our deaths are usually
a collection of hours
and mundane decisions
uprooting our pushpin
from the place marked
You Are Here
We Are
until that fateful morning
or unexpected night
or plane ride
or gunshot
We Are Here
sharp as a thumbtack
holding together
the very fabric of the earth
we are writing this in stone
carving our paths
with each yes and each no
in glorious stride
inescapable end
we choose to push our pins
just a little bit deeper
each step heavy
exercising our freedoms
and with each the refrain
I Am Here

Hush up your mind there lazy wanderer.
Can’t you feel the spirit in the breeze?
The streets are quiet and the stars are loud
And ain’t nothin' still burnin' but the red bud trees.
The mayflies are crawlin’ and the sugar baby bees
Are swarmin’ round the amber candied suns.
Peel back your ears to the summertime thunder.
Pillow clouds in the South have all the fun.
Sidewalk says if you ain’t lost you’ve won.
So you can hold that dusty chin up high.
Let the hills hold your breath ’til you you need to sing.
They’re good at keepin’ secrets and they never ask why.
Hush up your mind there lazy wanderer.
Can’t you feel the spirit in the breeze?
The streets are quiet and the stars are loud
And ain't nothin' still burnin' but the red bud trees.

There are moments
when the night is dressing
that you feel you have seen
more than you should
and if you have seen it truly
the night herself will tell you
it was meant for you to see

There are secrets we keep
in midnight gardens
in the bulbs of alien lilies
waiting for the moon to signal
the coming of our age

Will you see this with me
pull back the drapery
of grand expectation
and gaze upon the wonders
of the naked form of night

Be careful little tongue
how you dance
I know the music moves you
it moves us all the same
the tide waltzes in and out
to the song of a specter orb
but you must be both moon and ocean
for the heart is far too often eclipsed
and is given to mixed meter
fiddles are superfluous these days
and find themselves in the hands
of any drunken stranger
there are melodies for every key
of sorrow and vulgarity
any bar hand will serenade
fix your ear to the tune that rises
like an eastern sun
above the muddled herds
you will hear it first
and then you will sing
then realize you were singing it all along
dance to the rhythms
of the right path resounding
ever in your hands
and in the souls of your feet

be careful little tongue
how you dance
you cannot retract a child
ideas are born with every dip and twist
every curtsy gives them name
each one will grow
each one will know its mother
do not let your words be *******
the product of fiddlers and moonshine
be sober and sure footed
kiss each of your children goodbye
their fruit will come to be your fate
you will shape their taste for dancers
I have seen armies of children
lead open faced rebellion
and sever the ties
between their mother and her friends
listen for that beating
in your palms and tired feet
dance with care little tongue
there is no ballet so dangerous
or beautiful
as speech

Send a prayer out on the wind
Whenever you think of me
We are and then we’re not
Such a brittle time to share

Whenever you think of me
I hope your heart starts singing
Such a brittle time to share
We should fill the world with song

I hope your heart starts singing
We are and then we’re not
We should fill the world with song
Send a prayer out on the wind

Is there a news more blessed
Than sweet salvation’s song
For mortal man so wretched

The ledger centuries long
With sacrifice erased
Forgetting prideful wrongs

Oh come and share the taste
Confection from above
The never ending grace

Of Christ’s redeeming love

Have you ever fallen in love
And noticed some time after
Your heart was left cool and empty?
Did they take another’s side
With more vigor than you had seen?
Have you loved your children still?

Have you ever told a heart to still,
Broken your own to let it drink of love?
Has your compassion been seen
In comfort only or even after?
Have you sat at pain’s relentless side
And given until you are empty?

Have you seen a world so empty,
So violent and so still,
As when you leave your mother’s side?
Her embrace more natural a home for love,
In childhood and after,
Than any I’ve ever seen.

Have you ever not been seen?
Has the sky ever looked empty
As a hurricane’s before and after?
Have you kept on shouting still
When there is no answer from love
Because you know it belongs at your side?

Have you ever looked inside
And not understood what you’ve seen?
Is there a more confusing language than love
When you’re told to give and you’re empty?
Is your mantra “peace, be still”
When you’re uncertain about the after?

This is the ever after.
There is no more outside.
I have died to love them still.
There is no one who has seen
That can say my heart isn’t empty.
The name of my reign is love.

Will you cling to the side of love
After the body is empty?
There is still a world to be seen.