Bethel Island

Tryin to find my way to Bethel Island
Someone once told me it was nice
Though I don’t know how to get there
I think if I head north I’ll be all right

Shadows growing taller
Fall across the dusty roadside
While twilight thumbs a ride home
To his summer bride
Nightime paints the concrete fields
With magic velvet darkness
And with her sweeping hands
She makes my dreams

They tell me a river flows around the island
That it has no beginning and no end
There are golden trees with golden leaves
And endless golden days
I’m headed there
I don’t know where
My heart will find the way

Sunrise calls softly now
To wake me from my slumber
Warm and dappled sunlight fills my mind
And if morning is my lover
Then I shall need no other
I shall need no other
All of my days

~~~~~
From March 1973
Bethel Island, CA, in the Sacramento River Delta is a real place.

If I Could

If I'd some money I would buy
Drums and flutes, rings and shiny things
If I'd a hammer I would build
A house on the hill that overlooks the meadow

And each morning just before sunrise
I'd walk to the field to touch the sleeping flowers
Let the dew drops wash away my sadness
And dawn kiss, dawn kiss my eyes

If I could I'd look where I'm going
If I had time I'd look behind
I'd learn the things I think are worth knowing
Wouldn't waste my life being unkind

If he were only somewhere near me
I'd bring him flowers, picked wild from the field
If I'd some sense I'd say I loved him
And stay with him, stay with him a while

If I could I'd look where I'm going
If I had time I'd look behind
I'd learn the things I think are worth knowing
Wouldn't waste my life being unkind

If I'd some money I would buy
Drums and flutes, rings and shiny things
Id I'd a hammer I would build
A house on the hill that overlooks the meadow

~~~~~
From October 1971