I have the power to over-react
Or make people feel uncomfortable
But I'm the one who has to live with it
I can't change the world
Only how you feel about me
But that might take a lifetime
I'm going to let you be who you are
That's the only love I know
I hope that's not disappointing
Honesty can be that way
So can freedom
Especially if you don't want it from me

Without knowing how it happened
A man’s heart can fail him
His father gone, his spirit dampened
His children near, for a while, but then
Gone as meant to be
Would it be worse if they stay
But while longing is an empty knee
The time must come for them to fly away

But which pieces did they take
And which pieces do remain?
There is no accounting of what did break
Only a heart that must learn to live again
To trust once again in the sky
An old friend watching as you return
Is to know life becomes a cry
As wings become flight and ashes an urn

To wait for the next great love
Is the way of heartache
The time we give to what we are thinking of
Is only what we decide to forsake
But did my every loss soften my mind
For I know of your sadness too
And in it I have finally come to find
That the time is now for me to comfort you

How meadows
   cannot green or divide hills
How lakes
   cannot ripple or remain flat
How tears
   cannot dry in time for another
How wounds
   cannot heal or blood clot
How truth
   buries its lies in unmarked graves
How revenge
   fears justice will turn its back
How reckoning
   fails to pay its debts
How love
   becomes hate by war
How children
   are born old by poverty
How dignity
   cannot calm itself
How eyes
   see knowing their crime
How memories
   only crack mirrors
How confessions
   ask only for mercy
How shame
   walks pretended of grace
How forgiveness
   needed to tell the truth first
How black men
   turn the other cheek

i may disturbed
but i'm not destructive
i can't let things go
just because they didn't happen to me
i may be idealistic
but i'm not stupid
i don’t want to live my life so cynically
i may be hard to understand
but really i'm very simple
you’re so beautiful
i can look at your picture so lustfully
and that could be all there is to it
but i could love you so easily
if only you would not change me
if only you would not compete with me
if only you could be proud of me
if only you could live with me
if only you could love me like that
isn’t that what you want?

I don't care how beautiful you are
If you don't use your mind then you're ****
You'll always just be the man you married

I watched the serenity, alone
Reflections of a mountain sky
I thought of skipping rocks
But it wasn’t my right
It would be unpleasing to the eye
So my stones did not fly
For upon still calm waters, to atone
Is to accept peace in its natural state
And not as something that I own

I watched the war, alone
Failure of the human spirit
I thought about the legacy of man
But what of my right
Is it something that I inherit
Or earn by merit
For upon rippled waters, to atone
Is to know a past life is not the fate
That must cast its dominion upon my own

she makes everyone smile
but she is so sad
in our shoes she walks a mile
if only in hers we had

she always cares too much
still she is down
it is her heart we cannot touch
in tears that drown

she is the light of loves promise
but darkness is her own
it is her heart that is always honest
but still her mind is stone

she can bear more than we know
but so much is silence
when the rain begins all that can grow
is her pains defiance

beyond your heart
where you are no longer yourself
where everything you’ve felt
no longer has a memory

beyond your past
where you are someone new
where everything you did
no longer matters

beyond your future
where you will not have to dream
where every worry
no longer lives

beyond your fears
where you have become so strong
where thoughts of loving me
no longer make you afraid