Clearing webs from the hovel
A blistered hand on the handle of a shovel
I've been digging too deep, I always do
I see my fate on the surface
I look a lot like Narcissus
A dark abyss of an emptiness
Standing on the edge of a drowning blue

I look behind my ears for the green
And even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose

Had a lot of good intentions
Sit around for fifty years and then collect a pension
Started seeing the road to hell and just where it starts
But my life is more than a vision
The sweetest part is acting after making a decision
I started seeing the whole as a sum of its parts

And I, I look behind my ears for the green
And even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose

My life is part of the global life
I'd found myself becoming more immobile
When I'd think a little girl in the world can't do anything
A distant nation my community
A street person my responsibility
If I have a care in the world I have a gift to bring

I look behind my ears for the green
And even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose


Lyrics submitted by aur0ra

Hammer and a Nail Lyrics as written by Emily Ann Saliers

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Hammer and a Nail song meanings
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5 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment

    Life gets you down if all you do is philosophize, you gotta live out your philosophy. My favorite Indigo Girls line could be 'The dark abyss of an emptiness standing at the edge of a drowning blue'

    EZEebson May 26, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    It's also about hard work. That making your beliefs happen takes labor, effort "a hammer and a nail."

    Smokleron July 24, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i think this song is about over thinking things. Sometimes you just gotta go out their and do instead of analyzing everything

    sillynapkinon August 16, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i think this song is about over thinking things. Sometimes you just gotta go out their and do instead of analyzing everything

    sillynapkinon August 16, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I’m curious, what does the line mean, "Glare off the white hurts my eyes?"

    wacrumpon March 20, 2021   Link

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