As the daytime is approaching,
Awake as I lay dreaming.
With my clothes off,
Asleep with the light on.
Asleep with the light on.

All my thoughts lay in a bundle
Next to a story left undone.
Banjo untuned, African drum.
Asleep with the light on.
Asleep with the light on.

Is that a cricket in the kitchen?
Is that a tune left unwritten?
Was that you of whom I'm dreaming,
Riding horses through the valleys of Virginia?

[Bed back in the briar]

Soaked by the rain.
Asleep with the light on,
Asleep with the light on.

You are gone now, my dear departed.
Broken shapes of broken hearted.
As I'm dreaming in the morning
Distant fields of distant yearning.

Take me back to the river,
Back to the valley,
Or the highest mountain.
Asleep with the light on.

Asleep with the light on.