what you have experienced is real
you do not have to explain it to anyone
in ten years it will only be a memory
in twenty years it will seem like an illusion
you do not have to know why
but you were created to feel emotion
and what happens to you is reality
that is all the proof you need
for there is no illusion
pain is not an illusion
life is not an illusion
only a perception, except
that which you know to be true
and it is enough
to know what you know
and you do know
and you do live on
with the storm that rages inside your heart
as the past is water smashing over the side into the hold
though you can still smile at a lover
like a calm sea making love to the setting sun
while the unseen life below feeds upon itself
and waves crash down upon faraway mariners
as they try to escape the shores they once loved
never asking for permission to die
only a reason worthy of the illusion they will shatter
in those who loved them

you can put notes on paper
you can think about a girl
but there's nothing about that
until someone hears your courage
it doesn't matter then
as long as you meant it
the sound of your soul
or the love in your mind
is not a lonely man's sadness
it is the way life must be existed
even if they can't hear what you mean
or a piece of paper is ripped from your heart
but my son
you think I am too old for love
that how can I know to want it
or what to do with it
but I know how I lost it
how I am afraid of it
yes I remember what it is that you want
but I also know how to survive it
and that is my curse
that I know how survive
when instead I should know how to die for it

I say a lot of things
I'm not always so careful
But it is the first thing I think about
Every time I decide to show you my anger
I've already killed much worse in my mind
But the way I want to come to you
Is to fill the soft places you have saved for love
I want to fill them with what remains inside of me
Because what was able to survive my own life
Is the only part of me worth giving to you

It matters to the family
If not to God or the new lake
They go there to pray on Sunday
Even if they're not really there anymore

We look at auburn streaked skies
And see his welcome beauty
But the door to heaven
Is not to the attic but instead the cellar

We wonder how everything will turn out
The current changes speed and direction
Gospel songs float on top
And the rising waters take us home

The howlers and the wailers are natures friend
Grace comes from its unmerciful ways
Their roots are bent sideways and twisted
But the way of the land is all that faith knows

This is not a white country
This is not a black country
This is not a Latino country
This is not a male country
This is not a female country
This is not a straight country
This is not a gay country
This is not a macho country
This is not a feminist country
This is not a religious country
This is not an atheist country
This is not anything
This is everything

I’m not from that part of the world
But I know a few things about them
They love their children
They mourn their dead
Isn’t that enough to know them well?

His mother’s spirit rose through the box and soil
It once provided shelter and their annual harvest
Every child knows this
Because from where they come
The world is never lied about, only endured

They know no politics, but long for justice
Still a violin sounds sweet as their mother
And they know how to dance
Lightness all around their feet
The air is not as cruel as a man can be

To be common is not a poor man’s burden
To speak the truth plainly is his gift
But he is also high-minded
He has no fear of society
And though he is a slave his mind is not

How many generations must suffer purification
To become a people they must first bleed together
They are the chosen people
The ones their tormentors will curse
Because the past will remind them of who they are

But how will we come learn of our tangled roots
We bury ourselves but fail to see what we share
The soil upon which we walk
Is for life and for death
But what God can raise a man can only bury

is it true
that peace is only in the absence of war
is it true
that peace is only the sound of a locked door
is it true
that peace is only the time to reload a gun
is it true
that peace is only barren defeat under the sun
is it true
that peace is only a shadow behind a curtain
is it true
that peace is only getting high on a mountain
is it true
that peace is only while we plan our vengeance
is it true
that peace is only a word in a crying sentence
is it true
that peace is only living with our own kind
is it true
that peace is only a flower for a child to find
is it true
that peace is only for those whom we bury
is it true
that peace is only the burden God can carry
is it true
that peace is only for poets and old soldiers
is it true
that peace is only a word for dreamers
is it true
that peace is only for those who are kind
is it true
that peace is only for hearts that are blind
is it true
that peace is only a certain kind of maybe
is it true
that peace is only a mother and her baby