A  poet was given
a life sentence today.

He'll be going the way
of Bob Marley and Frank Zappa.

I saw him perform
over the last few decades.
Hip he was and always will be.

In the ranks of Canadian poets,
his peers being  Gordon Lightfoot,
Leonard Cohen and Mister Neil Young.

He wrote about the Canadian Prairies,
about New Orleans sinking and nautical disasters.
All with soul and intellect.

A friend said,
"You didn't have to
Know know know him
to love love love him".
And that's true.

With a heavy heart I ponder the noon news.
I recall the day I heard of John Lennon's ******.

The only time I ever cried
over the death of a celebrity.

Thoughts and prayers out to you Gordie,
and your family and friends.

Ironically tragic for one so Tragically Hip.

Sundown in the Paris of the prairies
Wheat kings have all treasures buried
And all you hear are rusty breezes
Pushing the weathervane Jesus

In his Zippo lighter he sees the killer's face
Maybe it's someone in the killers' place
Twenty years for nothing, well, that's nothing new
Besides, no one's interested in something you didn't do

Wheat kings and pretty things
Let's just see what the morning brings

There's a dream he dreams where his high school's dead and stark
It's a museum where we are locked in it after dark
Where the the halls are all lined all yellow, grey and sinister
Hung with pictures of our parent's Prime Ministers

Wheat kings and pretty things
Let's just see what the morning brings

Late breaking story on the CBC
A nation whispers, "We always knew he'd go free"
They add "You can't be fond of living in the past"
'Cause if you are then no way you're going to last"

Wheat kings and pretty things
Let's just see what the morning brings
Wheat kings and pretty things
Let's just see what the morning brings



Gord Downie

Master of puppets cease the chatter and ruckus find what life's sum is 
Climb to the summet notice the smell will be pungent 
I can see his sights clear I hold no fear you froze in the middle like headlights on a deer causing the cataclysmic fate into which you peer 
I'll try not to get too wordy, to many word patterns while I chop this rhyme up in fury tell me what might the cure be ?
Lines lay down like corpses in a morgue dissecting you into a gord you life hangs by a thread or cord 
Empathy is something I can't afford 
Bitterness hate enacting my raging states leave you stiff In a lake 
Your body's bloated like yeast in a cake you existing was a mistake 
Your a ****** and who's body was turned stagnant your mind devoid of thought life in fragments rigamortis leaves you muscles tight together like magnets 
**** it , the bay harbor butcher with looks like Ashton Kutcher leave you with cuts you can't sutcher
Put ya in a state of endless suffering no pain subsiding or breaks ,there will be no buffering 
Let it end ,feel the life you want go and the agony tear your mind apart slow, you have nothing left to learn that I don't know I will forever domineer your soul

You’ve got 99 problems but your loyalty is one,
you’ll never solve them now the World Cup is done.
Achieved by your colours that aren’t so true,
by a Nation that once treasured you.
Gretzky I believe your reign is through.

You used to shoot and inevitably you’d score,
imagine the disappointment of each Gord.
Keep the red and white but add the blue,
betray a Nation that once treasured you.
Gretzky; no longer number one not even two.

Keep your guns and keep your hate,
Canada’s not your fifty-first state.
We’ve always been a Country, one that’s great.

Went to a room and ignored the sign,
now we’ve changed the labels and removed your wine.
Disappointed in what you would do,
to a National that once treasured you.
The sadness and anger only grew.

An apology that will come too late,
Canada will never be your fifty-first state.
Not up for discussion or debate.

A concept you should understand,
you can’t put a “for sale” sign on our land.
The death of a legend came from the hands
of a bad man and a bad plan.
No longer the greatest of all time
after you’ve committed the greatest of crimes.

We won’t take the tariffs or the bait,
Canada will never be your fifty first state.
We’ll cement the actions and the date.

So stay in exile as is it your fate,
Canada won’t be your fifty first state,
cause it’s the one, the one that’s great.

It was a warm soothing October day
A nation mourned your loss
The voice of Canada
Soundtrack to everyone’s summer
everyone’s heartbreak
Everyone’s love
A reason to celebrate
It was a beautiful day
Tragically sick
It’s no joke
We miss you Gord,
We needed someone like you
Someone who told the world
What we can do.
Canada misses you
And a year later it’s still the same
So pick up the ****,
And light it up
The Tragically hip
Here to **** **** up.

(Canada legalized **** on Gords death day)

I sat and watched the stars tonight
They burned so hot and shone so bright
Reminded me of your sweet love
and lifted me so high above
I sat and watched the angels sing
And saw you there with your new wings
you sang a sweet sad lullaby
It made me smile, then made me cry
Then back to earth too soon I came
Twas Bittersweet, to hear your name
on Angels voices high above
Sent back to earth without your love
I sat and watched the stars tonight
they burned so hot and shone so bright
But I touched heaven for a while
And I shall dream of you and smile...
Gord Merritt...

A new song I wrote titled "it all ends in why?"
There are times when I miss you
There are times when I cry
There are times when I I'm lonely
and times when I lie
And say I don't love you
Though I don't know why
I aint fooling noone
Though god knows I try.
There are days when I'm sunny
There are days when I rain
There are days when the storms come
again and again
I guess it just pride dear
that helps me hold on
And stop me from dying
or going insane.
Chorus
There are days when I'm lonely
There are days I am blue
There are days when I'm happy
Just thinking of you
There are days when I'm alright
and there are days that I try
But the days that I miss you
all end in Why?
Verse two
There are people who like me
and people who don't
There are people who love me
But there's one who just won't
There are people who know me
and know I'm a fake
Every time that I smile (at you)
they can hear my heart break
There are times when I wake up
and times when I sleep
but the last one is harder
cause my ache is too deep
But when I do sleep nights
what I try not to do
I try not to dream
Cause It's always of you
Chorus
There are days when I'm lonely
There are days I am blue
There are days when I'm happy
Just thinking of you
There are days when I'm alright
and there are days that I try
But the days that I miss you
all end in Why?
Gord Merritt

Sometimes the most beautiful stars are not the ones that shine the brightest. They are ones that always shine in the distance and help you find your way...
Gord Merritt

It's time to come together
There's no better time than now
Elbows up  for Canada
Time to be like Gordie Howe

It's time to tell the stories
Of Canada the good
It's time to tell the stories
Like Gordon Lightfoot would

Fight like you are cornered
Drag them screaming on this trip
It's time to tell our story
Like Gord Downie and The Hip

Keep the elbows up forever
Show them the best of what you do
Dance and tell the story
Like BTO and The Guess Who

Show the world what makes us special
Sing of all our loves and likes
Tell the story of our country
Play it loud just like the pikes

It's time to write the story
Come together, be as one
Elbows up like Gordie
Be a true Canadian

Tis sad, words to far and distant to be heard
Sentiment of a bygone era, to faint to hear but for the chosen few
Too few now to be counted and I fear too soon gone.

A brushed cheek, a flushed cheek and one heart skips a beat
Hand to cheek means nothing now but to those who capture hearts
and to those whos hearts need capture...

Hair in my face, a perfumes trace to speed the beat of a lonely heart
Touch of a hand, nape of neck and the lobe of an ear to lighty bite
Too subtle for these times but

Desire is a lost art, want is a lost need... to fast we speed
and loose the charm and fervor of lust... for want is the seed of love,
and seeds need time to grow.

Gord Merritt

On a nice sunny weekend day we all step outside; throw a Frisbee; a football, or take a bicycle ride

Weekdays we work hard; we have our jobs to do. Then come home and take a load off when the day is through

Here we are trying to do the very best we can. The effort and the struggle to keep our lives on track; but are we constantly taking three steps forward on a treadmill moving five steps back ?

It does seem like we're all going down the hatch. A conundrum of a world for our heads to scratch. Maybe it's time to go play catch.
""I know!!""
Let's get our mitts for a nice little game of catch

I want it to be like my childhood filled with fun and laughter; the way it should.
But I don't wish to be misunderstood
I know that the news is not all good

There are dark black clouds coming from the horizon and settling over our happiness tall sailing ship.
We did not see them, but they were brewing on the other side of that sunny day tea that we sipped

Please I'm just the messenger; it is not my intention to scare. But you see ? I only thought it is my duty to make you all aware

There are homeless tents that are out of order; immigrants find themselves on the border
Hometown people of places who have their pride; invaded by people who have their priorities

Terrorists capable of still more tragedies; forced labor in China for our lithium batteries. Dying trees right outside my door; this is just not my world anymore.
Is it wrong for me to want it to be the way things were before?

Ukrainian war atrocities are very numbing
Electric cars; I can't here them coming

Gerrimandering and product shrinkflation
School shooting desensitization; covid vaccine makers are very clever; plastic bottles now more than ever

Aging congressmen think too slow; cell phone big brother follows me everywhere I go; sometimes I feel like yelling, ""look out below!!""
But does my worrying need to slow?
Calmness for me to undergo?

Elementary school shooting drills today; class interrupted for fire drills in my day; national polarization that's here to stay; if we only had someone to tell us, "it's going to be okay"

You overdose on digital fentanyl; your addicted to streaming
Looking from the outside it seems your daydreaming
Looking from the outside it seems that your scheming

Misinformation mythology perpetrated by Frankenstein technology; the false narratives are driving you out of your gord; you need to pay attention to the misinformation scoreboard
For way too long, you have enjoyed your false reward; somehow your sanity needs to be restored

Profit guiding everything; the song that FOX, ESPN, and Amazon sing
Lose a little; the stock price goes down; no interest in planning for a sensible rebound

Pizza palace; burger kingdom; Starbucks prices getting higher
Corporations uninvited with their ever widening roads of empire

Those who dropped the moral compass are at the gates to lift the latch
Let us bathe ourselves and go back to that park for another game of catch

Boulders on the sidewalk to keep the homeless away; horn honking drivers blow another fuse; online trollers won't leave me alone; gum stuck on the bottom of my shoes

Pharmaceutical drug companies with a license to steal; five star high school kid with a million dollar NIL deal; misinformation, green washing, brainwashing galore; this just truly doesn't seem to be my world anymore

We vote for a candidate we entrust; until they break the public trust; our rage and disgust; we all need to readjust; to yet another newspaper that bites the dust

Drug smuggling operations in Cartagena; another government official is under subpoena; sports announcers calling the game from the office and not the arena

We need to get outside more often and take in the fresh breeze;
is it too hard for us to go ahead and just say please?

I walk down the sidewalk; hair combed and I'm clean shaven; in a world of drug dealing exploitation; I wear untorn clothing just like my generation
The relieved looks on people's faces confident in their assertion.
It's as if they are saying, ""I'm just so happy to see a normal person""

People's longing to escape and retreat from a wasteland of a world that's practically at their feet
We need our four walls of escape from reality's torment; our house; our apartment; or even a homeless tent

The world is too fast; I can't keep up with the changes. I don't want anymore of these social rearranges. This dance floor is too crowded; I feel like I'm surrounded; by the ineptitude and atrocities that mankind has compounded

Space garbage wasteland from Earth's current occupants; more mass shootings and classified documents
I just want to be sent back to that park by dispatch; to someone waiting for a nice little game of catch

Used cars and broken down furniture we abandon; right wingers still say, ""let's go Brandon""
Catching hell from the Mexican cartel....
Immigrants?.... they're still at the border; does that ring a bell?

This crumbling house of cards of ours we need to discuss; for the love of God.....
""Please Somebody Stop Us !!""

Finally......

Mother nature is waiting on the sidelines by the grip of our machines that drove her....
I stare at a majestic snowcap mountain on a clear day and anyone who knows her....

Knows......

It's as if she is saying as soon as human beings have expired, we are moving back in and taking over

Mother nature is biding her time for the day she finally served mankind.......

Their notice of foreclosure