within this span
of fleeting time
i weigh the marrow
in your bones
exalting courage
most of all
i see your steps
from dawn to dawn

rich or poor
i watch you pass
black, white or tan
i do the same
let mankind know
my door swings wide
let anyone
enrich their name

though i am proud
to see you grow
i must require
that you fulfill
one vanity
that i may know
you seek me out
with fervent will


Copyright Louis Brown

STILL A CLIMBER

He might have quit

Like a broken man

But climbed quite high

With just one hand

******************­******

BLOODED, NOT BOWED

Blooded and battered

From the grenade's strong impact

Some might have retreated

But with courage intact

He rose from the ashes

To face whatsoever

Stronger at heart

Taller than ever

******************­******

THE MAXIMUM SOLDIER

Bury your losses

They have no more uses

Shrug off the damage

And give no excuses

Push past your limits

Where guts are demanded

In the heat of the battle

Heroes are branded

Should I still stretch

For new proverbs

And hope they never age

Thought old truths fade

Each epoch's dawn

And worms digest each page

*** was something from the start

To keep the species going

If you mean to make a child

Be there when he is growing

The responsibility is great

Not something took for granted

You must be careful with the seed

And where and when it’s planted

The act is obligating…

It’s not  for wanton pleasure

The little one must be aware

He’s loved beyond all measure

And those that leave one on a porch

Are worthless when they do it

You must be mindful in this world

Of those you bring into it

While you enjoy the moment

Be cautious with your role

No *** is unprotected

Unless you have no soul

Ring up the deaths

From sticks and stones

And slingshots

Knives and clubs

T.N.T.

And nuclear bombs

Their total sum

By year 2010

Counts fewer deaths

Than guns

The chosen tool

That beats 'em all

North and south

East and west

Guns can't be outdone

Say thank you NRA

And get your gun

They think that it's right

To ****** day and night

And still be forgiven for their sins

It's time they met their lord

'Greet the longest sharpest sword

At the place where eternity begins

I went down to ole Joe's smoky bar
Believing I was getting strong
I thought I had left her behind
Till some cowboy played an old song

IT'S ALL IN MY MEMORIES AGAIN
A LOVE FROM BEGINNING TO END
IT'S ALL WORTH REPEATING
BUT MY HEART TAKES A BEATING
IT'S ALL IN MY MEMORIES AGAIN

I went for the laughter and fun
But I cried all night long in my beer
Shot down by a cowboy's guitar
Lord, he sung her sweet love through the years

CHORUS

I thought I was over the worst
I was ready to have a good time
I walked in that ole corner bar
But the memories were waiting in line.....

CHORUS

I try to be a hard hearted lover
Keeping all my feelings undercover
But before I get through half my bedroom lies
I get shot down by soft and lonely eyes

I start out to take my prize my way
Suddenly the hunter is the prey
'A softer touch than I want to realize
I get shot down by soft and lonely eyes

I start a fire but I'm part of the flame
When I get close I'm blubbering her name
All my careful plans just never fly
I get shot down by soft and lonely eyes

But a little bit just seldom fills my cup
Somehow a young woman tears me up
She'll have me believing my own lies
I get shot down by soft and lonely eyes

[What a way to go...]

Music by: Kim Williams
Copyright Louis Brown and Kim Williams

That pretty blonde waitress

Who filled my cup her way

In that unbuttoned  blouse

They say she's gone today


She had me looking down

With warm admiring eyes

As she poured out her best

I saw the great divide


It seems she took great care

To keep my interest new

For columbia's mountain grown

And for the canyon view


I thought we had a bond

Yet now she's running loose

But lo!!  Another brings a cup

And, yee-ouch, check that caboose

Man moves real mountains
Conquers deep oceans
Explores new infections
While probing the  stars
With God in his spirit
He tackles the mysteries
For answers beyond us
It never occurs
To doubt His Great Maker
Who opens new trails
To far away worlds
Out far past forever
And then turning inward
As worlds microscopic
Shrink smaller and smaller
Finding new questions
The farther he goes
It seems not to end
In stars or in atoms
Amazed that forever
Keeps going both ways

I came back to a town

In a year of my life

To nothing the same as before

I thought I would capture

All the familiar

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

Forgot me, not one hand to hold

And there was a man there

In all the shop windows

So utterly lost in the cold

as you programmed us all

to meet the challenges

no mountain is too tall

no ocean is too deep

no star can be too far

not one limitation

did you impose on me

and all I have to do

is take it on myself

invested with your power

as I confront each task

with knowledge here

of faith's unfailing strength

i know to persevere

to find a way

to think as gods

and do

In the evening rush
Where frowns go past
I saw her smile
Eclipsed too fast
I turned around
And looked once more
I couldn't see
That warm rapport
So every day
I search that block
And pray she'll pass
At five o'clock
Those bright warm eyes
That rattled me
Have raised high hopes
So suddenly
A fire was lit
As my heart skips
Imagining
Her pretty lips
I long to see
Her cheeks turn pink
I sense she'll feel
The thoughts I think
I'll hunt her down
If that I must
Forever in
The evening rush

Some women hook you with a wee bikini
Still they're the better gender of the breed
They don't start a war in far off places
They're gentle in their souls and in their deeds

They always make their men feel more special
And though they spend some money at the mall
When you feel her wrap her arms around you
You know you're the one who's got it all

         Women are the  greatest people going
         Their heart upon their sleeve is always showing
         She'll give you her last crumb
         My mother, she was one
         Women are the greatest people going

One can make my heart beat like a hammer
And leave my soul more peace than I have known
There'll be no World War III if you heed her
She's got a lot of wisdom in her bones

         CHORUS

Bridge:
Good mommas train their boys to grow up nice
We'd all be kinder people if we took her advice

         CHORUS

she asked

is there love

at the end

of the line

are the words

from your heart

or your mind

are they warm

empty phrases

or a pledge

for the ages

is there love

at the end

of the line

god is here

god is there

in the trees

in the air

in the oceans

in the dew

in the mirror

howdy do

The thing

That we have to remember

Our moments

Are precious and brief

Old time

Is a hammering ocean

And life

Is a vanishing reef


Copyright Louis Brown

The child becomes

The man you'll see

With traits of those

He imitates

He mirrors those

That cause his fate

Who teach him love

Who teach him hate

We are random shallow creatures

Doing as our God programmed

Seeking answers so elusive

Working hard like cosmic ants

Keeping faith but never knowing

When new hope will come in sight

Always stumbling through the darkness

Then the future turns hard right

Heading for a vortex spinning

Down and down a hole so black

Until the boundaries are full

And pressures start to pushing back

Overstraining the compression

Till inevitably the blast

And as milleniums go past

Slowly, finally, resurrection

In a tiny blade of grass

It was many springs ago

That she'd light up my path

But what hurts deeper still

Is how many glaciers

Will melt away and then

How many fading stars

Will go icy cold and end

And how long Creator

Oh tell me how long

The aeons will drag so slow

How many harsh winds will blow

Before she lights my way again

He stands 3 feet high
Tears in his eyes
Using every trick to make me stay
It always hurts
To leave him for work
I'll miss him each step of the way

I know by his hug
He needs all my love
It almost makes both of us cry
But I must resist him
Abide by the system
So I kiss him and tell him goodbye

He needs to be heard
When he tries a new word
I wish I could be there some way
No work means no pay
So I'm on my way
But I wish I could watch him today

Just once in his life
He'll stand 3 feet high
I guess there's no one to blame
Every hour he goes thru
He learns something new
If I miss it it would be a shame

Cause I miss a lot when I leave him
Once I took him to daycare and left
When I called in at three
They reported to me
Good news....he took his first step

I know

If all the seekers after glory

Could make the cut

Fame would not mean a lot

But still

A gnawing, longing

Overwhelms me

Each time I think of all

That I am not

I get all anxious
When she walks thru the door
If she were my woman
I couldn't want more
If I got to touch her
These hands would just shake
I'd buy her flowers
But it's a little too late

She's a rose from
Someone else's garden
She won't ramble
Though my emotions teem
She's a rose from
Someone else's garden
My chance to love her
Is only in my dreams

Her lips look as soft
As rose petals of red
I'd love to kiss her
But I stare straight ahead
I wonder if she feels
The same wild desire
But I don't want to know
Cause it might start a fire

She's a rose from
Someone else's garden
She won't ramble
Though my emotions teem
She's a rose from
Someone else's garden
My chance to love her
Is only in my dreams

I remember tomorrow

The one we believed in

Now this house is a big lonely shell

For you're nowhere in sight

It's four walls at midnight...

And yesterday's ringing the bell

Today is where it's at the wise men say
But tomorrow's where it is for many men
I spend my time believing in another day...
Yesterday warmed over again.

Some folks say I'm only wasting time
But love like ours is just too good to end
So I take that direction as the only way...
Yesterday warmed over again

SO IF I SHOULD NEVER SEE HER LOVING  FACE
NEVER FEEL HER WARM LIPS BRUSH MY SKIN
I DON'T NEED THE LIES ABOUT TOMORROW
I NEED YESTERDAY WARMED OVER AGAIN

She ran away with someone new in town
Too full of life to stay and love one man
But she didn't know she left me with a sunny day...
Yesterday warmed over again

The clearly good

The obviously pure

The valued things

Deserving to endure

Avail themselves

With crystal clarity

To those who think

With love and charity




Copyright Louis Brown

Love the present

This fleeting second

Indulge in the beauty

Of the flavor

The vision

Life's beautiful sounds

The fragrances

And focus on  the dalliances of love

For all the sweetness of the moment

Capture the full rapture

Of the awakened senses

Freeze the panorama

That you may remember

In full sound and color

It can not pass this way again


Copyright Louis Brown

I’ve seen this same old street before
In every other town
Somehow It’s the same old street
That I keep going down
The signs say wine and women
It draws the men like flies
But it's a lousy atmosphere
To hope an old love dies

Just the same old painted faces
Same old two-bit places
Funny coming here to start anew
Walking through these bright lights reeling
I can’t find that same good  feeling
I wish there was road going back to you

It’s where men go when walls close in
And  shadows get too long
You need a woman in your life
The kind you had at home
And so you play the oldest game
Just reaching out for straws
Every town’s got the same old street  
The same old losing cause

Chorus

our shadows
come together
on the wall
they must think
we still
have it all
just this final night
and we’ll be gone
one last time
for the good times
we have known
They don't know
It's the final curtain
That it's over now
Except the hurting
Cause our silent partners
never had a fuss
they’re still
having fun
being us

You understand

Your enemy in war

You know they mean

To shoot between the eyes

But lovers tear

Your whole world apart

After they've disarmed you

With a smile

When I don’t have the answer
to a problem in my path
and I want to help my neighbor
show some love on his behalf
I’ll find words of wisdom
and an answer with some art
'make sure my intuition
comes directly from my heart

For it’s shaky ground to walk on
if no guidebook’s written yet
when words are loosely spoken
there’s reactions to be met
and I'll need a wise solution
with the words that I impart
for words are more enlightened
if it’s wisdom from my heart

So I'd say it's more than muscle
that sends life thru every vein
it's the ***** I believe
where your better angel reigns
it’s the station that He tunes to;
there’s no equal counterpart
and you’ll know you’re on His wave length
when His wisdom fills your heart
  


Copyright Louis Brown

Passion is born
From chemistry
And the human touch
Combine that with love
And you're off
In a rush
Such desperate haste
When passions connect
Climbing to pinnacles
So sweet
To collect

with life's first breath

the newly born

cries out in fear

for what could be


and at the end


with life's last breath

the dying man

goes out in fear

for what could be

Whose visions

Were established here

Where cold stones brush the sky

While mirrored in their icy grace

The homeless men walk by

Aesthetically

The Portman breed

Revised the urban face

How could such soaring intellect

Conceive this heartless place

Should I still stretch

For new proverbs

And hope

They never age

While old truths fade

Each epoch's dawn

As worms digest

Each page

[One of my favorite studies in human nature.  This isn't written to downgrade mankind in particular.  I find most men to be pretty good guys.  This man is a pitiful awful exception.
He also hacks PCs and ruins them for using computers for what they were invented for].  He virtually ruined my song writing business.  May plagues and pestilences follow him each day of his life.

You let me see the worst in man
The rotten in his soul
His evil just a root from hell
His center of control
I grant he does not hide it
Invites my eyes to see
The evil he is caught up in
Yet strangely happily
He spares few gifts of kindness
It stays inside to fester
He and Lucifer are friends
And work so well together
He goes to church I guess to see
Some pilgrims wear a smile
He can't assimilate such love
It's poisons his own bile
He's wickedness on man's two legs
Who'd turn all good to bitter
God sees his handiwork go forth
And now might reconsider
This cannon loosed upon the world
This creep He has created
A hemorroid of mankind
So driven,  constipated
A feces of a fellow
A buzzard full of pukey
Don't step in none on Evans Mill
That chartreuse jinx is spooky

my nature craves a female

a female longs for me

so programmed for each other

the male one and the fe

oh sweet reality

Pride tells me
I don't have to knock
Upon your door again
'Don't have to compromise
And let you win
It won't be hard
To learn to love again

But love tells me
No other's laughter
Takes my cares away
Like a miracle
Your magic makes me stay
Without you Girl
How could I find my way

Truth tells me
No man is an island
Unto himself
I'm lucky I found one
Who takes my breath
One who makes me
Bigger than myself......

I'll kiss away the bitterness
That never should have been
I'll hold your body close to mine
And feel your anger end

I'll trace the hollows of your waist
So slender in design
I'll feel your warm love clinging
And know you're glad you're mine

I'll feast my eyes and celebrate
The wonders I can see
In all the facets of the girl
Who gives her love to me

We'll listen to the winter wind
Go whistling through the trees
And light a burning fire so bright
Creating memories

I can see the old graffiti
Inscribed in purple paint
And words that say I love you
On the old town's water tank
The words are kinda faded
Though they still defy old time
But the story's clear as ever
On the pages of my mind

       While I'm still hooked on yesterday and you
       The writing on the wall says we're through
       When I went off to fight the war
       You met the man you'd waited for
       So tell me now what I'm supposed to do
       I'm still hooked on yesterday and you

There's the winding country road
Where I'd take you for a ride
When I'd turn that curve a little fast
You'd slide close to my side
Your lips were starting something
Before I could even park
As your fingers tangled in my hair
I could feel your pounding heart

        Chorus

Bridge:  I just had to come by one last time
               Was not that heart you gave him
               The one I thought was mine

       Chorus

I wander down
Old Macon Road
The countless years unreeling
I love the taste
Of  yesterday
Reliving every feeling
I wander by
The old home place
To gaze through cracked old panes
The laughing ghosts
Are looking back
As it begins to rain
A sudden storm unleashes
And the memories
Fade once more
Just a house
With falling clapboards
As winds blow off a door
I wander down
Old Macon Road
As I have done so often
Now back to sleep
Till Gabe’s ole horn
In my old rusty coffin

It's hard to watch a brother die
But his impact cannot be denied...
His Polio damage at four was hard
At year eighty-seven he died.
Between those sad years he  stood pretty tall.
But not once did he have it made...
Trudging his way through hunger and challenge
Leaving smiles in the hardest decade.
Not ever to ask for a quarter
No charity taken, his role.
Nothing handed to him on a platter
His crutches a quite heavy toll.
Depression years were his to defeat--
The young man filled family plates
By pencils he sold when jobs were not there
Those cold evenings he sold them till late
Later he met his most wonderful wife
Where his biggest dream was fulfilled.
Handicaps never slowed down his life
He had a warm spirit still
Frail but inspired, he always aspired....
His story, a story of will.

I hope to frequent
All the taverns
Quaff the potent elixirs
And dance with all
The dark eyed girls I can
Searching everywhere
Probing each extreme
To meet my lusts to live
Until I know for sure
I've had a chance to test
Each proven pleasure.
Experiencing each  sweet drop of life
Before that final rasp

If I should list

the metaphors unspoken

words I never

got around to say

I don’t guess

I’d ever have to wonder

why you called u-haul

and went away


Now people think I’m slipping

when they hear me

talking to a vision

in my head

walking down the street

alone and mumbling

all the little things

I left unsaid

If  I could abandon you to Hell I would
You who started it in the first place
I owe you for so many transgressions  
Tell me how I could ever repay you  
Your mother had to be a **** to bore you  
And no honest man would claim a ******* like you

I searched for God

As hard as I could look

Beneath each rock

And even in the book



But in the bathroom glass

I recognized the mug

And this next line

You'll think I had a drug



My eyes grew large

Surprised at such a spin

When God blinked back

I couldn't help but grin

Some child may well

Be looking up to me

If I stumble

They'll be there to see

I gotta walk the walk

Talk the talk

Be all that I can be

Some child may well

Be looking up to me

Time goes backward

When I pass

Old sites I recollect

Where fantasy

And memory

Will somehow intersect

I felt it when I kissed you
Like lightning struck the air
Thunder rolled inside our hearts
At our introduction there
And passion was a wildfire
Everywhere you touched my skin
My heart skipped so many beats
A thousand dreams rushed in

And this could take forever
I can feel it
The farther into you
The more I need it
I discover some new side of you
Each night that we're together
Oh Baby, Baby
This could take forever

You bring love on many levels
How much is there to know
I'm peeling past the layers
Learning secrets as I go
There's beauty on the outside
And as I believe it's true
There's goodness and a lust for life
Everywhere inside of you....

I always was right
When we had a big fuss
We had strong opinions
It was my way or bust
We made our decisions
Off base from the start
Now short of an answer
We go to the heart

It's always the heart
That's the place to begin
There's honesty there
From beginning to end
It tells me quite clearly
The right words to say
When clouds come between us
The heart knows the way

There's need for each other
So it helps to agree
It all works out better
As good wisdom leads me
If I get too selfish
It's myself  I betray
Lord, help me remember
The heart knows the way


Copyright Louis Brown