For A Dancer

Jackson Browne

Keep a fire burning in your eye

Pay attention to the open sky

You never know what will be coming down

I don't remember losing track of you

You were always dancing in and out of view

I must've always thought you'd be around

Always keeping things real by playing the clown

Now you're nowhere to be found



I don't know what happens when people die

Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try

It's like a song playing right in my ear

That I can't sing

I can't help listening



I can't help feeling stupid standing 'round

Crying as they ease you down

Cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing

Dancing our sorrow away

(Right on dancing)

No matter what fate chooses to play

(There's nothing you can do about it anyway)



Just do the steps that you've been shown

By everyone you've ever known

Until the dance becomes your very own

No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown

In the end there is one dance you'll do alone



Keep a fire for the human race

And let your prayers go drifting into space

You never know will be coming down



Perhaps a better world is drawing near

And just as easily, it could all disappear

Along with whatever meaning you might have found

Don't let the uncertainty turn you around

(The world keeps turning around and around)

Go on and make a joyful sound



Into a dancer you have grown

From a seed somebody else has thrown

Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own

And somewhere between the time you arrive and the time you go

May lie a reason you were alive but you'll never know