City of Awakening

The village with its scrambled streets and lover's lanes
The long lost rooms on Perry Street where love was slain
The drifting dreams that turned to ashes in the rain
The flights from fancy all along the vast terrain

That always brought me back over the bridge of sighs
The desperate dreams, the yearning and the lonely nights
In some far city where I salvaged sweet delights
Awake in sorrow, struggling to get back home

Over the rivers, through the woods, sore to the bone
The windswept beaches where my shattered dreams could roam

The dazzling stages, the bright lights where I dreamed and wept
Embraced by music where the secrets were kept
City of awakening, where I found myself
City of my youth, of poverty and wealth

Stripped of roaming figures, you are still alive
You will blossom, you will win, you will survive

Drunk in Greenwich Village, drunk in London Town
Drunk in mountain cities where the clouds came down
Sunlight pouring on my younger face
Light and laughter, fear without a trace

City of yearning, city of time
City of beginning, city of rhyme

The village with its scrambled streets and lovers' lanes
The long lost rooms on Perry Street where love was slain
Flights of fancy all along the vast terrain
That brought me back over the bridge of sighs

City of raw beauty
City of bright lights
Bright lights
Bright lights