Life is not a hammock

Between two palm trees

It's not a sweet mint julep

To sip on in the breeze

It's more Mount Everest

A steep or steeper climb

It asks a lot of you

But it's a chance to shine

Sorry, no fat plum

Will tumble in your palm

I hope that deadly truth

Will rouse no great alarm

If you thought life a picnic

It's a good assumption

You need a bigger pair

More substance and more gumption


Copyright Louis Brown

one feels the answer


should be here


where peace of mind prevails


and not on


neon cluttered streets


and other aimless trails


Copyright Louis Brown

I believe I am the one
Who has your needs measured
Who answers every yearning
Coming from deep inside you
The mission I aspire to
Is only to fulfill you
It was assigned to me
Back when the stars were born
To be here for you only
My first quest and my last
Till oceans dry
And suns burn out

I pass the picket fence
And reach the door way
I go down the lonesome hall
And feel the chill
The bed with tangled sheets
Like lovers left it
She told me I would miss her
And I will.....

CHORUS
Tonight the silence says it all
There's no love and laughter
To warm these lonesome walls
There's a note that says goodbye
Hanging on the bedroom wall
Tonight the silence says it all

I see that faded rose
Pressed in the bible
The one I bought you
On that springtime day
It reminds me of the vows
We made together
And the promises we broke
Along the way

CHORUS

          Bridge:  I know that I was giving all
                        That I could ever be
                        But all she really wanted
                        Was a little more of me.....

CHORUS

She's so beautiful

She makes my goosebumps tall

I've gone from lonesome

To a man who's got it all

The night's so good

I may never be the same

I'm so deep in love

Maybe I should ask her name

say that I'm defiant

in the face of howling winds

who gave us skill to build a world

and ripped apart both ends

from what sensitivity

such love was spawned

what insanity

unleashed the violence

Who shaped

This storm

this man

He scorns

In my mind I recall Johnson Pasture
It's etched a warm memory
On that blanket we'd listen to songbirds
Beneath the Magnolia Tree

You’re not here when I wake to the present
Long ago someone stole you away
But you’ll run down the hill through the flowers
In my dreams for the rest of my days

Love was sweet by that stream in the pasture
Tender  lips came alive merged with mine
And I got so entangled forever
Two hearts became one of a kind

Our sweet rendezvous, now it's only for parking
On a mall where no blooms are a part
While old pavement from Portland hides Johnson Pasture
It's alive and still real in my heart

Once upon a century
I typed in microsoft
Testing metaphors
For new profundities
Much like the caveman did
Many centuries past
I strived to find a way
To scribble on a wall
Some moving exposition
In Century Twenty- One
I hammered mine on bond
With Brother script
To say something cool
That Shakespeare
Or his ghostwriters
Never put to pen
And finally
Wrapped it up
Did my wall
And left my card
Eat your heart out
O William the Bard

Women are a lot

Of crazy contradictions

Somewhere between the truth

And science fiction

Still it's hard to believe

She let him take my place

That's why I'm on a barstool

Looking lost in space

Why do we ever say goodbye
When we know this love won't die
We should not let pride mislead us
In our hearts it's clear we need us
We're so sure our dreams can fly
Why do we ever say goodbye

I am an Anglo
Pondering the Indians again
I know we won that war
I recall my greedy ancestors
Exiled them to reservations
Out west for the rest
Of their history with white men
I find no joy in cruelty
Punishing vibrant people
Pushing them off their land
Just because they forgot
To get their deeds
Recorded at the courthouse
They owned it first
It was their real estate
And they had the right to hunt
These hills and vales
Forever in God's eyes
Until we drove them out
Steeling every vital acre
As we called them savages
So it would look all right
To abuse them and take
Their world from under them
We shoved them all
Along the trail of tears
And other paths
While the savages for real
Are the ancestors
Of the people
Whose faces we see
In our mirrors today.....

It was a long long ride
To Carrollton, Georgia
From Bad Hersfeld, Germany
Where I started from
Does she smile the same smile
I fell in love with
There's  been longer spaces
Between our communiques
Before leaving Bremerhaven
And making that ten day ocean trip
I still missed the warm closeness
Until the last phone call
She told me  she wanted one more fling
One more so she could squeeze
The last sweet drop from college life
Before we went on the marriage tour
Where she longed to make
All we could of another day
Ringing out our church bells    
But I felt a little cheated
For her to have a relationship
And me to feel the anguish
To always  wonder why
She couldn't hold on
Just one more whisk of time
Still it's so poetic in its justice
That she'll see no one here
To say goodbye to

I've wondered
When God was a boy
Did He wonder
Who in forever
Would find most
Success
Anyway
He was a shoo-in
By muscle or wisdom
There was no challenge
To match His finesse

There was a frog down in the swamp
Who'd leap a half a mile
I chased that sunday entrée
With all my skill and guile

But when I speared that monster bull
I had a weird hunch
Those bulging eyes were warning me
I sure would hate my lunch

It ain't always a gourmet cook
Who serves the very best
I fried those twitching muscles there
And ate each bite with zest

But a funny feeling took-a-holt
That made me want to jump
Soon I felt me start to crave
A cool place for my ****

I found myself a boggy bank
And did a healthy croak
I bent my legs and leaped a block
And thought my *%$#@X!!# back was broke

I learned my lesson messing with
That cussed hoodoo frog
I sit safe on my pillow now
And don't go near the bog

But I'm still haunted by the hex
That ****** old frog applied
And I'm still getting Blue Cross
For a tender underside

Sometimes
We are like an army of ants
Marching forward doing God's bidding
Stepping on faces
Resolute and yearning to succeed
Though multitudes of us
Will fall by the way
But barely slowing the many
Relentlessy persevering
To fulfill the Master Plan
And nothing will stop us
Nay!! Nothing!!!!
Er-r-r-r by the way
Oh Creator.....
Where we going?

Your memory thought I’d be
Right there waiting
Same time, same place
One more time
But when you came
From yesterday
To find me
I stood up
Your memory so fine
          There’s a lady
          Lying close
          Here beside me
          For once, she’s all
          That’s on my mind
          My thoughts don’t hang on
          The curves that you threw me
          I stood up
         Your memory this time
She brings up old feelings
I’d forgotten
Shadows fade easy
In her smile
She’s showing me
The way to the morning
Oh, it’s been such a long, long while
          It’s the very first time
          That I ever knew
          I’m gonna make it
          Without you…..
I’m giving your memory
Some notice
From now on
There’s no need
Coming by
At midnight a sweet dream
Filled in for you
I stood up
Your memory tonight

Copyright Louis Brown
    and Sam Traina

You've been gone a dozen days
And I'm yet to fall sleep
The bed feels wide and empty
With your lips out of reach

The scent of you still lingers
And it's driving me insane
Now the night against my window
Brings a hard, blowing rain

So bring back the gentle presence of your spirit
On nights like these I need to be so near it
I miss your arms, your lips, your kiss
Without you there's so much to miss
Bring back the gentle presence of your spirit

Twelve days is like a lifetime
Except a whole lot longer
But my love will last forever
And at the end be stronger

Cause no one could replace you
I believe in you and me
And I know we found a feeling
Truly, truly meant to be

CHORUS

One feels

The answer must be here

Where peace of mind prevails

And not

On neon cluttered streets

And other aimless trails

Your poetry could raise the dead
I felt it in your verse
Exploring deep within your poem
With hunger and a thirst

Your femininity was there
Your fragrance in the air
It made the animal in me
Rouse up to want you there

The gossamer upon your chest
Revealed the sweet outline
And there were two impressions
I kissed one at a time

I didn't mean to go too far
Just blame it on the need
I couldn't hold it longer
For passion took the lead

And, ah, the rapture deep within
Sent fire through my veins
The dream within a dream so real
It spoiled my Calvin Kleins

Though  good as any moment
Reality could present
The dream won't make me guilty
When I see the fallen tent

God's gonna get him for that

God's gonna get him for that

We're gonna send our deadliest missiles

To bash his bunkers flat

He can holler for his Allah

But God never helps a  rat

Allah's gonna get him

God's gonna hit him

God's gonna get 'em for that


Copyright Louis Brown

The river's so wild

We may never cross it

The chasm's too deep

And too far

Love's a blessing or curse

For better or worse

I'm ready

Whenever you are.....

There's a woman in my arms tonight
She's pretty and full of grace
Ready for me to hold her tight
'Rain kisses on her face
She wants to close the distance here
And live our  fantasy
But just before I take that flight
Your shadow falls on me

I CAN'T GET PAST YESTERDAY AND YOU
NEW LOVES NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF YOU
A SWEET NEW KISS IS NOT ENOUGH
YOUR LOVING MEMORY SHOWS ITS STUFF
I CAN'T GET PAST YESTERDAY AND YOU

I remember your warm fingertips
Your lips and it was glory
Just one touch and off we'd go
Oh what a warm love story
But I hated those last pages
When you wanted to be free
Cause I'm a prisoner of memories
Oh sweet, sweet misery



Chorus

Bridge:
I'd love to turn it all around
And wake once more with you
But tomorrow's dawn comes breaking
And yesterday shines through

Chorus

How can You criticize the beast
You made with Your two hands
And fault him for his foibles
When he disrupts Your plans
He can't escape his draw backs
His skills and mind are weak
Before he bit the apple
He could have used a tweak
He only feeds the hungers
You programmed in his brain
He has two strikes against him
It's almost inhumane
We're dumb to **** each other
But You sowed every seed
So take him back into Your shop
Perfect him to succeed
You can't expect that much
From nothing but a dunce
If You can see the future
Please get it right for once



Copyright Louis Brown

When you're needing someone
I hope you think of me
So much about you
Exceeds my fantasies
I'm a  much better man
Having all that's you
There's just no replacing
The blessings that you do

DOWN DEEP WITHIN  I NEED YOU FEELING ME
THE HAPPY FEELING IN YOU'S MEANT TO BE
MY ARMS WRAP TIGHT AROUND YOU
LONGING JUST TO FEEL
OH HOW MUCH I NEED YOU FEELING ME

Your medicine is magic
I never get enough
Just let me pull you closer
I'll give you back so much
You are the therapy
That brings a glow to me
Woman you're all I crave
In all humanity

That woman packed my suitcase
She threw it out the door
She told me it was over
Don't come here anymore
And when you get rejected
It's a black-eye on your pride
You can still look like a winner
Don't let it cramp your style

So I did not let the world
See me wallow in defeat
I found myself a big brass band
Parading down the street
I stepped to that big drumbeat
Footloose fancy free
I got out front and showed the world
The finest side of me


THEY THOUGHT THAT I WAS
                LEADING THE PARADE
I MARCHED OFF IN THE SUNSHINE
LIKE I SURE DID HAVE IT MADE
I SURE DID HATE TO GO
SO I PUT ON A HELLUVA SHOW...
THEY THOUGHT THAT I WAS
                LEADING THE PARADE

Just one little battle
Was all I really lost
I picked myself back up again
Just like my Daddy taught
I talked to me and told me
"That old sun's still in the sky"
And I boogied to the rhythm
With my colors flying high

CHORUS

Can't you see

Our legacy

Is love

So perfectly

It fits us

Like a glove

You're a woman

I'm a man

So recognize

The survival plan

Can't you see

Our legacy is love

my obligation’s very

very simple

listening to the inner voice

the one that's kind and gentle

that guides me step by step

perceives the right and wrong

before i reach the fork

call it conscience

or what you will

when i heed that source

i know the way

that little voice

is the bottom line

i listen close

and all is well

It's funny feeling lonesome here beside you
Side by side where we've loved so many times
It's hard to understand
Has love played out its hand.....
Goodbye is written softly in your eyes

Remember the night we shared our first warm kisses
I thought I heard forever in your sighs
All this time by your side
I didn't notice when it died....
Goodbye is written softly in your eyes

          While I told my friends that you were meant for me
          I was less than you thought obviously
          And it breaks my heart to see you start
          To search each stranger's smile.....
          Goodbye is written softly in your eyes

But that's just you--I know you hate to hurt me
You'd rather tell another gentle lie
You think it's still your secret
Oh baby, you can't keep it.....
Goodbye is written softly in your eyes


Copyright Louis Brown and Bob Killen

From a song by Louis Brown and Bob Killen

In that great big fancy ballroom
When few dancers dance at three
There are two transparent shadows
On the floor you barely see
They are moving to the music
Where two spirits love to touch
In that scene they come together
Just like when they had so much

Old ghosts still love to dance when life is gone
They  don't let it die...They rock right on
They just cannot seem to stop
               There's country, blues, a little be bop
Ghosts still love to dance when life is gone

They want to stay till break of dawn
But the cemetery beckons
They rush back home to weathered stones
And fill two crypts in seconds
Just an ancient ritual...
Never hurt the town at all
And when mortals bring the music
They just go and have a ball

 Chorus

It's dandy
Finding randy girls
As macho guys seem to
I drool at scenes
Like tight blue jeans
When a wiggle warms the view
I'm a gangster
For ****** samplers
And sweeties that crowd the beach
I used to shop
Till my eyes would lock
Where my right and left eyes meet
And when I gaze
At perfect sways
A tom-tom fills my chest
And I still cheer
For a lovely rear
But I race back to the best
For I love the one
That shares our home
She stirs me quite enough
In her gown
It flutters down
When we peel down to the buff
I can't afford
The babes on Broad
And cheating is too drastic
But I've long chose
My perfect rose
And hmmmmm she's still fantastic

After twenty years
I see it very clear
I picked the right girl
No others even close
I have the right to boast
She's so right for my world
I made the right choice
Two human hearts rejoice
That she became my fate
I'm glad I took the chance
To ask for that first dance
That we still celebrate

Her boy went off to war and died
     A long long time ago
Now nameless under foreign turf
     She half forgets it's so


Out in the yard an old chain swing
     Still holds a rusting board
And with each gentle breeze that blows
     Swings of its own accord


On sunny days she sits alone
     And peers at empty air
Without regards to laws which say
     That no one could be there
    

As though she still can hear a shrill
     Of laughter from the swing
She smiles toward the swaying board
     Immune to time's swift wing

You cannot drive your dream

Into another’s mind

One way thinking egos

Meet failure every time


You cannot take a man

And hook him by the nose

He’s on his own volition

That’s how free will goes


It's mutual affection

That must enjoin both hearts

They must commit two wills

As one right from the start



The fairies don’t affect it

Two humans plant the seed

If love is one heart short

It never will succeed.

I must warn

The high achievers

To stop reaching

For the sky

Great success

Has its downside

Over rainbows

Do not fly

If you do

You'll get what's coming

Oh, you'll stand tall

In the park

But you'll always be

The target

Where the pidgeons

Leave their mark

It's not easy leaving you behind me
Without you, Babe, I lost my song to sing
No pleasure bring my heart as much elation
I've had too much to dream

I've tried to fall in love on other pillows
But there's no match for sweetness I have seen
No lips can lift me to the stars we climbed to
I've had too much to dream

I took you to many far off places
England...France...the palace of the queen
We've climbed the Eiffel Tower
'Heard Big  Ben toll the hour....
But no one else can make it so serene

Those memories will hold the center focus
New fantasies can never make the scene
Without you there's just nothing to imagine
I've had too much to dream

I'm sometimes in the limelight
Not by my own request
But there are young observers
And I must pass their test

They'll be evaluating
The character they see
And some of them may imitate
The side I've shown of me

So let the smile be friendly
This helping hand no less
And let my legacy be one
Of having shown my best

Fussing and fighting--that's all that we do                                                            Sep­tember 13, 2013
It's not worth the pain--this life puts us through
Let's face the facts...no late alibis
Baby, it's time for saying goodbye

At this old crossroad one path will be mine
And some feelings I have may last a long time
But our differences now ...are hard to deny
Baby, it's time for saying goodbye

Repeat
We were too young...it's all turned to pain
I don't see a rainbow in all of this rain
And if not much is left--there's not much to die
Baby it's time for saying goodbye

We had it all--Or that's how it seemed
But time changes hearts and life changes dreams
It happened to us--but we gave it a try
Baby it's time--for saying goodbye

Repeat            

Bridge:  
Still, teardrops may fall for way too long
But for closure we'll write us a helluva song.....

Repeat

I think
Therefore, I am
The Frenchman said
But am I a hero
A *******
A do-gooder
A ne'er do well
I know it's up to me
Up to my own volition
To come to that
And it's amazing
How that plays out
In other I ams
Like murderers
Philanthropists
Hoboes
And does God
In some way
Tell us which one to be
He knows me
He is my essence
How could a dark thought come in
Satan is no equal
But it's his hand
That gets the credit
For evil men
But I don't understand
An iota of that
I just do
What my Creator
Put in me to do
And if I hate
Did He put it on my plate
The way to go
Is hard to comprehend
Do I consciously make the choices
I am what I am
But how much of that
Is me

He waits in ambush
Down the road of time
Around some bend
Atop some lonesome hill
That black highwayman waits
To do his loathsome task
Inexorably,
The road draws closer
To this abomination
Who waits to pounce
Some tired misfortunate
Whose time runs out
I cannot dodge his keen
And ****** scythe
I'll be tremblin
Perhaps wailing with remorse
On this untimely day
At odds with my demise
For before I go
I hope to frequent
All the taverns
Quaff the potent elixirs
And dance with all
The dark eyed girls I can
To test each proven pleasure
Invent a few myself
Until I know for sure
I've had a chance to taste
The last sweet drop of life
Before that final rasp

I came back to a town

In a year of my life

To nothing the same as before

I tried to recapture

Those early beginnings

But time had barred shut every door


I came back to a town

The first haven I knew

I never would see it again

Like Mr. Wolfe said

Nobody finds it

It's gone just like yesterday's wind


I came back to a town

That nurtured and reared me

Now only the memories unfold

While one lonely figure

In all the shop windows

Seemed utterly lost in the cold

I saw two birds upon a limb

One was her and one was him

One was courting; one was shy

I figured out which was the guy

I liked his moves strong and bold

He sashayed closer in his role

But she was busy with a worm

While he was anxious for his turn

But then a bigger cousin came

And took her dinner, what a shame

Number one bird watched her go

Chasing cousin Romeo

Who stopped and let her share his worm

Funny how a road can turn

The best laid plans of bird and man

You never know what life will hand

I was scared he'd be going
And leave me behind
But he's cancelled Tucson
'Bought a diamond that shines
Now I know he meant it
When he said soft and low
Honey, this is the first time
I've ever been throwed

the bells

will ring out now

the horns

will make a din

and I will

laugh it by

but laughter

will belie

the tears

suppressed within

to see

the old year die.....

You prepared the killing grounds
At the first creation
You put the hate and greed
In hearts that rot our nation
You made us love to quarrel
And that has dammed our souls
And it denies our peace
It costs us heavy tolls

You could have built the peace
Far far beyond the garden
But You let evil reign
And allowed men's hearts to harden
They say you  saw the future
Where Abel died in vain
You could have took the knife
But left it up to Cain

You allowed the seeds of darkness
And let it bloom inside him
Man never had a prayer
You made and sacrificed him!
Why did You build such chaos
Allow the senseless sinning
A wiser God would change the course
Go back to the beginning

Have a different ending

I found a letter in an old coat pocket
I thought of you before my brain could stop it
It’s been a long time healing
But I felt the same old feeling
Living in an old forgotten pocket

I found a letter yellowed by the ages
Your fragrance there came wafting from the pages
That memory stirs a dream
Much too bitter to redeem
All we had belongs now to the ages

I found a letter in an old coat pocket
A thought of you was there--I couldn’t block it
In  my old winter coat
The chill was in your note
I squeezed it into trash but couldn’t drop it………..

God’s Son identified with men

And God watched from above Him

He healed the sick and broke the law

And men would come to love Him

But law men stressed  He’d have to die

In mankind’s cruelest way

Rome was good with Cross techniques

And death would have its day

The spikes were long to hold Him high

Acute the agony

Not once he begged for mercy

Till God would set us free

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

Reported the occasion

Since then He’s died a trillion times

In man’s imagination

Spring’s for starting over
To love again
To laugh once more
Forgive all men

Let old pains die
As life renews
Let May sunshine
Uplift my views

Not that I ask
For special care
For I need trials
I grow from there

I only ask
Lest others fall
To give a lesson
On standing  tall

You know the truth

Already in your heart

Intuition

Has all answers

From the start

As roses

Don't ask how

They just bloom

Upon the bough

Be still

And truth unfolds

Within your heart



Copyright Louis Brown

There’s mystic poets
I figure not
And why does thunder
Bring rainbow arcs
When God passed out
Fine minds galore
I must have been
Behind the door
For with galaxies
And inner depths
I'm overcome
With so much breadth
Too much to grasp
And penetrate
There's just too much
Upon my plate
My data base
Should be much greater
My wee gray matter
Won’t hold the data

I've often observed

The nature of people

Inside the church door

And far from the steeple

But I've never seen

A heart with less guile

Her intentions within

Are warm as  her smile

It's pure honesty

That resides in her soul

As true innate goodness

Has final control

Where watching is awesome

She'll give, give and give

For love rules a heart

In the house where I live