Cowboys who write songs are poets, they just can't admit it.
They share dreams, hopes and visions that poets have known for all time.
Their guitars are their shields, but they know that they can not protect them.
'Cause you can't hide your feelings behind chords and three-quarter time

They believe in their hearts that they're tougher than nails so they just sing
about how life's cruel, and you can't hope for much in this world.
There's no loyalty, love, there's no tenderness, luck or good fortune.
All your best friends will die 'cept the one who is stealing your girl.

They play lonely guitars and pretend it's not their song they're singing.
They believe that they never will miss what they never will own.
They live in a world of romance that is just an illusion.
Condemned to keep searching for all the things they left back home.

So they go through their whiskey, their wives, and their honkey-tonk women.
And they fill up their nights with the memories of what's yet to come.
They swear by the glory of solitude, all the time fearing,
that the glory of solitude's different from being alone.

Oh, cowboys who write songs are poets, They just can't admit it.
They share dreams, hopes and visions that poets have known for all time.
Their guitars are their shields, they should know that they can not protect them.
'Cause you can't hide your feelings behind chords and three-quarter time.

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