"Once you have found it
keep your Voice on you at all times,"
my Uncle told me,
"you never know when you might need it.
Do not entrust it to anyone else -
they won't value it the way that you do.

"And do not leave your Voice
where they can steal it,
but slip it in your inside breast pocket,
close to your quiet heart -
where you can reach for it
at a moment's notice,
and when the moment comes,
you take it out with a steady hand
and you let them see
that your Voice is not lost,
it is not tired,
that it lies ready
that it is willing
to speak truth to power,
to voice comfort to the powerless
and sing in chorus with quieter voices."
And he patted my hand,
"You'll know. You'll know."

Years later,
when I found my Voice
far from where my Uncle had sat,
I knew it was mine
from its familiar shape and weight in my throat,
from the way it resonated
with the call I had suppressed
and the way it chimed
with the voices of those
who chose to stand with me.

And now that I've found it,
I exercise my Voice in song,
I practice it in comfort
and I school it in truth
and I always keep it close
to our quiet hearts
where they cannot steal it from us.

sometimes
when the moon is full
i sing

and sometimes
when the moon is full
i dance

i come alive!

But most times,
When the moon isn't full,
I'm proper.
I'm polite.
I'm dead.

I got the news this morning
Not the way to start the day
Another friend had fallen
I now grieve for Johnny Ray

I can not hide my feelings
I'm not sure how to feel
I wait for him to phone me
This just does not feel real

Let's celebrate his life though
Not with prayer, let's sing and yell
We know that he will hear us
Up in heaven raising hell

When you lose a loved one
There's things they say to do
But, ***** that, let's get rowdy
Let's do something loud and new

Remember them through music
Do it loud so they can hear
Sing, shout, be vocal
They're gone but they're still near

Tonight we will remember
On the stage we'll sing and yell
So Johnny Ray can hear us
Up in heaven raising hell
Yep, Johnny will sure hear us
Up in heaven raising hell

As our pale blue presence
Dizzily dances
In the same single sunbeam
Restless over how alone
We really are

So sing at the finish line
Sing that sweet swan song
Because all shall become nothing
And in the nothingness
We are lost

The totality of time
With every moment spent
But that was then
And now it's gone
Im not sure where it went

You know what?
I want to dance!
Down the street without music
I know the song
It's memorized
Embossed on my brain
So you can have your Oldsmobile radio
But I WILL dance down the street
Deal with it

You know what?
I want to sing!
In the hills like Maria
A song all my own
And the hills and breeze will harmonize
And the stream will dance
So you can keep your televised singing reality
But I WILL sing in the hills
Deal with it

You know what?
I want to run!
Nowhere in particular
Just away
And that's perfectly OK
I need air in my lungs
So you can keep your treadmills
But I WILL run nowhere in particular
Deal with it

You know what?
I'm going to shout!
From the highest mountaintop
The world will hear my deepest cry
And with happy tears I'll finally cry
So you can live your life
But I WILL shout for mine
Deal with it

I can’t keep giving you this favor you asked for.
I can’t keep this promise I made to you.
I’m sorry.

I’m breaking everything.
I’m shattering glass,
I’m tearing down walls,
And I am unapologetic.

I didn’t mean for it to escalate this far,
But then again,
Here we are.

I can’t keep this promise,
My skin just wants to break free.

I can’t keep giving you this favor,
My skin just wants to be against yours.

I am ripping your poems to shreds,
I am slashing tires to your sweet ride,
I am breaking the gazes between us.
I am unafraid.

I can't keep loving you,
This stupid schoolgirl crush.

I am walking over our memories,
Crushing the seeds you grew in me.

I am destroying the thought of you,
I am rendering love identical with night.

Tears don't stain my eyes,
Neither does pain.
So don't act surprised.

I am dancing again,
I am singing once more,
And I am not in love.

I am the moon once more,
I am the sun again,
And you aren't the stars.

You aren't the reason.
You aren't my rhyme.
You aren't a poem,
Let alone mine.

You're just a shell of a man that I once loved.
Even then, you're still empty.

Leaves pass by me singing the song of the nature,
The wind echoing the sound of the Hummingbirds,
They all sing in language that I don’t understand,
But the music was never about the words,
Your voice is sweeter than the nature’s orchestra.
You are not the melody to my ears,
You are the symphony to my soul.