**[Verse 1]** Leaves fall slow like they’re thinking it through gold on the pavement, red in the blue Day’s turning colder but the wind feels kind like it’s brushing all the worry from my traveling mind I watch children running where I used to run shadows growing longer in the late day sun Every breath tastes honest, every sound rings clear and I feel every version of myself standing here **[Chorus]** Oh, autumn knows how to gather up the summers and then let them go Oh, autumn shows how the ending of a moment makes another grow I’m looking back and I’m looking forward too and both directions lead me closer to the truth I never knew **[Verse 2]** There’s a song in the branches with a trembling tune half sacred memory, half silver moon I hear all the promises I never kept and the tender little victories that quietly slept I think of old faces I don’t speak to now roads that we followed till the maps ran out Still the sky keeps writing in its amber script telling me to loosen my too-tight grip **[Chorus]** Oh, autumn knows how to gather up the summers and then let them go Oh, autumn shows how the ending of a moment makes another grow I’m looking back and I’m looking forward too and both directions lead me closer to the truth I never knew **[Bridge]** Maybe time is just a lantern swinging warm in tired hands guiding me through every season till I finally understand that the past is just a window and the future is a flame and the person that I’m becoming is calling me by name **[Chorus – final]** Oh, autumn knows how to gather up the summers and then let them go Oh, autumn shows how the ending of a moment makes another grow I’m looking back and I’m walking forward too and the wind that carries me onward is the same one that once blew through **[Outro]** Leaves fall slow and I fall with them soft and sure into something new.
