Bob Dylan - What good am I

What Good Am I?

Bob Dylan

What good am I some like all the rest
If I just turn away when I see how you're dressed
If I shut myself off so I can't hear you cry
What good am I?

What good am I if I know and don't do
If I see and don't say if I look right through you
If I turn a deaf ear to the thunderin' sky
What good am I?

What good am I while you softly weep
And I hear in my head what you say in your sleep
And I freeze in the moment like the rest who don't try
What good am I?

What good am I then to others and me
If I had every chance and yet still fail to see
If my hands are tied must I not wonder within
Who tied them and why and where must I have been

What good am I if I say foolish things
And I laugh in the face of what sorrow brings
And I just turn my back while you silently die
What good a I?

Just the same

It's all the same
Just a part of a name
The you and the I
The window and the sky

Well it's all just the same
The reason and the flame
The moth and fire fly
Fly to the light until they die

So why when she's a talker
Am I always a walker
Why when she is burning
Am I drowning in water?
Well it's all just the same
All just a part of the game

Then why when there's really no one to blame
Is it all just the same?

Castles

In the castle of my dreams

It was built above a stream

A long long time ago

We could have sung we could have screamed

At all the misunderstood things

About the love that should have flowed

But I stand by the wishing well

So deep the bottoms never seen

Like all the things that might have been

If I'd taken the other road

But I cannot lie

Nor hide from what's inside

You were right from your side

As I was right from mine

It's just a castle of our dreams

Built on clouds that float like cream

On the milky sky of blue

A long long time ago

Occurrences

The lights were looking sweetly
The moon so pale and meekly
I love to see the drunkard brawling
And to know that I'm not he
The sea is softly coughing
On the fish its scoffing
Light house turned on 'n' off
But not in bluffing like the tide

For truth sinks like a stone
The cats are chewing whiskers
And the dogs are talking bones
And I am speaking in whispers
To the matrons on the phone

I need a graveyards solace
To spice the life upon us
To rule with rod of iron
All these thoughts of being alone
And soldiers march in suchness of the
Expectations upon us
False antelopes of silence
That the lions hunt and own
The fledgling jungle grows
In tame pursuance of the rose

The Wind

The figs are burning in the bowl
The night time flowers hold their soul
They close then open
Their window holes
For the fir tree breeze
To waft air in

I'm in the middle of a tornado
And it blows, blows blows
Around my skull
But its calm inside my mind
My soul
Is whole
Like a cross wind

And the firs are blowing their customs
Their shaking down
Their interrogations
Like a cop in a New Orleans
Investigation
Sounding out a criminal

How innocently the wind now blows
So thoughtless in its mind
Its droll
Its happy to be on the land
Its happy to have left the sea
Its happy, its thick
As a sledge hammer
On a tree
Its thick not slick
Like an army of bees

Its drowning in stupidity
But its free this wind
Its free, its free
Of all logic
Or rules of the game
It knows none as different
To it we're all the same
It blows from the East
It blows from the West
It is a terrible beast
Or a welcome guest
It blows and it blows
Until it has us on our knees
And then from above
Its stops in a freeze
Like a whale opening its mouth
It is vast, unfathomable
Distance and depth
Going South
To the Equator
The warm antipodes
From the Winter Sport of the North
Where the ice bergs sneeze
And icicle teeth chatter
And breathes clouds of white breath
Til Snow flakes catch their death
And callous hands test
The warmest of vests

Plant life

Bratislava the cranes cried
Their iron lifts turn wind mill arms
So long ago
You used to be an actor on a tv show
You used to be a factor
In the government grow
But now you aren't
You're just a plant

So long ago
You used to own a factory
On prospects row
You used to be a
Satisfactory crop scare crow
But now you aren't
You're just a plant

Just a plant gone to seed
Just a tree shed its leaves
The crops they grow
Now you don't sow

None except the insurance salesman knows
Your secret
But you can bank on him
He'll keep it
Because he's your friend and in the
Final end he'll reap it
All the seeds you've sewn
All the things you've known
He'll steal it
I can feel it
In my bones
You used to cheat
But now your can't
You're just a plant

The fields are full
Of your breed
They blow like reeds
In the wind

And sun flowers turn their heads
To all the things you said
To all your scarecrows
You used to chant
Your war cries
Over foreign skies
But now you can't
You're just a plant

Master plan

When I live the life I live
In the way I want to
When shits been through the seive
And the golds found you
Then come to me
We will see the master plan

When the birds have flown the nest
And the long pigs gone down to rest
Then come to me
When you know who I am
And I will show you the master plan

Well it's been two summers passed
When I did see you last
And the goal posts have moved
From the football stand
But if you can hold onto your soul
And if you can reach the final goal
Then I'll show you who I am
I'll show you the master plan

There's been a tide that keeps on rolling
And snowball that keeps on bowling
And a fire burning in the heart of the land
But if you look up late at night
And see the myriad stars shining bright
For every woman and every man
Then I'll show you the master plan