Adrienne Rich - Song lyrics

You’re wondering if I’m lonely:
OK then, yes, I’m lonely
As a plane rides lonely and level
On it's radio beam, aiming
Across the Rockies
For the blue-strung aisles
Of an airfield on the ocean

You want to ask, am I lonely?
Well, of course, lonely
As a woman driving across country
Day after day, leaving behind
Mile after mile
Little towns she might have stopped
And lived and died in, lonely

If I’m lonely it must be the loneliness
Of waking first, of breathing
Dawns’ first cold breath on the city
Of being the one awake
In a house wrapped in sleep

If I’m lonely
It’s with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore
In the last red light of the year
That knows what it is
That knows it’s neither
Ice nor mud nor winter light
But wood, with a gift for burning