My gorilla wears tennis shoes
He reads the paper and sings the blues
My gorilla, my gorilla
My gorilla, he's a sensitive guy
I took him out for a wedding, and man did he cry!
Tears all down his tie
Well, he can drive most greens from the back tees
But his putting brings him to his knees
My gorilla, my gorilla

My gorilla loves pork and beans
He rides a scooter in his cut-off jeans
My gorilla, my gorilla
He can make a mean souffle
He's great with omelets, but his specialty is flambe
So I eat one every day!
He's been working ******* a half pike
But his cannonball empties the pool
My gorilla, my gorilla

My gorilla is so much fun
He buys taquitos for everyone
My gorilla, my gorilla
My gorilla loves tequila with lime
He's taking classes at a school for mime
Cracks me up every time!
Well, he's looking cool in his "white face"
And his French beret looks oh so fine
My gorilla, my gorilla
Oh yeah...

I wish I were stranded on a tropical island
A tropical island with you
You could make art from coconuts and starfish
Yeah, coconuts and starfish might be a good place to start

And I could build a crude instrument
Out of a conch shell and driftwood
And tightly roll a papaya leaf to use for a string
Or two
Then I could play and you could sing
We wouldn't want for anything
Serenading each other by the light of the moon...

Every evening we could snuggle underneath the stars
You could be Venus, I could be Mars
We could lay our differences aside (except the good ones)
I'm safe in you, you're safe in me,
No need to hide

I wish I were stranded on a tropical island
A tropical island with you
And we'd bake clams in the hot, hot sand
Under the afternoon Sun
And brew a crazy chowder using sea salt and kelp (help!)
Then we'd make love on the beach as the water nips at our toes
Under the setting sun when the day is done

By a waterfall I'm calling you...

Shoot apathy!
String up complacency!
Banish lazy familiarity and her brother contempt!
Blow up the mundane!
¡Viva la revolución!

Sí Señor, comprendo, pero...
Don't harm gentleness, por favor
Or kindness or generosity
Or humility
Or love
Revolutions are sometimes quiet and unassuming
*pero todavía muy real

I called you a narcissist.  
Maybe because I've been told all my life not to flaunt what you've got.  
But I'm the true narcissist.  
I just hide my self-absorption under a cloak of false humility.

When the night falls, when the moon calls
I will seek you
When the dove cries, when my heart sighs
I will seek you

Let me taste the love you hold for me alone
Breathe the breath of love you give through flesh and bone

Secret garden, fragrant flower
Sacred hour
Mystic union, sweet communion
Holy fire

Come and taste this love I give through flesh and bone
Breathe the breath of love I breathe for you alone

Dancing, turning
Touching, burning
With desire
Spirits rising
Reaching, soaring
Climbing higher and higher

When the night falls, when the moon calls
I will seek you, we will meet again
Cheek to cheek, breath to breath,
Heart to heart
Spirits entwined

One of these days I just might bust open
Spewing hot lava, burning the ground
So if I were you on that day, well, I'd keep my distance
It could get messy for everyone around

One of these days I just might split wide open
Venom will pour down like acid rain
So if I were you on that day, well, I'd seek some shelter
It could get messy when I finally feel my pain

It might **** me, it might set me free
Life is full of mysteries, have to wait and see
It might **** me... hell, I'm already dead
Flat lines through my heart, through my head

One of these days I just might split wide open
Venom will pour down like acid rain
So if I were you on that day, well, I'd seek some shelter
It could get messy when I finally feel my pain
One of these days...
One of these days...
One of these days

It's been a dance, a long and lovely dance
Sparked by innocence across a thousand miles
And as the weeks went by there grew a knowing
We found our dancing legs and friendship turned to fire
I held you tight in my dreams each night
And we realized that there was more to come

It's been a dance, I moved a thousand miles
We shared a little bed, a rental house, and wide-eyed smiles
And then our son arrived, a blended family
With joys and challenges
Love and insecurities
But I held you tight in my arms each night
We'd greet the dawn, your head upon my heart

It's been a dance, sacred and holy
Fractured and lonely, for in time we lost our way
I would reach out to you, and you'd reach out to me
But our timing slipped as life got in the way
Then I hurt you so, and you hurt me so
And the pain drove us both down to our knees

It's been a dance, now comes the best part
We grew our wings again, remembered how to fly
Was it a miracle, or just unstoppable
Baptized by fire, anointed from on high
And I hold you tight in my arms each night
You're the closest thing to heaven that I've known

Now take my hand, the band is playing
Share this one last dance before I have to go
Kiss the kids for me, hold them tenderly
Tell them it won't be long before Dad gets back home
And I'll hold you tight in my dreams each night
You'll be the face that I see when I awake
The dance goes on and on
You will wait for me, I'll return to you
The dance goes on and on
I am home to you, you are home to me
The dance goes on

Her shoulders kissed the noonday sun
The crystal clear she found herself in became a conundrum
Freedom, terror... the exquisite ecstasy of falling, falling
The car got hit by a cat
Forever at peace

I remember when everything was black and white
And I had to know that I was always right
It was so easy then, and yet so hard
Being God's saint in man's backyard

There was no room for error in my little self-made pen
I covered all the windows to keep me free from sin
And there I studied scripture and there I often prayed
There was talking on the outside, I could not hear what was said

Why must we have all the answers?
We're human and we make mistakes
When will we learn to be ourselves?
God accepts us as we are

It's a lonely kind of life when you're the only one who's right
Others just don't understand
I try to lead the band
But no one follows

(Theme, Variations, and Coda)

Theme – Andante sognante*  
I dreamed last night...
It was a dream
Like one I've had before
Variations on a theme
My colleagues standing at my door

Guitarists all, I bid them in
And soon it's time to play
My teacher first, each one in turn
They play the night away

Var. 1- Agitato
But as they play I look around
For my guitar is gone
I look and look but cannot find
Then comes my time...   “I can't go on!”

This is absurd.  How can I play?
(What?  Did I hide it by design?
Is this my “out” as light breaks day,
An ironclad alibi?)
“I can't perform, no, not today.
I'll have to play another time.”

Var. 2 – Appassionato
My time has come, and there I sit
With my guitar in hand
And wonder what the hell to play
My mind a porous shifting sand

Completely unprepared I sit
And pray for intervention
I make up some simplistic ****
And play it with “emotion”

Var. 3 – Allegro con brio e subito calamitoso
This time round, it's different
I really want to play.
I'm ready, I'm inspired!
I'll play till break of day

I'll show them what I'm made of
They'll marvel and they'll cry
But my guitar just falls apart
“What?  Why now?  Why? WHY?”

The neck breaks off, the body splits,
the strings are hanging limply
I'm foiled again, I cannot play
I'm ******* (to put it simply)

Coda - Andantino Contemplativo
What does it mean, this silly dream
This wild subconscious spectre?
What nourishment for soul to glean
From such netherworldly nectar?

Hmmm...

I think that I should spend more time
With hands on wood and string
To reconnect with touch and sound
To let my veiled heart sing

To feel, and set those feelings free
Catharsis, true release
My sheepish nature put to bed
My denigration now to cease

For I have something bold to say
Now my true voice is ready
I'll sing again through wood and string
Rich and full and steady

Alive with truths that transcend words
Ego now at bay
Connecting with the universe
It's time for me to play

*Fine

I looked over and there it was
Your hair clip
One of those big ones you use
To flop your hair up on your head

I love the way you do that
Natural, a little messy
It says:  
I'm fun, I'm carefree, why take myself so seriously?

Such a nice contrast to me.  

I miss you.

Will you meet me
   Under the willow tree before dawn,
      Take my hand and walk the crooked path
         That leads to the bank above the brook?

We'll touch earth's dewy blanket with fingertips
   As crisp morning air pinches our ankles and the napes of our necks,
      Spread a blanket of our own and sit
         Cross-legged with upturned palms and open hearts,
            A yearning for spiritual things...

We'll read to one another from holy books –
   Awareness, Unity, Love, Peace...
      Meditate to the sound of cicadas and frogs,
         Gurgling water
            And our own breathing.

We'll wait.
   For the Great Spirit,
      For insight and guidance,
         For the warmth of the Sun.

I long to meet you, to greet the day with you
   My confidant, my best friend.
      What a privilege to be at this place at this time,
         Sharing my sacred journey with you,
            Listening and learning about yours.

Will you meet me
   Under the willow tree before dawn?
      Take my hand.

Over time, he had become acutely aware that no one was in the captain's chair.
“****!” he growled.  “No wonder we keep losing our way.”
“Yes,” said the voice.
“No wonder we keep running aground!”
“No wonder,” said the voice.  
“And just look at that messy trail of destruction we left in our wake...”  He winced.
“Indeed,” replied the voice.
“SOMEONE SHOULD TAKE CONTROL OF THIS VESSEL!!” he pronounced.

There was a long pause.

“...that someone is ME, isn't it?”
“Of course,” said the voice.  “Time to be a man.”
“Yes,” he answered quietly.  “Time to be a man.”

"I would like a kiss please" proposed he.  "The first of fifty thousand."
"Fifty thousand?" challenged she.  "Isn't that a trifle small for a lifetime?"
"Point taken" admitted he.  He thought briefly.  

"I would like a kiss then, please, the first of one million."
"That's more like it" acknowledged she.
"But in fairness," observed he, "I've always preferred quality over quantity."

    What followed next
           took her breath away,
                made her shoulders limp,
                      buckled her knees,
                            and finally
                                  settled as heat in her pelvis

"Mmmm... point taken" conceded she.  "Point... taken."
"Nine hundred ninety-nine thousand,
     nine hundred and ninety-nine kisses to go" he proclaimed with a wink and a grin.

internet.
     i fell.  she fell.  
          i moved.
               far.

                    we fell.
                         often.
                              hard.

                     ­              cuts, bruises.
                                        death certificate. 
                                             unsigned.
                                                  mirac­ulous resuscitation.

                                                 ­      love.

Today I will dance on the point of awareness
     Setting aside the past with honour and grace
     Releasing its weighty agonies and ecstasies
     Weaving the wisdom of lessons learned into lighter garments

Today I will dance on the point of awareness
     Trusting the future to unfold as it will
     Dismantling the fearful walls of what might be
     Living in joyful anticipation yet fully present in the  moment
    
Today I will dance on the point of awareness
     Senses, this day is yours
     Look, hear, touch, taste, and smell
     Do each with reverence, immediacy, and curiosity
     Mind, you've been working too hard
     You may take the day off

In these small yet potent ways, each moment will be made new
Today I will dance on the point of awareness

Well, I was driving my new automobile
Just trying to get a feel for things
I was cuttin' figure-eights
And trying to stop on a dime
When I looked down the road and
Saw your face
For the very first time...

And... then... I...

Floored it, I floored it,
I put the pedal to the metal and floored it
I drove right up to you,
I said "Miss, how do you do?"
But I couldn't quite stop in time
And though some day you'll be fine
That's why you're in a body cast and I'm bringing
Flowers.

Well, your daddy doesn't care too much for me
But he lets me visit, grudgingly
Of course, he doesn't know that we will marry
I'll sneak you out of this hospital bed,
Put a *** of flowers on your head
And wheel you out with all the towels that we can
Carry.

And... then... we'll...

Floor it, we'll floor it!
We'll put the pedal to the metal and floor it
We'll cross that ol' state line
Making you legal just in time
To marry a guy like me
And we'll live happily
And one day you will learn
When your memory has returned
That you made a wonderful
Made a wonderful
Made a wonderful
Made a wonderful
Made a wonderful choice
In ME!

"But you are a man," she said.
"It's okay for a man to lose his way...
And to run aground.  
And who among us hasn't left some destruction behind us?  
That's part of being human.  
You ARE a man."

What do you have for me today, O Maker?
What do you want to show me?

I open my Eyes,
     Let me see what I need to see.
I open my Mind,
     Let me understand what I need to understand.
I open my Heart,
     Let me feel what I need to feel.
I open my Hands,
     Fill them with what you have for me today.

Thank you.