by Bob Dylan



Of war and peace the truth just twists

Its curfew gull it glides

Upon four-legged forest clouds

The cowboy angel rides

With his candle lit into the sun

Though it's glow is waxed in black

All except beneath the trees of Eden



The lamp post stands with folded arms

It's iron claws attached

To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail

Through its shadow's metal badge

All in all can only fall

With a crashing but meaningless blow

No sound ever comes from The Gates of Eden



The savage soldier sticks his head

In the sand and then complains

Unto the shoeless hunter who's gone deaf

But still remains

Upon the beach where hound dogs bay

At ships with tattooed sails

Heading for The Gates of Eden



The time rusted compass blade

Aladdin and his lamp

Sits with Utopian hermit monks

Side saddle on the golden calf

And on their promises of paradise

You will not hear a hush

All except inside The Gates of Eden



Relationships of ownership

They whisper in the wings

To those condemned to act accordingly

And wait for succeeding kings

And I try to harmonize with songs

The lonesome sparrow sings

There are no kings inside The Gates of Eden



The kingdoms of experience

In the precious winds they rot

While paupers change possessions

Each one wishing for what the other has got

And the princess and the prince discuss

What's real and what's not

It doesn't matter inside The Gates of Eden



The foreign sun it squints upon

A bed that is never mine

As friends and others, strangers

From their fates try to resign

Leaving men holy and totally free

To do anything they wish to do but die

And there are no trials inside The Gates of Eden



At dawn my lover comes to me

And tells me of her dreams

With no attempts to shovel the glimpse

Into the ditch of what each one means

At times I think there are no words

But these to tell me what's true

There are no truths outside The Gates of Eden