“A Painting Hanging Crooked on the Wall”

There's a painting hanging crooked on the wall
Photographs are fading down the hall
And every now and then
you still can feel so small
like that painting hanging crooked on the wall

There's a beat up old jalopy in the yard
it used to be the place you'd park your car
and every now and then
you want to drive so far
away from that jalopy in the yard

There's a barely working TV on the stand
it long ago belonged to your old man
it's all he left behind
and you still can't understand
the bills he left you holding in your hand

There's a rusty box of tools in the garage
a dusty torn award from some old lodge
a place he used to love
a place you used to dodge
like the rusty tools he left in the garage

There's a bleeding in the heart from distant wounds
and the healing that will come can't come too soon
you step out from the mire
and reach out to the moon
and pray you'll get the chance to change that worn out tune

So you write another poem, still accused
and tell another tale to stay amused
and though you hear the gavel slam
you still remain confused
at the verdict that you wear for feeling used

Yes,
You're just another prisoner of the past
you once believed or hoped it wouldn't last
but you never could escape
from the shadow that was cast
long ago, when  once you ran so fast


There's a painting hanging crooked on the wall
There's photographs a fading down the hall
and every now and then
you still can feel so small
like that painting hanging crooked on the wall

“Meet Me”

Meet me at the holligram
back to where time stood still
We'll buy new dreams at the old dream stand
them set them free to square the bill

Meet me where the church once stood
on the dirt road past the open sky
we'll lay down in the poppy fields
and hold hands once more, you and I

Meet me where the spirits dance
the crescent moon will lead the way
stone markers in the darkened woods
Softly, we will hear them say
Hallowed be
Hallowed be
Hallowed be

Meet me in the old north woods
where colored leaves drift to the ground
the whistling wind will sing the song
with silence as the constant sound

Meet me where the night dogs howl
sad and lonely in the dark
singing for a lover lost
calling to the crystal stars
Hallowed be
Hallowed be
Hallowed be

Meet me where the rolling waves
kiss the earth of sand and shore
to tell the tale of men in ships
lost and gone forever more

Meet me in the city streets
Brownstones that were once called home
We'll draw a map of life and times
of past, present and still to come

Meet me where the birds of time
spread their wings to sail the sky
to show us signs of freedom's flight
to mark this place we live and die
Hallowed be
Hallowed be
Hallowed be

Yes, meet me at the holligram
near the corner of 12th and time
We'll sell our dreams to the gypsy girl
Then square our bill yet one more time

“This Dream”

I'm looking through the ruins to find Socrates
I'm thinking there's a clue he's sending me
to lead me to the forest green
Mountain meadows rarely seen
Answers to the riddles that have always been
part of this dream

I'm looking through dusty shelves to find Sophocles
I'm thinking there's something new he's telling me
That gives to me a sense of sight
to lead me through this darkened night
into the brilliant morning light to see
this dream

I'm listening to this Gershwin rhapsody
I feel there's s special way it's touching me
sending me above this rhyme
beyond the sense of space and time
to know a love so sublime and free
as part of this dream

“Prisoner”

I'm a prisoner of my heart
I'm a prisoner of my soul
of the silent nights apart
of your touch that made me whole
Of searching through the trees
to find the path I'd lost
of the overwhelming joy
embraced at any cost
of looking for the line
in the poem that you wrote
full of unfiltered truth
in a little post it note

I'm a prisoner of my heart
I'm a prisoner of my soul

I'm a prisoner of my mind
I'm a prisoner of our times
of the search for empty words
to fit in time and rhyme
Of the visions from my past
that haunt me in my dreams
of what's never meant to last
what's never what it seems
of listening to the wind
sing like old ceramic chimes
I'm a prisoner of my mind
I'm a prisoner of our times

Bound in chains
from the stardust that we're built from
Bound in chains
in the shadows where we belong
Bound in chains
in the deck this hand was dealt from
Bound to play this hand
Bound to sing this song

I'm a prisoner of my love
I'm a prisoner of my tears
of the long forgotten memories
from the long forgotten years
of the times when it was magic
when we held the magic wand
of the love that lasts forever
even as we're lost and gone
of the sight that keeps me blinded
of the blindness that's finally made clear
I'm a prisoner of my love
I'm a prisoner of my tears

Bound in chains
from the stardust that we're built from
Bound in chains
in the shadows where we belong
Bound in chains
in the deck this hand was dealt from
Bound to play this hand
Bound to sing this song
Bound to find the key
to unlock the chains all along