If every angry idea would remain chained across the void
We would never know the exhausted delivery of its hurt
No matter how we try to soften the people’s confusion
It is the loud echo’s that demand we forget their worth

If every open eye would close while your lips speak the truth
He would never know the despair of soft skin that streaks
Vanquishing words cloud mirrors no longer needed
Because a whisper is a heart beating in the language he seeks

If every walk towards the ocean ended where a boat began
And if every boat sailed until welcoming lands drew it near
Every idea born by honest men who journeyed with their children
Would fill the void and part the clouds covering the reflection we fear

You were as happy as a girl but a sad one too
Everything you could be in a day
So many times I wondered what you believed
Was it me or something only you could feel
I never was sure what you were trying to say

Listening to my memories
This time a world that wasn’t make believe
The things that were real
Were all I would ever need
It seems so much easier now than it was
Like a happy boy sitting in a tree

How many years since I was like that
I drank to those who knew how long it would last
You were all the reason I would ever need
I finally became a man one sad day
I'm still wondering what you did with my past

The song kept me awake
Even a dream gets tired trying to believe
It happened once before
I was sharing the wrong bed
It seemed so much harder now
For the boy not knowing who was me

There's somebody worried about a baby
Pray with them
There's somebody missing their mother
Comfort them
There's somebody who needs you
Be there for them
There's somebody who is very lonely
Spend time with them
There's somebody missing their father
Hug them
There's somebody needing it to be true
Believe in them

I never forgot you my love
The ten years between us have passed
I knew I had no choice but to wait

Every morning I remembered
But I walked slowly on distant shores
Because love said it's never too late

There are no broken mirrors
Or paintings of jagged edged emotion
You were always my friend
Even when you said till we meet again

We both know how we once felt
I don’t know if you live for something new
Or for someone who believes in fate

Maybe I’m just a bridge you once crossed
But the fire you see in the distance is my torch
Because the moon tild you never to walk straight

There is no broken glass
Or songs about bitter love that was lost
If we can only be friends
I will still smile about you no matter the cost

I don't have to remember words
Only the feeling you left behind
I don't have to remember a place
It could have been anywhere
I did not notice the setting sun
Or the reflective mountains
Or the glistening shore
You are the painting
And a frame is of no matter
For the colors of your love
Is why nature bows to you

It is time to find yourself
What may have been your destiny
Has become a whispering voice
Sit next to me my friend
Tell me what you hear
Burden me with your grief
Ask me the questions of life
And though I may answer
I cannot change the past
Yet I wish to comfort you
To tell you of your beauty
Of the dignity within your pain
Of the purity of your thoughts
Of the worth in your suffering
For you, life has begun
You have known love and loss
Every emotion has become yours
You may begin again
With the wisdom of living
Of being a human being
With no fear of misunderstanding
With the honesty of one who grieves
Unafraid of sadness
Unafraid to bear your heart
Unafraid to cry
Unafraid to pray
Worthy of good
Worthy of blessings
Worthy of love
To receive
And to give
For as you knew to love your children
Now too you know how to say goodbye
It is the message you could only feel
Not from your parents
But from life
As not everything can be taught
We cannot be taught sadness
We do not seek this lesson
Though we know it is written
And while the world sleeps around you
You are now awake
Forever
Because life never sleeps for those who have suffered
But should life be easy or hard?
We experience day and night
But there is light at night
And shadows by day
And shadows by night
And light by day
There is good
And bad
In time you will know the answer
It will come to you along your new path
As you compare your misfortunes
With those of others
In the knowing that all men must perish
And that our time is not for our glory
But for his
And in this you find your place
So that you may heal again
As you ready yourself again for your life
Yes
Sit next to me my friend
And unburden yourself
For in troubles
We come closer to God
And in comfort
We come closer to each other

The water will make you bloom
Though it will never posses you
It is your secret desire
You cannot live in it
But you need its touch
Its caress
Its strength
Its life
Then you can live without it
And show everyone your beauty
The petals bursting with pride
While the water silently vanishes
Knowing your secret
Living alone
But knowing its worth to you
The water draws your radiance
But dies each day
Only to live again tomorrow
Let me be the water
With my eyes
With my words
With my approval
With my love
With the whispers you cannot hear
But can surely feel
Let me give you life
Life that you share with all the others
All I need is my muse...

I want to love you
The way I want you to love me
I want to tell you
The things I want you to tell me
I want to touch you
The way I want you to touch me
Yes I want to give you all the things
I want you to give me

Tell me it’s true
The things that I want
You want them too

I want you to show me your tears
Like the tears I have saved for you
I want you to believe in all the years
The years I want to give to you
I want you to show me your dreams
The ones I imagined every night
Yes I want you to give me all the things
I want to give to you

Tell me it’s true
The things that I think
You think them too

I want to know what's inside of us
The way we know what's on the outside
I want us to trust each other
Like people who are not afraid to confide
I want us to be able to smile each day
The way people who know love smile
Yes I want us to give all these things
You give them to me
And I'll give them to you

Tell me it’s true
The things that I love
You love them too

I am a myth and a sinner
And I am dead
I wrote the words some preach
But I forgot to include everyone
You never met me and can only imagine
How is it that I was so wise and so cruel
It took two hundred years
And widows and slaves
And burning crosses
And bridge marches
Did it finally make shame my neighbor
And blood on a cross their only savior

I am a ghost and a prophet
And I am dead
I wrote the words some hate
But I did not mean it that way
I never met you and yet I guide you
To the place where a man lives in squalor
Is it his or another man's faults
Is his welfare your profit
Is his grieving your happiness
Is his sadness your blessing
Did it make indifference my neighbor
And an empty tomb their only savior

My helplessness
Is not in my mortality
But from my beating heart
Which tells me of the reality
That I walk at someone’s behest
I cannot make it stop or start
I hope it remembers what to do
For I am unable to impart
Any sense of who I am
Or what I feel
Onto its rhythmic
Turn of the wheel
And when I look closely
And see the fiery sun
I feel the same fear
Just like the one
Over my hearts life
And I wonder how
I can live
As I do now
And did long ago
With joy
And heartbreak
And now a man from a boy
I wait for the final beat
And the final ray
Of my life
Will it be today?
How will I ever know
On that day
When what I cannot control
Chooses what to do or say
And in the moment after
These questions
Will no longer matter
Nor will the suggestions
Of how I should live my life
In preparation for the sun
And my heart
To decide their work is done

What I would think to say
To be true
Like someone you once knew
But no longer love
Is the same as a stranger might say
To someone like you
Beautiful
But distant too
Hoping we will remain friends
After we meet
Instead of the way of the stars
A part of every dream
But never touching
Never knowing
Only looking
Longing
Alone
In the midst of disappointment
Where hopeful strangers once walked
Only to be reminded that it happens that way
And though while caution knows best
Our hearts will this time not set again, until
The fear of heartbreak no longer speaks to us in the night

What are tears
What is anger
What is joy
What is it

Dare we make the trade
From one feeling to another
Dare we take a break
From horror to happiness

Everything is fleeting

Take time to care
Take time to share
Take time to smile

You have that right

The light always seems to streak
Like the hair you keep changing
I was staring as you walk by
Wondering how not to get burned
By a lady I can’t seem to meet

You seem to enjoy being different
You laugh easy but then you don’t
You always change the way you think
Or maybe I just haven’t figured out
The way the river shades the current

There’s a shadow in your smile
Only I can see
I know you want to say something
I know you want to say it to me

It’s a feeling only a fool tries twice more
He’s not afraid to be shot down again
It’s not the sign of weakness in a man
It’s the same shadow he saw once before

There’s a shadow in your smile
I feel it when you talk to me
I know it’s not what you really wanted
I know it’s not the way you want it to be

What if I sang you a song
And bared my soul to you
Is that what it would take
For you to lose your cool?

What if I was on a stage
And said I would die for you
Would you show me your heart
Or would I just be playing the fool?

I know you want love
But you’d rather pretend
You’re saving something
For someday
But I want everything
Today

I have to act like I’m not impressed
You know that’s the game
I’m ready to show you how I feel
But first I need to know your name

What if I walked right up
And didn’t give you a line
Would you still reject it
Or would you think it was a sign?

I know you want love
But you’d rather pretend
You walked right on by
But your eyes don’t lie

You’re saving something
But I want everything
You’re saving something
But I want everything
I want everything
Everything

Am I a river?
I was
But now I am a lake
Because of the dam
The dam of life
The dam I hate
The dam I cannot defeat
I see my stream
But I cannot rise above the dam
So I sit
And I wait
And I exist
But I do not live
But as I am slowly released
Part of me has become you
For I too am a stream
Yet you want a river
And now I look for a river too

Launched by strains of Auld Lang Syne
Leaving all that he had known
For love of far greater purpose
Glory! Ambition! The throne!

The code of morality
Death to our enemy
But don’t ask why
Life to our legacy
But don’t ask why

The flags wave highest
That most proudly sends their sons to war
Waving at the end of decency
Or is it the beginning that we fight for

For what is decency
Except to spare the life of the enemy
Yet that is not our charge
It is not to show mercy or remedy
Instead it is to march triumphantly
Never counting the dead
Only the medals pinned to a chest
Only the horrors lining his head

And though exhorted to turn the other cheek
Forgiveness is only a bent knee on a rug
He has received his pardon on this earth
For all that WILL be done before his grave is dug

But not for bats disrupted by gunfire
With shadows forming lattice lace upon rocks for the sacrament
But the sands once shifted by God’s breath
Is now ink made holy by the holder of the parchment

What coward would accept condemnation
Rather than death by enemy sword, sharpened
By the exceptionalism of old men
Whose achievements canonized but burdened
In their own minds
Forgetful as they grow into legend
Excepting of their own courage
In the stories they imagined

Giving white feathers but not for honor
To those who plant flowers in rifles
Flowers loved by Kings and Queens
Who smell them while reading lifeless bibles

Those loved by their mothers
Faceless as they march
The song of glory speaking of freedom
While they pass the closing doors of the arc
Their wives would rather weep tears of pride
Than of tears of shame
But what difference to his soul
Rising for what purpose or game?

To honor his family or his God?

Going down with the ship
Accepting the bullet from the front
Falling not upon his sword but upon that of the savage
For that is how to die like we want
There is no reason that must be validated
Victory or defeat
He gave his life without question
And now his name is on a street

But still, the sun rises again
Callously living without purpose
For no man can touch its soul
No sword can plunder its surface
No words can destroy its pride
No tragedy can darken its rays
No, it is the earth that must rise and set
Living waiting until the end of days

And the coward drew small comfort from this
Knowing nature is an idle spectator
As is a flame at the end of a spear
A fire that only kills and not worth dying for

But a spear in the hand of a subject
Serves only its King
While the flower he picks prepares to die
Dishonorable and in shame
For though they may were once beauty
It is only to mark the graves
And line the path of solemn remembrance
For those who hope that God saves

Whatever the night may reveal
Or the day may choose to conceal
It is of no consequence to my being
If I cannot discern between morning or evening

However intrigue may make us smile
Or how the self-evident nature of man may beguile
It is of no consequence to my being
If I cannot understand the way I should be living

Whenever fear failed to dissuade me
Or courage only became stupidity
It is of no consequence to my being
Because reason was something I was missing

Whoever loved me in spite of my reticence
Or who walked away despite my penitence
It is of no consequence to my being
If I cannot understand what I am feeling

I know the hole is there
i haven’t filled it
instead i step over it
(mercy to my past)
i can’t fill it
i won’t
it is who i am

But if i fill the hole
i must use the dirt
the dirt that was in the hole
(before it was a hole)
it’s next to the hole
and i could put it back
but it won’t be the same

To write about it
is to put the dirt back
it is your life
(it is all you know)
and it must be filled
it must be filled, right?
any way you can

Your life is in disarray
you didn’t ask for this
but you are still alive
(someone needs you)
we can’t speak our minds
unless it is art
dirt that becomes art

But must i fill the hole?
what would i accomplish
i would rather be myself
(what i have become)
so instead i speak
i’m not going to fall in
I’m not going to bury myself

I cannot deny myself
what path born to us remains?
instead it is my challenge
(to land on my feet)
i cannot live in my hole
but do not be sad for mefor
it is my light that has escaped

Inside the saliva that forms when she parts her lips
The dream was a steady drip
He knew
Art never passes beyond an approximation
Unless it reaches someone
But knowing the woman he loved dug her claws into his skin
It was no longer an opinion
Or an accusation
It was reality
And it no longer required a brush to play pretend
To paint the warm tears upon a canvas required his own
Because then he would know it was true
Deciding between truth and faith tore his heart apart
He wanted to believe
And not know
Because belief was hope
And knowing was fear
Fear that the cornerstone of his being was as human as blood
Blood that could not be washed away
Only form a river of electrical activity on a screen full of dots
It meant he was alive
But he realized he was translating himself from another life
The words were easy to write
But the meaning required a life to have been lived
That way his errors could be identified
And meaning
And unresolved memories
Like water spilling out his side
Could moisten her lips while she made love to another man
So he could dream again

If you do not love the world
Can you love the father who left you behind?
For he brought you here
Along with your mother
So to what purpose was your birth?

If you do not love the world
But love the father who once was your own
It is to love miracles
And life everlasting
Inside the heart you pray God finds worth

It seems I’m living a life of decision
It used to be so easy to make a choice
To feel desire was to know what to do
I never lost my confidence or my voice

I believed in who I was more than  I do now
It’s a funny thing when you know so much  more
But I only believed in what I wanted with you
And it was so clear that I knew what love was for

I’ve lived more than once
And I’ve seen the signs
I never want to have to say maybe next time
But if I do
Then I will be the first one there

I read once an old man’s virtue is only a loss of energy
But you know I know how it feels now to be left behind
And I want to believe that I love you enough to stay
The beauty of your eyes makes me hope you’re my kind

God tell me how to know
Tell me how to know my mind
To be so sure as I was long ago
To tell her she is who I was hoping to find

I’ve lived more than once
And I’ve seen the signs
I never want to have to say maybe next time
But if I do
Then I will be the first one there

I'm staring at a fountain blue
It was what you decided to be
Throwing coins and wading too
I wondered if you noticed me
I don't know how long it will last
Something better happen soon
I can't live tied to a passing mast
Hoping for another harvest moon
I wondered if it would be enough
I watched the side of her face burn
Could she love when life was rough
Or does beauty ever take its turn
To hear you whisper after midnight
While your blinding colors sleep
Will tell me if you prefer the light
Where our confessions never meet

Get your own sound
Where you get it don’t matter
Borrow it
Change it
Rearrange it
Till they don’t recognize it
Then it’s yours
Think about it
Live with it
Become it
Till you recognize it in a dream
Then it’s you
You found it one night
But you didn’t write it down
You were driving a car
Long ago
It all came together
You didn’t trust yourself
The information wasn’t enough
It wasn’t whole
It didn’t feel like Sunday afternoon enough
You wanted it to be about peace
But is that your sound?
It may only be a moment
A break from the past
Or the concern
What atmosphere did you suppress?
You didn’t recognize it
That’s why it was you
You only can recognize someone else
You aren’t CONFIDENT about new thoughts
Nobody is
You have to suffer through it
Walk with strangers
Sleep on concrete
I saw a man do that the other day
Everybody stepped over him
And you have so much more
But what do you hear?
Stop reacting
You have heard every word there is
You have felt every emotion there is
Put it all together
There was a friend once
The one you tell stories about
Their genius was being different
But they were too much for you
You couldn’t live like that
They were too loud
You couldn’t hear yourself
They were primitive
Without any dignity
Yet you remember
Raw
But then elegance and poise
Elegance and poise
Is that what made you stumble?
Just words that strangle
Sunday afternoon
Is that your sound?
Are you listening?
It may be that you are not
Mere existence
Not knowing
Not hearing
Not you
Not less
More

I am but a grain of sand
Trying to be the beach
I am but a falling leaf
Trying to be the season
I am but a blade of grass
Trying to be a meadow
I am but a drop of water
Trying to be the ocean
I am but a bird
Trying to be the wind
I am but a cloud
Trying to be the sky
I am but a rock
Trying to be a mountain
I am but a human being
Trying to be worthy of heaven

I want to heal
from the feeling of being misunderstood
It’s not easy
to be yourself when nobody will let you
I could tell them
my dreams are like stormy weather
But they might say
they fade away like the morning dew

I want to feel
the freedom of being who I am
You may remember
but I’m not that person anymore
If you want to live
in a place where the past is about you
Just don’t ask me
because I’m about now and not before

I want to kneel
where I can talk to God all alone
If you stand close
it may be harder on you than on me
I’m not proud of that
it’s just that I had let some things go
Now that I’m able
what I’ve become is the way it will be

I want to steal
things from my former self that I own
What is mine
is the way I will love someone new
What is yours
is the memory of how I loved you
But there is no place
that can tell the lie that I know is true

It is the will

The will to be
The will to give
The will to love
The will to live

That is all there is

Sew and lash
Are you the wind?
Sew and lash
Are you the sail?

You do not believe
You cannot see it

But neither can you see the wind

She dances without music
She can hear what she needs
She is so sure of being herself

But her sails beg for new seeds

The will to be loved
The will to be hurt
The will to cry once more

Whose sails will you fill today?

Sew and lash
Are you the wind?
Sew and lash
Are you the sail?

The other side of normal; forward
motion progressing to what is actually
the natural state of being a person,
meaning I don't care how old I am;
nothing can stop what I have become

It was a chase or maybe a pull to
please my upbringing but what looked
good on paper wasn't what or who I
really was

Normal has a downside; not falling
but instead a remnant flickering in
the dark; a curiosity but not a life to
believe in

No longer drawn to external forms;
all that is left is to know what you
believe because you already know
enough to tell us without preparation

You said it once; your mistake is
that you didn't write it down so now
you can't find what you already know
about what is worth fighting for and
what you should be afraid of

All you have to do is stop worrying
because whatever is happening in the
news is intended to make you look;
don't look, what good is it to you?

But are you living in a good place;
does it help the way you feel about
who you are and what you want to
do because if not, then what are you
doing?

The best thing you can be is humanistic
no matter with whom you are speaking
because what could go wrong when the
gentle truth of who you are and how you
care is always moving forward?

You can read what a man says;
you don’t have to believe
but what if he says something
you already knew to be true?

Do you wish to discover the meaning of life
or is it just that you need a friend
who already thinks like you?

I called for all the words to gather
but only twenty six letters arrived,
each an island
surrounded by promise
separate but equal
for what was one without another

Except for I

Then I realized it’s the same as a piano,
everything is there that I need;
it’s all up to me

Every person who suffers
and every person who laughs
can never be fully described
until someone decides to make people see

Boys were once ready to be men
but the girls wouldn’t let them

So they crossed the river to the other side

But instead of love
they only found broken glass walls
and grown women smiling, until
they laid on no bed for a bride

Then they find someone;
and love them always,
until they don’t

The tides of emotion rise above us
and we think,
this is it

That’s when you know it’s in God’s hands;
for we weren’t meant to swim
in waters he refuses to part

We live knowing how we feel,
anger, sorrow, joy
and sometimes,
we even know why

Is it our destiny to watch women pass
while we wait to catch their eye;
and what could we say without a word
that they would always remember?

It was how we communicated as children

That we recall
love from afar
the imagination
able to pair
with another
but fired by
uncertainty
not so different
than now

I may never again speak of regret
for what good to a condemned man
or a man who walks freely
as he did as a child

What good would it do?

What good would it do?

Can you tell me?

Take my letters
use them as you will
the answers are all there

I cannot look at them any longer

To so many it is surreal and dream-like; say it out loud,
they nailed him to a cross; an overwhelming reality too
cruel to believe

Reminded of nothing but what passed their lips into
your ears, the inquisitors, blessed by a past regarded
as their own holy ground asked, “How many prophets
have you met?”

It was enough to know who Satan should truly fear;
those who would never cry, who would have no reaction
to anything except the atrocity of someone who knew
them well

They say walk a mile in another man’s shoes but why
must we walk so far; isn’t his breath alone enough to
know of the scars in his hands and feet?

It seems that life gives others too many chances; they
hurt so many others and expect to be forgiven; but I
have not witnessed their punishment; it is the pattern
sewn by my bitterness

Is it God’s plan to reveal how and when they will be
driven into the desert of lament and sorrow; or even
if he already has, with burning sands beneath their
unrepenting feet, is it any of my concern?

The clock will strike on his time; the test is not only
in bearing my own pain but also in my discomfort
with God’s random will; random to mankind, but
not to God; he chose the time for the storm to wash
away those who preach what they do not know

The one who stirs hate in my heart suffers more than
I will ever know; his conscience burns deep into the
heart I once believed failed him; and when he comes
to me to witness my refusals will he ask then if God
gave me the power to part the sea?

I was given a hammer and some nails; was it to build
a home or to **** a man? I was given a pile of stones;
was it to build a home or to judge another man?

What did God ask of me; tell me what he said for
the dream was such a nightmare that I awoke in
horror at the sight of such unworthiness

To lower your gaze and be the truth; the truth that
only humility knows, not to be hurt once again but
to show how forgiveness is greater than anything
you have been promised?

And as you walk in fear towards an image beyond a
cross you cannot believe is real, will the worthiness of
the forgiver be enough for you to know that the shoes
you wear are not strong enough to hold another man’s
suffering in its sole?

There has never been a time
There has never been a moment
Everything you know and feel
Came from someone else’s torment

Until you felt your own

They taught you  to feel their own
It was everything they believed
Only a newborn baby
And yet it was you who was deceived

Because they did not know

They did not know you
But you drew their love near
You couldn’t speak of it
While they read rhyme mask fears

Fears that could only smile

The is no enhancement of consciousness
Without the removal of nails from your mind
The release of the self by empathy
Is a butterfly that no longer wears a sign

A sign that is not of its own making

Ripping off its eylids
No matter the sun
Killing the prince
For love is no Machiavellian

Cynicism is grief of a clever sort

No hallucination from mother’s breast
No sense of urgency for rejecting truth
Unaffected by life is an impossibility
Until foolishness becomes a strength of youth

Because foolishness is sincerity naked

Falling our entire life
But never released by gravity
A scream of expectation
The treachery is the lack of humanity

They talk freedom but who can live with it?

It’s in how I choose to walk
It’s when I decide to smile
A flower from stone
Indifference from style

Which is it anyway?

And if I try to soon be who I am
I wonder if everyone I knew would leave
What I was seemed to be something to love
But if they only knew how it is that I grieve

It was not how I wanted it to be

There is so much time spent being a reservoir
A holder of the things they want us to cherish
A tribe defined by what we hold in common
Yet our differences breathe life into our individuality
I don’t know if it is that I need a passenger
Should it be my destiny to explain guide or suggest
When it is that I prefer no past
And no future
Not because of shame or death
But because these things cause discomfort
It is instead a life of calm that I seek
As it is walking with nature or the animals we care for
I can only ask if you want to fall in love
Or if there is a word that would describe me
I hope it is honor
And truth
I don’t know how it is we can agree not to be perfect
We have such a precise expectations for our life
Would it be better not to watch through a moving window
Instead we could be a part of what it is we seek
Or create it for ourselves
If only we knew how

As tempting as it is to walk only with slaves, I find what
my children need instead is economic freedom; for my own
austere nature took a lifetime to achieve and I cannot assume
they were born for this until they know for themselves their
own nature and how best to cultivate the good from within;
they will breathe in the same air as I but what they exhale will
be who they are for they cannot hold onto my own exhaust any
more than I can theirs

There will necessarily be a raging river between myself and
those with whom I sympathize the most; for whatever it is
that I have become it was forced upon me by privilege; there
is nothing I can say to comfort a suffering life except to assuage
their pain for the moment and be reminded that there is
no satisfaction inherent in observing the poor before taking
leave to waste more food

An invention of expediency, a convenience to nurture destiny,
fear is the ultimate tool to control those who have no time
for anything except to raise their own children; and as we
watch them accept instruction from those with whom we
disagree we can only counter their influence by the scant
degree to which we have deviated from the same fears
that were placed within us, but it is only until we are old
enough to know and by then it may be too late

The ability to become what power grants, to the detriment of
polite acknowledgment of the moral rigors necessary to
maintain the underground movement that once objected to
personal gain but now embodies it, is what draws us near; the
power of authority cannot survive without force in the
absence of either moral clarity, obvious merit or grantor of
favor; but because in our fantasies one man is stronger than
our collective minds to whom we willingly bow because we
look for a savior among us forgetting that the savior is in
our time of worship, waiting for us

We are cut and bleed openly on the pavement, but
our body heals itself; the scar that remains reminds us
but it is in our minds that we’re not allowed to reveal
our pain; it is our consciousness that must forever act
sane even though it lives in the past; judging how many
lovers a person may have had or how many they have
set free; we must benchmark ourselves because that
is the only way we can prove we are not one speech
from taking the rights away from an entire group of
people because we can demonize anyone as long as
it is not what we have become

The words that speak of redemption and humility clash
with the psychology of ambition for within our personality
lies the unquenchable trauma of our life; we seek revenge
instead of rehabilitation because revenge is easier to refract
reality in order to find our place where normalcy exists and
the belief that who we are was not our choice or in our
power to alter; we know this not to be entirely true yet
we are powerless to consider the alternative because there
is no place to find true acceptance

The most moral thing I can do is accept the inconvenience
of kindness, empathy and truth in the company of those
who wish to exercise their own freedom to insult others and
place blame upon others for their failures in life; for the ability
to remember who suffered not by their own hand but instead
by the hand of others is something one must learn even if
it means rejecting the heart of those whom they once loved

It was so long ago
Or was it… yesterday?
Separated by fears
Of love that would not wait

But if I had known
How I would feel today
I would have taken your heart
And shown it a world
Where dreams really do
Dreams really do come true

It’s like a regret
That you always feel in your heart
It’s like a love affair
But only you will play the part
How can I live
When time has left me no choice
But to die or be alone
Because love never found its voice

But if I had known
How I would feel today
I would have taken your heart
And shown it a world
Where dreams really do
Dreams really do come true

The mountain is so high
I've chosen the hardest path
But to see what God has made
Means I won't turn back

From the sweetest water I drank
Quenching a thirst I never knew
I always thought I was satisfied
Until the day I met you

My mind had been sheltered
With life's beauty only a hint
When you came into my life
I finally knew what love meant

I can never tell you enough
The feelings that blossom each day
Bursting forth from a swollen dam
I will never let you get away

You are my soul mate
We know each others walk
Unspoken words move between us
There is no need to talk

Our love is always there
We are comforted by knowing
It always will be with us
On our faces always showing

The glow of our life together
Beckons us both in the distance
When we gaze upon one another
We know to end the resistance

I love you as no other
With my heart, mind and soul
Come with me baby
Let's make each other whole

Mental processes so deep, bathing
alone at the bottom of the ocean,
like a baby before his mother ruined
him; a book before it’s opened; right
yesterday, wrong today; fundamental,
primary, calm before a tragedy, simple
before complexity; knowing the first
step may be wrong in the pursuit of
intent, but living easy in the fragile
consequence of decision where
coherence need not beg permission
to venture forth into bemused oration,
the stimulation of provoking thought
and triumphant rejection of legalisms
cleverly stated to establish the guilt
of an innocent

Underneath the deluge of our impending
life our fears seek sanctuary within the
mind or is it a place to avoid leaving no
room for kindness which must take refuge;
we want the right to make a statement
without fear for do they have any concept
of our problems; but I do want to understand;
justice was always known but only as it
pertained to me; but though I thought
about transcending difficulties it was
something only about myself instead that
of others; I only wanted to live within the
justification of my happiness

If I were your lover could you learn from
me or live knowing that I disagreed with
you on something so vital to you; could
you believe that my silence does not
conspire against you but instead is my
journey towards sanity as I must work
things out without further intervention
by the interests of someone who may
or may not feel agreeable with the musty
smells of the books that line the walls
of my mind; could you allow me to
contend with the past even though
everyone else has decided to move
on with their lives?

Are you the type who would follow
the law no matter how far it may
stretch your heart; but if allowed to
make your statement would you know
why you uphold what corrupt men
decided was just; I wonder if the ground
upon which you walk is worthy of my
worship when it is not the ground upon
which I lay but instead upon your good
graces that I must beg, otherwise I might
change my mind about what is just and
what is merely expedient

To be responsible for your actions
without regard to ambition or wealth;
you may choose the direction; you may
change the direction; it is your choice
alone; or you may delude yourself of
what is right in the name of your own
greatness; that anonymity and a humble
life is somehow the same as prison; what
we have done is to make someone feel
insignificant for honoring the most
significant virtues we all stand for,
truth and justice; yet it is true that truth
need no representation from a skilled
jurist as even a child can know what
his own eyes have witnessed; but
would it be altered by the times in
which he lived or would logic destroy
his small mind and bend it so that he
may be reduced to choosing between
nightfall or a shadow

Would it occur to you in time or is it
wise to learn from another to know
what is true, but if you wait until your
own goodness or awareness of another’s
pain reveals itself to you may be too late;
it may be that you cannot cross the river
so while you wait on the evil side you
must know how to recognize the good
that must live while it too waits for the
promised land

Do you know wrong to be wrong
without exoneration when compared
to greater wrongs; would you argue
against guilt if they spoke in favor of
that in which you believe; who would
be willing to tell the truth knowing their
life will be examined thoroughly; but
you must bring it forward, to endure
the indignity of a merciless soul search;
reason exists solely to defend against
depth that would bury the truth; what
way of life would ignore these things; it
is the life of fear that makes us choose
the wrong things in the hope that
good exists somewhere underneath
the crushing weight of the light to
which one day we will surface

What’s to become of a setting sun that cannot be with you always even though it will return in the morning to ask your sleepy eyes if you made love to the moon?

What’s to become of a solitary moon adorned with my kisses to be sent to you each night in remembrance of the past and a hope for a dream that is so old it has borne children that have taken their place in the heavens?

What’s to become of a dry creek bed that once ran wild to your seas in anticipation of becoming one in a mating ritual that can no longer move even the smallest pebble when once boulders shuddered to think of the passion play that ruled the night?

What’s to become of the lone wolf who howled each night in your forests that have now burned to the ground with not even a remnant of smoke from a fire that consumed our past lives and is merely ashen powder with no resemblance to the beauty that he once devoured?

What‘s to become of a stone tied to a leg attached to a body that once had a heart that was held in your hands and instead is drowning and decaying under the weight of oceans that will make quick work of its flesh leaving only the chain that mercilessly did your ***** work?

What’s to become of the abandoned sailboat with clanging hardware on a mast that stands alone without a sail to catch the wind; instead left to drift aimlessly while you walk away from the dock where you dropped the knife next to the cleat where you cut it loose and set it free?

I had to tell him
It will make your soul bleed
But you will never see it
It will make your heart burn
And one day you will feel it
But it won’t be what you thought
Because it was drained, not filled
Even though you once smiled about it

Somebody will tell him
To master your desires is the seed
But you won’t understand it
You think it is your turn
And being a man is accepting it
It won’t be sold, but instead bought
Because it’s the garden you tilled
The fruit you chose will die in it

Somebody will say so
Somebody will say so
Live the night
Forget the light
Somebody will say so
Which way will you go?

His mind will tell him
This is how a boy is freed
But you will be a prisoner to it
They say the hard way is how you learn
And a weak man will always choose it
What you found and what you sought
Would it be you were tempted or willed
The way of your prayers will reveal it

Somebody will say so
Somebody will say so
Live the light
Reject the night
Somebody will say so
Which way will you go?

We know who waits for us there
All those we knew, you took for yourself
They might not have had time for faith
Too young, too much for old time religion
You made us in seven, we raise in the eighth

They had to go their own way
Leaving this place, did they ask a favor?
Did they tell you about me?
Maybe that’s not how it is by your side
We knew them Lord, we hope they’re free

Take care of them Lord
We can’t imagine it
They didn’t ask for streets of gold
But we’d be willing to pave it

You took them from captivity
Living in the wild, our mothers suffer so
The path we take, only our hearts know
They didn’t have enough time Lord
Salvation collection, whose debt did they owe?

Take care of them Lord
They couldn’t imagine it
They didn’t ask for streets of gold
But we already paved it

“Everyone is tired of what I have to say,”
He said to nobody but himself
“The more I complain the more they walk away”
There’s no time to mourn
The death of an innocent boy
Even though he does not know it yet
His fate is in the hands of someone else

A crazy man tires of dream lies
He scares everyone with his rage
He doesn’t care if tomorrow comes or goes
Without his hope we are afraid
The locks on the vault watch closely
Because truth is their greatest fear

As the quiet of the evening approaches
Their senses remain on alert
They let him live and that was their mistake
The witness wonders about silence
Advantage is not easily gained
Is his voice worth the cost?

Foot prints in the sand
Traces of the escape
Erased by the tide
What we remember
Remains quietly inside

Hands on the pavement
Traces of their fate
Preserved by what dried
Frozen still every December
By what your life was denied

Candles on the bar
Traces of every mistake
Shadows on their sighs
Beach combing ember
My light by your side

I walked so far
And who I was, I left behind
Then I found something new
And now that I’ve lived this life
The time has come to stop
The direction has become a circle

Is there a God in my midst
Is it what I have already met
Or what has already left?

Who could expect more
To walk inside a dream
And then another
To know what you want
To become the dream

But to wake up
Not wondering what you saw
Or if it made sense
But instead knowing
All the pieces were there
Is it time for a new dream
Or to try to live it after it is over?

Can I really cross the sea
When it won't let me be?
The revolution is the dream
But peace makes my soul free
I can't tell time anymore
What was so far has become today
The eagles I once saw
Are no longer leading the way
Hovering over the waters
The spirit still silently waits
The promise is still being kept
But this time it may be too late

What can be said
An entire religion has answered the question
It has been said
It has been lived
But I have not lived it
And I have not said it
What is left is gripped tightly
Held together by life
By responsibility
But is it unhealthy fight for every goal
Is it when it is not who you are anymore
When the challenge is not achievement
But instead sanity in the midst of someone else’s dream
A dream that is no longer worthy of your own
A dream from which you have awaken
A dream that cannot exist within your own

What is real is love
What is real is love
What is real is love

Where is the plan for this
Is it to walk the streets of a crowded city
To meet someone either as scared as you
Or someone who is not scared at all
Do you tell them who you are
What you have said
What has happened to you
But to which face in which you see do you speak
I could smile at buildings
And at a poor woman cleaning the building
Ask her how she feels
But what if she cries
Should I begin where her tears dry?
Should I begin where her problems lie?
Is it her problems that is love?

Where in the night is the woman who lives in another city
Where in the night is the woman who has heard me speak
Where in the night is the woman who loves but cannot trust

I made her that way

And now there is something else
Is it love?
Is it art?
Is it just to live
With memories
Or with hope?

I have to find a way
Find a way to be in my head with a new dream
But the last one was so perfect
And it ended the way it was written

Do you know which mirror to break?
Is it the one that hangs there with beauty smiling back at you?
Or the one doing all the talking?

How can you tell which one is safe
When both of them know what it is that it you will pretend to be true
And what it is that they both will be mocking

pick your sinner baby
a bottle of wine
and a look in his eye
or somebody preaching
and taking
the book don't live in no mansion
least that's what he said
you know it's like that
people gotta' live
you gonna' judge
or you gonna give?

I can only imagine
Where we all live together
In a world where our eyes see the truth
Instead of the lies we conceive
Where a family loves for love
Instead of shutting doors on one another
Because of perceptions they believe

I can only imagine
The bitterness that dries our eyes
Replaced by tears of joy
Because we no longer grieve
Where the blessings of the wicked
Are not the prayers of the meek
Lying in wait hoping we will receive

I saw you by the water’s edge
I was on the other side
I know why you’re looking
It’s the reflection in which you confide

But you’re there for another reason
That’s why your shoes are off
You want to know if it’s cold
I just want to know if it’s soft

I’m not the water baby
I’m not the water
I’m just on the other side
I’m not the water baby
I’m just on the other side

You forgot how to get things started
You’re only thinking about how it might end
I’m not so afraid of losing someone anymore
I just don’t want to hurt another friend

I’m not the water baby
I’m not the water
It just seems that way ‘cause it’s awful wide
I’m not the water baby
I’m waiting on the other side

If you can’t see me for the water
Then watch the sun rise in the morning
If you see a reflection in the light you see
Then you’ll know the water is not me

I’m not the water baby
I’m not the water baby

Don’t be afraid of me
Don’t be afraid of me
Don’t be afraid of me

Someone asked if I was feeling blue
I said I hope so
Especially
If it means I'm a clear spring sky
A deep ocean sea
Staring into your eyes
Then yes
I am

Someone asked if I was sad
I said I hope so
Especially
If it means I am thinking of life
A day the way it ought to be
Of you
Then yes
I am

Someone asked if I was sorry
I said I hope so
Especially
If it means I am forgiven
A feeling of humility
About you
Then yes
I am

See them all in their little holes
Even the big ones are small
There is so much to place just so
But they spill out onto the road
Where we walk upon them together
Wondering about the noise we hear
It’s the same as the one we make

Where is the life we once described
It was a beautiful story
We dared to dream it as we planned
We waited for it to happen
It was almost true as we spoke
To say yes this is how it will be for us
We should not have spoken of it at all

What is it that makes us torture ourselves
We never know how it will end
So we think of it in terms of the pain
But now I think of it like it was the story
Not what we dreamed of
But instead how we lived
Because we were together then

I cannot judge anyone

I cannot say,
you are right,
you are wrong

Unless you hurt someone

The mirror of life
shows me my failings,
as there is no safe harbor;
I no longer wish upon it;
I only ask for forgiveness

I will not tell you how to be a man,
or what it is to be a woman;
these things are not why I live;

I will not tell you how to worship,
or what to believe
these things I do not know

I read the words about peace
and love
and planks in my own eye
and then I know

For whatever man may be different,
and whatever woman may be different,
is no longer my concern

What would you say,
when the one you thought was evil,
weeps and cannot sleep at night;
and the one you thought was good,
smiles and sleeps even during war?

Would you ask them what made them that way?

I do not know who was sent to us

I do not know who confuses us

But when a man kneels,
and is kind,
and is a peacemaker,
and is a lover of all that we are,
then I want to know that man

No matter who he is

No matter his race

No matter his belief

No matter who he loves

Because that man is a better man than me

I’ve retired behind clouds; living to light your world
when the smoke of your travails giving witness
to the truth that cannot be found gathers itself
for a moment, eclipsing my gaze in the shape
of a white heart, void of color, even blackness;
for in the senselessness of humanity’s struggles
love must be found by one light, removed
from the source of burning hearts and instead
regaining the purity of celestial bodies, prayed
to for centuries, guided by their presence, linked
by our imagination, named for our Gods; promised
to us for the moment the light parts the curtain
of doubt and shines upon your gaze, smiling; not
at a doll, but a woman; not at an ornament, but
a mystery of misunderstanding, longing and hope
for her heart to be weighed down by the color
of love, no longer able to float amongst the clouds;
removing itself as the prism of my healing touch,
to await the return of a man’s naïve hopes in life,
lost for too long behind the clouds of his pain,
his losses, his betrayal, his cynicism of a pretty
face only interested in perpetuating itself in
the glory of its reflection and the madness
of his pursuit