What price do we place on freedom
in a world of consumer slaves?
Do we measure it in the lives
of soldiers sent to their graves?

Do we measure it in the families
who lost dads, husbands, sons;
and trust the politicians
whose solution is always guns?

Do we measure it in the comfort
of never knowing first hand
the way that a child feels
growing up in a war-torn land?

What is the cost? What will it take
for us to wake and see:
if this were the path to freedom
wouldn't everyone be free?

If hate will only breed more hate
and if war only breeds more war,
it ultimately begs the question:
is "peace" worth fighting for?

It started as a puncture,
but the seam slowly ripped;
a thimble can't protect
from a poison needle tip.

She tried to mend it
by making more holes;
the tear only grew
and grew out of control.

At the spinning wheel
her life would quickly dwindle;
frantic attempts to hem
were depleting the spindle.

What started as a puncture
of seductive sedation
fueled the abuse
of machined perforation.

"Don't mourn a living corpse"
were the last words she said
as she drew the needle
that held the last thread.

Time is not a war to be waged;
there can never be a winner.
At the end we're all the same;
the anointed and the sinner.

Take up your arms and you will find
you'll leave with less than you had;
all the fruits of your trying labor
will surely have gone bad.

Instead of changing the world around
try instead to be the change;
raise the white flag and you will earn
from a war you didn't engage.

If there's a lesson to be learned:
you need not hold the line.
All the anger and hate will depart
through the gentle surrender to time.

Why are we all just living to die
when we all should be dying to live?

I tell myself that this is it,
when the day is done.
When I wake I'll start anew,
but tomorrow never comes.

Tomorrow becomes today
more quickly than the last,
more quickly than the bottles empty
more weeks and months go past.

I buy the drink, the drink buys me
another day to run.
The demons waiting patiently
for when the day is done.

Tomorrow becomes today;
I waste it like before,
I waste it getting wasted,
but I'm wasting so much more

My friends, my health, my family
and those I cherish most;
watch the boy they used to love,
becoming just a ghost.

Tomorrow becomes today,
I may have missed it all,
I may have missed the last chance
just to never miss last call

I tell myself that this is it
when the day is done,
but the circle remains unbroken
and tomorrow never comes.

I, too, was once a man
in search of guiding light.
Hopeless, lost, alone
and ready to give up the fight.

When a helping hand reached out,
unencumbered by my weight
and took it upon themselves
to pull me from Hell's gate.

Self sacrifice; a virtue
that I would someday know
to be the shelter that I found
beneath the cape of my hero.

Confide in me, my darling;
I'll be your great escape.
It was written in the starlight
that I would don the cape.

Time changes all things;
seashells of the past become
the sand of today.

I knew you as a person
who wore daffodils in her hair;
dancing barefoot in the fields.
Always unpredictable,
your aura, like an aurora of Pandora's open box.
Recklessly compassionate in your unrelenting affection.

I remember when they told me
that you had passed away.
I watched as they returned your body to the earth.
They say that you're in heaven now,
but I don't know how this can be true
when every day I still feel you in my heart.

Maybe your daisy chain was a halo
and the fields that you danced on were clouds.
I think I finally understand.
I knew you as a person,
but maybe you weren't.
Maybe you were just an angel
that got lost along the way.

I'm waiting for the sun to rise;
going to cut these worldly ties.
Remembering summer reveries,
The autumn chill, the falling leaves.

Look at how we both have grown;
change for all the time we've blown.
Remembering the winters snow,
the stars above, the ground below.

Lets atone for throwing stones;
we can mend the broken bones.
Remembering that spring revives;
brings new light to cloudy skies.

Your lips are poison
But there is no antidote
To free me from bliss

When I look back at the things I had
The things that now are gone
I was planting seeds of division
But the trees grew tall and strong

I used to see for miles around
But now the forest grows
Beneath the shade of branches
Are secrets no one knows

At first it was a place to hide
An oasis on barren lands
But holding on to a past that's gone
Was just leaving time on my hands

For years I must have wandered
Abandoning all that was good
I thought I knew my way out
But now I'm lost in the woods

I come from a place
Where reality's a dream
We sleepwalk awake
Silent are the screams

Uncertainty is certain
Lies are absolute
Destruction just creates
The vital and minute

Consciously unaware
Of our intended mistakes
Reminded to forget
That giving only takes

I come from a place
Where eyes never see
Through the mists of illusion
Surrounding you and me

Every light that shines
Casts the shadows I fear

Every smile I fake
Stained by a thousand tears

Every word I speak
Cold and dead as my eyes

Every night that sets
Darker with each sunrise

The past; a conflict
We always have to look back
To find tomorrow

The flowing water in the dawns mist
Whispers memories of our youthful bliss

Carried away, downstream, endlessly
Into the open arms of a restless sea

This shall be the place we forever rest
Intertwined and woven like the cape weavers nest

Never again to know solidarity
Cradling the life of tomorrow is our apogee

I'm just a shadow
But light always shines brightest
Within the darkness

It wasn't the end
I closed my eyes and waited
But death never came

Between the divide
You just can't get agreement
In this time and age

I've spent my whole life
Building walls all around me
My shelter's a tomb

Release me from your spell
Sweet maiden of the night

Release me from my innocence
Surrendered to your delight

Release me from your body
A tapestry of ink and skin

Release me from yourself
Or I will surely sin

Release me from your words
Your velvet voice does speak

Release me from your hands
Your touch that makes me weak

Release me from your eyes
That are burning with desire

Release me from your soul
Or I will feed this fire

No one can make me
Give this part of me for you
I do it by choice

Here you and I stand
Beneath the cosmic graveyard
Engulfed in twillight

Love is like a sea
It will refuse no river
That stands at its gate

When our young days are far behind
No mountains left to climb

Will you look back across the hills
And see me standing still

When our eyes meet, it's understood
I would follow if I could

But I'm tied down by memories
That I could never leave

You'll fade from sight, eclipsed by light
Of a path you follow true

But I'll stay here for the both of us
To remember me and you

Crumpled up paper
Strewn across the bedroom floor
Someday you will know

Every tear we cry
Burns away the fears inside
Our flames grow stronger

Here on your doorstep
Am I to bid you farewell?
This cold Autumn eve

I am the sun
Who fills your world with light
You are the dark
That fades my world to night

But I see through
You can't blind my sight
You once were
Shining just as bright

You say we're strangers
But countless times you and I
Met along the way

The light will get in
Through my many cracks and tears
My imperfection

I'm always the one
Who upon the finger rests
Imprisoned by you

I'm not who I was
The streets they will remember
Even if I don't

We were once tangled
But all the ties that bind us
Have become a noose

I can't tell you why
All those things seemed to matter
Until there was you

You never worried
That I had come to depend
Upon your sweet love

After many years
You and I come face to face
To settle the score

She walks on water
Her ripples echo, become
The waves of my life

Our shadows soon fade
Here beneath the dying sun
When the day is done

I have seen the path
Where the blind men lead the blind
They gladly follow

You have since moved on
Well then maybe even I
Can learn to forget

Love, lust, desire
These are dreams that will become
My own cross to bear

I write down these words
That you don't understand

Beneath this shell
Is the soul of a broken man

Is this love?
Or only a dream

These pains and fires
Were meant to set us free

My heart is a place
Where a garden never grows
I need your sunlight

Somewhere on the way
I lost me, you lost you, but
We found each other

They always say that
Tomorrow might be better
But I'm still waiting

While the heavens wept
I gasped for air beneath the
Waters where I lay

It isn't too late
It's never too late to start
All over again

Silence says much more
Than useless words we have said
Many times before

I've been strung up
Put out for show
A line I could not tow

And so it seems
By any means
I must find a way

To hurt myself
And those I love
When I could rise above

And only you
The path is through
A chance to start anew

If you could lift me up high
Lift me to the sky
I would not tumble and fall away
I'd still be at your side today

If you could lift me up high
Lift me to the sky
Up in the clouds is where I'd stay
And watch my old life drift away

All that I ask
Is that my years
May not be lived in fear

So satisfy
My worried mind
And I can find a way

To love myself
And others too
Despite what they've been through

I ask today
You light their way
And someday they can say

If you could lift me up high
Lift me to the sky
I would not tumble and fall away
I'd still be at your side today

If you could lift me up high
Lift me to the sky
Up in the clouds is where I'd stay
And watch my old life drift away

Those who've died live on
In the memories of those
Whose lives they have touched