How to Build a Boat

It came to me in a dream:
A place to escape and be free
Away from the city and the stress
A vision of the waves and the sea
Ocean cradles me like a hand
A cupped palm, the expanse
On the deck of this ship
Serene where I stand
This is a home that I made
Pounded every nail into place
Painted the mast with my sweat
I laid every board, every plank
I could smell the salt, hear the noise
The swell of the sound, feel the poise
So I set to work
It didn't feel like a choice

Yo... Everybody knows of this, the way it feels
When a dream appears it's so vivid that you think that it's real
And the truth stings as you peel back the bandage and you awake
And try grasping for the dream so it never escapes
But it's getting away. You won't let it, but you can't help it
And everything that it represented has started melting
A puddle is forming and everything seems so foreign
The only thing that you can think to do is move toward it

It felt so vague when I woke
My vision of the waves and the boat
It felt like such a lark
But it felt like hope
Knew not how to design or to build
No talent and no skill
No blueprints and no plans
Pure expression of will
I can't explain what I learned
How it raised from the dirt
The frames that collapsed
The times that I wasted the work
All I did was focus
Through feeling hopeless
'til the mast stretched high
My magnum opus

Yo... Everybody is building something, a labor of love
That's coming together. We hope we're capable of
All the crazy stuff we imagine. Is it too much to fathom?
Is our passion enough to carry us over the hill and back?
And we want it so badly, give pieces of ourselves to have it
Like it's all that will make us happy and we're off to the races, laughing
The inauguration is fast and we've all tasted the tragedy
So when it works out, we're ecstatic so automatically

So it came to stand
From my own hands
Brought it down to the shore
Toes curled in the sand
I pushed out on its weight
Sailed it out in the bay
I felt the wind in my hair
Felt the mist on my face
So when the storm clouds gathered
I didn't think that it mattered
Until the lightning struck
Until I saw the mast shatter
I swam back to the beach
Then turned back to the sea
To watch what I worked for sink
To watch the death of my dream

Now, now, now. Dreams don't come true, come true
No. You have to make them happen
You have to want to, want to
Begin the chain reaction
Now, now. Dreams don't come true, come true
No. You have to shape the package
You have to want to, want to
Watch them burn to ashes
Now!