You Know The Night

You know the night I met you My eyes had been Looking for you all over everywhere. Over low roads. Down highways. Bald deserts. But looking Without finding you. That was it. And the season why this was so Was because I had seen so much troubled Waters and storms on the streets. And this caused me To want to do Something about it. Something to help not only just us But people of all kinds come closer and Closer And closer together. You know the night. Your eyes had this same shine About them I noticed And when I first looked through The wild wayward mist I felt such a warm friendly cool Sunny smile That I wanted to look in your Eyes for all time I just felt like you feel when You feel like the angels are curling your Hair and you feel like the devil is Scratching your heel. But if my jellied brain turns to Ashes and sand There will still be such night smiles Across all the land There will still be Such faces Meeting here in this dark And there 'round the corner or Maybe the park. It is when we meet this way And look At each other We get hold of our scattered aims And Bring them And beat them And wrestle And fight them And heat them And beat them and weld them Together Like iron from the valley And fire from the skies This blast furnace heat burns In our peoples eyes. And from a raw aimless hunk Of dead matter Our love gives it vision And love gives it shape And it's born and it works Like a new little baby It sputters It mutters It goes and it stutters And walks on the sidewalks And falls in the gutters. But it always and always seems To move and be able To get up. To raise up. Up on its feet again. Did you feel this way too when I met you? Did you look at me And think Here's me a guy That hopes like I hope And sees the same kind of new Dreams I see? Because you wondered, I know If your hopes could find shape in The words that we used there To work back the fog - Your hopes and your plans for the Good of the people Could all of your hundred and one Dreams just as bright as the sun And all of your wants and your hottest Desires Find shape in the flow of my talk? And there by ourselves while the bronze Statues watched us We talked some. Kept still for A time. Talked a little more. Your hair had the smell of cleaness About it and the wind helped my fingers to Play with your curls - And the wind and the mist caused the Night to blow colder and we brought our hopes There a little bit closer - Hopes that we hoped Work that we wanted Jobs we were doing, aimed to do. Quiet idle words, of the church and The steeple. The union. The war. And the world full of people. And you gave my mind such a Deep kind of light It blasted the fog. It blew up the night. It pulled back the curtains of Clouds from above us And all of the stars came out and Winked at us And I yelled up at the stars And said You stars! Go ahead! Shine as Bright as you want to! Light up this round world and shine If you want to! And it was brighter than usual And for some reason or other The night Turned off clear. And so cold. It caused me to snuggle up closer And hold Hold on Hold on to the ground we had gained. Hold on to the new inch of life we discovered. Hold on to the night. We exchanged our dreams as we sat There a while Word by word. Plan by plan. Mile by mile. You looked a bit hungry and skinny to Me but I had me the notion you'd soon fatten up. You know how love is and you know How dreams are. If you don't stay in love you Soon wilt away and you get sort of hungry Looking they say. So I thought you'd fill out And look a lot better with a little work and The right kind of weather. You knew I was raily and some out of Shape. And you knew that my eyes and my Feet didn't mate. I was hunched and walked Crooked - but you overlooked this because With the right kind of home life and care My old carcass and brain could be good For more wear. Your grace of walk and action drove Me into fits. I tried to, but couldn't Think about anything else. This world Is an awful big machine and it moves All together. No force on earth can Hold it back - and I am in all of this And moving with it - and I feel the Motion and the rhythm of the universe Moving with these planets. And moving the earth along with them. And the earth moving the people Along With it And the attraction of your face and Your form Pulled me. Pushed me. Drew me. It was ten thousand times stronger than All of the rest of these Powers multiplied by ten. And I felt harmony and sweetness And felt strife And wanted to walk with you as my wife Down to the foamy docks to ride a Good boat Across the troubled waters of this Life. You know the night I met you. You know the night I met you My eyes had been Looking for you all over everywhere. Over low roads. Down highways. Bald deserts. I just felt like you feel when You feel like the angels are curling your Hair and you feel like the devil is Scratching your heel.