

this time

STRANGE ANIMAL

Jennifer Niceley

I was always destined

to love you

I knew it when I saw the winter

in your eyes--

I wondered

could we

Oh could we keep each other warm

And now here you are asleep

so peacefully beside me

But you're still somehow like a

 strange animal

Oh I know I might never know

you completely

But I dare to love you

this deeply

Is it just another part

of the heart's bravery?

Bravery --

SYCAMORE TREE

Jennifer Niceley

There's a bank where the cedars and the sumac grow

They know, they know, they know

Wherever I go, whatever I follow

a part of me never leaves there

A part of me is always breathing

that river air

Oh the long afternoon

so still and quiet

stirred only by the hawk's lonely cry

so still and quiet

oh the long afternoon

Oceanic night

the sky's alive

the sky's on fire

Oceanic night

the moon shows all her scars

it's so clear and bright

Oceanic night

Hear the water over the stones

Hear the water over the stones

Hear the water over the stones

Under the Sycamore tree

giant, saintly

under the Sycamore tree

you begin to blend into things

you begin to blend into things

under the Sycamore tree

Holding on to a dream

Holding on to a dream

Holding on to a dream

NIGHTWALK

Jennifer Niceley

We can walk

as far as we want

We can walk and walk

The day's almost over

We can walk and walk

Past the horses in the pasture

Running wild, like they're still free

Like there's no fences around them

No boundaries--

And we can go to the end of the bend

Through the twisted trees

With the herons flying above us

In their slow, silent mystery

I want be

like that

I want to feel

like that

I want to see the world

like that

And we can go as far as we want

Into the dark

Forget where we are

Forget who we are

And when we see the deer cross before us

One stops, to look at us

You can almost see through it

It moves

like a dream--

I want to be

like that

I want to feel like that

I want to see the world

like that

LUMINOUS

Jennifer Niceley

Don't say a word

Don't say a word

I just want to gaze into your eyes

tonight

Wouldn't it be nice

tonight

to sleep out on the grass

It's been such a long day

in this world

We could lie out under the stars

Remember just how luminous

we are

But don't say a word

Don't say a word

Don't say a word