name ten thousand reasons why you never wanna die
go and tell someone who might have forgotten.

when I, or you, wake up and go downstairs
to see our parents in the morning and they say
I love you, how do you do, and you say
I love you, slept well, how about you?
and they say, good, me too, and you go to school.

You go to school where they tie and fasten your noose
and pull you under gray skies until you swear
you'll lose your mind, you go to school where you lie
and wait- covert eyes, surreptitiously despise that you have to
whisper to me, between closed walls and closed doors, I love you.

In this world of rules and halfway angry, halfway desperate
people, we build palaces so as not to see the little black box
underneath it all, this indestructible fortress, where no one can hide
or conceal, every time you open it, you get more and more undressed
naked, under the glaring light. (But hold me tight.) I love you.

when, in storms and cliffs, half past raging and half through sadness
what can we do to end this madness, when even in
the depths of our beings, even in the darkest of magic
we can't find the strength to say it, I can't open my mouth
because I've said it too much or too little, maybe, but I love you.

When the spires and pillars and holy desires clash, and this
Church cannot stand on sand, what is the one thing they've forgotten
they say that marriage is less, and more, too, but they don't
even know what they mean, after eternity's lost all hope of despair, what
is the one phrase that their God cannot bear? I love you.

In alleyways of the heart, in broken and forgotten verse- in drunkenness
and dying, what slips in through the cracks that the light gets in? What
scandal is too vulnerable to be wounded? Why do they call it sin? the blood
that flows under the current, between the leaves of book pages and underneath
pulses beats from long ages, (please have the nerve to say it), I love you.

If, at the end of time, when there are no more rhymes
when the forests are burnt to ashes and all life left has died
when breath no longer rattles through the bones of the dirt
and the darkness has quenched all of our God-lit thirst
what have we left on this Earth? I love you.

and it's dangerous, for people like me,
because they truly will do anything for silence
but I am not like the others, I am not like the others
or am I?

oh, what I would do to silence my mind
you don't know how rare it is to find quiet
how hard it is to come by peace- what I would do
for a little stillness, a cease in motion,
a tiny taste of death- just for one moment,
please, just for one moment, I would like to stop thinking.

weep for yourself my man
you'll never be what is in your heart
weep, little lion man,
you're not as brave as you were at the start.

you have your choices. and this is what makes man great-
our ladder to the stars.

I have never been a princess.

it is so strange to see that we all hold so much
so much within us- but these minds, too, will fade.

what's best is that we've all been on that bathroom floor
the whole world, the whole world, has open and closed doors.

it is almost impossible to forgive
someone that you once loved.
it is almost impossible not to forgive
someone that you love.

"love others so radically that they wonder why."

And I will tell the night
whisper, "Lose your sight,"
but I can't move the mountains for you.

He stays home from work this time
He never really told his wife
He never really told a lie but this time he decides that it's alright.
It's alright.
No one really knows his mind and no one knows behind his eyes.
The man deserves a medal
But he's never really won a prize before.
He goes to lock the door.

He is falling in love
He knows it's enough
And the world looks down and frowns.

they call us saints and sinners in the same church,
don't they? I would like to remind myself of the truth
I can't see it, I'm blinded and dizzy by the brilliance of light
it would be nice to forget, it would be nice to forget
the weight is gone, isn't it? for now, we aren't lonely,
I'm high on illusion island, while the world crashes
around me, the bombs spire and splatter, a cosmic light show
let me watch, let me watch, and pretend it isn't destruction
all I can see are fuzzy spots and my head is pounding
and yet, for some reason, it is blissful, lying here
supine on the ground...* get up Johnny boy, get up Johnny boy
get up cause the world has left you lying on the ground
you're my pride and joy, you're my pride and joy,
get up cause we all need you now.

I'll keep my eyes wide open
I'll keep my arms wide open

“We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.”

“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.”

don't look around 'cause love is blind
and darling right now, I can't see you.
I'm feeling proud, so without a doubt, I can feel you
'cause we are who we are when no one's watching
and right from the start, you know I got you.

"Doesn't it matter why it matters?"

shoot me up with lightning and sunshine,
tell me when it kicks in

"Well, I think for now that I just love who I love, but I am definitely not willing to throw myself into a relationship that I haven't wished on a star for."

"because God loved you and you said "*******"."

some things are too tender to write about
I've searched a long while for something private,
something that would feel like betrayal to record
something that defied explanation and a poem
would be a molestation, an invasion, an imposition
well, I found it- and I have never been more glad for the silence
because writing about this, well, writing about this would be violence.

it's a good world

God gave the wisemen their wisdom,
and to the poets their dreams.
To father and mother, their love for each other
but He left me out, so it seems.

I went around brokenhearted
thinking life was an empty affair
but when God gave me you,
it was then that I knew,
He'd given me more than my share.

got me seeing stars, brighter than ever
shining just like diamonds do

the human personality tells us that we are born with beauty
the human creation tells us that we must fight for it
but the human freedom tells us that we are both born with it
and that we must fight for it-
but beauty was always sleeping within us, since the very beginning
only to be woken by the sheer force and power of human will.

please don't go, I need you whole, I need you whole
I love you so, I love you so.

"I am encouraged to go on. I wouldn't know where else to go."

"When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful."

"When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what the storm's all about."

tick, tock, the clock
whirrs, and burrs, and stops.

What they say:
The best thing about the rain is being inside.
What I hear:
The best thing about this feeling is being able to shut myself off from it.

"Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again."

I still remember how I felt laying on my mothers' bed
eating a whole gallon of blue bell vanilla
crying into it, remembering all the times I'd been afraid
and tired, and 3 in the morning on the couch
searching for something on my hand, a scratch
on the phone on a bridge, playing with a stick
while you said, "little do they know", calling myself
a ******, feeling my heart bloom in my chest,
a little girl rode by and asked if I was talking to my boyfriend
no, I said, I love you, I said, on the phone and you
saw me the next morning and I still remember
the dull lightning in your eyes that flashed bronze
I am grateful, I am grateful for you
and the raw smell of a sneeze while it rained and I tried
to forget the spikes and sparks I felt when I saw you
how they smoothed before me when I held you,
when I ran and I screamed because I thought a certain
amount of air in my lungs held traces of you
and if I just shouted loud enough I could expel you,
there would be nothing left, and as my feet tumbled down
the hill and my body exhilarated with my best of friends
I still could not forget that my eyes would never see you again
I still cannot forget that my eyes will never see you again.

nothing is black and white except life and death
and even love can be tainted by shades of grey.

it's about more than you
this is bigger-
and smaller, too.

like ships sailing in the night
why can't we just go where we might
intend, to break or bend, no burn
no end, just turn, turn, turn, and then
follow our paths, avoid God's wrath
despite these changing tides and snide
smiles underneath the surface of the crash
don't try and hide it, we all turn back
we all cry and dash away our tears
leaving our souls just a pile of-
forgetting our fears, forsaking the last
of us, ashes to ashes, dust to dust
who are the best of us? when is the past of us?

what have I done

there are no more words left
only feelings, and lost people,
memories of complex events and
painful little moments, joyful big moments
there are no more words left
I'm sorry.

Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid
it's also being the only one who knows you're lonely, sad, or broken
bravery is walking alone and smiling because the people
in the cars driving by need to have their days brightened
bravery is leaving home and saying you had a good day,
when you're crashing down inside and you might as well
have built a sandcastle in a hurricane for yourself to stand on, bravery
is still being a rock, because others need a place to stay as well.

too often when you touch things, you bruise them.

sometimes you don't even get what you need

how do you fill the emptiness if you're digging from one hole to dump dirt in the other one

When I was a child, I heard voices
Some would sing and some would scream
You soon find you have few choices
I learned the voices died with me
When I was a child I'd sit for hours
Staring into open flames
Something in it had a power
Could barely tear my eyes away

All you have is your fire
And the place you need to reach
Don't you ever tame your demons
But always keep them on a leash

When I was 16 my senses fooled me
Thought gasoline was on my clothes
I knew that something would always rule me
I knew this sin was mine alone

All you have is your fire
And the place you need to reach
Don't you ever tame your demons
But always keep them on a leash

When I was a man I thought it ended
Well I knew loves perfect ache
But my peace has always depended
On all the ashes in my way

All you have is your fire
And the place you need to reach
Don't you ever tame your demons
But always keep them on a leash.

I dreamed that I was at camp
but the strings and the ropes were there
pulling me empty, leaving me home.

I might see you today and if I do,
I don't know what I would do, you don't
know who I am anymore, it's been so very long
and I am unrecognizable.

"People won't always tell you how they feel. But they will always show you."

heartbeat racing, face flushing, core frozen,
fingers tracing, thoughts binding and lost,
eyes meddling, feet tapping, leg shaking,
knee bending, muscles stretching, brain working,
emotions zooming, horizon closing,
frantically thinking, decidedly acting to
sitting back and lazing, forgetting, unwinding
numbing and breaking, glancing and gliding.

Tyler? Joseph? Caleb? Mark? Max? David? John? Zack? Dylan? Cole? Blake? Gabriel? Michael? Eric? Alex? Logan? Jack? Luke? Chris? Daniel?