The old thread kind of died, so I figured I'd just start another, and start with a recently finished one. The Land They Love --------------------------- There was a time When the world was large And the grass collided With the sky The children played In the fields, they say I remember thinking That I'd never die --------------------------- But now the days They run together And sleep, we pray To come soon We fight and fight Til the world is right From the sun's rise To the fall of the moon --------------------------- -short instrumental- --------------------------- Three days I gave them Three days they cried And the season fell hard, like the snow When we saw fire When we felt the ash From the clouds came the horsemen and crows --------------------------- Bring me your tired Bring me your poor Bring me the hungry and weak I'll let them live on In the rags they have brought And wash the cold dirt from their feet --------------------------- -short instrumental- --------------------------- They come, oh From lands I've never known To the country so hollowed and true And they cry out to God For the strength to carry on While we trample the faith they once knew ------------------------------ Bring me your tired Bring me your poor Bring me the hungry and weak I'll let them live on In the rags they have brought And wash the cold dirt from their feet ------------------------------- -moderate instrumental- ------------------------------- Days go And more they grow weary The nights, oh In the streets on their beds They pray, oh Let the wind come so gently But the vicious cold Steals the heart from their heads -------------------------------- Bring me your tired Bring me your poor Bring me the hungry and weak I'll let them live on In the rags they have brought And wash the cold dirt from their feet -------------------------------- Oh, I could feel the rain hit me While I lay alone in my bed Can you feel the strength falling away The warmth from my furnas Is torching my soul Over the flames spread the breaking of day -------------------------------- Oh don't tell me it's action That dictates success Don't tell me it's all we can do It's all I can take I've felt the cold concrete wake The silence that screams from the blue ------------------------------------ Bring me your tired, honey- Bring me your poor Bring me your hungry and weak You let them drag on In the rags they have brought And kick the cold dirt at their feet ------------------------------------- God, bring me your tired Bring me your poor Bring me your hungry and weak I'll let them live on In the rags they have brought And wash the cold dirt from their feet
Here's one that's finished, but I can't seem to find a title I like. (Untitled) Sleep in my eyes Gathering the colors and the borders That separate my world Placing them right where they belong Like puzzle pieces Mold together 'til what I see makes sense But though it looks right Is it still the ground that I feel below my feet Is it the air that blows the hair and Tickles my forehead The same I knew before bed... Am I where I left myself before I closed my eyes -short instrumental- The sights and sounds grow blurry As the years pile on My childhood grows distant So far have those before me gone Separated from their souls Replaced by cold, indifferent holes That absorb the light so kind And leave each day... Hungry and blind... The memories My life, my dreams, experience That holds together What was my character are lost In the translation Of education My weight once drifting Now drags my feet across the floor Find it hard just lifting My head to make it to the door Through thoughts go sifting To re-expose the core I fear by fifteen My eyes could see no more Than what's here... This crushing fear... (breakdown) I could sing, or I could drink I could change the way I think I might be one flew over the cuckoo's nest, Or leaps and bounds b'yond all the rest The days I spent in search of love, Or praying to the Lord above Are falling short before The years behind this door... (end breakdown) -moderate instrumental- (bridge) Take me back... To where the streets were wide... The sky was far... The world was large... The moon followed the car... When adventure reigned... When I couldn't stay angry... And the dish...ran away... With the spoon... (end bridge) I could sing, or I could drink I could change the way I think I might be one flew over the cuckoo's nest, Or leaps and bounds b'yond all the rest The days I spent in search of love, Or praying to the Lord above Are falling short before the years I live And all these things no God forgives I can't tell if it's all I know Or like my breath upon the car window Just when it's all so clear as day The rain will come and wash away What I swore was real And not a soul could steal Where the streets were wide Where the sky was far When the world was large And the moon followed the car Oh, when adventure reigned When I couldn't stay angry Will I remember soon... When the dish...ran away... With the spoon... -short outro-
A new one under the working title, "Hello Child." Hello Child Hello child What brings you here today I hear you traveled such a long, long way To see some sunrise, or a dancing firefly Just to find someone with a cancerous cry Life brought the heavy The mind that plays the fool Like the strings across your heart The Devil's only tool Crashing harder, the higher that you climb When your smile grows again, my friend Could you help me find mine Hello child Where have you gone And taken the light away -short instrumental- Hello child How do you get along With such a sad song, like the day is long And oh the tears they flow, much like the river rolls The gravel has no mercy upon those soles Life brought the heavy The mind that plays the fool Like the strings across your heart The Devil's only tool Crashing harder, the higher that you climb When your smile grows again, my friend Could you help me find mine Hello child How do you get along Your spirit broken Your spirit broken -moderate instrumental- Hello child Why must you go away Oh not one more day, could you dream to play I see you so cold and frail, such a sickly pale Please don't leave me alone, with my throwing bones Life brought the heavy The mind that plays the fool Like the strings across your heart The Devil's only tool Crashing harder, the higher that you climb When your smile grows again, my friend Could you help me find mine When your smile grows again, my friend Could you help me find mine When your love should live again, my friend Could you help me find mine -music descends- Goodbye child Where has your soul gone to Oh how I miss you Oh how I miss you
Finally, a new one. It sort of starts out a little slow, then builds until the end. It's a progressive song. Pigpen The wind turns hard today Could steal the ground from beneath you From a cool pink morning, into a fiery red night The sun feeling so kind Gave us a kiss from worlds away To say goodnight from a time we'd put out of our heads Booming voices Ancient forces Rolling thunder talks This time you should have known He was before you when you begged for change With open arms so wide You could hear his old bones crack He swears to save, words echo in an empty nutshell Yellow powder Smell of sulfur Well in your crowds you feel safe But alone you fall to pieces With other voices your ignorance seems to fade It was the people that brought you The idea that the other who fought you No matter the truth, you might just shut 'em up You might just shut 'em up -moderate instrumental- He's a mad man in a pigpen He's a mad man in a pigpen -short instrumental- The earth opens to meet him And watch your smiles slowly turn The mouth of the sky screams with light You cling to your creations Your melted shoes begin to burn Soon swallowed by the empty night Soon swallowed by the empty night -short instrumental- But you wanna dive right in it Crawl up inside, up inside Have it your way Have it your way Scream for Hell in the face of God Up inside, up inside Well there's a fire down below In your head just hear it echo Nothing stronger than filthy hands Oh, now filthy hands Oh, God Oh, God Oh, God Cry to me now, cry to me now The heavy lift you up, now But the laughter drag you down The heavy lift you up, now But the laughter drag you down -moderate instrumental- Oh, God Cry to me now, cry to me now Oh, God Cry to me now, cry to me now Oh, God Cry to me now, cry to me now Oh, God... -short instrumental- Oh... No matter the truth... You gotta shut 'em up
New and Old ------------------------ Thunder Pounding There's a crack reaching up Holes open Leaking Into the dark -short instrumental- A wall I was Steel beams and cold stone But the water That holds us up Is turning concrete to clay The call I waited for Called for action, not a wondering head Not a world to think over But a place I must build by hand So I think, think In the beginning I could swear it all made sense But with time comes worry A trouble that grows with all I find out of place Wind in the willows Some beauty they say is worth more than life But the wild words Come spilling out Come spilling out of you There's a flower grows But no eyes will find it No voice will define it Come spilling out -short instrumental- They say words give meaning So without them there can be none Some say things just happen So without us that beauty's gone If there's no one there To say what's been done is done Then you can't come crying When there's no life to be won When there's no daughters and no sons For the life of me, I can find no reason To look to the future with high ambition If by the end we all fall to pieces for the same fate Then give me a good reason for kindness or hate I can hear your belly echo with a hunger never full Love to grab at your brother's gold, but never hold to the golden rule Just hammer away with your old and rusted tools -moderate instrumental- (bridge) Why Should we work for good When we can make the bad Look just a little bit better If I want it I will take it from you Tell you it's alright, alright I got this thinking that's brand new It's different So it must be better Than anything that worked before Everything Needs fixing Your wisdom will crawl At our feet We have adventurous minds (end bridge) -long instrumental- New and old Can never live together New and old Can never work as one New and old Will never see forever New and old Will never see the Sun (scatting) There's a flower dies And as it goes the dark hides it...
Before The World Day in, day out Same old thoughts running through my head Such a crazy thing Such a crazy thing Clouded, though I get what's there Like a ghost screaming out Through the walls of an old house Sitting, waiting Watch the people pass Frowns and yawning mouths Through coughing, quiet words Could it be what I overheard Such a crazy thing Such a crazy thing Try to understand What's the problem here? Could it be that you and me Are not so different as it seems But when it turns out, with your head down You gotta win to disagree -short instrumental- I wonder by the hour How did we fall so far Some say it's been this way From the very start Still others shake their fists At the sky above Say there's nothing there But that's where all the blame ends up Oh Here comes the sun Rolling over my head Only minutes pass by Before the world goes dead Then nightfall comes And all the rivers run dry When there's nothing left of us Who will stand around and cry But why, son, why Do you look so far Such a silly boy Such a silly boy To think it matters at all Man, why can't you smile And let it all float by While the wheels are turning, Rome is burning And the fiddle bows cry -long instrumental- People searching for the world In each other's eyes When in time it seems that human dreams Drift away in darkened skies But how much faith can you place Beneath your aging shells Hiding outside in the crowd Where only time can tell Try to understand What's the problem here? Could it be that you and me Are not so different as it seems But when it turns out, with your head down You gotta win to disagree Here comes the sun Rolling over my head Only minutes pass by Before the world goes dead Then nightfall comes And all the rivers run dry When there's nothing left of us Who will stand around and cry But why, boy, why Must you look so far Such a crazy man Such a crazy man To think it matters at all Why can't you simply smile And let it all roll by While the wheels are turning, Rome is burning And the fiddle bows cry So silly, boy Why can't you face to wind Don't think about the future Til you meet your end
This was an assignment for my poetry class. We were charged with jamming as much imagery and metaphor as possible into a poem. This one is about my mother's childhood, when her father worked a second job taking care of a low-scale apartment building in Indianapolis. The only time she could see him as a child was when she made off to the building at night after school to visit him while he worked. The Gypsy Sprite A hallowed tree The little bees buzzing all around A gentle sprite pretends itself to be When work is done, and time for bed She twinkles away Over the bustling river Viciously illuminated fish full of eyes race by Past weasels and badgers Shouting and dying over bulls and bears Past the crooked snakes Throwing crooked smiles at rabbits and squirrels But for these, the sprite cares not Beneath the stars above the sky Who's noise ignored by the sound, The hum of light Below the robin's egg Plugging the blue wall Where an angry God has punched a hole in the sky His light beams through from the other side But for these, the sprite cares not To a small cave full of rats Some with wings and some that never move But filled so full Warm is this cave, unlike all the others From the cavern beams a light so bright And flows a smell so sweet It is the beekeeper Deep in the belly of the whale Hell's great hole Which as taken from the hive The golden glow of home And toils about to keep small creatures warm In a dark, forgotten corner of the forest It is he that the sprite has come to see The beloved thief of her night She takes what she can from the beekeeper And returns to the hive Enough honey to last 'til the light
Proscenium Wake up Creature, little girl But oh, what have you become And in this new world Forget, God, whatever was before Baby, little devil thing Wet ground and greasy dripping walls Show your face out here Come out and see the monsters Know now what it is you are Black wings flash across the sky Hear the horses raging Race on and feel the fire roll Back inside the room Cracks dig their claws into the light Oh, and the lover's eyes Burst above her smile Crawl... Crawl... Crawl across the yellow sand Crawl... Crawl... Crawl into the Devil's hands Shrouded, crowded hunters' den Crooked fingers reach out Twisted, wrapped around the land Whispers, laughter in the night Could they come from inside Oh, you in all the critters crawling by The words they know your mind Now that you've forgotten They are the leaves over the holes above the pyre Darling, you must open wide The raven comes to fill you 'til you die Little woman, let it all inside Barrel down and like it Just let the poison run it's course until the light Walk, child, walk across the stones My voice is calling The only joy that rings above the cries Oh, child, I will make you mine Feel me in your nightmares Hold on and let the water rise Crawl... Crawl... Crawl across the yellow sand Crawl... Crawl... Crawl into the Devil's hands Welcome, come upon the stair I've been waiting for a little thing Lie down, let your name return Rising from the page, here But my how the little never learn Little feet, standing at my door And with such small hands Hold on tightly to such a little soul Hold, child, I don't really mind Walk the line and fight me I've got everything and endless is my time Walk the line and fight me I've got everything and endless is my time
