SHOUTS IN THE STREET
Shouts in the street, I hear them as I’m walking home
Shoes on my feet touch down and take off as I roam
Dreams lifted up? So many pies in the sky
U-F(lying)-O’s? I duck them as they fly on by.
Tomorrow takes care of itself. Today has its trial and its call
Janus, he waits at your door, rising or breaking your fall
You’ve got your “Time” and secrets that love has betrayed
That long yellow line, down your spine which your feeling has frayed.
Take my hand. We may see everything we mean to be.
When we meet again, should it be under blanket of night?
All that remains is the matter of “choice” in disguise
Deep in the heart where paradox finds its resolve
Long bodies live. They’ve learned how to bend, to absolve.
Take my hand. We may see everything we mean to be
Am I with you or you with me? We have our time and take our leave.
Now desire is the tie that holds us fast to life
For the sweetness of the honey risk the peril of the hive
Now I’m running through your veins, in exchange I know your pain
All the lies have run aground and to this earth I’m bound.
~
THE SECRET
There’s a hole in my pocket I lose everything
If my life is a sieve then you are my drink
I am lightheaded, a kid with a toy
Makes me and empties then fills me with JOY!
It explodes into sun and is veiled by the night
And hope is reflected by stars in moonlight
Now your love and your hate looking so far away
Desperately touching note what I say
Here is the great secret: you and I are different
Splendid and divergent, now we both know.
To reach for perfection is perfect delight
It’s the art of the poet who loses his mind
Now your psyche works magic, drive where it wills
To come to your senses, a most bitter pill.
Descending into the vale I’ve got this dragon’s tail
Free it of every scale, warm hands by the fire
The easy way is rough. The hard way is just a bluff
Your evil demons shrink and cower at your touch: one fine touch.
There is no work down on the farm
Now only your danger will keep you from harm
Now we are what we know to be true
And what cures my pain may be poison to you.
IT WILL NOT BE LATE
I’m at a slumber party where sleep walkers roam
I heard her say, “You can do bad on your own.”
Shut down my head I vow poverty of speech
The flora growing green on my gnashing teeth
You make me know that “what ain’t mine ain’t mine”
I feel like I have been dispatched from time
Now there’s no wind so I will grab my oars and row.
So I start to laugh so hard I cry
It all goes away but never too late. It will not be late.
Let me tell you something about your other face
I see it smiling there behind a veil of lace
Mary’s dressing up her fish fillets
The juicy mango’s calling for her “blade”
To pierce the silence of the desert as it waits.
The virtue is there now just take it up
Waits through delay it surely comes
It will not be late. It will not be late.
Just to lose you gotta stand up in the ring
Defeat it trickles like the dreams inside your jeans
I know you think I’m a philistine
See the water changing into wine
Just a sip will turn the lights on in your head
You know I’ll do the least that I can do
The eyes behind my head are watching you
The cock will crown the next time I am denied.
~
OUT OF THIN AIR
When I woke up today I had all that I want
Everything that I did brought desired results
How could this be? All the rules have been changed
In the pool where I drowned I am swimming again.
But of course I am wrong. How could I understand
When my society tells me how tall I stand?
Then I take it inside and wait for life’s kiss
Which is sure to arrive ‘cause I’m riding my bliss.
What did I do? The world holds me up
Invisible hands grant the nourishing cup
Have I found a way that has always been there?
It seems to me it came out of thin air.
The child waking up brings the old crone to tears
Pushing through my disguise see the tips of my ears
How could this be all the rules have been changed
In the pool where I drowned I am swimming again.
When I blindly reach out to what I cannot see
Grace reappears and it rescues me
I’m not what I feel, I’m not what you think
I’m only what is and what isn’t in sync.
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
My face to the earth no distance, no vision, will I ever let go?
To ride with the wind to the point of surrender
To move thusly to and fro
Look to the sky watch it soar by stars shooting, casting night’s spell
Burning through darkness, breaking the silence
The drummer rides his cymbal bell.
Where have you been? What have you seen?
Where have you been my friend?
Where have you been and what have you seen?
I’m the return, you’re the send.
Like a disc that is stuck at the fade I’m repeating the info that I learned by rote
There won’t be no hanging ‘cause my guardian angels
Have rolled up and hid all the rope
Oh it’s a hard way that can’t urge the spirit to put on the mask of the fiend
But there was much dancing and laughter I wondered
Why some find this fare too lean.
Moments of drama invent the future built with the junk in my dreams
Spaceless and timeless, unconditioned
Here it is just as it seems.
You stand before me oh how I admire the way your ways are like mine
When I plead to the poet to dress you in sonnets
He drowns in his own rhyme
I swing back and forth at the eye of a needle
I can’t speak one word I believe
May I yield to the winds to sweep out this temple
Smash through the window, conceive.
DANGER & PLAY
It’s a feeling, adventure and strain
Just a gesture and it’s at you again
This kid’s in crisis, when will be give up
Weren’t you tempted the first time you shopped?
There’s a contest: you vs. yourself
When it gets tough put it back on the shelf
But you’re a man you live for danger & play
Too much danger today...not enough play, again.
We make vows but we never believe
Bite the apple, paradise you can keep
Make me nothing, show me what I’m made of
To push then get shoved, is this someone to love?
Chance of chances, the stakes are so high
Yet you talk to me in a language of sighs
Am I your captive or are you my friend?
You’re both so suspect, place the blade to my neck...again.
Can you stand, can you stand, man?
Steal fire, it’s getting out of hand man
Making swords, making shields, shredding paper
Momma cooks, momma heals, momma’s making babies
Playing dangerous games.
The last round’s over, red wine in your glass
A vintage bouquet, the cup will not pass
The salty taste of the sweat from your brow
Wash it on down the smile cures the frown for now
~
SCARED MONEY
Scared money don’t win! Scared money don’t win! Scared money’s no winner now.
Lined up for the lottery is this my chance to be set free?
You know I thought liberty was money, money
No time for the counterfeit, to the true I will commit
No more fear, I ain’t scared
Money don’t win, scared money don’t win, scared money’s no winner.
What do you have to lose? Only these phantoms
To take off these shoes in spring, walk free into autumn.
Beginner’s luck is always there. Come on up and breathe the air
Conditioning can be a snare. Experience directly
Dance the dance the song’s to sing
Ride the Ferris wheel, shingling
Through the fear, I ain’t scared!
The baggage I have dragged around I collected, weighs me down
From crooked wood this man is mad
And what’s carved from it’s not quite straight
But the power swirls around my heart
Squeezing gently, makes it start like I’ve never been alive
Instantly I am identified.
What’s really there to lose? Only illusion
Beating in childlike hearts, the pulse of the moment.
Can’t live for immortality, lasts a lifetime seems to me
No myth like security. Hold your breath you lose it
Gold is shining in the dark and words draw nails from the heart
Together we begin again.
~
ORPHANS
Staring out the window thinking of the days she left behind
Dreaming of the days ahead waiting for them
She’ll wait for the man to come
She’ll wait for the night to come, then run
She’ll wait till the time is right and then...
Orphan girl finds her pearl in a whirl.
He waits by the corner stop where he’s stood a million times before
Saving up for rainy days waiting for them
He’ll wait for the girl to come
He’ll wait for the night to come, then run
He’ll wait till the time is right and then...
Orphan man (hapless chance) plays his hand.
They meet in the general store
He loves the rose, she loves the thorns
Planning for a garden.
She picks up his pistol, he gives her his loaded magazine
Whispers turn to crystal.
Change of mind, kind not blind, realigned
Souls on ice, sacrificed...paradise.
~
GIVE YOURSELF AWAY
Behind the tree you hide I seek. Part the branches take a peak
You hid too well beyond my reach so you gave yourself away
You’re sick and you can’t find the door? Sister Lynn’s behind the door
Touch me and I am restored. You give yourself away.
My heart’s on the old lot where we used to park
Alone is a hard way to generate sparks
Sitting on my hands tomorrow we’ll see
Tomorrows ain’t nothing like they used to be.
The whole will as a whole survive. Thieves may have you compromised
Before they take you by surprise give yourself away
The world is always on the mind, it’s saving up or killing time
To taste the taste of life divine, give yourself away.
You are in my dreams free of the weight
Breathing the fragrance of worlds through the gate
Standing in your place to see as you do
Now this is a vista, this is a view.
The grape is crushed the wheat is ground, it’s off then on, it’s silence/sound
What was lost again is found when you give yourself away
I come for you but you pull back, it may appear the deck is stacked
We each receive that which we lack when we give ourselves away.
~
LONG TO BE LATIN
We spin on an axis as bold as love round a sun that’s alight with fire
It’s true our time is marked by the man in the moon
Don’t walk ahead, don’t walk behind, just be my friend and walk by my side
It’s real, this life is by in the blink of an eye.
I live and I long to be Latin as beauty rebels against time
I live and I long to be Latin
The cardinal wish for the scent of the red summer rose.
We have walked the dream palace of yesterday
Where myth is truth and the proof’s hearsay
Memories disguised by the ways that we wish they could be
The drives and input are well defined
Lies rolling off dying tongues chill the soul
Chained in gold we walk a lifelong line.
I live and I long to be Latin. I’m waiting to see my own eyes
I live and I long to be Latin
But what will I wear to the end of the world, my demise?
Upon the chipped dish the rich and pure fare of the love feast, kissing the sky
As we hold hands in a ring, the night to morning link
Contacts with the light
Be my friend, we can walk side by side
Don’t walk ahead you know I won’t walk behind
Though we stumble through our fears and tears
To the cadence and the tune of the spheres.
I live and I long to be Latin to live the fool and die the sage
I reach and intend to be Latin
To make vision real in the face of chance and circumstance
I live and I long to be Latin to take my stand against routine
I live and I long to be Latin
Where living at risk means I can see what others don’t see.
~
BREAKING AWAY
I’m in this special place in space, trapped in three dimensions
Feel I had too much too soon, the chip it is controlling
Was it like this yesterday? I’d question my ancestors
Bothered by the same old things, the unseen and the ancient.
Everyday this everyman struggles dawn till night time
The pleasures that he takes are few, the curse of his commitments
Lured to never-never land by whirring food processors
While painted women advertise the pampered look of leisure.
I’m breaking away, breaking away, I’m breaking away!
The boredom got so bad I contemplated euthanasia
Then someone threw a bone my way, enough o keep me going
Every time I turned I was someone else’s fool
I didn’t stick around for them, experience is school.
Though killers get life the slow-burn melts the ice
I’m not so keen but I have means to open many doors
Ideas burst to quench this thirst to be what I can be.
My vision is peripheral I’m trying informed choices
My urges have betrayed me, I don’t listen to those voices
I have to play a waiting game my plan is of the essence
Since I may not be the lucky one I’ve learned to jump the fences.
~
CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE
Cells mingle, toes tingle, skin steaming, moisture beading
Re-entry on the mind, tomorrow on the line
Germination, suspension, extension, dilation
Not to be contained, yet to be maintained.
In the morning on all fours, at midday you walk erect
Lean on the cane at dusk till inertia takes your breath away
Hey, heh-heh hey.
Strutting rhythmic, flamboyant, equilibrium challenged by annoyance
Constant in the storm, this fabric getting torn
Slow to function, at the junction, touched with chrism, the final schism
Coins upon the eyes, time to say goodbye.
In the moment is your chance, you can validate your breathing
Through games of chance we dance, we once had what we were seeking now.
It will repeat and recreate us, first we swell and then we shrink
Caught in this mania for secrets, not what we say it’s what we think
‘Cause down the road it never changes, the teeth still grind the eyes still weep
And if you dare to make a promise, be certain it’s one you can keep.
Don’t cheat me, complete me, this submission means no conditions
Heal what can be healed, nothing is concealed.
Reap your fortune, chart the sky, live your living with the wonder
May the hidden be revealed in your triumphs, in your blunders, yeah!
Hey, heh heh hey.
~
CHANGE IN THE WIND
Whatcha gonna do with the if’s and but’s in sight?
Whatcha gonna do when your secret wish ignites?
Are you gonna deal with the circumstantial stress?
Will you come apart when your living room’s a mess?
Change in the wind.
When you fly away will the climate let you down?
When you were at home your feet were on the ground
Are you gonna be on time for yur blind date with romance?
There is only one no second, second chance
Change in the wind.
The blind man may dance to the slippery strain as it always was, is and always will be
Enchanting to him when he’s feeling no pain
As it always was, is and always will be the same.
Getting you in focus will the camera have a feast
Or end up in a rush that the editor deletes?
Isn’t it enough you have something neat to do
Having all the boys and girls to love and envy you?
Foreign no longer.
You function without soul while nature plays dumb
Wherever you see pie one can find your thumb
The years slide, you spoil, your memory springs leaks
The thread snaps, voila, you’re resting in peace.
Don’t let the future make a fool of you, take your whims and convert them into fuel
You can’t slow down ‘cause you’re fire on the ice
Outside in the alley you will role the dice
Change in the wind, change in the wind
There’s a change in the wind.
~
TILL DEATH DO US PART
“I do” words ring of wedded bliss and gamblers fear the risk of sacrifice supreme
The worst life and the best, till death do us part
Fused with rivets through our tongues, draw from our common fund
A grip without release on twins so Siamese, till death do us part.
If you tear me down make sure that you hold me up, baby
Why oh why must we rely on our breaking apart?
Someone fixed this fight where the tough are tenderized
Secure from lovers’ pain, till death do us part
It’s the bottom against the top, the quarrel never stops
Keeps us warm at night as permanent strangers.
When I take you down I’ll make sure that I raise you up, baby
Lie for lie, an eye for an eye?
If we’re the same, baby, we’re both the same darling
Why oh why must we rely on our breaking apart?
Lost in the mist I breathe your breath of chance
Where sparkling eyes turn stillness into dance
Out of this haze we ride the crest of breaking waves.
This love rejoices in the light and holds against the night
Now we stand face to face
Till death do us part.
~
LOST & FOUND
Dark in darkness, light is a stranger I stand alone before a fork in the road
Swallowed up by the quiet twilight, for the moment I am out of the way
The easy promise taken lightly, silent treatments in the third degree
Making room for the weary traveler, locked in silence, eyes cloaked by the shade.
Look! Embracing the shell of the past as if youth like an artifact lasts
Feel it fragment, watch it collapse, heart stung in a shower of glass
Lost like a child who lets go of your hand, like a stranger who walks a strange land
Tracing meaningless patterns in sand, the child has let go of your hand.
Not resisting, like a mirror filling itself with what stands before
Not in striving, not to argue, not in choosing, not to do harm.
If this is that and that is this the kiss is stolen with the risk
Of taking aim, of being hit by too much then not enough
Like water I’m not bound with string, I hear the night begin to sing
Calling sweetly, needfully with words I can’t resist.
Separate rhythms, a living pattern in a timing set by two hearts
A single vision, I see my lover reconciled the years melt away by a touch
At the boundary of heaven and earth, where enough is more than enough
The design is no longer obscure, every promise and wish are fulfilled
Found with all that you ever could be, fate hides my own destiny
Help me do what I must to be free, open my eyes, I‘m asleep.
~
DOT ON YOUR DOOR
You’re living your ninth life time is running out
The blood of the lamb has dried and lost its clout
If you show no mercy, no mercy will be yours
You’re dated and done for the dot’s on your door.
On day one they marked you, put you on the list
Embroidered a burning red letter on your bib
You move with caution, the trap’s laced with lure
You’re dated and done, there’s a dot on your door.
Cowards die a thousand times, the brave die only once
If ignorance is bliss, may your joy be out to lunch
If you were meant to hang in life then you will never drown
Dodging the left, the right one brings you to the ground.
You’re using the right words, getting the response
Newton was right, you’re life’s a renaissance
Your impedimenta pile up on the floor
You’re locked in this room, There’s a dot on your door.
Kissing your mother, digging in the dirt
Hoping something of your life will take root and give birth
The vine seeks the light, branches reaching through the clouds
Where love will prune and crown you, relieve you of your shroud.
~
FLIP SIDE
Above this journey my thoughts fly
Carry my children waving goodbye (under spells of habit)
I gave up my daughter years ago, where she might be
I just don’t know. She left behind her black umbrella.
Come to feel how splendid the rain can be
A day in the dark with the coals kept alive for you.
Man of my sorrow bear everything
You’re sad and ugly, still you’re a king, gently rule a kingdom in exile
Gathering straw, filling your pack, which is the one that will break your back
If I look too hard, I just might find it.
Come to feel how splendid the rain can be
A day in the dark with the coals kept alive
Can we walk into the street of need
Ride empty roads through every stop sign?
To laugh every laugh is to cry every tear
Fishing for minnows I stand on a whale
Cross my heart and hope till I die.
~
YOUR LUCK IS AWAKE
The tighter the channel, the stronger the jet, now
I knew the time would come I’d curse the day we ever met, we’re in each other’s way
You grab my blouse as I run away, your last defense is that you’ve been betrayed.
Your lies give birth to this violent life so you hide your face even from the night
You want it bad so you make it up, cheated out of risk the Razor cuts with love.
Go back to sleep, your luck is awake
Despised and desired
There’s no way to escape
You build division into your life like this by day, like that by night
The tension rises, have you met your match? An itch your finger just can’t scratch
So let it work, breathe it in and out, your dragon eyes tell what you’re about
Distress the mind plotting your revenge for the private hurt than never ends.
These easy tears are payments in kind, is there a way back that is not mined with pride?
The walls must go for they’re in decay. What is the fear you hide inside your hate?
The tighter the channel, the stronger the jet now
If it gets any tighter I will choke to death
With a kiss so tender plough this earth
You dream of a shadow, let go of my skirt!
Love’s not blind, it can use its eyes, it never fails, disarms the lie
In a patient struggle it will be revealed, when you yield to truth the clue appears.
Go back to sleep, your luck is awake keeping the watch, a beacon that lights the way
I’ll send you away with a wave of my hand
Your secret will burn alive in every line.
~
DREAM LIFTED UP
(lyrics by Grace Hearn)
Stolen by my heart it’s here I stand
Wishing I could calm my own voice, carry my own weight
Take this love into my hands
Getting burned by all that touches this skin
Never knowing I had the power to heal within
As I rise to meet the call I only start again to fall
Swallowed up by the ground beneath my feet
This life lies buried somewhere underneath
The weight of all that I don’t know
And the fear I’ll never, never reach my home.
If I could trust that other side of me
The one that minds its own heart, follows its own way
If I could open up and let the others in without pretending
Without defending what or where I’ve been
And when I start to fall I only rise to greet the call
Of a dream lifted up by what could be
Blinded eyes are all I need to see
What else to do when the only way to turn is the one that’s been calling all along.