The first of November and you and I
And all that is and will ever be
Remember what you said and you wonder why
Rivers always run to the sea

Where else do you want them to go
Who else do you want me to be
The shadow of someone I don’t know
Standing right in front of me

The first of November and you and I
Times winged ship sailed away
Through a hole in the sky
Taking all there was left to say

And silent despair
Hangs heavy in the air
Calling out the future with lies
The wisdom weary voice never dies

The deaf tyranny of fate
Reason behind hate
Fifteen years ago
Before
Before I judge
Before I dream
Before

Solo

Where else do you want me to go
Who else do you want me to be
Love beyond and echoes below
The seasons of our destiny

1st of November has come and gone
And you and I
And time moving on
And truth we cannot deny

And voices of the past
And visions seldom seen
I thought our love would last
It might have been a dream

I’m free

Photograph in three positions, tabla, conga, djembe from that Haitian shaman played in Bookman’s choir
Rhythm run like Sangare in Central Park that very day and that night in the village and the brotherhood on fire
Sat in sweating letting go of everything
Rhythm from the spirit when the choir starts to sing
New York sinful sheltered weight of lonely slowly melting… boundaries dissolving and the drummers kept on drumming
Drumming in the fifth dimension deep inside the city
Feed upon the energy of everybody
The djembe sounding alive in me
Like it was meant to be
Take the djeme home and use it well
Morning breaking over new york and the drumming circle
And the years and transformation
Imagination at the deepest level

Playing and praying and going with eyes closed… 20 years ago… 32
Playing tabla with Narandar and Lal Singh in the window of the Star of Katmandu
The only levi to have made the sound
6th street where they serve you underground
lost inside the tin-tal with my tabla brother Lal while the serod spread the melody around

drumming as a way of life… flowing… growing… going to the studio to justify the day
a thousand reasons to escape the weight of limitation let imagination play the pain away
pain transforming into energy
energy becoming destiny
destiny another word like sacrifice and someday and maybe it will but who can say
one thing that seems relatively true
pulling into main street station looking for a rhyme
what else was I ever meant to do
all roads leading to this point in time

tabla
conga
djembe
3 photographs
music made by a desperate man
sunlight
rhythm
shadows
everything
purify my soul if I can

20 years on a magic night in Chelsea and the music of the world filled the city
over time and a calling and obsession forged by insecurity
the many becoming one… the moon receives its light from the sun… I am made of the two lights
and the rhythms that flow between eternities that rest among the echoes waiting for a song

could be anything
angels start to sing
the sound of drumming
of creation
Listened and I heard
Music and the word
Beethoven to Bird
My inspiration
Writing underground
Searching for the sound
No one around
But my shadow
Working on this song
Right where I belong
Right or maybe wrong
But I don’t think so

Right here… right now… listen… listen… someone… someone

Photograph in 3 positions back into the gallery to live among the images created from a history of dreams and insecurity and work and some ability… it’s all about the journey I’m still on

Fixed ideas of future and center resolve
Zoe growing slowly as the planets revolve
Swinging from a rainbow wild and free
It’s all about the journey

Looking for signs
In the smallest things
A living alchemy
Like living in the city

So many conflicting voices
Silence above the echoing
If you dance with the devil, you’ll never hear the angels sing

Imagine my life without fear of judgment
Of taking risks… of falling down
It seems pretty clear
And all the drama
Coming back to the center
This is how it sounds

The art of transformation
The second attention
The four agreements
Toltec wisdom
Be true to your word
Don’t take anything personally
Don’t make assumptions
Always do your best

A righteous man was told he was a sinner
Just so someone else could take control
He believed the truth would prevail
But truth is like the eye of a hurricane

took 2 years to gather the stones
7 stone hearts the sound carved
made a frame of weathered wood
hung it on the wall
now it’s underground
treasure in the lost and found
didn’t fit the plan
I’ll try to be a better man

I’m looking at it right now
and I see what you don’t
you want to but you won’t
7 hearts of stone

every once in a while
the while becoming wider
stone hearts thru the center
like yesterday

but one man’s yesterday is another man’s forever

I think about my brother
disliked one another
that’s the way it goes

each day a new beginning
losing and winning
the rhythm sets me free
the tao of fate and fantasy
fear of the unknown
7 hearts of stone

i’m looking at them right now
the 8th was worth the waiting
the magic of creating
7 hearts of stone

Sanctuary about the size of yesterday
Never thought, but I’m not surprised it turned out this way… it’s the only way
Never saw eight rivers or the fire burning down into darkness
Both sides of my life on a beach in paradise and it’s serious
Could have been an angel laying tells upon my history
Could have been my last breath in a reggae tragedy
Now I’m back in New York with a twist of fate behind me
Another turn of fortune to accept ‘cause it was meant to be

Not too far until the time is right
A deeper level where darkness turns to light
Remember what the great Lalane had to say
The runner too but in a different way

Now they’re gone
The word lives on
So do I
Gonna get to where I’m going
I can’t deny
Or wonder why
Or get too high
That’s just asking for trouble

Too many hours with a heart of shattered glass
Whisper prayers of memory and it doesn’t pass
Wake up tangled in wires and still far gone
Try to get myself together and go on
And I got the old woman laid to waste
Time and nature’s calling and demons that we faced
Even what this thing was all about

Or that right off northern that almost took me out

The shades of night fall fast
The future becomes the past
As all rivers run
Many becoming one

And in the end we’re back where we began
Tomorrow wait for me

According to the journal of Albion Moonlight
Savior walked thru the senseless slaughter witness to the chaos of his weary soul
The sceptered night… A different world… The temples burn… How could we
Savior too and he knew the way the world was made

According to the journal of Albion Moonlight
Golden archer sold his arrows to the highest bidder
And go too far
And lose himself
And cast the net beyond
And recreate
And stop the war
And redeem the world

Because he can
Because he must
Because the name
Because the trust
Because of you
Because this time
Because faith is cruel when blind

According to the journal of Albion Moonlight
Buildings have all fallen like shattered dreams
And the children among the ruins like it was meant to be

That maybe true… but this is no time
They’ll kill you too and steal the thunder
Now they’re calling it jihad
Lambs to the slaughter

Savior down an unknown road
Stops to light a cigarette
Thought he heard a voice, but no
The world had not been remade yet

There may have been a time
Before the savior showed his hand
When love but for the lie
Upon the remembered earth we stand
At mortal wars we fight
In the journal of Moonlight defend
What happened to first light
Have we finally reached the end

According to the journal of Albion Moonlight
When there is no longer reason to have faith, thus begins nobility

and the rhythm of the riders… of the borderline
the voice of benediction… red blood, pure mind
legends were foretold… and forgotten
children of the darkness become the wind
God across the table laying tells with a mighty hand
a trembling apparition casting his net upon invisible rivers

protected by the natural order
every thought a declaration
down the road to perdition… listen
listen to the silver laughter
looking at a broken mirror
and the flow of time… elevated into high grace

eternally
returning to
continually reborn
ourselves alone

what of a city known to abandon its poor
sunshine, you’re on your own
then come the riders of the borderline
the white riders
from the fire
gesture us toward our fate
like the dim blessed coming home

a secret history
wrapped in the nature of time
against the day of judgment
heaven and earth are reserved unto fire
thus the riders
ascending in a long departure of light
as they pass thru the prophets gate
seeking shelter under sacramental skies
valor forged by desperation
the white riders call the fallen to arise

red blood pure mind
allegiance to their limits
all the incarnation and the slaughter… in the silence

reenact the cycles of betrayal
the riders’ ungrateful ghost passing judgment
God has turned a blind eye
toward the pale phantoms vanishing behind the mirror

with a knowledge beyond light

An obscure intuition
Believe the unexpected reason
Finding the answers
Pass thru the layers caught in a dream
Our spirit free
Every now and then a memory
The meaning isn’t always what it seems
A wish long denied
Somewhere our needs are satisfied

For the order the truth provides
The journey inside
The soul a far country
The prophet suffers for his prophesies

The deepest layers of the mind
Like second sight to the blind
Give words to sorrow
And wear away the misery
To be free
Meaning
Returning
The shield of innocence
And dreams from long ago
Still denied
Become rings
Golden rings
One more time around
And then need
Becomes greed
And it’s everyone for themselves

The three fires still burning
And the world keeps on turning
The unexpected truth

Myths and taboos reshape our fate
A destiny we create

In the garden of Eden we learned
When we play with fire we’re gonna get burned
Human nature
The forces of the mind
Dynamic… rising
Sometimes falling

Impulses seeking satisfaction
Unconscious resolve once satisfied
What did Joshua find in Canaan
Order only nature could provide

And obscure intuition
About the fight against the devil and disease

Like the Great Blondin across the falls
But you feel your center
You wave to the crowd
‘cause you know why they came
Blondin bending rules like a yogi
Everything according to the laws of reason
Subdivide the world one footstep at a time
Feel the balance carefully
Don’t end up like Steven Peer
Thought he was immortal
It’s all a rum go, isn’t it
Up until the long way down

Balancing… Knowing… when the time was right
Carried Harry on his back and he kept on going
Then he said goodnight

How are they gonna write your history
He bet against himself and won

The Great Blondin inside crystal walls
Feel the balance like the moon and tide
The Price of Wales was on his feet, delighted
Each footstep falling like suicide

Then there’s John the American icon
Five to six packs a day
And the last few drags of every cigarette
Taking all he can get before he throws it away
Blondin played it straight
Wasn’t tempting fate
Maybe pushed the boundaries a little
Showed the world a new frontier

To see the world thru Duke’s eyes
Before and after the turn
The whole point of view… you learn

Though real our love, you who are what men are made of
A little bit of trouble and a little bit of innocence
A little bit of rising… a little bit of falling
You can go pretty far before you’ve gone too far

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we might
Let every lover of liberty swear by the blood of what is right
Let every well-wisher to his prosperity submit to the declaration
Let it become the political religion of our sovereign nation
Let not our proud fabric of freedom become endangered by passion’s hold
The jealousy, envy and avarice, incident of a darker soul
Build a new temple of liberty not resting on custom and emotion
But carved from the solid quarry of sober reason and devotion

Let us share the privileges of government
And assist in sharing its burdens

The irony of men and women being sold
The value of a life measured in gold
Seven blocks from the capitol awaiting their fate
While those in power denied the truth and upheld the choice of each state

The repeal of the Missouri compromise
To extend slavery where the eagle flies
What moral right for one to own another
The political landscape was ripping apart with brother fighting against brother

Right and wrong standing face to face
The right of kings against a state of grace
Let past differences as nothing be
The equality of men is the central idea upon which we all must agree

The union must be preserved
Now and forever
And the cause of civil liberty
And the vows we have taken

The sovereignty doctrine is as thin as the shadow of its reason
The north will be preached into rebellion against the cause of such treason
Neither let us be slandered from duty by false accusation
Nor frightened by menace of destruction… nor of dungeons to ourselves

To make concessions to the rebel cause
Is like the lion who agreed to cut his claws
Because the parents of his beloved were afraid
Once his strength was compromised they killed him where he laid

Those who seek no sign shall come to light
Revolution is a moral right
Without such cause it is a wicked exercise
To be fought against and defeated by the righteous and the wise

No state can secede without consent
The machine must be run by the elected government
No grievance to warrant this campaign
The first shot established southern blame

The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield
To every living heart all over this broad land
Yet will swell with the chorus of the union when again touched
As surely they will be… by the better angels of our nature

And if we are defeated, we’ll fall back and mourn our dead
And wait until the morning light and once again charge ahead

It brings to mind the fellow who asked for an appointment of minister abroad… and finding he could not get that, came down to some more modest position… finally he asked to be a tide waiter, but not even that could he get… so he asked if there wasn’t an old pair of trousers, and thanked god the union was one… but it was good to be humble

Looking for the rapture in a world defined by opposite extremes… and broken signals in between
The song, the law, the lies, a thousand words to write and memorize…
All of the attention like some gospel choir quick-fire jamboree… eve of judgment day
One time down the center, next one with more balanced energy… like the poet used to say

Desire without balance is incomplete… want begetting want
Mercy without balance is weakness… the will burning down into darkness
Ambition without balance is selfishness… goals forever unattained
Reason without balance is madness… the faithless depth of the soul

Because the falling star never made it home
Because the narrow death has widened the world
Because the city is what we will it to be
Because you can live in a past that never was

I was riding on the 1 train one afternoon
Heard this guy talking about the left hand of the arc
Who was the left hand of the arc
Wasn’t that the one who prepared the way to the celestial light
Set the balance in dreamtime and then tripped the wire
Be my mind open to the higher
Be my heart the center of the light
Be my soul of equal measure
Perfected by the four orders of nature
Be my body the temple of the inner plane
Prayers so loud you can hear them on the far side of the horizon
But the poet warned about living upon hope… you can die of hunger
And that ain’t satyagraha… nothing higher about it

Who am I to pass judgment
The way I feel is the way you feel
Projecting hope and insecurity
All I see is my reflection
Less looking and more doing
Looking didn’t build the pyramids
Looking can’t offer guarantees
The only guarantees are the changes

Rapture found me singing out of tune in an absorbing landscape… on a Saturday night
The words had all been written without measuring the endless road
Road leading back to the take me to the river jamboree… in the pale moonlight
One by one our present days come looking for that balanced energy

Prayer without balance is fear… all hope denied
Love without balance is confusion… a broken mirror
Nature without balance fails… a prelude to war
Faith without balance is blindness… the game of false prophets

Back on the 1 Train later that day
Same guy shouting sermons to the faithless… like Seneca under the bridge of piles
Poverty is no disaster, he said, as long as you haven’t succumbed to the madness of greed
What can be taken from us… there is nothing to lose

Nothing…working…trying to set the night on fire
August… and then what… every day a stage for life
Questions… answers… the sight of stars made Vincent dream
The twists of fate we translate into our destiny

Nothing left to do except continue writing Balance to the end… start all over again
Keep above the echoes until the wind beneath me changes direction
Before the falcon flies across the east gate of heaven… preparing the way for the raven
But first things first, the way the universe has always been

Who is the left hand of the arc
Who prepares the way to the celestial light
Who consecrates with fire
Who purifies with water
Who set the balance in the temporal world
Be my mind open to the higher
Be my heart the center of the light
Be my soul of equal measure
Perfected by the four orders of nature

Saw in his hand the book of the 7 seals
He asked if I was ready to turn the page
I’d been thru the fire but still had a long way to go
So I approached like a child to the unknown

The first thing I read gave pause for reflection
That men freely cross that see the shallows
Have I been blinded by desire
Believe in the hope of tomorrow

Live upon hope… die of hunger
Who knows what tomorrow brings
The way I feel is the way you feel
All I see is my reflection

The way a child thinks
The way the wind blows
The way the sun shines
The way an angel sighs

The way the rain falls
The way the river flows
The way the world was made
The way everything changes

Because the falling star never made it home
Because the narrow death has widened the world
Because the city is only a dream
Because the end follows the beginning

I better start waking up from my payback fantasy
It feels more like Prometheus racing toward the sun
Fifty thousand hours deep inside the energy
May never be enough to get to the far side of the horizon

‘cause sometimes Atlas feels the burden
but he knows the way out is thru
and sometimes he’ll set his burden down
what else is he gonna do

nothing beyond reason
nothing beyond knowing
Atlas looking back with bittersweet memories… but he kept on going

It’s not like I expect to be shown the inner light
Or demand to be given the gift of second sight
I believe it could have been the way I had hoped it would be
But that’s a long time gone
It’s time to move on

Two years… shot down every time
What a fuckin’ joke
What a fuckin’ crime

The good lord knows I’m not making excuses or accusations
I always accepted my responsibility
I’ve been thru this before… it’s not like I don’t know the score
But losing yet again is having a profound effect on me

Sometimes it feels like there’s something important I’ve forgotten
But then I come up empty ‘cause there was never anything there
A thousand times a day desire leading to frustration
So I smoke some pot and do a shot and then I just don’t care
‘cause then I descend into the place of rhythm and energy
Where the music of the spheres connects the future and the past
I used to say it had to be this way if I wanted to create a unique reality
But I was living a lie trying to justify a time and place I didn’t think would last

Twenty years later I’m still jamming in the abstract
Less guilty than I was from these neurotic falls from grace
But resignation this far down the line is probably weakness
Imagine my dismay knowing the years are gone and can’t be replaced

But resignation doesn’t extend to the subtlety of hypocrisy
Barking like an angry bitch for six months
My gasps for breath an affront to the night
So I walked away and tried to find a little bit of harmony
Alone, I see the irony of a love that was never meant to be

And that puts everything in doubt
More bad moments that the day before
I can’t even talk to you about it
It’s like trying to reason with a hurricane
I don’t even think you understand what I’m trying to say
I don’t even think it matters to you
Anything outside your mind just serves to piss you off
Then anger becomes a fire… and I’m tired of getting burned

What the fuck do you expect me to do
Accept a life where my greatest pleasure is a sin
I don’t even think you give a fuck
As long as it doesn’t cost you anything

I once wrote that love can last forever
But that was just some lyric bullshit I knew was a lie
Even when I wrote it I knew never was the future
And the future became denial as we both watched our love die

And the word was with the one
Sometimes in shadows

Beauty before the fall
Beyond the Aberdeen wall
Thru the sin and rain
With the mark of Cain

Bottle of wine and tears in your eyes
The malice of his muse
Feed the crows on Avalon’s plain
The love that dare not speak its name
The love of a willing doom

And the passion of the word
The august moon on the horizon
No redeemer’s hand
Just lovers damned
A shattered prayer
The son, once fallen, must forever fall
Seek redemption… in the arms of the condemned

Oh, my lord… no my lord
The pilgrim’s plight… the pale moonlight
Careful pilot of his proper sorrow

A soldier’s grave… for thee the best
Choose your ground and take your rest
What once was, like ghosts inside a dream

New year’s eve lament
Even though you’re sorry
Even though a rhapsody
Those we chose to sanctify the soul of the nation

Come on… you’re kidding… you’re not
This is self-expression
Truth and consequences spun around by false accusation

Oh no… this may be losing control
Watching it on CNN and it’s the same thing
Watching is the common thread
Fragile prayers by which we’re lead
Sunken bells of antique dreams are tolling

Change… give it a shot…. worse that could happen is we’re back to the beginning
The bullshit… it’s gotta stop … the trend is to continue to descend when you do nothing

Late night deal near the edge delaying a fall from grace
Cover your ass with the tin shield of self-preservation
What are you preserving… what do you have to lose
A couple of pounds of righteous indignation

The price of human nature
The gospel of everyone wanting it all
The circle has been broken
Thru the cracks we fall

Getting low instead of getting high
Visions of the founding fathers realized
But the champ took the dive
Settled for the old hit and run… now he’s running for his life

At least he’s staying in shape
It’s never too late to reclaim your destiny

Listen to the music
Turn off the TV
Come together
The way it’s supposed to be

Change… Open your mind… The light thru the shadows
Let it go… There’s still time… If you plant the seeds they’ll grow

Unless the well ran dry
Better dig a new one
Or they’re gonna die

There was a time
Balance was set
The woman thru the arches doing a pirouette

If the theory of mutuality is true
The way I feel’s the way you feel too
That explains why the world was sold

Like the civil war
When the whole world lost control
Or the night on the bayou… and the next night I get rolled

Change… Time to begin… Corrupt politicians to a marriage vow
Patience… It’s wearing thin… The revolution starts now

Nefilim blessed the land between the rivers
Measuring the earth the lord separated from heaven
From the desert came the Bedu
From the east the children of Adam
A new generation born eternal
Sons of the sons of Noah

After all the needful things
After order and the name
The law and the luster
Banish the grabbers of the faithful’s herds
The rise of civilization

Where orphans won’t fall prey to the wealthy
Where metals were refined into industry
Where pictures evolved onto symbols
Human nature accepted as inevitable
Where the children can learn to learn
Where the sick could find treatment
Where the law is sanctified

After Sargon harnessed the divine word
He wrote upon the stele of vultures
With freedom comes responsibility
To guide future generations

After trading totems for truth
After the pulse and radiance
The seeds of self-destruction

A place behind the tears of Job
Before the lament of Jerusalem
The endless drive for immortality
As time progressed and need outweighed virtue
But how lonely was the poor man
Picking up the ears of barley left on the ground
His child watching the tide come in
Upon its waters the promise of the future
But the passion for salvation brought suspicion
Without a strong foundation a divided house must fall
The god of gods directing the energy
The energy
The rise of civilization

My eyes are closed… hands in the darkness… waiting for some inspiration
Free expression… just like confession… knowing there’s a sky beneath me
Sometimes when I least expect it… always if I let it go
Just gotta breathe… thru the rhythm… keep it steady… keep it steady
Like the cello player in the subway station playing thru the number nine
Knows life is a compromise… but it ain’t about that
It’s about doing what you were born to do and maybe having that sustain you
At least earning your pay in a serious way and getting better every day
Even with that steady sound in the distance… coming on like a hurricane
Soon to overtake him… his mind starts wandering… how can he accomplish anything
The mood is lost… the people gone… the song unsung… what went wrong
Perhaps it’s part of a bigger sound
The ebb and flow of life underground
When in confusion… stop what you’re doing… take a deep breath and let it go
The train will move on and balance will return, like quiet after a battle has ended
The wheel keeps spinning and it won’t slow down… waiting for the melody to come around
It won’t turn back and it won’t stand still… if the thunder don’t get ya’ then the lightening will

Timeless our union, said Jeremiah… throw my soul into the fire… let it burn for a thousand years… a whisper above the echoing

Once I met a moneyman from New York City… already found what he keeps looking for
Sometimes he knows it… sometimes he don’t… sometimes it’s like something in between
Then there are the moments that are easily forgotten ‘cause the only one affected when he put his money down
20 dollars in the slot… cut away the upswing
You’d think it was a fantasy… ain’t nothing but the blues
Back on the noisy crowded street turning a hazy shade of misty gray
And a little more in focus and a little less self-conscious
It ain’t denial but you ain’t on trial
Even St. Peter wore leather shoes
And sometimes it’s worth paying for your disgrace in the moonlight on the Bayou
Especially when the rhythm flows so naturally
And the words fit like skin and breathe so easily
And the music all around sounds so empty and vain
And the poor old moneyman has got the gray sky blues again
Not everyone can guide us… and many more lead us astray
And Cain walks with the fire
And sometimes we find the way

Then there’s the comic on the cellar stage talking about his research for a character he was creating
Those transvestite hookers from the meat-packing district with nothing to talk about except if you were dating
The rest is a story as old as evil
A whisper of shame on the lips of the dead
They didn’t understand you just wanted to talk
They just thought you couldn’t figure out what you wanted
Do you know any jokes about your profession
Or anything funny you can relate
He stared into space… make-up running down his face… and asked for a third time if I wanted a date
Yeah, that’s just what I need… a little round the world from a toothless bearded junkie…
But it had been a while, and those big fake tits were looking pretty real to me
A little laughter from the ten people in the room… like a marked prince after the fall
The joke went over a little better last week at that club in the Somerset Mall
Not that a slow night’s always a bust
But where were the friends you thought you could trust
And that critic who promised to write a review
In the second set those ten became two

Another night of little consequence
Can’t figure it out ‘cause it don’t make sense
Like those homeless guys under the Bridge of Sighs who found the light behind the lies
They know they’ve lost… how hard life can be
But they’re still alive and that’s the key

The end of innocence, cried Jeremiah… who wrote the words to the song of desire
It’s wiser to sing a different tune
The song you were meant to sing
One that feels good when you sing it

If you think back there was a time when you looked for answers but you felt blind
But now it’s all right… the answers found you… ‘cause you kept it steady and the rhythm grew

A multitude of mountains, Jeremiah screamed… the lion came forth from the dream
To lay down beside an innocent child… who must learn the ways of the world

After instant karma punished my enemies
Stood there watching as those motherfuckers died
Same as their fathers and the ones who came before them
The center somehow shifting when you learn you’ve lived a lie
Came to them in memories that inspire jealousies
Everybody want a little then they want some more
And the books and symbols that promise to redeem
Many generations had heard it all before

Here we go again
Dawn of a new day
A big misunderstanding
No fuckin’ way
Nothing there for me
Just a memory
Of things not meant to be
Better to stay hungry
Even with the sound
It’s safer underground
Without you around
Without all the drama
Forgive and forget
I’m not ready yet
To lose another bet
So you can feel better

20 years ago you raised your voice to me in anger
Then you lied again and left me standing on broadway
Some bullshit about misunderstanding and you’re sorry
I told you to lose my number and I walked away

You best know losing when you see it
Or it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy
I let me brother go for the same reason
‘cause everything comes back around eventually

Play me once
Play me twice
I won’t get played again
Jonny’s on the rebound and he’s holed up underground with his brotherhood of self-destructive men
Come on Jonny do you hear me
Come on Jonny do you care
Come on Jonny I mean really
With your first class ticket on the local to nowhere
Come on Jonny it’s about time
There never was a you and me
It doesn’t take two it’s all about you
You’re following your destiny
Come on Jonny look around you
Your friends become your enemy
Your children run away because the fucked up game you play is the only game they know you know and that just leaves to misery
Come on Jonny
You’re not a victim
You’re living a lie
That’s why

Every universe
Like the song I wrote before you
Many times before
It feels like déjà vu
Time to turn the page
Leave the past behind
You played your little game
No response next time
If there even is
I’ve tried to make it clear
But the desperate only hear what they wanna hear
Look how that’s turned out
Not so great
Another on the way
It’s like you’re tempting fate
How’s that gonna play when the turns don’t go your way and you spend another day stoned talking bullshit with your friends
That might pass the time the lower that you climb and you fall so far behind that you fucked it up again
Come on Jonny are you stupid
What else do you need to know
No one’s gonna sanctify a sinner
Your children even told you so
Come on… it’s easy
Street corner viper selling a small-time hustle
Jonny oh Jonny watch the future turn against itself
Lying and trying and nothing but a revelation
Might even elevate desperation to a whole new level

You don’t even know what I’m talking about
Jonny looking back in anger, looking in the mirror
Now the dye is cast with colors from the past
Black and blue and no one who will listen any more

You talk about collective anger as if it’s a crusade
It’s just misery looking for company
And sometimes they find it
And it always goes wrong
That’s what separates the strong from the run-around
Strong men work while other men sleep

Jonny tripped the wire
Jonny set himself on fire
Oh Jonny Jonny poor Jonny’s gonna burn
Now there’s more at stake
No more refuge left to take
Oh Jonny baby only fools never learn
Jonny underground
No where left to go but down
How far down to the bottom
Jonny knew it all
Always high before the fall
You get what you give now you got ‘em

Come on Jonny just accept it
All life is bondage
Strong men break the ties that bind
They stopped looking for what they’ll never find

Feel a little like Jack Kerouac a second pack into final call
All the words and neon nights, the high life wasn’t so high after all
Why then all the slight of hand… it seems like such a waste of time
Al Capone who died alone paying for all of his crimes

Share the past and consequence
Goes by too fast to make much sense
Virtue giving ground to expedience
The price of human nature
Underneath the rainbow where friendships come and go

Those you have forsaken
Who have forsaken you
Somewhere in the balance is the truth

Looking at the faded pictures hanging on the wall
We all understand that sometimes heroes fall
You think you know the story of a life, but who can say
Surprised, the king when things didn’t go his way

Share the past and consequence
Goes by too fast to make much sense
Learning from experience
Like the Reverend Mason said
Once was a common man… heard the angels sing
No more, the meter’s running… gotta keep it going
And why the lies and the pride slowly melting like a snowdrift that made it all the way to spring

Split a piece of wood and raise the stone
Common man knew when to atone
Every chance and combination
Sometimes sin… sometimes salvation

Did the common man put his guns in the ground
Stand upon the spot and take a look around
And did the Reverend Mason teach the gospel of the common man
The only dreamtime memory the people understand
In the moonlight the purple shadows we knew as a child \

I can draw my own conclusions
Like drawing water from a well
Sometimes the well runs dry
Sometimes it’s time for a change

Where friendships come and go
And strangers to remain

You kept on cutting diamonds
Like I cut time
Owned by something… wanting something
An instinct to survive

Handicap the way of the world
Sell short before the whole thing crashes
One step ahead but losing ground
Thought diamonds were forever
But someone else bought shorter at the bell ad now you can’t sell

Silver and gold and you
Cutting diamonds like cocaine
If it was valor but it’s more like desperation

My time is mine not your what have you done for me lately
Nothing you can say can make me change my point of view

Draw the line… try to understand
Your diamonds my blind some but not everyone
Not to say no beauty for the price
Run the deal until it runs away

The first few steps
On Jacob’s ladder
Keep on climbing
Godspeed, my friend

You kept on cutting diamonds
Like I cut time
Owned by nothing… owning nothing
The dream will never die

At least we finished what we started
Still such a long way to go
Depending on the proposition
If there is one
I don’t know

Throw away the ballast of the soul
Illusion of the selfish, baby
Beauty by mistake
Sunset of nostalgia and control
No one lives there anymore

Looking for some leverage in the silhouette of night
Litany of a liar on the stand about to break
Words are getting heavy and are dropping out of sight
Time to write your epitaph

Caged bird standing on the grave of dreams
Before the brave go underground and sleepers awake
Distant lighthouse spark ain’t what it seems
The sword of Damocles

Thought you were a better man
Thought your friends would understand
One calling… one demand
Now you got no one

All that possibility
Echoes in your memory
Promises not meant to be
With nowhere left to run

Blind man without second sight
Darkness at the edge of night
Standing naked in the light
Reason with no name

Pressure bearing down on you
Tell me what you’re gonna do
All the lies you thought were true
Only you to blame

Always what the preacher would say
Reeds in the rushing water
Don’t abide you fade away
And so it goes

Full effect of the infinite cause and a five dollar bill
Dreamtime bum’s rush thru the past but you never will
Tried to buy redemption with a bag of stolen prayers
Falling down the neon night and no one really cares

Desperation angel
Threw it all away

Broken signal and a weary soul
New York City skyline getting farther out of sight
How far down the winding road
Many roads becoming one

One is where the muses set the balance long ago
Last one sometime later to complete the cabal
Crystal prism sunshine thru a stained-glass window
Getting to the other side

Zeno at the painted porch one night
Something to consider as you’re running toward the wall
Missionaries reborn as they fight
Fill your soul with love

Rain against the window
Foundation laid tomorrow
First to touch the sky with steel and stone
The devil walks alone

Even the lies were lies
And God turned a blind eye
A real life Jeckell and Hyde
More than the bloodlust of the damned
Feed the need to possess
But possession is a transient thing
White city of the wilderness

How did Holmes even know
Anyone
Quiet desperation far from home
Such sorrow
Poor Chicago
Court of Honor overthrown
Just like the Garden of Eden

And in the east the fall from grace
To the bottom of the world

The white city burning
And Alice in a shallow grave far from home

That’s how a city goes
A reflection of humanity
The other side of harmony
Thus was Holmes

May God have mercy

For dreams will always become cities
The play of light and shadows
Cold as the wind in December
I remember
For you

Drawing back the string of a crossbow
Arrow down the center of your soul
Sunset on the far horizon
Better live a lie than lose control
Double down… hoping for salvation… and the revelation… and the call
One more fortune teller telling… hedging what he’s selling… you bought it all

Now you’re in an ‘I don’t care’ state of mind
Prodigal son is going blind
Desperation in the Garden of Eden
Smoke more weed and drink more wine

Heavy metal dreams with both hands tied
All the power plays and the ways you tried
Music and the violent echoes
Thirty years of lies you justified
Nothing’s changed… the air is getting colder… your children getting older… so are you
No more angel on your shoulder… she knows what you told her wasn’t true

Seven songs and four before the fall
You told the world you had it all
Drive and the road will follow
A few more rounds past final call

Wrote about the promise and survival
Promise realized in an abstract way
A self-fulfilling prophesy

All your might to fight another day
To compensate for this world possibility
No nirvana here… nothing magic about it
The challenges of love and destiny
Could rise to grace but I doubt it

Three daughters maybe two
It’s easier when it’s all about you
Measuring the bottom
What would someone with the promise do

Another arrow laid across the crossbow
Drawing back the string
Running from your shadow
Gotta keep running

Che Guevara won the fight
It cost him his life
Time was not effected
Only the instinct for survival
And justice
And revenge
Look around
Who are you
El commendante
Make him angry
And you will
You’ll see

The other side of your decision
Have the right to deserve… to lift yourself higher
Same old fortune teller telling, pointing and yelling fire
Should’a read the writing on the wall
Another antique hero about to fall
Jump but the net was tangled
The high life ain’t high after all
So where ya gonna end up brother
More than name… something
If we were only honest with each other
If the snow drift makes it all the way to spring

All the way
See if I can get through it
Know it won’t be what I can’t see
But that doesn’t bother me
It’s the one step forward and one step forward and one more ‘fore the next one
With an appreciation of what I’ve done

But the grass is always greener
And the world is getting meaner
Caught between the if and then on the way to where I’m going

But there ain’t no telling the way the wind’s gonna blow… because you don’t know
All you can do is hold onto your hat when the wind starts blowing

And the balance between revenge and family
And matter and energy
And what is and what will be
And maybe I’ll get lucky… but I doubt it

When I was a young man… older than Andrew but still quite naïve
Thought I saw a crime committed but I drove away
Even then I knew I was trying to deceive myself into believing
Same theme and variation that I hear today

Better people are luckier
I’m sure I saw him hurting her
I wish I could go back and help her

Help my karma

Om mani padme hum
Om mani padme hum
Riding the energy
Writing my history
Om mani padme hum
Om mani padme hum
Center and balance dissolve
Win some and lose some… and some you let go… like the shaman and the arrow
Knowing the sum of the first ninety one… If I drive is the road gonna follow
I don’t think so
But I’m still on the road
Alaska down to three arrows

All the way
Almost thru a season
Underground working it… unlock the secret… better do something about it
One step forward and one step forward until I’m where I want to be
Right here right now creating energy

Energy is my soul’s willing deed
Energy is deep within me
I flow with energy
Like rivers to the sea

Letting go
I’m trying to let go
I’m letting go
Wherever I’m going
While she’s sneaking around me… hoping that I’ll see… being a mystery
The future looking back at me
And the energy keeps flowing

Om mani padme hum
Om mani padme hum
Riding the energy
Writing my history
Om mani padme hum
Om mani padme hum
Center and balance dissolve
October skies and the winged ship flies on a rhythm that sounds like a calling
Higher the flier laid low by desire who fell ‘cause he felt the sky falling
Rising
Falling
Letting go
Letting go
Thru all the stages and rusty cages to the road at the end of the rainbow
Drive and the road will follow

All the way
Much more to consider
Signs of the zodiac
Having a heart attack
Working
Best laid plans don’t mean a thing when the foundation is crumbling
Feel the sand in the palm of my hand… the end of the new beginning… the beginning of a new ending
7th house ascending… It’s the age of Aquarius, baby

Every universe… dropping in decay… too much talking… too much like the totems of a cult bound by fear… Shining brightly for a moment… bitter disappointment… and the prophesy is always shouting what we wanna hear

Even gods from nowhere… separated from the earth’s soul…

I’m not upset that you lied to me
I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe in you

Freedom’s just a word with broken wings
Prayer upon her lips as she lay dying
Calling forth the twin divine grace and wrath
Maybe this time god is listening
Maybe this time you’re listening too
Both ends burning catching up to you
Even victims understand the grace of god is in demand
Your children pray you pay for what you do

And what you’ve done
And what you are

Every universe… when the end is written… doesn’t matter what your brother said because we’re free
Fortune teller must have seen the future… turned away before she laid her tells upon our history

Every universal truth like good and evil… strength forged by vengence… God as our witness… Justice turns toward innocence and passes judgment… nineteen years in the shadows… they all turned away… Randy waiting, knowing… someday sacrifice to save his family

Love you more because of what you’ve done… followed me to hell and back… hand of fate upon the prodigal son… serving time running… we’re free…

And now they know
And they’ll ask how
I don’t know

Meredith

Never know when the rhythm’s gonna end
Washing away the constant calling for revenge
Second to second then it’s back again
I am just a man not a judge of men
But if I sat in judgment and could issue my decree
Calling forth the three rays bound by ancient memory
Ordering sanctions and a siege on the city
That lays until an apology
Or maybe
Maybe it’s because I’m looking down
Spending all my free time underground
Put away the malice of my muse and look around
I wish it were that easy
But it’s not
Not by a long shot
Better men have struggled
Better women sacrificed with no duplicity
If it happens again shame on me

Everyone wants
Everything changes
You became less sincere
A farewell to what once was, my dear
Whatever works for you
It never worked for me
It doesn’t work for Zoe
That’s when I get crazy

Come on, you know me
Is Andrew easy
Even if he is, I’m not
You knew it wasn’t cool
You tried to play me like a fool
Then you, oh but wait, like you forgot
I didn’t
This was a fall from grace
This was passive aggression
A housewife making a stand
Outside the promised land
It’s time you learned your lesson

Promises meant to be broken… words left unspoken… putting your glory before your family because jealousy and a Westchester state of mind
Then you tell her you’re sorry… and do you hate me… buy her affection with flowers and lies… it’s no surprise… once bitten twice shy

I once wrote how friendships come and go
Real life underneath the rainbow
The way we feel about others is the way they feel about others and the way the rhythm shapes the condescension and the flow

And you think I don’t know how to play
And get aggressive at the mention of
With friends like that, who needs enemies
We can’t afford the price you charge for love

My hate is alive
My will to survive
My heritage is threatening
Forsake and deny
Watching love die

This ain’t no Hollywood ending
Complete with a double standard
What you said’s not what I heard
I heard the runaround and excuses too useless to put into words

Come on, baby
Gimme a fuckin’ break
The world’s rough enough
Maybe I made a mistake

But talking about it feels like throwing stones at the sun
You’re never gonna hit it
Sometimes it’s just about the throwing

Mountains in the moonlight
The black into the pines
Symbols flash across suggestive states of mind

Live on paper and canvas
The lines and the spaces
Outside and inside trade places

Told she’d have to paint whoever asked to be painted
Georgia preferred control
The need t o transform experience
Childhood landscape burning deep in her soul

Horizons
Emotions
Flowers and bones
Flowers and bones

Just some shapes in a minor key
Charged with solemn mystery
No kindness with all its beauty
Like the desert sky

Losing my balance
Bare feet on the stones
Capture the vision
Flowers and bones

Sometimes I see what you see… sometimes I don’t
If I don’t want to defer to your feelings, then I won’t
Live in the desert free alone
Flowers and bones
Flowers and bones

Horizons and dreams… emotions and trees… crosses and flowers and bones

Calm for a while, then it happened
Shadows across the mountains
Time to go… I don’t know… come on
May god have mercy on us

They made their way across the valley
Holding to the shadows
First the Roaring Tiger held against her will
And the weight of history came crashing down

Why, said the daughter… 9 years old…
Because the lion throne has been abandoned
The White Lotus is on the run
Without our beloved we follow
Lotus reflection signs the way
Thru the lie of revolution
Chains of exile wrapped around the future
If we don’t who’s gonna bring the light

What’s that daddy… thunder, go to sleep
The sound of artillery barrages at night
Crimes in the name of liberation
White Lotus into the unknown

And the instinct for survival
And the here and now
And uncertain freedom

Seven weeks of struggling to survive
The snows in the mountain passes higher than the peaks

We commune with her in silent meditation
The inner reality of which the Buddha speaks
And then word the White Lotus was safe
A ray of light in the darkness
A prayer for survival
May God continue to watch over us

And so he did

A tell upon the land of the rising sun
Water washed away her history
Angels standing on the bridge of heaven
Dip their sacred swords in the storm
Passed away in the autumnal fire
Purify the soul of the world
10 worlds gone
Until the divine wind
The wind is the mind of us all
The all is one
The moon receives its light from the sun
We are all composed of the two lights
The light is everlasting
Mountains tumble to the sea
Everything changes
The ground began to shake and the sirens scream
Wave after shockwave of sorrow
Water like an angry god
The quantum of the unjust dead
6 reactors melting down
The sum of all destruction
The government keeps stalling
Angry god keeps calling
The rising sun is falling again
Angles signed the way before
Recreate the world
Built upon the shifting sands
The angels are drowning
The divine wind is dying
Washed ashore in the clothes they wore
10,000 Shinto souls
10,000 more drawn by tide and time to the bottom of the sea
Ghosts and strays and a thousand years
Before the level 7 fades from history
A thousand nuclear winters
Ghosts and strays and fallout days and time decays like suicide
Ghosts and strays… the northeast of the island… sacred swords among the debris
Spent fuel pressure in the atmosphere
Radioactive runoff in the ocean
Ghosts and strays evolving into dust
Their epitaph written long ago

Ghosts and strays and fallout days and time decays like suicide

The all is one
The moon receives its light from the sun
We are all composed of the two lights
The light is everlasting
The light behind the rising sun

She didn’t get it
She got what might have been
The promise given away
Who knows the reason
Do you
Do you
I don’t think so
Maybe the tide is turning slowly
Maybe the signs after running lines… lines… lines

Who stole the thunder
What is the answer
Time
To hear the voice inside the silence
Stay in the moment

Hey Honey
Calm down
Don’t lose today
Because tomorrow

Split a piece of wood and raise the stone
As you find your way back home
I’ll follow
I’ll follow you
I’ll steal the thunder if I have to

Hey Honey
Calm down
Your time will come
My love is

The sun and the rain
The pleasure and pain
A voice on the wind
A calling
Just listen
We hear it too
We know you will rise and fall… and rise again

Then another fall T
he Garden of Eden
Love yourself

Passing thru the drift of the eastern gray
To where you wanna
Where the many become one

Hidden
Behind the leaves
The swordman reflected
Like an old bowel thru the hands of the humble
The wind thru the fire

At the lowest level
Serving no purpose
Then in the middle
Still afraid of dying

Higher
The trackless road
Upon the road the secret
The final ronin
The old swordman listens

Remembers the lesson of the heavy rain
The first samurai the seventh lie
One night in the rain
He got wet all the same

Like the sun
T he wooden ships
Rise as the water rises
Accept the turns of fortune
The old swordman accepted
Good and evil is the way of man

In the heat of battle
Not even time is effected
Only the instinct for survival
Deny even the gods if they stand in your way

The sun and the wind
The mind and energy
Fire burns away impurity
The way of the warrior

Somewhere in December and I
Gonna change my mind like the winter turns to spring
Fifteen months and maybe more
Never gonna sound like when the angels start to sing
Something like the prince without the glow
Deep inside but he can’t hide ‘cause everybody knows
The sunlight through the open window
All from one soul the way a raga and time goes
Look at it from every point of view
The prince has got his own… who can know another man
I guess I’ve got my own too
And the garden’s overgrown and been abandoned
And fear and habit pull like gravity
The cast of insecurity too deep to fade away
Gonna see the man in new york city
Sixty dollar ratsa tops growing on broadway
A phone-call away from sin
Justify the damage with illusion

And the prince got tangled up in trouble… again
And so it goes… listen

Nature without balance fails
Reason on a cold wind blowing farther out of town
Bet on heads, lands on tails
Should’ve cut my losses but instead I doubled down
And the music and the questions remain
he road not taken may not mean a thing
Catalina driving in the rain
My parents in the front seat smoking

And this here and now
And energy
All alone and underground
God keep watch over me

Fifty-two soon
Run the numbers
They’re running away

Rhythm… truth… shadows
Rivers running thru me… it ain’t easy
Bend it like mr. natural
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out

New year every year in times square
Few hours later and there’s no one around
I’m not saying life ain’t fair
But you can lose a war with more troops on the ground
Diamond sutra and sun tzu
And war based on deception
Once this ramble is through
Find a way thru different doors of perception
But once is slipping into the past
3 weeks to go on the temporal plane
Every day is going to be the last
Viper soul pull me back again

That Sunday on a warm December night
Way too stoned and then
What was I just… wait no that’s not right
Oh my god it’s happening again

From hell to lessons learned
You play with fire you’re gonna get burned

Saw the prince on TV… again
And so it goes… listen

Always trouble with a ragtime smile
Sometimes on
Sometimes gone
Sometimes golden chains
Sometimes saint
Sometimes sinner
The truth remains

Made his way to New York City
Looking for the man turned his world around

You come and you go
Like a shadow
Winds of change will blow
Straight into tomorrow

Long way down and far away
Brothers in an abstract way
But Jonny ain’t no avatar
He laid down with the lion
The man sang songs of brotherhood
Anyone who heard them understood
I was lost but now I’m found
Transcend the limitations

You come and you go
Like a shadow
Winds of change will blow
Straight into tomorrow

Show the way the world was made
‘til the last note is played
No false hope out on the street
That’s where you’ll find salvation
Time like a refiner’s flame
Burn away the guilt and blame

Purify my soul

You come and you go
Like a shadow
Winds of change will blow
Straight into tomorrow

Look toward the western sky
Saw a shadow going by
Like a thought inside a dream
So many things to see

Strong from a wild life
Twists of virtue have been tied
You do it your own way
A place of pilgrimage inside

Ten rays coming together as one
Whatever you want it to be
Learn from the turns of fortune
From the gangster out of New York City
Like Leonard said, You only live once

No thinking… Just do it
When you’ve done it, it’s done
Lowest equal to the highest
Thru time, as the rivers run
That, and the instinct for survival
A .44 and the same universal vibration
Leonard wrote his own rules of reform
Life’s little pleasures that get in the way of salvation
Like Leonard said, There are no secrets

Tough… rebuilding… changing
Sometimes needing to be a little late

The signs …The past… The word
The way of the world in the hands of fate

Perfection in multiple form
Calm in the eye of the storm

Like Leonard said, Don’t be afraid
No one’s getting any younger
Where righteousness has fled on the wings of lies
Hidden truths lying just below the surface
Playing for the moment
Holding on… Just holding on

Obey what you feel inside
Take a few steps beyond necessity
Like Leonard said, You are your possibility

Look back on those who gave of themselves both body and soul
Only a fool would deny the past… that’s how you lose control
Like Leonard said, It’s kinda like evolution

Find the place of letting go inside
Memory recalls the struggle of ambition
Like Leonard said, It’s time for me to go

Standing like a thief with fingers crossed
Another gives the sign
A racetrack hustle with some damage done
Probably thinks he can read your mind
Rolled more souls than cigarettes
The easy marks that place their bets
The best laid plans of a restless soul
Who denied the truth and lost control
So you run away
But you can’t let go
With the mark of Cain
You get real high then you get real low
And that guy and the feeling
Like you didn’t give a shit
Then the moment of doubt
And a whole lot more if you thought about it
What about the 4th of July
Sleeping in a doorway in Venice Beach
Pushed your family away
Pushed them so far now they’re out of reach

Adversity can strengthen
When you care about the reason
And your will has not been broken

It’s not impossible
It seems pretty simple
But when you’re looking for trouble
It’s easy to disappear

Yesterday is gone
Tomorrow’s not yet come
You only have today
It’s time to listen

Calling out the three rays
See what they reveal

Vision
A decision

Write about your real life not your fantasy
A bridge across the symbols you don’t understand
We see what you see
Holding a prayer in the palm of your our hand

Better take care of that
Just played like a demon
Wonder how long it lasts
Time doesn’t lie
That and the other thing
I should settle down
Redirect my energy and go on

Time, when we see past tomorrow
Still gonna get you if you don’t watch out
Look at Jimmy Carter and you knew you had a good man
Then came a shadow ‘cross the surface of the sun
Something to believe
Darkness into light
More trouble down the river
Gonna have to run the rapids when they’re running high

Always the other side
Wait a minute… what was that… the calling
Wonder if I’ve been wrong… there I go
Playing thru doubt and pain
Even my morning prayer
Fading like yesterday
Working from fear instead
It doesn’t matter anyway
It’s been said many times
The secret that we know
When to go and when to stay
Listen to your inner voice

Simple… like it is
About what you believe
Admit you’ve been betrayed and move on
That’s life… so they say
Your life to create
Salesman gone five years give or take

Told me sooner or later I’d break down
That’s what it means to grow older
It’s not the way that we hear it
The thread that holds us together
The sun and one day the darkness
No time to hide in the shadows
How will the symphony end
Like thunder heard from a distance

Never been a time when I knew… it’s crazy
Mostly saw it coming, it’s true
Long grass in the wind… bending
What have I to do in the palaces of kings
Speaking to the one at the break of day
He is sure to overcome desire
The strong, but always one stronger
The dark waters lie still and silent

The best thing one can do when it rains… let it rain
Facing all the questions and then decide
Surpass the understanding of all but a very few
Who knows your mind better than you
What we least expect to occur will occur many times
Have fewer expectations
What’s been true will always be true
A man is just a man and I’m trying to be a better man

Thinking, then I’m back to where… then I
All the miracles we’ve seen
In the way a child thinks
In the way everything is
Jimmy Carter bringing me down
Where you gonna go when the well runs dry
Many sides to the story
Which one’s gonna prevail
Wonder if the ‘heys’ are gonna
Or if more than two will hear ‘em
Reason and the rhythm and I
I still believe in providence

How did Sugar Ray learn to dance… like Shiva
An oak tree in the north wind
Measuring time slowly
‘cause the wheel never stops and it keeps on going

The best way out is always through
Not to be a rushing on
Measuring the endless road
The unbroken course of time constantly renewed

The sight of the stars made Vincent dream
The beauty stealing inward

Drew away the afternoon
There he was drawing… everyone watching him draw
Little bit of Miles
Little bit of history
Got a signed photo and a beautiful memory

And the question was answered
There is no in between
The will to survive
Revolution dancing on a dream

Drive up to the edge of possibility
Fuck the shine that Satchmo used to do
Set the world on fire and watch it burn
The song that everybody’s dancing to

Two chord blues make Joe Lewis smile
Stretched out sound uptown
Sounds just like the seven steps to heaven
High and fast and everybody dancing

From the ghosts of Congo Square
Lines laid bare the inner mounting flame
Was no coming back
No justice if you’re black
Blow your horn until the weather changes
The devil keeps on swinging
Testify by singing
The way he voiced the changes
Never saw nothing in hard times but the blues

The question was would Jack Johnson dance to that
As far as I can tell he’s dancing still
Dancing like thundering silence
Everybody’s dancing

Gonna rock the ride… ride the rhythm… ideas flowing on waves of sound… every day, just to keep it going… build it up, break it down… Running thru the city like a spendthrift saint… Falling from grace to harder times… Angel wearing heels try to stem the tide… walking on water to the other side… but you can’t and you don’t and you’re drowning… and you go and you relive yesterday… it’s like the world wants to be deceived… seems to be the only way… and the things you’ve done and the things you said… looking in the mirror and it’s looking back… looking like the will of an angry God… gathering strength before the next attack… living like shantarm on avenue a… and that fuckin’ guy telling people he’s like Basquiat… and he wasn’t really anything like Basquiat… love is metaphysical gravity… from tragedy to fantasy… lose today waiting for tomorrow… another fait accompli… perfect shot at the satellite… clouds obscuring the lunar eclipse… shadows of shadows… any day can turn to wilderness… like Icarus when he got too high… or the price of just getting by… the moon receives its light from the sun… we are all composed of the light… show me the light again… show me the light again… show me the light again show me the light again show me the light again show me… the best disguise is no disguise… what you’ve come to symbolize… the mountain doesn’t come to you… you climb the mountain to see the view… getting to the top a very hard climb… no right angles to the flow of time… twelve years gone, what did I learn… you play with fire, you’re getting burned… the first call after we said goodbye… then the next to say hello… just because, for all I know… then you asked me for money… everyone’s got a story to tell… we all live day by day… some day are good, some days, well… it’s always been that way… like the woman on the news who crashed into the moonlit bay… reminds me of the theory of mutuality… what I think about you is what you think about me… you thought so much you lied about that fuckin’ guy… then you’re on the phone to me asking me for money… what a buzzkill… and when you realize your best laid plans don’t seem so well drawn… the erratic equilibrium of possibility… Dipper hawking stove-coal at five years old, a nickel for a water-bucket… and you tell me you didn’t say hello when you saw me and I didn’t see you but you call me and ask me for money… it only cost me a grand… nothing for nothing… maybe… we’ll see… if the balance was set… and the way that we feel… and the theory is right… and our love was real…and Dipper can go from the streetcars and hustlers and the sleeping silent city to the top of the world…. And the candle’s still burning… and the wheels keep on turning… you never know the way the wind’s gonna blow as long as you hold onto your hat when it does… the two other phone calls though… you didn’t bother to even say hello… you went right to the apology… a fair-weather friend asking for money… three fifty this time for the past… when able to attack, Sun Tzu said, we must seem unable… when near we must appear far away… hiding order beneath the cloak of disarray… no sense demanding when they have nothing to lose… or win… collateral damage… and then that gets lost in translation… show me the light again… show me the light again… show me… relinquishing control is the challenge for the warrior… learning to obey, you learn how to command… I’m trying to believe because belief transforms doubt into precepts of symbols I think I understand… I’m the one who’s still dwelling upon… the past and the future resolving somehow… as those precepts of symbols become something more than a fantasy forged by what I don’t have now… It ain’t over ‘til they turn on the lights…

Peter Lake was floating
A child among the rushes
The Bayonne baymen found him
For twelve years he remained
Survival
Have to know something of bitterness

Beverly thought how beautiful the earth
Hurled into the cold extreme
The fated sky our sole salvation
A tent upon a roof
And the abandoned stars
And Peter Lake was thrown so hard he’d be out of breath forever… forever

And so the forger of connections… fell in love… with a perfect pure soul slowly dying of consumption
The one chosen
Command the heavens
The pulse and radiance
Peter’s destiny

Beverly died on a windy gray day when the crows in the north wind did ride

What was Peter Lake who had seen more than the prophets
Whose song of sorrow the weeping angels had sung
Providence… the fall of innocence
To shine so bright and die so young

For in this
The hope of this
The weight of this
Where the eternal rainbow ends

In a silent prayer that transcends time

He knew visionaries paid for visions
The price of love’s eternal glow
Her motion flowed in a hundred thousand pictures
The master of time a walking shadow

For in this
The hope of this
The weight of this
Like Peter’s father as he watched his son sail away

Perhaps all of our tomorrows
Are but a slow decline
Dust scattered by the wind
Some time to be reclaimed

The far side of the horizon
Where the paint is mixed that colors the world

And how just it would be
If those we loved… if those we loved
Just imagine

Looking at the faded pictures hanging on the wall
Silhouette of antique heroes about to take the fall
You think you know the story of a life but who can say
Slight of hand surprise and you’re living day to day

Poetry in motion
Staring at the sun
Poetry in motion
Now look what you’ve done

Common man raised the stone and split the wood in two
Something antique heroes promised they were gonna do
Watch an old crusade try and light the world on fire
Common man knew the high life couldn’t take him higher

Poetry in motion
Gold dust in your eyes
Poetry in motion
Living all those lies

And did the antique heroes put his guns in then ground
Stand upon the sacred spot and take a look around
And did the blind man learn to use second sight
Why look back in anger when there’s no one there to fight

Poetry in motion
Thought he heard the angels sing
Poetry in motion
Didn’t mean a thing

Poetry in motion
The moment is gone
Poetry in motion
Time to move on

empty room off sunset… back of the beyond
ocean dreams against the jagged edge
distant voices long denied… still longing
and he passed away

two in a row
ashes in the sand
times winged ship sailing on

thirty years of silent reproach without a reason why
minnesota on the line and you said good bye
the illusion of a trinity never meant to be
more than a store on thirty-seventh street

lying
crying
powermind was dying
blood and stone
refused to atone
to live and die alone

solo

today I pray
today I embrace
today I remain determined
today I am
today I will

today I see the light

energy leading the power astray
who you are not what you say
struggle converting to suffering
not knowing
the need
determination strong
lift yourself up off the paper
no more running away
may you rest in peace

believed you were forever giving
the power of manifestation
the secret was you were living
without a family
days of tangled expectation
hope a snowdrift thru spring
tears behind the motivation
never heard

lift yourself up
keep hope alive
honor your right to deserve
the back of your mind
the love left behind
the angels that you’re gonna serve
it’s all in the past
the falcon has flown
horizons beyond your control
coming back home
where you belong
God watching over your soul

seas have become peaceful
balance has been set
destiny fulfilled in ways beyond imagination

trust
choose
hope
today I stand
today I strive
today I share
yesterday and forever

Run thru the rhythm like the saints
Like the ghosts and hustlers thru Congo Square
The call across the generations
Since the day the angel Gabriel was there

Scat

With the intuition of an old voodoo priest
Walking thru fat Tuesday to the silver city
Sleeping silent city wakes up singing
Ancient songs been sung since the beginning
So much to play… so much to hear… so much to learn
Sanctify the souls willing deed

Scat

Different chorus every time he played
Knew it was the blues… yeah you knew it was the blues
Dixieland the sound of yesterday
Blowing the soundtrack of tomorrow
Sweet jasmine sounds

Scat

Playing more than music… playing style

Scat

Get so far behind the beat you’re daring tradition

Scat

Right back to Congo Square

Scat

Couldn’t imagine a different hustle
Five years old hawking stove coal
His horn a wand of rainbows

Nobody’s gonna give you nothin’
Just don’t wish for anything you can’t get
Travel like a tiger… gonna take a few choruses… look out… look out… look out

Lion of Judah
Your voice thru the dim past has spoken
Bring me out of Babylon
By you the chains of exile shall be broken

Just as Garvey prophesized
Revealed in the book of revelations
Our king of kings shall set us free
I and I shall find salvation

Word… sound… power

I want to get ready
The black man on top of the world
Free to move around Jerusalem
As it was written
And on that day in the African sun

Lion of Judah
Sitting on the sacred ground
Then we pass the chalice around
I and I am dreadlock come from bondage

Word… sound… power

I want to get ready
Someday the train’s gonna come
Then we’re back again in Babylon
As it was written
In Jeremiah 51

And the words like thunder
Prophet shed him blood
He sought shelter where
The old woman who fed his soul when he came home
When he came home
When he came home

Black star liner seven miles long
Sailing into the heart of the lion

We draw strength from unity
Back ‘em up… fire, burn
Grace the cup before our draw
To the promised land we shall return

Revolution running… where the fires burn the sky… all the false prophets lose control… thirty years of mirrors… looks like crystal night again… cover them in silence… watch the fire grow… burn down islam… the whole world… like it was with cain and able… another crusade… another powerplay… lost between eternities… can’t blame human nature… the instinct for survival… all those antique heroes… what would the prophet say… already an interpretation… from Tunisia where bouaizizi burned… the hand of fate upon the revelation…did bouaizizi die in vain… will the tyrant die a martyr… murder his own people… a prelude to civil war… the shattered prayers of the poor… lambs to the slaughter… the power is shifting… the old weight is lifting… the new weight is waiting… will the fires forge the truth… who will write the history… the children of the revolution… who died for their country to be free… burn bouaizizi burn… nowhere left to turn… may Allah have mercy on your soul… revolution running… to the shores of Tripoli… in the streets of cairo… on TV… can a protest change the world… will the tyrant be arrested… serving future justice… the quantum of the unjust dead… the tyrant died a tyrant hung in effigy… the symbol of a nation… the new world order starting with bouaizizi… valor forged by desperation… the evolution of the word… because that’s the way it’s written… it depends on your interpretation… the truth remains… the law and the blessing

Finally figured out the rules of the game
Accepting what was always there
Wind is gonna blow thru the trees
Hanging on the leaves like a shattered prayer

Rhythm of the angels banging on the moon
Climbing up the tree of life to see the view

No more confusion
Seeing without illusion

All those years I felt behind
Seemed so real… I was blind
As the symbols of a higher way flashed across my soul

Knowing when the tiger’s walking the wire
When he’s waiting in the wings
Tiger won’t attack ‘til the time is right
Descending to the end to a new beginning

Fixed ideas of center and boundary dissolve
Zoe growing slowly as the planets revolve

No more confusion
Seeing without illusion

Breaking thru to the other side
Behind the light where angels hide
The past and future in harmony
The struggle to be free

Now I know how to feel the rain
To see beyond deception
Going back doesn’t mean the end
Knowing when to move ahead again

No pure land since the time of Cain
It doesn’t matter ‘cause we’re all the same

No more confusion
Seeing without illusion

This doesn’t mean I won’t fall from grace
A few steps back to the other place
It all comes together eventually
I’m following my destiny

Late winter take me over lose myself inside the rhythm while the winds are blowing and are cold as ice
Coldest afternoon since someone locked the gates to paradise…
Paradise, yeah
Gravity is pulling me down
The winter we were told was on the way
It’s almost thirty below outside and the winds are howling
And it’s been that way almost ever day

When I was a kid back in Oceanside I could stay out in the snow ‘til the sun went down
Lose myself inside the wonders of nature ‘cause winter then wasn’t so extreme
Ride the waves hours a day when the tempest was turning the ocean into an angry master
Who came out of his reverie right before I hit the bottom... Like it was a dream

Then I heard the signal 9
Mark twain sounding like the sky was falling
I know I should go but I hesitate ‘cause of the hour or more
The clouds thru the trees beckon me to a higher calling

I don’t know… It’s so fuckin’ cold outside
Could be a package and heavy lifting down an icy incline
I’m underground around the groove and I just might hit it
I’d love to help the world, but not this time

Old man never gonna hit… I don’t know… I’m not that old
It really is that cold outside
The guilt behind the signal 9, what it feels like to catch myself lying…
Trying to write the future one word at a time
Old man never gonna get it… I don’t know… still got a while to go
Rapping like a dreamer who recognized he’s far from home
Two steps down the ladder… 20 below and there’s more tomorrow
On the desperate seas where sinners long want to roam

Writing underground, the rhythm flowing
Looking out the window and it’s snowing, first day of spring
The more things change the more they seem to stay the same
A signal 9 in the middle of my wandering… You gotta be kidding
There it is… I gotta go… a few deep breaths and I’m out the door
It’s funny it’s guilt that’s motivating me
Drive up to the station like every scene I’d seen on TV
Go on the call and get the history
Could be anything
I go for the last-minute reveal
I’d rather not know ‘til I need to
Could be a heart attack
Or a fall from grace you never saw coming
Even the 911 step aside to let me through

Following protocols
Keeping everything calm if I could
Showing compassion
It’s part of a brotherhood

Bring it on
Could be an overdose or an MVA
Either way I gotta keep it together and try to do my thing
Plane crashed in the mountains, then a building exploded on the Lower East Side
And I’m underground writing reasons why I’m writing
One, ‘cause it’s what I do
Two, ‘cause I’m lit like a lighthouse blazing
Which came first, the reason or the rhyme
The need for speed or the signal 9
The need for speed, ‘cause that’s where the energy’s crazy

Thus as the stars like a golden chain shall remain
One voice says to stay and another beckons me away
It’s too cold outside

Old man never gonna hit it… I don’t know… I’m still going
Even though it’s fuckin’ freezing outside
CPR on a 99, so I guess I wasn’t lying… trying to write the future one word at a time
Common man once heard the angles sing
No more, the meter’s running… gotta keep going
Snowdrift made it all the way to spring
Everything that ever was and always will be and always changes as the river runs back to the beginning
In the moonlight the purple shadows that remind us of dreaming
There’s no limitation
Every chance and combination
Challenge the past and it’s gone

Silver laughter… never heard by the desperate
The last word… a submission to the world beyond
The fire… first specter of a generation

The dead shall wake the world again… listen
The hymn is heard above ill fate
The language which is time’s expression
Eternal voice of love and hate

The river… as it flows thru the future
The symbol of a spark that has flashed ‘cross my soul
The echoes… a reflection in the mirror

Spendthrift saint knew where to go
Before the shattered prayer falls to the ground
Would the light or shattered chaos follow
Would the past come back around

Yes time is a tyranny
Working over memory
The crowns are burned in effigy
The chains of exile slowly melting

Silver laughter… in a world bound by sorrow
Dreams… like a candle that burned thru the night
The silence… sacred key in the song of tomorrow

The wisdom weary voice is calling… listen
A simple liberation of the rhythm of the mind
Yes the fated darkness is falling
The voice of the eternal never dies

Times and times and sometimes
Outside the perfect circle
Racing with the devil thru wind and rain
Escape into the unknown
No boundless flight inside a dream
Try to hear above the echoes
Only one direction home
I’m on my way
Times and times and sometimes
You pay the price to feel humanity
A long way down in the darkness
Angel watching over me

Saint Theresa and the wind… and every possibility

Roll like fate upon another New York City dream
A thousand night on both sides of what was meant to be
A thousand more before the silent thunder

Times and times and sometimes
The pearl moon’s savage mystery
Rising over the towers
Casting shadows upon the future
Don’t lose the night in fear of the dawn
Or truth behind the symbols
Everything is everything
And still a long way to go

What is there in darkness to imagine into being
A doorway to the far end of the bridge of sighs
And there no shelter from the lightening and thunder
Like judgment raining down on me
Let me make it home

Solo

Times and times and sometimes
Responding like an echo
Thru the wind and rain
An answered prayer

Anyone can buy a gun
My country ‘tis of thee
Don’t stand at my door too long
Sweet land of slavery
Humming thru the rhythm
Trying to survive
Three days to keep the dream alive

All the songs of ancient times expressing love and pain
Stubborn mule waits and plans for a sacred kind of day
Freedom for my brothers, ain’t no freedom there for me
Ain’t gonna make their lesson easy

Soothe in contemplation
Pass the love around
Half moon inhibition
An epitaph of sound

Willows weep while the children sleep
Could be in the morning
Could be just a lie
Some day cruel anxiety will die

Pistol in the pocket of the groove
Playing thru the nighttime of your innocence
Like the man… who joined the crucified
On the street… the day that reason died

God plays the blues with Charlie parker
Painting a self-portrait of love and pain
Spirit running like his soul’s on fire
On a sacred kind of day

Love is not my bag, he said… Extended form and improvise and horns… blowing above the soul… leading with his fingertips… a prayer of hope upon his lips… Keki under wing… sisters dance and sing… listen…

Freedom for my brothers
Ain’t no freedom there for me
Don’t know when their coming me
Ain’t gonna make it easy
Could be in the morning
Could be just a lie
Underdog never been afraid to die

Everyone is fragile, even warriors
Hustling small-time Harlem possibility
Like the man
Like the stubborn mule
Sunlight thru the nighttime of your weary soul
Stand fast… mule’s afraid too
Loving soul and imperfection in its most lustrous bloom

The hunter awoke before dawn and prepared for another day of survival
The drifting snow of the eternal night whipping across the frozen sea
The shadow of death reaches out like an old man whose glory has faded
The open sea awaits like the first specter of eternity

Strong snowslide roll past my weak house
There sleep my dear ones in the world
Let them sleep until the spring
Let their nights be calm

All songs are borne in man out in the great wilderness
The song of the seal whose soul we pray for
The song of the caribou, whose skin keeps us warm the frozen winter
The songs of the great raven, who planted the seeds of life
May these songs take flight across the hunting-grounds
May they be heard by the great spirit that I might drift upon calm waters

The great sea moves me… the great sea sets me adrift… and I tremble with joy

Alone thru the canyons of stillness
The vault of heaven frees my spirit to wander to the other world
It moves me like the running waters

The hunter glides thru the darkness in a kayak made of walrus skin
Listening for the breath of life
Thru the frozen stillness
The narwhale breaches the surface where the gentle breeze whispers his name

How to endure the struggles until my brother’s soul is laid to rest
To respect his sacrifice… to give no pause for revenge
Just as nature’s personal reign
Will deliver me across the frozen sea

You earth… our great earth… see, oh see all those heaps of bleached bones

Oh cycles of tide and time… see us thru another season of acceptance

And when my legs are not strong enough to dance the ancient dances
And when my arms are too weak to chase the narwhale across the open sea
I’ll sit upon the rock in quiet meditation
And unburden myself of the memories of youth
As the great raven carries my soul back home

Water on the seven seas
Moon on a thousand rivers
My mind open to the light
All the ways
Move among the mystery

The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one

Playing with abandon to the edge of possibility
High above the echoes and it feels like déjà vu
Back inside the shadows of a world that only seems to be
And is and then another world breaks thru

The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one

Fixed ideas of center and boundary dissolve
Shiva dancing slowly as the planets revolve
A tendency toward complexity
The contours of virtue shaped by adversity

And then we’re called to testify
To know where we are so we know where we’re going
An oak tree in the north wind
Aquarius rising

The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one

Silent rivers overflowing
Beyond the absence of opposites
The far side of the horizon
To the east gate of heaven

The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one
The all is one

Staring right at it… I almost had it… then I hit the wall
Same wall that all the hearts that have ever been broken
And all the empty words that have ever been spoken
And all the nights on both sides of the give and go
And now the price of life is at an all time low
And destiny’s a week away
Looking at it from today
And looking became yesterday
Destiny’s tomorrow
And even that fell away
Substituting Saturday
Soon enough, I heard him say
It’s time to let it go

And the winged ships sailed upon the waves of a late winter one-man show
Everybody at a different play… I understand thought… still
What about

What are you gonna do
The best way out is thru
Feel it from the center
It’s less about the singing
And more about the swinging
And learning… and doing it
And doing it and doing it

Hi fi adventure in the energy again

Four days later and I’m falling and I’m getting up

Hide inside the energy with valentine behind me… listen
Just read about the Backwoods Jupiter… there it is
The cost of freedom
And virtue forged by holding on
Being who you are
Running thru the rhythm like a spendthrift star

Eleven people… nothing to hook onto buy the song… I remember… two o’clock in the morning standing there like a shattered prayer… in the middle of two million people… a castaway… the 4th of July and I couldn’t wait to get outta there

The minor key energy I wanna transcend
The always twilight existential here we go again

The inner vision
And indecision
And silent thunder
I wonder if that’s my destiny

Even then, when Atlanta burned the Backwoods Jupiter knew
The best way out of trials by fire is thru

I wonder how the tycoon did it… yet he did it
How much easier to surrender to the tide of history
Some men can’t stop dreaming the impossible dream
And most of us… even those with vision… somewhere in between

Like gravity upon bodies in motion
Depends on how deep my devotion
Wishing didn’t win the civil war
Gave it all and then gave more

The never-ending cycle of cause and effect
The process of struggle and becoming reflects
The past and the future in harmony
I’m just trying to be who I’m supposed to be

Get a band… play the songs… tell the stories… do it…

Greater visions realized
Many more important than the journey
As the seasons change
The promise remains
Like sunlight when it rains

Hope the journey leads to somewhere
Tangled expectations

Sometimes my conscience binds
As the darkness blinds

Happiness starts from the center
Ripples on the water

Decide who you are
That’s who the world will recognize
Not what your life represents
But your naked soul without pretense

Light… in the shadows

I know why the caged bird sings
He sings of immortality
The struggle to be free

I know where I came from
My spirit driven deep within
Understanding what I’ve seen
The meaning in between

The challenge is in the moment
Moments become the journey
Live by intuition
An instinct to be free

Not afraid of looking back
Kick the dust up from the track
Follow the rise from the depths from which I came

Leave the end of struggle
To the master maker
Who made death a reflection
Contours of the journey
Accept the limitations
Discover possibilities

I know why the caged bird sings
The song from the beginning

Symbols carved in stone
Like an allegory written by a visionary
Or maybe it’s the language of forgotten souls
Whose lesser Gods died long ago

Were messages once gospel only lies… dime-store wisdom
The voice of the eternal never dies

Somewhere someone heard the voices calling
Ancient and telling of fantasy and fate
A safe corner when the sky is falling
From the beginning and the lines still radiate

Making a connection
A time for reflection
Across the universe into the unknown
Light years into seconds
Star gazer’s beckoning
Symbols and the signs point the way home

Ordained by the grace of the dead
Maybe the grace of a race long forgotten
From a time when the lines were less sacred
More a celestial beacon

If you believe in a shared universe
If you believe we’re created in God’s image
If you’re hoping for the best but planning for the worst
If you can read between the lines

Only in imaginary landscapes, petroglyphs with special powers
Tear them up before they’re read
Dig a hole instead
Jump in together

A history foretold in the price of gold
From sacred ground
A heritage of up and down

Lines… and the flight of time
Those who claim absolute dominion
Fall from grace… someone takes their place… by declaring a war very few will win

Those who legislate the status quo
Who sit above the echoes
Holding on and never letting go

Yes, if you take it… start a revolution if you have to
A self fulfilling prophesy written into history
Learn it
Burn it
Burn it down
And from the ashes clarity of purpose
And from purpose destiny
Dressed up like a salesman selling redemption every night on TV

The lines endure despite hypocrisy
Sometimes messages need to be heard again and again
Maybe from another world… maybe from the beginning
And the fall from grace in the garden of Eden

Just a metaphor… those who hide behind the mirror… and out front the work is done by everyone

That’s how they built the pyramids of Giza
The blood sweat and tears of ten thousand souls
For the glory of one man who said he was God
With an army he paid for with money he stole

We imagine the lines to be more esoteric
More of an interpretation
Also built by the hands of the desperate
That’s who built the world

Balance… imbalance… survival… acceptance… truth… imagination

The lines and the crimes and the words of the prophet who wasn’t afraid to die

Free the mind the spirits challenge
Free the body the soul to follow
Free the heart love flows eternal
Lines point the way over the rainbow

Knowledge a word like hope or maybe but knowing can’t make it reality
The lines and the signs link past and the future in ways politicians want them to be

Together we can build a mystery
Together we can glorify my name
Give me your soul, I’ll give you forever
I take the credit… you take the blame

Existence is a yielding he said
Not something beyond imagination
Hear it in the song of acceptance
In a Lester Young improvisation

That’s how you know
To be
You can see more than that
In the visions behind me
Colors into motion
Fragmentary thing
Like dreaming out loud
Like dreaming

The world is how reality sounds
Listen
Faster than divine grace
To feel let down is no disgrace

See the world
Thru far away eyes
What I just saw
What I wanted to see

To lose myself
In the mythic depths
A history
Yet to be written
A fragile prayer
A different perception
The center is spreading

I can feel it spreading over me… over me

Since every thought unites as much as it divides
Since words draw us in with what they reveal and what they hide
The separation of self-consciousness from the objective truth others see in us
Since every failure makes us feel our vulnerability
Since, though innocent, we judge ourselves guilty
Since human action is dominated by thought and alienated by lies
We must set aside all habit of thought and learn to see what’s before our eyes

Do as I do, he said
The moments ordered like a life remembered
An autumn evening 1923
Becoming what we wanted it to be
Organizing chaos
Thru consciousness
The power of reason
Nature’s purpose
The dual vision
The play of resistance
Being and nothing
The colors of existence
All I saw were colors
The waves of forever
I can feel them spreading from the center… over me

Since the words are drawn from the harmony
Guided by the secrets of a universal history
On existential shores long want to roam
So the man who knew it all came home
Same abstract expressions of suggestive states of mind
Sailing thru existence on the winged ships of time
Since the transformation of the darkness
Beyond our collective consciousness
Consciousness

Not the same as I was before
Thru a baptism of fire… the natural order
The suffering people are shedding their blood
Break the chains with the flame of liberty

If St. Martin’s hands were extended across time
Rest in peace old fighter… we’re not afraid of dying
The land and our sacred promise
Obey the will of the people

The revolution will prevail against tyrants
The revolution for a common purpose
The revolution is the promise
The path to liberation

Now comes the toughest part old fighter
To make war with conviction
An army of shadows
Serving future justice

The new man rising from the ashes to lead his children home
Let death retreat… savage memories… the end justifying the means

Awake each day with the prospect of killing
And dying
The symbols of our sacrifice
Tomorrow

The revolution does not seek clemency from death
The revolution for the children
The revolution is our sacred duty
The hammer of truth

The new man breaks free from the shadows to fight until the end

From the beginning
To live in the memory
If we forget… even wanjina could… fade away

What name creates
What name destroys
Keevari’s seen the endless destruction
The fire that took the world

To watch his mother burn
Remember
The darkness falls
Find shelter where you can

In the morning the whirlwind
Boolies searching for death
Swirl Keevari with the dust
Speed over the western plain
Dissolving over the horizon

In the eye of the storm
The hand that mixes the paint that colors the world
The eagle and the crane… at the edge of dreamtime

Defeat the darkness
Light thru the shield
Climb down the mountain
Into her arms
The woman he knows he’ll meet some day

Thru the outback
Three days running
Keep the fires burning at night
Follow the tracks of your ancestors thru the desert sands

The land became clear from fire
We paint ourselves with clay
The instinct for survival
Thru the cleansing rain
Guided by the knowledge
White smoke in the distance
The snake just shed his skin, she said
Dreamtime is over

That night they dreamed of Balloo… Balloo the moon
Across the moon the crow did ride out of the prophesy

Summer rhythm
Djembes and xylophones dancing
Around the tama pillar

Always back to Farafina
Birkina Faso underground
Inner visions
Sea Cliff revelations

A rhythmic alchemy
Turning thought into motion
Motion into synergy
Listen… listen
Letting go… letting go
The rhythm running thru me
Thru me

I go to places… set there for a while
Then the winged ships sail away
Leaving waves to ride
Ride until I die

From the beginning
Until the end of time

Time the antique heroes played around the sacred fire
The pillar rising from the center
Thru the event horizon
Upon those waves I ride

i’m not lucky but I have been blessed, I know
2 up 2 down side to side, playing faster than thinking about it
purify the sounds I feel and vibrations I hear
expanding like the universe
waiting for bottom rush that fades away
unlike the faith of Abraham
maybe the angel Gabriel

fixed ideas of center and boundary dissolve
wild as a stampede
always gonna be running and riding and looking for trouble on a Saturday night
wake up in the morning to fight another day

someone heard the preacher shouting sermons

the mountains in the background and the air keeps getting colder and soon you realize you better think about survival
yes you could slay dragons but the dragons kept on coming
burn away the metal energy

thought you climbed the tree of life
what about the view
it’s not the astral mist
nothing magic about it
the promise of love
real behind the surreal
falling from grace
the promise remains
farther if you play them true
shatter the illusion

but how to understand our experience
it slips thru our fingers and then the harder it gets
the world of possibilities to compensate for meaning
and when that’s better than what you got it’s time to go a different way

all those broken promises
on both sides of the give and take
sow the wind and reap the whirlwind
first for the climb

a final chapter yet to be written… by the grace of God

then you’re back to where expression costs the truth
always giving… always keeping score
where’s what you got on your side of the best revenge
we’re all waiting to hear

In remembering heritage, strength
Heritage is people… people are the earth… the earth is life… remembering is all
I remember there were eagles in the mountains
Hunting buffalo on horseback in the rain
We sang and danced the legends of creation
Barefoot in the mist on the sacred plain
Our story is the history of our struggle to continue
Our roots run deep
From that depth strength
Strength is our shield against chance and disorder
We speak with the spirits and come away with their wisdom
We are all children of the great mystery
The wind in the pines sings a requiem for tomorrow
Upon the remembered earth we will always be free
From the valley of endings
No place to go but onward
Paid by the blood of our fathers
Their blood long ago turned to dust
The dust blown by the wind to a different sky
The never ending cycles of tide and time
A warrior fights when he knows what it costs not to win
Like an eagle in winter who builds a nest upon a mountain
Drum beats sigh across the mesas
The rhythm of the rising sun
The warriors pray they’ll return to their birthplace
The enemy just above the horizon
The path to glory is filled with vengeance
Find our way back… to the remembered earth

Earth is the mind of our people

Our people commune with the spirits
A connection to the beginning
With moccasin strings of the rainbow we begin again
Sad winds in the distance moan
For our falls from grace we atone
Fragile prayer of returning home
The sky weeps with compassion
Fragments of a broken dream outside the will of destiny
What is there in darkness to imagine into being
To bring our soul into harmony with this shared reality
To follow a new trail to the point of knowing
The war shaman leads the attack
He knows only a slave waits for someone else to set him free
Too much talk and talk and nothing done
We gave what we prized most that we may live in peace
What we gave was never enough
Now we fight to reclaim nature’s wild domain
Now we make our own path
Delay the morning if we have to
‘til the dark blood that runs thru us returns to this good brown earth
Oh destroyer of mutual confidence
The miracle of death will surely find you
Then you will at last know that heritage alone can accompany you in the other world
We ran on the order of war
War, a solemn religious matter
For those who were a stranger to fear
When dawn was a praise of silence
The spirit voice recedes in time
Like buffalo clouds in the distance
Once we moved around like the wind
Upon the wind ancient whispers
Secrets of the remembered earth
When the great spirit danced in the moonlight
We will always remember the earth
We will always remember our past
We will always follow the eagle
We will dance the eternal dance
We dance for our children
We dance for rain
We dance for the great spirit
We dance for the seasons
We dance for strength
We dance for pleasure
We dance with our loved ones
We dance
In remembering the earth, we dance

The spin never stops jumping over to the other side… ragtime-talking raconteur found the door before he died
Now he’s like Neal Cassady with second sight but still can’t see ‘cause freedom’s just another word he heard somewhere east of Eden
Sold your soul been twenty years… a heavy load and all the tears a lost soul sheds when everything and nothing in between
Fell asleep at the wheel… a landscape that seems so surreal, you can’t distinguish what you feel from everything you’ve seen
A valley of trouble you never meant to wander into… break it so you look right past what’s right in front of you
It always could be worse ‘cause the center of the universe is everything there is from a relative point of view
So what am I trying to say… always seem to talk about the way… I listen to the rhythm ‘cause the rhythm sets me free
Once fell in love so deeply that I lost myself completely, but when the world came back to me, that’s how it’s supposed to be
Look at how the wisdom and the center and the radiance, lighting all horizons, growing stronger in the light
What is love beyond tomorrow… ties that bind and time we borrow… traveling down the only road we know, which is every road
And every time and every point of view… And everyone you’ve ever spoken to
What if it’s true
What does it mean
What you went through
Down in New Orleans
Tripping on sunshine
How the fire burned
Took more than money
You finally learned
Then you forgot
You tried to be cool
Took another shot
Got played like a fool
Your history
Your fantasy
All that is
Will forever be
The spin never stops, spectral visions we perceive… up through the bottom like St. Thomas believed
And not just the prophets… run the rapids when they’re running high… a metaphor for many things and many more until we die
And then the winged ships come and take us back to Babylon, and maybe even further back to where we belong
Right behind the mirror where the cypress tree… burning for ten thousand years or maybe an eternity
If you think about it every now and again… and then another thought and another and then
Maybe come back ‘round eventually… in the center of the circle stands the tree
That’s where the many become one… that’s why the moon receives its light from the sun
All of us composed of the two lights… children of the stars who are born with second sight
But how quickly one light begins to fade… the hard truth about how the world was made
It’s hard enough to realize your destiny… with everyone telling you who you’re supposed to be
Listen to the melody that’s playing deep inside… ancient voices pick you up and take you on a midnight ride
Set you down a little farther along the open road… then they’re gone, but where’d they go… it doesn’t matter… no one knows
All that really matters is you
Look at it from your point of view
It all depends on how you see it
Best through the eyes of love

Jump or weave your own
Either way the net is gonna break your fall
Would my father step into the darkness
Every day a restoration
Maybe the first step… maybe a deep breath
It’s hard to see the sky when the tide’s pulling you under
No sense throwing stones at the sun
Stand and try to become one
When you deny the truth you live a lie
Tell me why
Tell me why
Why’d you hide when Peter slipped away
Kept on going ‘til he was gone
Maybe it’s something I just don’t understand
It’s hard to see the sky when the tide’s pulling you under
Feel the center from within
I always wanted
And wondered
And accepted
Everyone who stood against me
Everyone who stood behind me
You have to stand your ground when the tide’s pulling you under
Fixed ideas of boundary dissolve
And if you’re pulled down
If you’re pulled down just hold on
Hold on… hold on
You’re gonna see the sky
Even if it takes a lifetime
Even if it’s always been there
I guess it doesn’t matter
Except to those who love you
Sometimes I sit and wonder
I still don’t know the answer
Maybe a bond to sorrow
Maybe the tide will turn tomorrow
Look up at the sky
Watch the clouds roll by
Rolling on

He spoke the truth without fear of death
Knew the price a prophet had to pay
Behind the mirror where Elijah drew his first breath
Where we all return someday

Blue star on an April night that shines its light
Cleanse ourselves in the river of sorrow
‘The end of days’ the prophet cried, and he was right
First the law and the blessing the dream of tomorrow

How easy it is to lose your way
How easy to resign yourself to fate
Especially when you’re living day to day
The life eternal has to wait

There it is
Cause and effect
The unbroken chain
Everyone starts to disconnect
Only the truth remains

A thousand years in the blink of an eye
Still hear the prophet calling
The unbroken chain
The chain
The chain

Empires buried in the sand
Trouble in the promised land
Golden light just over the eastern horizon
Comes to pass and then passes away

Prophet said, love without balance… love without knowing
Like throwing stones at the shadows
A generation lost between eternities
Bound by the unbroken chain

Unbroken chain
The chain
The chain

Remember how hot it got and no one knew the reason why
The one in a million answered prayer that almost passed us by

To the ever expanding universe… and the soul’s reflection of first light
Wolf sat back and thought about it… knew he’d know when the time was right

Blow your mind like déjà vu
That was never your point of view
Betray his trust for a moment in the sun

Someone always trying to take you with them
Since we the Garden of Eden
The Wolf knew about the fire
Gonna purify the world
That’s why the valley’s burning
Beyond the cycles
In time as the rivers
Wolf set the balance again

Live your life and justify your falls from grace
There’ll be those who keep the cardinal points in place

Question those who would limit the soul’s willing deed
We are in the world

Chain reactions
Inside a dream
Shepherds down to the mystic streams

The primal fire
The root of Cain
All is connected by the unbroken chain

Three bonds of faith
The infinite kingdom
Walk through the mountains of darkness

The unity
The prophecy
Behind the mirror
Where the soul is set free

Who knows grace
The silent land
Set the balance within

Because he was
Because of love
The mystery… revealed in the world beyond

Sign the way
The seventh day
The secret of the word

The generations pass
Prepare the way for eternity
Humanity redeemed

Thoughts divine
The grand design
Time and time to believe

On common ground
Where judgment is found
The sign Elijah received

What is an eagle that nests in a tree in a world that never was
The language of dreams like the rhythm of the seas… submission to the world that is

The thought ascends
The kingdom ends
The world of separation

The angels cried
Testified
The mystery of creation

Eternal light
Second sight
The secret of the word

Satellite shine in the afternoon… but it’s okay
Don’t have anywhere else to be today
Had a run at Lisa in the morning
Haven’t learned the lesson
Still throwing stones at the sun
Throwing stones at the sun

Antique heroes walking thru the rain
Waters rise as they try to explain
Levee’s known to breech without a warning
Antique heroes start to run
Like throwing stones at the sun
Throwing stones at the sun

Turn right on a dime in desperation
Survival, the muse of my imagination
Run with the heroes ‘til they’re gone
Am I the only one
Throwing stones at the sun

Light in extension
Easing the tension
Virtue by necessity
My life becoming energy

93 million miles away
Hard climb out of yesterday
The will to keep going
Sometimes it’s just about the throwing

Sometimes we all go to extremes
Chasing impossible dreams
The price of human nature
A ship on the horizon
Throwing stones at the sun

The end of the beginning
Losing and winning
The will to keep going
Sometimes it’s just about the throwing

When the moment became lost in time
When the wind blew thru the autumn sky
When all that remained return to the earth
And the three rays like the moon and the tides

Let us transcend the limitations
Let us dance the eternal dance
Where the rhythm is heard above the echoing
Outside the thundering silence

What is gained if the spirit is lost
Surrender to the fate of the forsaken
Listen to the music in the breathing darkness
Sounds like twilight in a minor key

Threw the world a slider
Threw it back at me
Standing right beside her… feel her energy
I know what you’re thinking sunshine
And don’t take this the wrong way
But there are times and sometimes and today just ain’t your day

Where you gonna go when the well runs dry
Wait around you’re sure to die
Better men have fallen down… fallen down

Just the way you come on
Coming back at you
And antique hero dreamer schemer tangled up in blue
But even antique heroes have their moments of doubt and pain
But they knew the way out was thru
You should do the same

Where you gonna go when the well runs dry
Underground and getting high
Better men have fallen down… I’m falling down

Yes I know the way out is thru
Easy to say, not so easy to do
I’m not trying to set the world on fire
I’m just trying to talk to you
You and every other man in here
Your first impression felt like fear
Fear and desperation
That’s why the day’s undone

Maybe tomorrow
I’ll come on to you

Then I threw a fastball
Because after all
If you can you should
If your aim is good
If you can’t you can get there

Where you gonna go when the well runs dry
Wait around you’re sure to die
Better men have fallen down… and gotten up again

Nothing should be different
Half the battle letting go
What else do I need to know
Still less to conceal
Realize
Chaos can be organized
Harmony
Memory
Signs that light the way
Fragile prayer
To know to dare
To keep silent
One must learn to fall if one would fly
I’m still falling
Some days rising
Some days just getting by

Maybe what I’m saying
Lose the battle win the war
Lesser angels keeping score
‘cause the greater don’t care

Fighting from the center
After fighting bring it back
Ready for the next attack
The way of the world
Moving… like the moon beneath the waves
Energy
What will be
Symbols marking time

Almost there
To know to dare
To keep silent
Learning to obey and then command
The challenge standing
First light commanding
Love and the tides flowing from inside

Thru all the changes, should the king have known
You’d think so
But you never can tell
The king was all alone

Looking toward the future
I know shadows fall

Learning to surrender
Letting go… letting go
Unbroken echo
In the silence
Listen

Someone heard an angel calling
Lift us when the sky is falling
The symbols of the universe
To one day hear the rain

The truth of tomorrow
From jealousy and sorrow
The emotions of humanity
To one day hear the rain
To one day hear the rain
To one day hear the rain

A symphony of ecstasy
A melody to set us free
That which is shall forever be
All is mist the wind will scatter
All is mist the wind will scatter

The struggle
Between faith and fantasy
The rhythm and the harmony
The silence and the rain
To one day hear the rain
To one day hear the rain
To one day hear the rain

Songs across the bridge of sighs
Tears that fall from silent eyes
Immortal beloved is dying
All is mist the wind will scatter
All is mist the wind will scatter

Under northern skies
Hear the rolling thunder
A ghost dance marking time
Like a dream

Leave all ties behind
The lotus in the debt of night
Broken chains by morning light… and he’s gone

Sacrifice to those
Love cannot be whole
Riots on the souls for whom the man of sorrows died

From too long our sacrifice
Storms are forming

How could God, who keeps his eye on the sparrow
Could be so blind to suffering
The artificial flowers of love and desperation
Shake the foundation of the world

Transcendental Divine on the main deck talking about the soul and how to save it
On the gunpowder alter of God
Deep still deeper the darkness and endless descending
And give me an utter wreck if wreck I do
Please God… help me… should faith renew

Plunge like fate into the sea
A Nantucket sleigh-ride
Like Jonah on the inside
In the breathing darkness

Transcendental Divine… sacrificed the sinner… on the gunpowder alter of God

What remains to give meaning to suffering are the allegories of the Divine
All that’s left to celebrate the mystery… is a sailor’s simple song

Can’t afford the ticket… gonna miss the wall come down
Can’t even kick the only reason up from underground
Dreams and possibilities are getting kind of small
Like a whore on any corner looking for her final call

One more call so she can make it back
Soon enough the play will fade to black
More than faith to turn it all around
All alone and underground

Once again I’m feeling like a diamond in the rough
Second guess the past
Two things holding fast
Dance the dance until I’ve had enough
Or it’s had enough of me… whatever’s gonna be

Two things from above are music and that few have heard
Getting small’s a new thing… feeling like I’m falling
Takes a little long to come up with the next word
Maybe I’m just complaining… look outside it’s raining

Massacre in Tuscon… Tuesday afternoon
Caught between the crosshairs like they told him to
Middle of the winter… eight more weeks to go
Dreams of immortality buried in the snow

But the world goes on
And nothing changes
The silver laughter
Is still an echo
And the desperate and politicians still feeding on each other

The fires burn in Cairo
Purify tomorrow
Or burn the country to the ground
The future turned around
Can’t outrun the rising tide
The water’s rising

Being in the moment ‘til the moment slips away
Back to feeling smaller than I did yesterday
Psycho in Tuscon sent the message loud and clear
No one breaks the bonds of sorrow living in fear

Reconsider my imagination
Accept my limitations
Fire medic as a higher calling
One small corner as the sky is falling

Massacre in Tuscon like a tragedy foretold
Promise them salvation and they’ll follow

And the world goes on
The good and the evil
The past and the future
Living and dying
We all should take care of each other

Working thru my issues in my way
Just like Jared Lee on that fateful Tuscon day
Or the kings of Cairo who stormed the embassy
Everybody struggling to be free
Reconsider my imagination
Accept my limitations

Never saw the eight rivers flow
What else do I need to know

Massacre in Tuscon like a mirror on the wall
Those about to rise and those about to fall

On the rise as the falcon flies and then down again I go
Some will lead and some like me and some are born to follow

I work the underground
Again the underground
Again
Back in the underground
Look out of the underground
Listen
The sound from underground
Throwdown in the underground
Throw it
The starlight underground
Spent my whole life underground
Work it

Sanctuary
Sanctuary
Sanctuary
Sanctuary

Silent thunder underground
Wolf moon rising at the speed of sound
Higher
About time underground
Time for time to start slowing down
Yeah
Rhythm shifts into overdrive
Feeling lucky I’m still alive
I’m still alive
Pete and Andrew and three guys with ’em
Got a whole lotta rhythm goin’ down

53… really… come on
The energy
From 38th and 8th in New York City
All the way to underground ‘cause that’s my destiny

I’m here

World rhythm underground
Hourglass is running down
It’s running down
Remember underground
Salesman showed me what he found
The key
Measuring the endless road
Laying down your heavy load
Ancient rivers as they flowed to the indefinable sea
What once was will come around
A legacy underground
A lifetime composing energy

The right off Northern
Could’a been
And eight rivers
That leaves seven

Never been lucky… well
There was the time
And time is like a garden in the rain
It depends on how you see it

But I wonder underground
Heavy metal thunder underground
Future calling underground
Final verse for this time around
And time’s winged ships
And a prayer upon my lips
Still the silence and the sound
And the energy underground

Made the calls after Maryann
If that didn’t get her
Where was the melody, she asked
Waiting to be written
One thing leading to another
Maryann to validation
Pieces of a puzzle of a picture of the future
And validation
Just another word like hero
Standing in front of the silhouette
Still alone underground
Tangled up in wires after falling
And rising
One thing leading to another
Prepare the way for validation
Start to second-guess the music playing in the background
And validation
Just another word like destiny
Validation
Echoes
Where the many
Become one
30 years after Maryann
Still undecided
Still bound by expectation
The price of human nature
One thing leading to another
Sometimes the voice of reason
Sometimes salvation in a world that never was
And validation
Just another word like sacrifice

Validation
Silence
Words and rhythm
And melody

What will be
Staying hungry
Maybe validation in the rhythm flowing thru me

Why sacrifice the sinner
It’s just the way the world was made
The sharp edge of a rusty blade
What is it I see in almost everybody

The angels crying
Gun-metal tears
Falling like rain
And shadows... shadows
While someone else is walking in the sun… the sun

Was it like this before
From the beginning
One man’s pain
Is another man’s profit

Right down the center
Where friendships come and go
Underneath the rainbow
Just below the echoes

Maybe tomorrow
Maybe I’m unfair
Maybe I can change the world

It’s been like this before
From the beginning
Actions screaming
I must be dreaming

Before the mirror
Before I looked away
A day like any other day
What is it I see in almost everybody
It’s just me

The restless sky again
If not now tell me… when
I’m waiting

I’ve felt this way before
Won’t be the last time
Songs of sorrow
Songs of joy

Minding my own business is all I need to know
Maybe you should mind yours also
Lustre’s fasting fox three days after the climb
Had no choice but to fast a second time

As we come we go
Did you hear the call
Those three days showed the high life’s not high after all
More a steady flow
Less about TV
Lose yourself inside the cult of personality

The grass is always greener
And the world is getting meaner
And fast becomes a habit instead of a sacred rite
And heroes fall from grace
And some climb up the tree of life whose roots are nourished by first light

I must be projecting
The odds are one in ten
Starting with accepting
Worrying about yourself again
Worrying and working and strung out on greed
Fate-tempting stealing to buy what I need
Fox in the vineyard having his fill
Man with a shotgun ready to kill
Like fish in a barrel

Same old story since the Garden of Eden
Over the walls of Jericho
Some things you see where they go

Take care of yourself

Fox’s son grew up on his own
Hiding in the shadows with an instinct to survive
Practiced in the arts of things better left alone
But forge an iron will and in the process purify

The sacred fire
The struggle between worlds

The smoke thru the high lonesome rising
Vision dreams of revenge on the killing floor
Can’t escape the past until the enemy lay dying
Fox’s son had dreamed it all before

But revenge begets revenge
Diminishes your humanity
And misery loves company
Worry about yourself

Guilty innocent
Wonder where the time went
Watching time pass me by

Fox and his son sometimes fade away
Like the shadows of yesterday

Whose roots become the center
The wind blowing thru the future
Reeds in the rushing water
Before the fox’s fall
After Eden

Somewhere between the past and closer to the edge you gotta jump man jump hope the net will appear
Better men will fall smarter fox’s climb the wall getting up and over while the ancient voices whisper in your ear
Take care of yourself
Take care of yourself

The question is would Jack Johnson dance to that
The wild wind… played with body and soul
If he got too high… would the rhythm start a fire
Or would it fade… like a bird too weak to fly

Create what’s real… don’t deal in speculation
Things take time against a critical world
Flood the night with voices drawn from memory
Dark history… a long painful road back to light

Testify by singing
The devil keeps on swinging
The way he voiced the changes
Never saw nothing in poverty and hard times but the blues

The question is would Jack Johnson dance to that
Stretched out sound played in a circular way
You gotta fight to protect your history
Or just like that… everyone turns away

Running style floating over the rhythm
Two chord blues that could make Joe Lewis smile
Close the street and everything starts to crumble
Can’t have no hustling street cats from uptown stomping on your feet

The question is would Jack Johnson dance to that
High and fast… there was no in-between
Long spare lines… never out of tempo
Just a matter of time… gonna change the scene

This was all about living in the illusion of possibility
Listening to each other’s voices experimenting with form
Bad from the beginning… and it just kept getting better
Everybody showing everybody something and moving on from there
Seeing the pictures in my mind and letting the music express what I’m seeing
Waiting for the sound to hit me and extending it into the future
That didn’t call for no bullshit grinning the way Satchmo used to do
This was about revolution… and everybody dancing
Every motherfucker was dancing

Square business… Jack Johnson would dance to that
Steal the moment or the shit done pass you by
Bird knew better… three days out and he flew away
Ain’t coming back… a thousand miles high

Turn the whole place out
Everyone twist and shout
A bodhi blowing his horn
Drive up to the edge of everything possible
Ignorance is slavery
Don’t take no shit off nobody
Play the gospels and the blues… harmonic lines laid bare the soul of the inner mounting flame

Turn the whole place out
Everyone twist and shout
A bodhi blowing his horn
Drive up to the edge of everything possible
Ignorance is slavery
Don’t take no shit off nobody
Play the gospels and the blues… harmonic lines laid bare the soul of the inner mounting flame

The truth is life can be a bitch sometimes
Lose direction… people taking up your time
Learn to fly… don’t wait for the sound to fade away
A slow rush… the legend never dies

There was no turning back
No justice if you’re black
Smoke them cigarettes
Blow your horn at the height of the storm until the weather changes

It was just a matter of time
Trane rolling down the line
Heading for the future
The voice of violent change and the history of survival
Forget what’s written down
A different kind of sound
The will to climb the seven steps to heaven

Up the road from the east St. Louie blues flowers grew
Jazz evolution… bop evolution… fusion evolution… the evolution of the soul

Fight and die for them over there… kill us like nothing over hear
Might as well have been in jail ‘cause there ain’t no work nowhere
Where the fuck you gonna go but up when you’re already on the bottom
But this was all about suffering pain in order to produce beauty
Everything was happening and the rest you gotta do for yourself
That’s the way life is if you don’t shine the way Satchmo used to
But fuck that… This was about setting the world on fire… and everybody dancing
Every motherfucker was dancing

Went upstairs to apologize for getting angry about something I’ve been angry about many times before
You didn’t want the bring-down and I can’t say that I blame ya ‘cause I felt the same way when I walked thru the door
Push my point ‘til you feel helpless and afraid
Push my point until I think it’s made
Until I almost believe my own hypocrisy
Then it’s just a self-fulfilling prophesy
But you called my play
You just walked away
Kinda condescend… preservation and defend
Even though you’re mine
Even though I’m blind
Even though I try to define your world thru my eyes
With a father’s intuition and a middle-aged suspicion drawn from my life as I’ve lived it with some sorrow and some joy
And you’re right to shoot it down and move to higher ground ‘cause sometimes your old man forgets he’s not a little boy
I still remember my disgrace
My mother’s hand across my face
I think that’s where I’m coming from
I ain’t going there no more
Yeah right just like I said the last time that I lost me head and came at you like you were my enemy
Wish you, but then again… you probably will but just not when you’re learning how to be and not to be
Called you back downstairs even though I could’a let you go
Called you back because you gotta know
I do the best I can
I’d like to be a better man
I know you know I know you understand
That’s the way I planned it
Earned it and demand it
Best follow the drummer ‘cause the drummer calls the rhythm
It comes down to authority
Mine as far as you can see
And I can see for miles beyond the horizon
Come on Zozo come on
Come on Zozo Jesus Christ
Come on Zozo who do you think you’re talking to
We know each other like we know ourselves and that’s a good thing in the center of the circle where the seeds of love take root
Those roots are nourished by first light
And suffer all the damage of misfortune when we fight
It takes some time for me to get it right
But I get there… I get there

Talked about my childhood in a righteous way with an emphasis on discipline and how my mother taught it
Rivalry to trip the wire
Set my family on fire
Shared the sacrifice and earned one more because I thought it
You think it too
I know you do
Never served me… it won’t serve you

Listen to me baby, don’t walk away
I’m coming after you like your shadow
Don’t know about the future… take it day by day
I hope I learn to let the bullshit go
I’m asking for consideration
Considering my situation
Everyday the realization of causes and effects
Sometime in the eye of a storm
A moment when the world is reborn
Transformation of the soul of an image my subconscious projects
One day you’ll define your world
Right now you’re still me little girl
Who’s old enough to know when her father’s tangled up in blue
Sorry for my insecurity
Misery looking for company
But you gotta admit it didn’t take long for laughter to shine thru

Shine on baby… shine on

How else can we know the measure of a man
Who is gonna write my epitaph
Influence the angels anyway I can
I know I’m close to heaven when I hear my baby laugh