THIS COMET WILL OUTSHINE THE MOON is lyrics about the night skies above us in these mountains...we can all see so many more stars and the comets and falling stars and they are all bright, bright, bright....

THIS COMET WILL OUTSHINE THE MOON

This comet will outshine the moon
I heard about it just today
We'll see it somewhere there near Mars
This comet will outshine the moon

We are stardust I've been told
Told to smile like stardust
We are children of the stars
We're golden silver stars

This shooting star will  streak the night
Like chalk across a blackboard line
A streak of light and then quite gone
This shooting star will streak the night

We are meteors I guess
Took us to run like meteors
We are falling stars we two
We are golden silver stars

These northern lights outshine the stars
I saw their photos just today
We see them somewhere near the poles
These auroras outshine the stars

We are like those rainbowed lights
Cold and huge against the skies
Flash of Lights that fill our eyes
We are like those northern lights
and We are golden silver stars
We are golden silver stars

MOUNTAIN SINGING is Lyrics speaking to me about the Sounds...very subtle Song...that these Sierra are singing to me....

MOUNTAIN SINGING

Hear it on the wind today
Mountain Singing Song
Did you hear the same Song
Singing for you
Way up here?
Seems I'm always  hearing
Song I never heard before
Seems this newest Song
Is changing all I am....

I get these sounds across
White Pines and
Yellow Pines and smooth
Madrone-  from Trees
Who just have to tell me
They see me: I'm here

Heard it in the snow today
Mountain Singing Song
Did I hear the same Songs
Singing for me
By the sea?
Seems I'm hearing news
I really never heard before
Seems these newer words
Are meaning all I am

I get these words around
The deer and blue-skyed
Jays and mountain cats
Who just have to sing me
A Song that sings: We're here

Heard it in these skies tonight
Mountain Singing Songs
Did you hear and hum along
With us way up here
Beneath these skies?
Seems we're seeing Stars
We truly never saw below
Seems these Mountain Songs
Are singing all we are
Seems this Mountain Singing
Is all we know now....

SIMPLE WINTER DAY is Lyrics about our usual Day here...singing, keeping warm, telling each other stories...getting-done the how and the where and the why of daily life....Winter in the lower Sierra....

SIMPLE WINTER DAY

White Clouds race and roll by
All across and through this winter sky
They bring a sound like distant bells
Like Songs of Spirits flying by - the fire starts up
Burnin' with its warm shadows on the walls
Simple Winter Morning

We think about the Older Times
Sing Songs - tell Stories that we know
We've heard so many loving times -
It don't much matter cuz we know
These Times are soon forgotten
Unless you write them in your Songs
Some Simple Winter Morning

These are Moments of Treasure, yes,
Known only to you and I
For Old Friends and Lovers know
All that there is: of the How and the Where
And the Why

The fire is slowly dying
It's embers glow all crystal gold
We've sung our Last Song softly
We've heard the Stories that we've told
And now we head to Dreamsong
Warm bodies twined against the cold
Simple Winter Night, now
Simple Winter Night

WINGS IN THE SNOW are lyrics about something that happened once and then not ever again...sometimes you get One Time that's got no tomorrow to it....

WINGS IN THE SNOW

Deer grazin' our brush
Give em grain - spoil their wild -
All a'sudden - so Bright -
Saw Wings through the Snow
An' the Eagle came down
All golden and huge Wings
Ablaze in the Settin' Sun
That I do believe that
I cried for the sight
Sweet Wings in the Snow
Of this Night this Night
Sweet Wings in this Snow
On this Night

Deer lifted their heads
Their ears heard the Wing Sound
An'  Turkeys stood still in the Weeds
Eagles are Rare here - just as they
Are everywheres - hardly kin'
See em around
Ain't got no reason to
Think This was special - leastways
Not for me in my yard in this snow
But I do believe I will hear that Fine
Sound of those Wings
In all my Day's Dreams
Everywhere that I go

Sweet Wings in the Snow
Of this Night this Night
Sweet Wings in this Snow
On this Night

Sweet Wings in the Snow
Of this Night this Night
Sweet Wings in this Snow
On this Night

SOLSTICE HONEY is Lyrics inspired by the Solstice...by Honey in my tea...and by Tim Peck's Rainbow!....Merry and Holy and All!!!

SOLSTICE HONEY

Drippin' gold and smellin' sweet
You're my Solstice Honey
Good enough to kiss
Good enough to kiss
Ain't givin' you away
For anybody

You're my Rainbow on
This Winter Day
Through the Snow
Watched Sadness shine away
Red Green and Blue and
Purple Yellow too
My Solstice Honey
This Winter Day

Bein' Warm and bein' Kindly
You're my Solstice Honey
Good enough to Love
Good enough to Love
Ain't givin' you away
For any one thing

You're the Sun arisin' on
This Winter Day
Through the Sleet
Heard some Angles shinin' on
Some Blues and Songs
of Peacetime too
My Solstice Honey
Winter Day

When All These Days are
Full of Solstice Honey
Good enough to Live
Good enough to Live
Ain't gonna' go away
For any Spring

Cuz you're
My Solstice Honey
The best of
Solstice Honey
Gonna' stay by this Fire
Hold you warm
Taste the warm
My Solstice Honey....

CHRISTMAS SIXTY SEVENTH YEAR is a poem about Solstice and how this all feels....

CHRISTMAS SIXTY SEVENTH YEAR

The cold deep in my bones will not be sung
By crossing over this Ice this River Frozen
Solstice means Dark
Creature of Light with No Way to Live
In Frozen In Dark
Christmas Lights this year are not my best
He likes them White I like the Gold
We have White and Frosty
I'm Cold Most of the Time
Longing for Fire that does not
Go out I am occupied by shivers
Ice crackling and icicle-ing all over
The puddle outside is Ice All Ice
Still, you know, This Is Christmas
This Is All Light and Sun To Return
It's all Pagan and Fine an Unkempt
Hair of Angels and Tinsel and Fragile
The Sun to Come to Come Back
This Baby was probably born still
I Care Truly about the Light
The Light is what the word means
Christmas Light and Warmth and
No Dark or Cold anymore until
Next Winter, which will come
After the Sun

DECEMBER SONG is about Song as Thinking...many of us who 'sing', Think in Song....

DECEMBER SONG

All night the Harmony moves on the highs and lows of this altitude
Attitude of Song Endless Song
All One Song never, never ending
Variations on the Themes of life
Babies gasp for Breath in this Song
Those Passing Over do, too
You know
There is Nothing But Music
Everywhere
It is all Music
Voices in Songs
Strings and Hammers and Woods and Skins
Picks and Ivories
Fingers and Hearts
Voice Box opens, closes
Out comes Thought
Full of Song
Hum on the Wind
SongBirds know All The Secrets
Voice, Heart, Ties That Bind
Whole Universals
One Song

WHERE THERE IS BEAUTY EVERYWHERE is about where we live now...it's an oddly glorious place...it's hard to want to go anywheres else....

WHERE THERE IS BEAUTY EVERYWHERE

There I breathe
In and Out
This Beauty Breathes Me
I have no Breath
Still besides this
All Out of Control
Breathing
In and Out
Never so much
Part of One Whole
Ordinary
Extra Ordinary
Taken For Granted
Life and Death
Roam this Land
The Cost of Beauty
Blood and Bone
Heart and Sinews
Stitch Together
All this Gold
These silver Snows
Wings of Rains
Trees
Trees
Waters of Rivers
Lakes
Creeks
Everywhere there is
Beauty Everywhere

EVERYWHERE, TREES is all about the Trees that are everywhere indeed!!!!

EVERYWHERE, TREES

We drive throughout these woods
The trees are all around us
This living, sunny day has joy
This warmth is filtered through
_________________________

Chorus

Everywhere, the Trees are by us
Everywhere they sign their songs
Of Air and Hope and Rain and All
Alive and Free our whole lives long

_________________________

Without these Trees we are not Human
We are Empty, void of Form
They bring relief from too much Nature
Nurture us within their Arms

We breathe because the Trees breathe with us
We breathe because they give and give
All transpired: Water. Air. These Trees

Chorus times three

Chorus

OCTOBER NOVEMBER is Lyrics about being here...We Are Here....

October
We moved to the Mountains
October
Left Ocean and Bay
October
Wrote only twice, darlin'
October
Went flamin' away

And we're lost now
In this Beauty
We're so lost now
Can't be found
We're surrounded
By this Beauty
It's November
We are Home

November
See the snow fall
November
Deer in white
November
Songs are formin'
November
Feels right

And we're rich now
In this Beauty
Tho we're poorer
Have no gold
We're surrounded
Love and Beauty
It's November
We are Home

Andwe're

SURROUNDED BY THESE TREES is about moving pains. they are painful.

SURROUNDED BY THESE TREES
I now get to worry about who is alive and who isn't and which will make good firewood and which will not and what part of this adventure became Tree Farming and why we aren't on the Mississippi right now just'strong and brown and able and nearing our goal to be the oldest canoe crazy people to ever go entirely down the Mississippi River from Source to the deep wide gulf and our only problem is water snakes that can kill you that are hopefully going into hybernation about now and we are both too strong and thin and
perfectly well to care about that and we're singing old river songs and my writings and the interviews down
the river of all the old river rats are attracting national attention right now because we are doing well going
down this here old Big Muddy and not worrying about the snow and the cold and how neither of us wants
to carry in the logs really and canoe weather is soon ending here and one of the bathrooms smells like pee
a bit on account of it's been carpeted since the late seventies and we have to paint the whole dang house
over time come to think of it and you gotta know if it's this hard pushin' flowers up outta the ground well
then I ain't goin' nosir  and lady you look right fat enough ain't it time for you to be singin' some song?....

NOT QUITE THE SAME is about how 'buying' a house this time is not like when we were young...it's harder now, and braver, probably, too...but we're less smart now as well...less able...so it must be Raw Luck that's seeing us through...yeah, must just be Luck....!

NOT QUITE THE SAME

It's not quite the same
We being older and
Not so Bright
Being Not So Hot
At Thinkin'
Energy: Slow now
Slow Down Now
Sometimes not as Afraid
As maybe Should Be
No longer Unkind
About Much
Not makin' Much Comment
Not at all
Trying to smile more often
In the face of our new-found
Dimming of Vision and Light
How we don't Hear Much
As Good as we usta'
Now we face this
Brand New Old House
It doesn't Hold Together Much
Better than we do
But Better Maybe
Than we do
I don't know
It has Trees  Lots of Trees
Good Light and Water
Close  very Close
Lakes and Trees and
Rivers and Trees and Fish
Water Every Single Where
To Hold Us when our
Senses fail
We make Mistakes
Angels must be there
Helpin' Us Out
There must be
Help from Somewhere
Because we ain't Makin' This
So Hot just on our own
We're just Holdin' On
To Each Other
Hopin' for a Few Years
Of Genuine Joy
With This Peace we've
Got Inside
Beginning Again
Where all Peace
Begins

EMERALDS is a poem about insecure places that have no rights in older age...the past is past and so very, very, very far away...but the green eyed pirate is still alive and winks....

EMERALDS

It was her full lips
and the way she called you Babe
and I (never jealous before this)
felt the green seep into my bones
harden like emeralds
that you never gave me
but you two made love
over and over and it's long past
Turn around and look into
some other mirror
her eyes tell you of passions past
mine: of no passions at all
Emeralds worth nothing
like diamonds in Russia
where the meteor made them
mute and hard and cold
and not like Love
at all

AS A DIAMOND PLANET is lyrics to a Love Song...inspired by space travel...whatever that really means to be....

AS A DIAMOND PLANET

Somewhere there's a Planet that's a Diamond
And Everywhere there's more Stars than we see
You and I are Small Lights in this Time and Space
Yet we want to be What We Can Be

You are still a Child of my sweet Childhood
You are still a Love that Moves my Heart
I guess I could Live a bit without You
Still: We don't expect ever to part

You are my Star
Warm as a Star
Without You: no Light
And I'm a Moon
In your Dark Night

Somewhere there's a Galaxy imploding
Explosions happen every single day
Our own Star is confusing Space with Fire
Our own Beings are persuaded on Its Way

You are still a Boy who Brings my Heart Joy
You are still the Rhythm of my Soul
I suppose this Lifetime was our Journey
All I really know is: Now We're Whole

You are my Star
Warm as a Star
Without You: no Light
And I'm a Moon
In your Dark Night

Somewhere some Black Hole is still escaping
Into Energy that has No End
Our Good Star is staying with its Magnets
Giving us No Chance for Love to end

You are still the Kid who Jokes and I Laugh
You are so One Reason for our Way
I believe We are Meant for Each Other
And we Live this through most Every Day

You are my Star
Warm as a Star
Without You: no Light
And I'm a Moon
In your Dark Night

POEM FOR THE ENDEAVOUR AS IT PASSED OVER THE BAY AREA PIGGY-BACKED ON ITS 747 ON THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER is...a poem - reflecting, as Den says: the Human Element of HOPE....

POEM FOR THE ENDEAVOUR AS IT PASSED OVER THE BAY AREA PIGGY-BACKED ON ITS 747 ON THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER

last day of summer and the space ship went over the water
then over our very towns and we thought about its wings
and we clapped our hands and thought about where it had
been and we clapped our hands because we were on this
pier out in the water watching the space ship go over
and our shoes nailed to the pier to remind that we were
not of the same stuff as the space ship above us which
cost more just to move to its final resting place than most
all of us would ever make in a lifetime and we thought about
how the unborn are like space ships floating around in space
and then they come and are glued to this earth with the same
stick-um as the rest of us plodding along most of us never or
at least rarely in the sky much less out of the miles of atmosphere
and what a bubble it is that holds us down even this space ship
now is bound to the earth and we can see it in its very own
exhibited place on this planet a piece of history just as we are
all pieces of history and each of us having a space to be within
under the same seemingly eternal sun and verily even the stars

MAGIC IS COMING is a lyrics that is more a Mantra...a silent inner chant of a prayer for Good Health and a Good Home and Good Times for us for years and years and years and years and....

MAGIC IS COMING

All along
Magic is Coming
Magic is Coming
to our lives
All along
We are in so much
Love the Magic is
Coming
to our lives

We are so golden
Home is forever
Where ever we are
We are Home and are
Ever we're Home
and we never
Need anything else
but the Other
from where all the
Magic is coming

Repeat First Verse

Repeat Second Verse

Repeat First Verse

THE ABYSS IS JUST AS BLINDING AS THE SUN was written in response to this line from composer Bonnie Neve, a former student of mine....this is her line...and it haunts....

THE ABYSS IS JUST AS BLINDING AS THE SUN

and I can feel its weight upon me
sing the songs that mermaids sing
while mermen sleep like drones beneath the
wilderness of sea

the sky is only mirror reflexion
of the deeps where this soul travels
all the heaviness of water
is my shield and is my armor

sing beside me wonder man child
you have fins and gills to breathe through
you can swim and flick your tail at
any lightning in this sea

in this wildness windless sea
while the sun comes filtered down
yellow browns and greens and grays
and sometimes gold into this sea

I won't leave - the sun is sharper
than a knife turn in this water
water then to me is home and not
the air when I have sea

take my cold hands filled with life
the ocean is intense with living
also moves in streams of dying just
the nature of the sea

the abyss is just as blinding as the sun
as strong as loving and as longing
for our souls our very spirits locked
for once for twice in sea
all ways locked into the sea

THE THIRD HUSBAND is about what the third husband can be like. this is one. any resemblance to all the people living and dead involved in my life is simply reality as I see it. which is not like anyone else sees it at all. of course. here's the record tho... fiction persists. prevails... so it always goes....

THE THIRD HUSBAND

Jennie was most mad when she thought ever about her third husband. somehow, he always got short shrift with her, on account of her many small but clear angers about how he was as a person when he was with her. first off of course: his tellin' lies. he told many lies. now - you could say he was a pretty good soul. he was a pretty good soul. It was harder and harder to remember him though. on account of anger. and the Void that comes when you're lookin' back. just too much isn't there anymore - where memories should be....

anyways...they had met through a woman who was a good friend of Jennie's - because her boyfriend at the time was his 'best friend'...he wasn't some one her friend liked - not really - because he lied to his girfriends about how he had other girlfriends. plus: he had given his regular girlfriend an STD that he got from the other girlfriend who was diabetic too. so she had infections all the time. and still these two ladies loved the guy. because he could be so sexual and kind and was a loyal friend. just not a loyal lover. plus: he was going bankrupt for a lotta, lotta money because of being not responsible. Jennie had decided at that time that she wasn't interested - on account of all these pretty obvious defects. but his 'best friend' who was going with her friend: he told her that he was a great guy who wasn't perfect and all - but that he was so loyal and would give you the shirt off his back and all. so she was getting more interested. besides: the guy she was going with was gettin' really strange and neurotic and hinting that she should leave and all and wouldn't even kiss her goodnight anymore.  so she started being more interested. he was Really Interested in her as well - very much more than she was of him. he was a player - that one - so there was some drama and stuff going on....

Jenn was writing her book at her friend's house on her friend's computer and he was painting the house. he'd come in and stand over her watching and just being sexy. finally he asked her to have lunch. he brought it and it was really good with over-ripe fruit dripping from his fingers and she was falling. they went to bed then - which she hadn't in a long time - so that was great! soon he was asking her here and there and her guy didn't care so she went. they went up to a log cabin house he owned with a friend and it was all romantic. then he told her he loved her and to move out. so she did. there was no reason to stay with the old boyfriend. they moved into an old house that her friend's boyfriend was redoing from top to bottom and were living right away all romantic in these shambles of a living situatiion. it was very romantic and all.

they both felt that they had finally met somebody who would really work out. this was inspite of the facts that he also smoked a Lot of Weed and drank a Lot socially and had been a Womanizer all his days. Jennie ignored that stuff because it was clear he was gonna settle down now on account of his being so in love with her - which he was - and just being older...she was way into her later fifties and he was in his way later 60s so they had been around and all. they would settle down good. their families of kids and grandkids seemed to like them well-enough and they were both pretty great with kids so that was no problem. they decided to get married. being Jewish, he proposed on Chunika Night Eight with a ring with eight little diamonds they had picked out together. everybody was happy for them....

They got married that next July in a Jewish/mixed ceremony with a Rabi and everything with a hundred people there all happy for them because they were so obviously in love. it was on a mountain side and everyone had a lot of good food and played games on the grass and even went swimming in the pool so it was a fun wedding besides. only her old boyfriend sent a spy there because he was stalking her and he did that for about four years. only that wasn't too bad...they were living in a little one room apartment with a big wonderful garden outside - everyone came to their parties and to their dinners and stuff and thought they were pretty darling. they went to Hawaii to stay with her friend and his 'best friend' there for a couple of weeks for their honeymoon too - so they were having a good time in every way - with the house up in the mountains and traveling around and all...

then - of course - 'problems' began. he started having heart problems and prostate problems. in their marriage he had two big prostate surgeries and an open heart surgery with valve repair and procedures to get rid of malfunctioning heart rhythms. she took care of him after everything - after the zapping cardioversions and keeping track of all the medications and stuff...he had always contributed to their income by part-time house painting work and now the jobs got less because he was sick a lot. he'd blame her for not letting him work full-time - but really it was him. he made lots more mistakes and couldn't work fast anymore. he never had worked 'fast' actually. she had more and more heart problems herself and had a procedure too and then her back was getting worse from messed up veribrae and arthritis and all. they were kind-of not doing so well. and they had to move again. they were lucky about his though. they rented a little two room place with a big deck high in the hills overlooking the whold bay - which was beautiful. every one loved to come up and visit them there. so the parties went on....

Jennie's Mom died and left some money, so they bought themselves decent cars and a boat to take out on the delta and then they decided - since the agreement about the house up in the Sierra had fallen apart badly - to use the rest to travel...so they spent most of the rest on going to the midwest to see folks and then to go to Europe for eight weeks...they went to seven countries and sixteen towns or cities and had a truly great time...only it was exhausting for her since their hearts were still not good and she had to take care of everything. that kind of started to become a theme - that beside some cooking and shopping: Jennie was taking care of just everything. it was hard to figure out what - including in the money department - he was doing at all...and then they had to move again. he had argued with the landlord and they were thrown out is really what happened. Jennie started to feel Fate pouring in like a wound in a dam.....

they still had luck. a friend found them a good apartment and it was close to her work still - Jennie taught school and had changed jobs during this marriage too...opening a school with her son now...she always worked hard - that was a fact - only now she was more and more tired. the move to the 'new' apartment took the last of her health and vitality from her. she dragged herself up the twenty-two steps to the apartment after school and slept a lot and everything hurt in her body - especially her lower back and her hips. she just about gave up. plus, nine people she knew all died within a coupld of years - some of them had been very, very close: so that was bad. she wanted something new to happen and soon!

Jennie started writing in the evenings...lots and lots of writing...some out there to others - even from her past...one who responded was her old boyfriend from highschool...who was very welcome in his communications back to her...they started writing on computer more and more - all in the open for everyone to see...but some thought her too bold and her husband was not happy. about four months into her writing and communications and all: he left her. he insisted she had wrecked their marriage by having no sex during the times she was in pain. he said she was in love with her old boyfriend - who lived thousands of miles away and was married - and that she was going to leave him - her husband - so he was going to leave first...
then it suddenly came out of the woodwork that he had tried very hard to have affairs in the last four years of their marriage and that he was having one with his old girlfriend right then and there. so Jennie let him go without a whimper. frankly: she felt more relief than she had ever thought she would. Life had surely changed. and then too: her old boyfriend now got really interested...in a couple of months she was going to visit him regularly and then he visitied her and then he moved out. they both got divorced and began to live happily every after. and that's really what happened.

her daughter still sees her ex now and again. his heart isn't too good, still, and he will probably die before he wants to. we all do. Jennie herself has never seen him again. she thinks of him now and again. his whole family dropped her and a lot of his friends too - she has always been hurt by that: because she is sure the whole thing was not her fault. but it made no difference. she lost them anyway. maybe she never really had them as family and friends in those nine years they were together. maybe. but probably not...nine years is a long time and is not a long time. time goes on. she would have taken care of him until he died. or until she died. but there you have it. it didn't happen this way. things often don't happen the way you expect. Jennie didn't expect that much anymore. it was good though. life was very cool now. very nice. Life had often been nice to her...Life was good again. they were happy. she had been happy before and was again...so it all goes....

SINGIN' ME OUTTA HELL is Lyrics about what Den McCue is in my Life...among other virtues and vices!....

SINGIN' ME OUTTA HELL

Sittin' by my side playin' good old fashioned folk tunes
Like the kind we used to sing so long ago
The Banjo sings of  Summertimes the Guitar of the Autumns
An' Spring is in my Dance in Gentle Sway
I'm Waltzing out past Winter on its way

Give me a Heart Song and a Kind Song
Give me that Love Song you know well
I got Heaven here beside you
You just strum me up from Hell
You got Heaven here inside you
You just sing me outta Hell

Sittin by my side just strummin' lively great old time tunes
The sort we used to think were Sweet so long ago
The Banjo crys for Better Times the Guitar of the Lovin' Times
An' Youngness is the Lyrics that they say
An' Older Times the Songs that mark the day

Give me a Heart Song and a Kind Song
Give me that Love Song you know well
I got Heaven here beside you
You just strum me up from Hell
You got Heaven here inside you
You just Sing me outta Hell

Sittin by my side just singin' from your Heart
Givin'  me that Heart I know so well
The Banjo strums The Guitar Strums of all this Love inside us
An' Lifetime is the words we try to Sing
An' Singin' is the Heart of Everything

Give me a Heart Song and a Kind Song
Give me that Love Song you know well
I got Heaven here beside you
Your just strum me up from hell
You got Heaven here inside you
You just Sing me outta Hell

UNCERTAIN TIMES is about the 'moves' comin' up about home and location and 'work' in our lives right now...where little is known right now...maybe ever....

UNCERTAIN TIMES

Filled with a Future forever is lonely
Filled with a Past that is over and gone
Can't find the Faith tho the Hope is still bornin'
Can't find the Courage altho there is Song

And we're fallin' yes we're fallin'
I'm not gonna come home and you've long been away
And we're fallin' yes we're fallin'
Love is still Some Answer is all I can say
I love you still - that's all I'll say

Not used to House where a Home sure right should be
A Basin of Water a Big Earthen Jar
Right in our Back Yard where a Sinkhole falls freely
And you are who you are - yeah, you are

And we're fallin' yes we're fallin'
I'm not gonna leave home tho you've been long away
And we're fallin' yes we're fallin'
Love is still Some Question is all I can say
I love you still - that's what I'll say

Goin' to lead and I'm goin' to follow
Follow where ever the roads seem to go
Oh I ain't gonin' too fast but I'm gonna go steady
I am who I am - and I'm like to move slow

And we're fallin' yes we're fallin'
We're far from our home and we're goin' away
And we're fallin' yes we're fallin'
Love is Some Home is just all I can say
We're still in Love - that is all I can say

THE OSPREY WINGS is Lyrics about the wild privacy of this wonderful Water Bird...reborn, after seeing Brian Walker's photo of an Osprey in Port Costa....

THE OSPREY WINGS

The Osprey wings the Osprey dives
The spray of Waterfall is surging
Against his body in the Sun
The Lights and Streaks of Rainbow

And when we sing
We sing of Freedoms
The Ways the Osprey
Flies like Wonder
Against the Falls
Like Wonder
Into the Sky
Like Song

He brings the Fish home to the nest
Where the small Young are waitin'
There is the joy and beat of wing
That means we eat - we flourish

And when we sing
We sing of Freedoms
The Ways the Osprey
Flies like Wonder
Against the Falls
Like Wonder
Into the Sky
Like Song

It isn't easy - so they say - to see
Their silver winging -
It isn't easy to see Two - or hear
Them speak Together

And when we sing
We sing of Freedoms
The Ways the Osprey
Flies Like Wonder
Against the Falls
Like Wonder
Into the Sky
Like Song

Repeat this Last Refrain

SONGS I WOULD SING are lyrics about my singin' all the time...I no longer am a good Singer - but I've always been a Good Harmony Singer - good at backups...love to sing....

SONGS I WOULD SING

There are Songs I would sing
I sing Songs in my heart, I do, I do
They all come out too simply
Even when I'm feelin' blue

An' I don't want to ever lose
My Hopes and my Songs
I don't want to stop all this Singin'
Harmonies leavin' my lips like Breathin'
Songs in my own Heart are Wingin'
Songs from my own Heart are Wingin'

There are Songs that I feel
I feel Song in my Heart, I do, I do
It is the Song of my own Life
Every Time the Song comes through

An' I don't want to ever Fly
Without my Hopes, my Songs
I won't ever stop all this Singin'
Harmony's deep in my Soul like Breathin'
Songs deep in my Heart still Wingin'
Songs deep in my Heart are Wingin'

There are Songs that I sing
From my Heart, I do, I do
It is the Life of my Songs
Every Time I sing of me and of you
Every Time the Songs sing through
When I sing of me, of you

REAPIN' WHAT YOU TEND are Country and Western Lyrics to a Line inspired by a Poem read...all about a farmin' woman and her man - it can easily be sung as a duet....

REAPIN' WHAT YOU TEND

Now the fallow fields are lively
Shooting up the spears of Spring
I would tend these fields with honor
I would give most anything
To see you here with me
Standin' in these fields with me

You are kindest as I can hope
Ever you could ever be
You can plant the seeds of love
An' you can watch them grow in me

Now the rains are sweetly fallin'
Bringin' life to every thing
An' the sun is warmin' soil
An' holdin' Life within its ring
So you'll be here with me
Standin' in these crops with me

You are lovin' as I can hope
Ever you could ever be
You can tend these seeds of love
An' you can watch them grow in me

Now the harvest's comin' in fine
Fillin' baskets with so much
All your work is bringin' joy
All these fields yield to your touch
An' I'll be here with you
Standin' in your arms with you

You are my man as I can hope
Ever you could ever be
You have reaped all you could sow
An' you brought sweet love to me
An' you  reaped sweet love in me

AUGUST LEAVES is lyrics about leaves from the deciduous trees blowing out to sea...the end of summer....

AUGUST LEAVES

Leaves going out to the Ocean
Mixing their souls with the sand
Tasting of salt and the deep winds
Spreading their lives on the strands
Showing their colors the greens and the golds
Yellows and reds all the best
While dying denying the cost and the hope
With the Sea as their last place to rest

Rest in peace and in shards may
Adventure be yours and may Time
Which has marked your life-long 
Mark your death with a sigh in the
Winds and the waves mark your life
With a whisper of song
May I always see Life in the fall of each leaf
Which like you is a mirror to my own
I'll sing my Sea songs on my own
I'll know they're my passage back home....

Repeat entire first verse....

THE ARCH OVER THIS SEA is a little Poem...inspired by a painting of a Sea Arch...I am very, very fond of Sea Arches on this West Coast!

THE ARCH OVER THIS SEA

The Arch over this Sea
Pleases me
Stretch your back, Stone
Protect me within your
Arc of Strong and Might
Over my little boat
Over my little boat

The Sea is tugging at you
You will fall
It will take time

I have Time
I'll wait here
Go out
On the Tide

THAT SECOND HUSBAND is a story about raising some one else's kids with them as the Second Husband...how you can gain a Family and lose a Wife by being Fairly Perfect in this imperfect world...it's not best, perhaps.....

THAT SECOND HUSBAND

There are people who come into another's life to be the Help You Need To Go On and they stay for years maybe and are beloved with a gratitude that is not appreciated because it falls so far from Love. It's love as duty: the love when you're so thankful you can hardly breathe with the hope and relief. and the affection is terrific. and not being alone. and having someone who'll help all the time and do it your way with your kids. it's a blessed miracle is what it is...there's nothin' quite like it. So was her second marriage. It was a wonderful second marriage. and it was doomed from the start to end when the kids left the nest, wings flappin' away. it had been a war, but it was a good war. and they had won. she and him. they had won the war together: the Raising of the Teenagers. The Peace would be Something Else Again.

He was a Good Man of course, and very, very bright. an Intellectual. he had a Masters Degree. he knew more than she did about Academic Matters. in every way. he was well read. they read together all the time. sometimes they sang together. she would have liked to sing more. but he didn't. in regards to the kids, they did mostly what she wanted to be done. in regard to the monies and the management of the house and so on: they mainly did what he wanted. it worked out pretty well for over seven years.

The kids were very hard to raise as teenagers. they were very fiesty kids and stubborn and also a bit sneaky. and very sexual. and good people. but not easy to raise. not at all. they had music and sports and dates and stuff to do. it took up all of their time and all of her and her second husband's time. work and the kids. that was it - day after day. they were all very close. but very intense. it was hard. so hard. and it got out of control. even tho they were so consistent and constant in the kids' lives. People growing up will push into their own paths in the world and head off in unknown directions. that is often the way...the oldest graduated from college and had a baby as a single parent...even then, she knew what she wanted to do, and that is what she did. over time that all worked out. the youngest one finished highschool well and then he went off to become a Karate teacher, and soon, to own his own School. He was very Intense. it was the middle daughter who pulled their lives this way and that.

The middle daughter did drugs and had two babies between leaving after highschool graduation and being nineteen. there were seven years of difficult, difficult times. she and he worked hard to keep a regular life going while working with her days after days of trials and trails into places that were Not Good. when she came through her Dark Ages much was much bettter. but the War had taken its toll. to put it mildly. everything was the way it is after a very damaging War. won. but not finished. too much to rebuild. much hard work yet to be done. much. much. they were exhausted. everyone was. yet everyday life must be done. everything has to go on for everyone else as well. work to be done. they looked at eachother: these comrades at arms. they had been so close during the war. who were they now?

They had always gone up to the Country: to his land with redwoods and the stream where the raised apple trees. it was their only times away. it was always lovely to be there...close to the sea and the forests and the rivers and the streams. a Peace of a place to be. now even that was not enough. it was a fragile Peace. they were different people now. really Different People. especially her. there were no songs or dances or books or country-side or gardens or times of love-making that could change that. she was no longer real with him. and he had never asked her enough about her outer world - much less her inner world...he know so little about her. well then, she know so little about her own self. she was learning though.

They separated...still in the same home...he started dating, and would talk with her about it. as usual. he had always expected her to listen to all his work stories and relationship stories. she listened. as usual. she was dancing in a Folk Dance Group. one of the dancers was beginning to be a closer friend. they were separating more. finally, he moved out. everyone blamed her for the 'break-up'. because he was the Perfect Man. she called him 'Saint' herself. she took responsiblity for it all. after all, he had Not been Bad to her in any way. not at all. he had just not known her at all. or tried to, really. not in a Bad Way, tho....for all the rest of their years, he would never understand her or her ways or her writing or her song. he didn't like her really. but he would rarely say so. inside, he would always know she was right: they did Not Belong Together. but: they had finished raising the 'Kids' together. That was the Good Thing they had done.

The 'Kids' grew up to be Great People: Creative. stubborn. Intense. just as they had been. also: responsible. good-hearted. opinionated too. bossy. but Good to others and to their own Children. Good Folk. this had been her work with her second husband. and he had come through. for which...she would always be grateful.

No one want Grateful the way they want Love. that is often the end of a marriage of otherwise Good Folk who divorce tho. they are grateful for the good times and the good ways of the other. they are angry for the parts that went 'wrong'. parts go 'wrong'. sometimes couples make it through those times. some times: they do not.

Love is so multi-facited. a rare gem with common ways that please and then do not. it's all in the turning in the light. and then there is Peace. Peace after any war...it's something else again. The second husband has a good woman who loves him as he is now. and he loves her as she is. no further expectations. expectations are something else again as well. so life goes on to death with memories. hers are Good about the second husband. he was a good man who helped her raise her kids for ten years. she herself went on to other loves and other times...they are much older now. she and her second husband... so it goes. few will remember. so I told this little story....

WOODY SONG is Lyrics of a Woody Guthrie sort of song, since it's his Honor Year and all....

WOODY SONG

Lately been closer to Heaven
Lately been farther from Hell
Gonna plants Roots a bit firmer
Like this old Earth here quite well

Been almost poor but not really
Been rich in friends and in Love
Ain't had quite all that I wanted
But I have got to say: had Enough

Know that I'm not a Great Woman
Still I do the best that I can
For each Creature that passes my doorway
Each Woman and Child and each Man

Lately we're thinkin' about movin'
Up to the Mountains above
To be close to the Clouds and the deep Winds
Far from the Ocean I love

I'll just have to travel the highways
To get to those Shores now and then
To stand in the Waves and be taken
In by that Sea like a Friend

And then I'll come back to those high Hills
I'll sing my New Songs with the Best
An' lay my head down near my True Love's
An' lay all my Troubles to rest

Lately been closer to Heaven
Lately been farther from Hell
Gonna plant Roots a bit firmer
Like this old Earth here quite well
Like this dear Earth here quite well

HOME AGAIN is a Poem of Sorts...on a wish and a wonder....

HOME AGAIN

We may be
Pioneers
In this New House...
Built as planned
Late seventies
When we were young
And I was here
And you were there
With three kids apiece
Reslessness in our bloods
Love to give and some to get
Long ago - it was so long ago...

Now
The Home
The Trees
The Lakes
The Mountains

Old New Songs
Being Sung

Old Love
Renewed

Home to Us
Is Any
Where
We
Are

ALAN is a fiction about a widow, who went on. It is true, but it is gone, to it is not 'true' besides....

ALAN

It is time to tell the story of Alan, the yound man who left me a widow...I am sorry every day that he is dead. you know, his face has faded in my memory. I only have one photo of him, and it's buried among the other albums...his story is short because his life was short. so here is his story...

Alan was born in Germany, tho one of his parents - I think it was his mom - was English as a kid. then she expatriated. I know nothing about her, tho she was talked about, I remember that. she had been "strict" and then she had been "lovely" and "very loving". she was very blond and looked like me, or so I was told. I may have seen a photo of her, but that's vague. maybe when she was younger, when her boy was younger, with his dad in the photo too. a very blond family, looking handsome. european, tho I can't tell you what made them look 'European', now. something about the way they stood up. a dignity, or a distance...hard to say....

He was their only child and he admits that he was 'spoiled'. he was given a great deal, but much was expected of him. he had to earn very high marks at school from the time he was very little. there was no other option offered about that goal! he could pick the other well, avocations, that he wanted to do, tho...he chose Music right from the beginning. Piano lessons and guitar lessons and singing lessons and fiddle lessons and french horn lessons. he was good at Music right from the beginning. he made-up little songs and instrumentals and thought about and hummed Music all day. he hummed his self to sleep at night. his dad - who was a Doctor - wanted him to be a Professional. he countered that he wanted to be a Music Professional. he was accepted in some University in Germany that majored in Musicology. and so he graduated. I know nothing else of those years...he was so darling. tall and handsome and played soccer - that is, football...a sport I knew nothing about. but his legs must have been strong. he was popular and was called the Music Man at his school. Girls must have liked him a great deal. he told me he dated, but "no one special". he was a loner, a bit...

Alan came to the United States to work with Song-writers in Chicago. he had a girlfriend, but she went back to Germany. she was homesick. he hadn't missed her.that's what he told me anyways...I met him at a house concert for a famous song-writer from California. he had asked me if I was a singer, and I told him I was, but only for my children. he had been very startled to find I had three kids. but, he kept talking with me as if I was interesting. I was so flattered. here he was, a young man who worked for one of my idols, who was so talented and popular- himself, a wonderful singer! he assisted in arranging for Folk Singers whose names and voices were golden for me! I was entirely smitten! other women were looking at me enviously. when I pointed out that he should be sharing his fine self with the other young ladies in the room he said, "I am only interested in talking with you, unless you are finding me boring!" no, of course I was not! but, I figured it out already: The Music was Everything for him. Music was his True Love for this Handsome Soul in his mid twenties...and I was a newly divorced mama of Three under the age of six - all on my own - working as an RN...carrying my kids in a big wagon to their DayCare/Kindergarden every work day. Music was his Life. They were my Life.

Then we found out something unusual: we had met before: when I was in Nursing School. He had been on a visit to the US as a Young Musicians Exchange Student. he had been on the Orthopedics Ward because he had a leg break - a bad one - from falling off his friend's motor bike. he had surgery and pins and a few weeks to recover on the ward...he played his guitar for all we student nurses, and he took a shine to me and I to him...tho he was younger than I - he was a Darling Kid....he thought I sounded like a famous Folk Singer of the time. I had been very happy to sing with him and joke. when he was discharged, he wrote me a poem....then he was gone... we were very happy suddenly. we remembered all of that time. we were full of memories of feelings that were very sweet. now it was eight or more years later, but we were still peoople who would understand the other...because of the strength of those encounters in that time....

He called or 'saw' me every day. we made Love and we made meals and we made Comfort between us...mainly he visited when my Kids were visiting their Dad. I was starteled that he genuinely seemed to care so much for me. he told me that I was most like his dream of what a woman would be who would love him - who he could love in return. he was the first to say that he 'loved' me. I felt 'love' right back, for he was exciting and young and kind and very smart and very, very full of Music and Talent and Hope. He would soon be going out to California, to work further with the Folk Stars. he made stars shine in my eyes...and he was genuine as well...I mean, everyone said how honest and good and kind and creative he was. everyone around him liked him. I was worried tho. because I was older with Kids. he was younger with a work visa.

When he asked me to 'marry' him, I laughed. I told him I wasn't that keen on getting a young lover into my home just to help him to stay in this country. to my surprise, he told me, with great seriousness, that this was not the reason. his visa was secure. he didn't want to stay in this country any longer than he would need...he wanted Family. he wanted a happy wife and the kids to come home for. he wanted his own family, but not needed: his own biological kids. he wanted older kids. not babies. he wanted my kindness. he wanted my love-making. he wanted the understanding. he wanted the Fun. he wanted my patience. my independence. my constancy of Touch. he wanted Me.

So we married. we didn't marry under US Law tho - not yet - we married in a ceremony without legal ties, yet. he wanted to wait until he was twenty-five, when he would come into Family money - around a quarter of a million dollars! this way, his parents would not interfere with his choices: of me, of the kids...of the kind of work he wanted to do...which would be more 'experimental' - not 'professional', as his dad wanted...we were very happy...very, very happy. as yet, no one knew much about us. no one knew we were this joined...this 'married'....please, o please, excuse all these funny ' ' ' ' marks...so many words carried weight. I tell of this weight. this way....

Alan died. he went to California. just weeks after we 'married'...we had not lived together. we had not finished tying our 'knot'. we didn't expect anything but a happy future. but the Great Folk Singer he had first worked for had died on Route One to Big Sur, back when we were younger... he had so admired him and missed him. he died as well. on Route One to Big Sur. Driven off the road by a car in the wrong lane. I learned about all this from his mother and father. they had come right away from Germany. they were going to take his body back to Germany. they were confused as to our relationship, but pictures of me and the kids had been found in his wallet. and my phone number. they assumed we were close? yes, I told them we were close. I told them our story. they were sympathetic over the phone. they were not helpful. they were taking him home. they were sorry. it was best we not meet. after all, his body was destroyed. it was all over.

I did not tell anyone about Alan for years and years and years. I kept him with a little light in my heart. with my one photo of him. with my few gifts from him in a box. with the ring put away... that was all. I buried him in my heart, close to the place where my 'first love' was buried. in a place where love had been and might have gone on, but did not....now, I'm old, and I tell this story. it isn't much, but it is mine. it has its own truth. its own emotions. its own psychologies. it goes no farther than that. Lives cross. they uncross. Life itself goes on and on. so does Death. both take and give on this planet. Alan gave, mainly he gave. he fades, but not much. he lives in me. I'll die. then he'll be gone. it's always the way.

Love is all we have. every one of us knows that. I suppose there is not much more to say...and so, the end.

LETTING GO is a Poem about Giving and Giving....

LETTING GO

Let it go a little
Be kind inside
Let every cell tell its own story
Let every cell bring its own food its own drink
Let us be kinspeople
Let us tell our stories together
Bring us kindness again
Mercy even
Full Compassion
Let Life persuade
Let Death wait a moment
We have Loving
To Do

EGON. I HARDLY KNEW YOU is a short story: it's relationship: the Beginning...the Middle...the End - as relationships often begin and build and grow and die for many...an old and simple story....

EGON, I HARDLY KNEW YOU

Egon was a wonderful dancer, first thing...and then, he had bid for a dance with her at the raffle at the Folk Dance Group and that was a fine thing. She was thin at the time and was learning to dance. So it was fun to dance with him. and he told a great story too. The story was about how he once had been in Italy. He had been ten years old and was in the Scouts in Austria. His family had fled there from a small Slovanian Enclave of Germans during the Second World War. It was just Scouts - not a Brown Shirt or Pioneer thing or anything like that. Their Scout Leader had stood them all up on the border betweeen the two countries and then told them to pee into Italy. So they did. She found that very funny at the time...he was a Great Leader as a dancer. So he made her look Great as well. He had a lot of Friends at the Festival they were at. His art decorated the walls. He was popular with all these peiople she didn't know. So. She was very flattered. And happy to dance. Very Happy. He would be a good friend.

She told her husband about him, at home. They were seperated at the time, but he was still living at home and sleeping on the couch. She liked sleeping in their bed - now Her Bed - by herself. It was a fine thing not to have someone making her turn over and over all night, to stop her snoring. which didn't much work anyways...also, to stretch out. She was getting used to sleeping alone for the first time in years and years. it felt good - really, in an odd way....she and her soon-to-be ex-husbnd were being very civil. he was already dating, and told her about his dates. it was kind-of strange, but not much. he had always talked alot about himself their whole marriage. she knew much about his life. she wasn't sure what he knew about her at all. in her experience, men -generally, she thought - didn't know much about the women they were with. they told themselves stories about what their women were like...but they didn't always match who the women really were inside - sometimes, not even 'outside'...that was sure true for her. Her first husband didn't know her at all. Nothing. really Nothing. This husband now was a Good Man - but he too, knew Nothing about her. She felt pretty alone about that. but not lonely. just alone in her own views and thoughts and experiences. which was OK. So, he listened to her experiences at the Dance, but didn't care. since he didn't really hear her....

She kept dancing. no one minded at home. or anywhere else really. her ex moved out. really horrible roomates moved in for awhile. they were very neurotic and dirty and they brought the worst out of her, too. so she took in her daughter, who needed housing, and got rid of them, finally. while they were there, she started inviting him over for dinner and a hot tub. then they started sleeping together. it was all really comfortable and exciting at the same time. it was very nice and very different. He was a dancer of Swing and Cajun and Ballroom and Folk... and belonged to an Alpine Club that went hiking and did a lot of Dancing and singing and having dinners together and owning a big chalet on the side of a mountain in the area and another high in the mountains to the East, where they'd go to ski and have fun together. this was all a Lot of Fun! after the horrible couple moved out, and her daughter moved in, then her ex wanted to move in too, to get the house ready to put-up for sale...so she moved out with Egon. This was all very exciting....

She moved into his beautiful home in the hills with its respectable and lovely gardens and decors and woods and so on. They had parties together. A Cajun Food and Dance Party. A Country and Western Dance and Song Party...lots of people over for dinner. he had many friends with lots of music talent. they danced and sang with people at all sorts of events. They formed a Song Group to sing Irish for the Irish Party and to sing Hawaiian for the Hawaiian Party. To sing Alpine Songs - some in German - for the Festivals. They all practiced in his lovely big home. She was Very Happy. this was a fine contact inside with her Roots too...because her mom's family was from Bavaria. She bought derndles and started to play the German Concertina...she became a Good Cook. she was sure he understood her well, tho he didn't listen much to her stories and so on. but she was used to that anyways. so she didn't worry about it....

They made love often and at the Fireplace Fire in the living room, too, and were creative in this way and enjoyed each other. They both thought they had finally met 'The One'...somewhat without great fanfare, they were engaged to be married...they both even had jobs teaching at the same private school. He taught Art there part-time...she taught full-time - social studies and english classes and such. It was good work at a good school...so even their work was happy.

Then they started having a few troubles. for one, Egon had open heart surgery to have lots of bypasses. that was hard. he got a little more neurotic after that...pretty progressively...he had a prostate surgery too...both times got him down and he started acting strange...he had always had phobias about crossing bridges and going certain places at certain times. now he got really strange about fears and phobias in a couple of dozen ways...he also ended all their nice sex together and wouldn't even let her kiss him goodnight at night. he called it his post-cardiac psychosis and it sort-of was, really...he had quit working as an Art Teacher in a local Highschool and then quit working at the private school too...which he blammed on her. he said she had set the students up not to want to work with him. so he was getting a little paranoid, too...he kept  worrying that they had lived together for almost seven years, so she might try to have a common law marriage decreed to get his money. she was very, very sad now, because he was being so weird. all the happy years together - which had been around seven years total - were now over. he was hinting that she should move out. He wasn't her Egon any more. no more fun stories and dances and songs and sex and, yes, Love. all gone. for good.

She met another guy. This guy fell in love with her very fast. he had a Lot of Problems...but he was also a very good and intelligent and loving person as well. he and she slept together and then they fell in love, as they say. she had been missing sex a whole lot and even missing affection much more than that. he had both for her. and a nice home he owned with a friend up in the mountains. a log cabin. he offered that she could move in with him. he was renting from a friend. she moved in with him...in just a short time, Egon told everyone that she had run out on him, tho he loved her deeply. actually, somehow, he Did Love Her again. it was like a conversion reaction. really neurotic and strange. he wanted her back. it was very upsetting. she couldn't trust him not to go back into his neurotic ways, so she couldn't come back. as it was, he would wind-up stalking her for a few years more - which was not unusual. he had stalked both his old girlfriend and his exwife for years. it was a habit with him... finally, he stopped and got himself another girlfriend. once again, his phobias faded for awhile, as he now, again, had a Love-of-his-life at home....

Around five years later, she heard from a friend that Egon had died of a heart attack while washing the dishes. his lady friend had been at home, but could not save him. His mother had died of a heart attack while washing the dishes, and he had been there and had not been able to save her. So. that was a strange thing as well. life can go like that at times...

Egon had been a great artist and a creative person and had been very smart about politics. in his olden days he had been a fine athelete too - in soccer and on skis...he had been a hiker and a great teacher and a good husband and dad and a good friend to many. he had been good to her for seven years too. so she had no regrets having known him. they had danced and sang and had many good times together for a long time. that is a good thing. no regrets. life went on and death went on. this is the way it is. this was the way it was with her and with Egon.

WEDDING BANDS is Lyrics about how there comes a time you give up, cuz he ain't comin' back...and you have to go on...happens...many have been there...have done just that....

WEDDING BANDS

Janie Anne took off the rings
She used to wear 'em every day
Now she's alone an' feels silly
Cryin' cuz she feels that way

CHORUS

What is Married when it's Over
What is left: Just rings of gold
Leavin' white clean bands of Lonely
Where they used to Have and Hold
____________________

Janie Anne is really angry
Janie Anne is often sad
Cuz he left her for another
Old, old story: Pretty bad

No one says much to her now
About her man and what he done
He's runnin' round town lookin' OK
All she looks is 'bout-to-run

CHORUS

All her friends agree with Janie
All her family's really kind
Wouldn't be so bad if only
Night would pass, she'd be just fine

Same lame story leads to nothin'
People go their busy ways
Janie Anne just waits her heart out
Fillin' chores into her days

CHORUS

If you're left behind, you know that
What she's feelin' is so low
You want to rise, but Hope ain't willin'
An' you got nowheres to go

So you sit and watch the TV
Wonder where the Time has been
Why the rings inside the drawer
Make it so clear you didn't win

CHORUS

Repeat First Verse

CHORUS

CIRCLES TO CARRY OUR SPIRITS HOME are Lyrics about the Rings that my Den and I wear on the little fingers of our left hands - his was my Dad's and mine was bought from a beloved Friend: they are tourquoise and silver...they mark our bond with each other...we're happy wearing them....

CIRCLES TO CARRY OUR SPIRITS HOME

Rings are stones of mirrors bright
Reflect our own souls with fine light
Still the circles flow on and on
To carry our spirits home

We've been wondering where
We can go and we've been seeing
What we should know
Still the circles flow on and on
To carry our spirits home
____________

CHORUS

Rings going round and round
Circles of Dark of Light
Sun Glitter on the Tourquoise
Silver Moon of the Night
_____________

No need to marry no
Promises to keep
Can't Love the old way
New Risks to greet
Still the circles flow on and on
To carry our spirits home

Not worried a'tall
Just Woman and Man
Who love life so fine
Best we ever can
And the circles flow on and on
To carry our spirits home

CHORUS

Don't need a ring
Other than these rings
Tourquoise and silver
Say our everything
For the circles flow on and on
To carry our spirits home

He wears my Father's -
Final finger, like mine
These rings tell our entwining
For the rest of time
Our circles flow on and on
To carry our spirits home

CHORUS

First Draft: EAST BROTHERS LIGHTHOUSE STATION AND INN lyrics, will hopefully be put to Song by Bill Taylor and Den McCue, who know a good song when they write one, and a 'bad' song when they hear one! At Tom Butt's request: one of the Fine Founders of this wonderful Island in the San Francisco East Bay....

EAST BROTHERS LIGHTHOUSE STATION AND INN

Takin' the old whale boat out from San Pedro
The Harbor is dark with the mud of low tide...
Just everyone's faces are lined with new smiles
For this trip to this Island's a really fun ride!
______________

CHORUS

East Brother - West Brother - shine in the sunshine
And both go to silver under Bay moonlight...
East Brother is magic with Light from the Lighthouse -
It spins it's good web of hope into the night....
______________

The house is so Gingerbread-Victorian - and
The barks of the seals - the seagull's harsh calls:
Are the Music around her awash in the currents -
Dark cormorants dive near the Island's rock walls...

Her Diaphone Foghorn shakes all in its hearing -
Gives grand reassurance: All Is As Should Be...
White picket fences guard - the grounds are for walkin' -
Her Innkeepers smiles are so welcome and free...

CHORUS

Staying at night, ten asleep on the Island:
Enjoying fine meals and good company -
'Real World' far away - Richmond Bridge lights all blinkin' -
Only the Lighthouse Beam shines on the Bay...

For decades this Lighthouse has harbored its Keepers -
Kept the way open from Delta to Bay...
It's days knew the likes of hard-Workers who keep her still
Open for all to enjoy yet, today!

From Walter "Pops" Fanning, Tom Butts, and the Others
Who gave years and years to keep her future bright:
Many Thanks to her Keepers and Friends of this Lighthouse
That brightens both Hearts and the Bay with her Light....

CHORUS

LAST NAME WAS RAGE is lyrics I sang off the tip-of-my-tongue and out-of-my-mind just suddenly to a guy's guitar playin' at a local Open Mic on a kind'a dead night there...goodness knows where it came from, but it lives now, so here it be!....

LAST NAME WAS RAGE

I was 'hummin' 'bout Georgia Peaches
I was jus' hummin' then I recalled this Song
An' the Girl who jus' sang it who's real name was Peaches
An the Girl who jus' sang it who's last name was Rage
Yeah, her last name was Rage
An' her last name was Rage
This Georgia Girl sang and her last name was Rage

I was jus' recollectin' how she jumped freight trains
She jus' jumped trains way the hobos all do
My Ma called her White Trash tho we was all poor too
My Ma said don't play with that Family named Rage
Their last name was Rage
An' her last name was Rage
Peaches jumped trains and her last name was Rage

Onc't she came back for the Miss Peaches Contest
An' she almost won, bein' strawberry blonde an' all
Til some biddy called Ain't that Peaches from Statesboro?
The one they call Peaches from that Family named Rage?
Yeah, my Family is Rage
An' my last name is Rage
An' I'm madder then Hell and my last name is Rage

Well I don't go Home much to Tobacca Town where
The Peaches and Back Roads stay still in the sun
But I sure do remember that Girl and her name an' all
Who never lost onc't an' there was nothin' she won
Cuz her last name was Rage
An' she lived full'a Rage
Peaches left long ago - she jus' left full'a Rage...
Her Family was Rage
An' her last name was Rage
She was Wilder than Wild and her last name was Rage

FATE IS A BEAR is lyrics, I've got to admit here, inspired by seeing the Disney movie BRAVE, with friends this afternoon...never know when the Muse will speak to ya these days...could be at a 'flick'!....sigh....

FATE IS A BEAR

CHORUS

Fate is a Bear where the Bears are no longer
Fate isn't talked about - no one is there...
Fate is the Way we are goin' to go an'
Fate isn't tame, o no: Fate is a Bear....
_____________________

I, just like you, believe I make my life My Life -
Nobody else: just myself and my song...
There is a Greater Song singing my lyrics, though -
Greater the Purpose than mine all life long....

We Meet and we Join and we Part and we Leave...
We're on Roads together - and then we're apart...
There's nowhere we're goin' where folks haven't been -
An' there's no Way to Home except Ways of the Heart....

CHORUS

So hold my hands, Darlin', and tell me we're winnin' -
Hold my very Spirit to keep safe from Harm....
I've met Fate whenever I kiss your warm lips
An' I've met Destiny when I'm held in your arms...

There are Drums that beat slowly and call for the Ends of Fate -
Bears that roar strongly for Destiny's Call -
So I take your hands and we run for our Own Lives...
We run for Ourselves an' our Selves never fall....

CHORUS

The Path of the Bear goes the Woods and the Rivers -
The Ways of the Bear meet the Rise and Set Sun -
An' Fate is So Natural - so much the Warp of Life -
No one can see how the Weavin' is Done...

Destiny's held in the Song of the Bear - though the
Bear is not really about Fate at all -
Bear is a Way just to see how Fate's Real...
Because we can't hear our own Destiny's Call...
We really can't see our own live's Fates at all....


CHORUS

THIS LADY I KNOW is sad lyrics about a sad-eyed Lady I know...all of the ladies I've known...who have had many more problems and sorrows and pains than I've ever known...my heart goes out to them, for certain....

THIS LADY I KNOW

This Lady I know is still searchin' in sorrow
This Lady I see is still cryin' in pain an'
I feel her sadness through walls up between us
She's got so much loss and jus' nothin' to gain

An' I wish I could take all the ladies jus' like her
An' tell'em about all the Songs they could sing
About all the Good Stuff that Life has to give them
About all the fine days and nights Life can bring

This Lady I know cries her dear self to sleep
An' it's harder than hell for her to have good days
She can't seem to even see straight for the worries
She walks like a sleep-walker through her dark ways

An' I wish I could take all the ladies jus' like her
An' tell'em about all the Dances to dance
About all the Beauty each day holds for jus' them
About all the fine loves and the sweet kind romance

This Lady I know has been round the block plenty
She knows that there's love and she's had some good friends
She lives alone proudly but lonely and brave an'
She makes no apologies makes no amends

An' I wish I could fill all the needs that she wants filled
I wish I teach her one way that I know
But she's not like me and I haven't walked with her
I don't even travel the roads where she goes...

I don't even know all the sorrows she knows
An' I don't know one way that she goes...
I don't know one way that she goes.....

NIGHT COMIN' ON is lyrics all about when love is almost goin', goin', gone....and the sun just passes by...and the moon just passes by....

NIGHT COMIN' ON

The sun passes by
Passes by my window
And I'm
All about the night
Night comin' on
And I'm
All about the night
Comin' on

Can't find my purpose
In this wild, small day
Can't find my meanin'
Meanin's all gone away
And I'm all about the night
Night comin' on
And I'm all about the night
Comin' on

CHORUS

When you asked for me, babe,
I was the one you wanted -
Really Wanted...
Now I'm not sure why, babe,
I'm really not sure why...
When You asked for love, babe,
I was the one who gave love -
Really gave my love -
Now every day - every night -
And all we do is cry....
__________________

The moon passes by
Passes by my window
And I'm
All about the day
Day comin' on
And I'm
All about the day
Comin' on

Can't find my rest
In this wild, small night
Can't find my wonderful dreams
Dreams are all gone away
And I'm
All about the day
Day comin' on
And I'm all about the day
Comin on

CHORUS

WATER FALLS is a Poem/Lyrics about my Waterfalls...I love All the Waterfalls that every were, Are, or ever will be...They are in my very blood...I am so glad they are on this planet in so many, many places...I try to see and hear and feel as many as I can...so my life goes on and on...in the Spray of the Falls....

WATER FALLS

Water Falls and I am filled with
Air that cannot be
The Richest Air all filled with Soul
Flows in and all through me
And you and I covered with Mist
Feel the Love so strong
As every Wave of Spray that falls
From Fallings day and night
Fill this Mountain with their Songs
And Sing with all their might
Wonderful Falls that Sing and Mist
And Fall and Fall and Fall
If you leave them still you feel them
In your Heart and all
Each drop of Water is Sacrament
That fills your lips and mouth and hair
Your ears and hands and eyes and breath
Your Heart filled everywhere!

BRING LOVE HOME is kind Lyrics about being responsible to bringing Love into Life...my own...yours, too....

BRING LOVE HOME

There is no Sorrow than when Love's torn from me
There is no Time when Love's not here
There is no Joy without dear lovin' Arms
When there's No Love then there is Fear

And I
And I
Must Bring Love Home with me
And I
Must Bring Love Home, all alone

There is no Breathing like the Way Love Breathes
There is no Touch without Love's Touch
There is no Future where Love hasn't Passed
When there's No Love there isn't Much

And I
And I
Must Bring Love Home with me
And  I
Must Bring Love Home, with or without You

There is no Wonder without Magic Love
There is no Flight without Love's Wings
There is no Circle where Love does not bind
When there's No Love there is Nothing

And I
And I
Must Bring Love Home, my dear,
And We
Must Bring Love Home, Together....

STILL MORE LOVE SONG is Lyrics: Another Love Song...simply That....

STILL MORE LOVE SONG

You are in my Heart I am in your Heart
And we know Every Song We Sing
You may touch my Life and I say You Do
And You wear my Love like a Ring

When the Dark is Dear to me as the Light
When the Day is a Sorry Time
Then You Bear my Pain as You are my Knight
And I know that Your Love is Mine

And I know that my Love is yours, my Dear,
And I know that Your Love is Mine

We still Dance this Dance as if We were Young
We still Sing all the Loving Songs
We are Wrapped in Warmth of Eachothers Arms
And We know this will be Life-Long

There are Loves that came There are Loves All Gone
There are Loves that are There for Life
This is more than Those This is Love so true
It is more than Husband and Wife

And I know that This Love is yours, my Dear,
And I know that this Love is Mine
Our Love Is til the End of Time
Our Love Is til the End of Time

LUCKY CHILD is Lyrics about the big, not-so-big 'gap' between me and very young people...in years it's growing daily...in my heart, not at all...

LUCKY CHILD

When I see the little children
Runnin' round just anywheres
Feel all the oldness in me
Feel all my pains and cares

Often think of 'em as lucky
Can see the troubles that they see
Watch them while they look my way
I see them good as they see me

CHORUS

Lucky Child I see you playin'
Lucky Child I see you fine
You're my Grandkid from the future
An' your Past behind is mine
You got hopes I haven't dreamed of
You've got dreams I cannot see
I'll be kind to you sweet Child
An' hope that you'll be good to me
______________________


When I have all my hopes goin'
Then I feel good and fair
An' I try to be a Help an'
Make sure I am one who cares

Reach out and say I will be there
By your side as you go by
Make you way a bit more easy
Teach your wings just how to fly

CHORUS

So I'm older but you are too
We're all older every day
No way I can turn back Time
An' no Time you can turn away

What is Young will go to Older
It just happens naturally
I'll help you cross them streets dear Child
And when I can't then you'll help me

CHORUS

RIVER ROADS is lyrics about my kind-of-trying-it-out business 'Name'...it became some interesting thinkin' for today...when I wasn't really finding much else I wanted to write about anyways...

RIVER ROADS

CHORUS

River Roads are simply water running down from high to low
Still they are the only Roads I want to travel as I go
River Roads will lead me to the Seas of Home and as they flow
I'll sing this Song for Freedom for me
Sing this Song for Feedom
_____________________

I have Plans I haven't finished - Charts to navigate and such...
Have some Dreams and Ways to Follow -
Haven't been doin' so much...
Sittin' here while benign Suns go East to West across the sky -
Want to fly Time's Space with class
Like Rivers do jus' flowin' by...
Like Rivers do jus' flowin' by....

CHORUS

If I had the Will to Swim - the Will to Move Myself at all -
Then I'd swim from these Headwaters down to Falls -
An' don't I know: goin' over Falls is deadly as this stillness
An' I find: never goin' anywhere is really jus' a State of  Mind....

I am movin' on Inside Me - where my Soul's sweet Rivers twine
An' meander through the Spaces given to me and my Time...
I could say I've got Tomorrow and can say: Can't really recall my
Past and can't really affect Today....

CHORUS

Have so many Plans to start - Dreams to navigate and such -
Have some Chores and Work to finish -
Haven't really done too much...
Ponderin' here while busy Suns go East to West across the sky -
Want to use these Charts with ease
Like Rivers do jus' flowin' by
Like Rivers do jus' flowin' by

CHORUS

THE DAY WHEN IT FORGOT TO RAIN are lyrics inspired by hearing our friends The Hopeful Romantics, perform a Country and Western Song quite beautifully....

THE DAY WHEN IT FORGOT TO RAIN

The Day is was supposed to rain and end this
Desperate little Piece of Desert Heat
Also was the Day when I first found You
An' thought you were the Best of Men to Meet

I thought I saw Bright Stars where your Eyes were
Felt them sparkle Rhinestones down on Me
But you were all just honky-tonk and Dried-up
Somethin' Bad You really shouldn't be

The Day when it forgot to rain I wondered
If Single's What I always was to see
If I was gonna dry-up in this desert restaurant
Jus' mutterin' "Tea or Joe, what will it be?...."

But now I've thought a whole lot more about it
An' I can see I wasn't very wise (no, not a'tall...)
Cuz in our love I thought I saw Sweet Rainfall
But you had jus' a Mirage in them eyes

O somewheres there's a Heaven where it's Rainin'
And all the Love can grow there, yeah, so well
But here we're facing weeks without a drop of happiness
An' wantin' Rain is jus' a Livin' Hell

Someday I jus' gonna up and leave here
No one wants me so some cloudy day
I'm jus' gonna foller them clouds forever
Til I let some Rain wash Love away
Til I wash all my Memories away
Wash them thoughts of you jus' all away

SUN KISSED SALTY KNEED AND HAPPY is lyrics for Little Grasshopper Vicky, who said that line about her Great Day on the Beach in Santa Monica, where living on the beach, whenever she can, is what she does!....

SUN KISSED SALTY KNEED AND HAPPY

Sun-kissed - salty-kneed - happy girl/woman:
Gimme your hands, darlin' - Gimme your heart!
Waves can't hide you and the Waves can't claim you:
There's jus' no way you and me are gonna part!

Now's the Time I finally understand Love
Love's a Beach that feels like Home...
Cuz you're here and Home is jus' wherever
You are - then I'm not alone!

Sun-kissed - salty-kneed - happy girl/woman:
I got your sweet brown skin to kiss...
Time can't take you - Life can't make you
Ever leave me, darlin' Miss!

You are golden - I am golden! We're jus'
Children of the Sun...
Long ago, I saw this comin' - We were Two
Meant to be One - so much like One!

Now's the Time I finally understand Love
Love's a Beach that feels like home...
Cuz you're here and Home is jus' where ever
You are - then I'm not alone!

Repeat First Verse

WINGS FOR THE IRISHMAN is about love for an Irishman...go on with you now: you know 'why'!....

WINGS FOR THE IRISHMAN

I was gonna give wings to this Love of mine
Wings for the Irishman -
Wings for his Song -
An' Life came along, lads, an'
Lifted him for me an'
Brought him along, oyeah,
Brought him along...
An' then over the Seas he came Flyin'
Yeah, n' over the Waves he came Flyin'
On Wings of Great Love he came Flyin'
An' landed right here on his own...
An' folded those Wings an' was Home...

So it's now I was thinkin' of Flyin' meself
But there's nowheres to Fly now withou' him...
So I might as well lay in his kind, strongly arms
Be content with this Love that came wi' him...
For he's mightily Lovin' and he's mightily Kind
An' there ain't a thing wrong with the Man...
So on Wings of this Love we'll just take to th' Skies
An' we'll travel as Free as we can -
An' we'll travel as Brave as we can...

Repeat the first verse, or both of the verses....

WHEN YOU SANG JOAN OF ARC is about how I feel when I hear the CD of Den singin' Leonard Cohen's Joan of Arc when he was in his twenties...sad for what we didn't have...happy, for what we do have now...it's a poem/lyrics...there's a song for it somewhere inside of us....

WHEN YOU SANG JOAN OF ARC

When you're singin' Joan of Arc,
I simply gotta cry...
When your voice goes up like angels -
Makes me want to fly...
And you were young and full of life
You sang with feelings so:
It makes me cry to feel them now -
Just knowin' what I know...

That all our lives we should have been -
Should not have been apart...
That all that time we were of One:
One Way of Life - One Heart...
And that's all that I ever hear
When you sing Joan of Arc...
That's always what I hear, my dear,
When you sing Joan of Arc....

I sang her sad song, too, you know -
I sang it all those years...
And that is why I'm mourning now -
Tho smiling though my tears...
For you are all I ever knew
in every single song...
You're all I want singin' beside me
For this whole life long....

YOU'RE SUCH A WARM-HEARTED LOVER is a love-sick Blues with lots of happy notes!!!

YOU'RE SUCH A WARM-HEARTED LOVER

You're such a warm-hearted Lover -
You make me feel very fine...
You're such a warm-hearted Lover -
You make me feel very fine...
I was lost and now I'm found, Baby -
I do think it's our time...
Must really be our time....

You got a good heart, Lover -
You really are so good...
You got a good heart, Lover -
You really are so good...
You been so kind n' sweet, Baby -
You treat me like you should....

Gonna hold on to you, Lover -
Until the sun don't rise...
Gonna hold on to you, Lover -
Until the sun don't rise...
I seen all that I need ta'see
Right there in your lovin' eyes....

Bring me home with you, Lover -
I'm gonna bake you a cake...
Bring me  home with you, Lover -
Gonna bake you a fine cake...
Your's is the brightest star, Baby,
The sky done ever make....

BRIDGE OR CHORUS: YOUR CHOICE:

You are the Brightest Star, Baby,
This Life done ever make...
An' I am yours, my loved Lover -
That's somethin' I can't fake...
Bein' yours: I jus' can't fake it, Baby...
I'm yours, sweet Lover...
All yours...All this Love, my Baby...
All this warm-hearted Love...

LEAVIN' MOUNTAIN AND SEA is Lyrics just about that...how I really don't want to leave the Mountains here and the Seashore...I'd have to come back every year for a couple of months to be with Them again...that's all there is to that!

LEAVIN' MOUNTAIN AND SEA

How far could I live from the sounds of the Sea
By the Sea where I'm sleepin' here briefly
The Breeze from the Waves washin' sweet over me
As the Breath of some Loved One so near me

How long would it take to start longin' for Shores
An' the Songs of the Gulls flyin' round me
The Sands meeting Sea weavin' in around me
As a pillow of warmth so benignly

How far could I live from the winds of the Mountains
Sierra an' Foothills and Coast Hills
The clearest of Skies and the coolest of Lakes
As the Trail meets my feet as all Trails will

How long would it take to start longin' for Highs
An' the Blues of the Waterfall's Spray
The Rivers all boundin' along over Stone
As  the Mountainlands hold me in sway

How long could I live and how long could I wait
Til I met Sea and Mountain once more
I cannot imagine a World every day without
Mountainside and Ocean Shore
I Will Not imagine a World every year without
Mountainside and Ocean Shore

THE YEW TREE is lyrics written to honor a Huge Mass of Life in a thousand-year-old Yew Tree spreading over and over out onto land in West Wales...many love this Tree of Life....

THE YEW TREE

I want to be
Under that Yew
That's in West Wales -
Spreadin' its Years
Just Earth-Givin'...
One thousand Years -
It's seen more than me -
More than any anyone has
Who's now Livin'....

An' I want to be Old Like That -
Bigger than Life is -
Than One Life could Be...
An' I want to hold Soil like that
Deep to my very Roots...
Want to know Life like That -
Bound - yet still Free....

I want to be
Deep in that Yew
That's in West Wales -
In Its Blood-stream of Sap
So Life-Given...
I want to breathe in every Green
Life it bears - every Root and each Branch
Sharin' Livin'....

An' I want to be Old Like That -
Bigger than Life is -
Than One Life could Be...
An' I want to hold Soil like that
Deep to my very Roots...
Want to know Life like That -
Bound - yet still Free...
Bound - yet so Free....

RIDIN' ON BEGGARMAN is another one for the Horse People I know who write songs and sing them and play guitars for them and for the horses they love...

RIDIN' ON BEGGARMAN

I'm ridin' on Beggarman
Dear Horse and Kind Soul
An' the sweetest of Paints
Ever born to be rode
He's as fine and as grand
As an Old Paint can be
An' he never is bolder
Than when he's with me

So saddle up Beggarman
Take him to ride
With his love of wild places
Godspeed at his side
With his brave and sweet gallop
Godspeed at his side

I'm there with ol' Beggarman
Horse Friend so good
He wants to do well by me
Just as he should
An' I want to do well by him -
I always do
For he runs like the wind
An' he trots fine and true

So saddle up Beggarman
Take him to ride
With his love of wild places
Godspeed at his side
With his gentle sweet gallop
Godspeed at his side

There's a sayin' they say
about Beggarman's name
That if Wishes were horses
We'd ride all the same
Like Beggars all wishin'
For somethin' we ain't:
Like Horsemen as I am
Upon my old Paint

So saddle up Beggarman
Take him to ride
With his love of wild places
Godspeed at his side
With his simple sweet gallop
Godspeed at his side
With his old and sweet gallop
Godspeed at his side

APPLE FARM is a summer lyrics for California Valley days....

APPLE FARM

Wish I had an apple farm or maybe peaches, almonds too -
I would pick them apples for us an' the peaches just for you!
Wish I could take all them almonds - shake 'em down and when I'm through -
Take them in their canvas bags and toss 'em into our truck, too!
We'd be rich!
We'd have fun!
We'd be jus' one happy couple raisin' stuff for everyone!
Wish I had a big ol' Truck Farm - veges raised in pretty rows!
I would keep them irrigated, squishin' mud between my toes!
Wish I could take all them veges - harvest them - and 'can' em sweet -
Take them to some Farmers Market - sell 'em out on our Main Street!
We'd be rich!
We'd have fun!
We'd be jus' one happy couple sellin' stuff for everyone!
Wish we had some little homestead, high and lovely on some slope -
We would keep that home of ours jus' full of love and full of hope!
Wish we had a load of children - act like me and look like you -
We would raise 'em smart and happy - Life would all ways be like new!
We'd be rich!
We'd have fun!
We'd be jus' a happy family rich with love for everyone!

WIND AROUND THE MOUNTAIN is a short, sweet lyrics about the power of wind and storm...when it's not being destructive....

WIND AROUND THE MOUNTAIN

The wind is blowin'around the mountain -
Across the mountain and through the pass -
An' it's greater than greater can be...
I heard it's wailin' - I saw the lightnin' -
I felt the rain that came up...
It was greater than I'll ever be....

The wind is blowin' around the mountain -
Across the mountain and through the pass -
An' it's greater than any of us....
I've felt its power - the sky was fallin' -
I heard the thunder roll by...
It was greater than great, jus' to see....

The wind is blowin' around the mountain -
Across the mountain and through the pass -
An' it's greater than any of us...
An it's greater than any of us....

LOVE ALL AFTERNOON is a quiet little lyrics about when my guy and I occasionally just hole-up all day and let the day go by, jus' enjoyin' eachother's company and not much else....

LOVE ALL AFTERNOON

Makin' Love all afternoon...
Jus'  too old happy lovers now -
Nowhere to be...It's a nowhere
Afternoon...we'll go 'out' soon...
Where the world seems to be
Leaving us all alone - not even our
Phones are ringin' - it's a lazy
Day for sure....

Makin' Love, jus' like two Kids...
Full of good stuff for eachother -
An' there's no soul here to bother -
We're just free...just to be...
In this quiet day of rest...in our
Nest up here alone...no one home -
If you knock we won't be here -
Tho we are....

There's a star...it's the
First star for tonight - an' I think
That we did right: not to go
Out at all....after all: we're still new
To one another and it's surely not a waste
Of our time...let the clocks run down...
Let the whole earth go...it's been a lazy
Day for sure....

OLD FORGOTTEN TRAIN is clickety-clack Lyrics about how there are many days I just don't feel like leavin' this little nest we got...it's small and quiet and homey and it's just a great old roundhouse for an old train like me to rust away in...hate to have to hit those tracks again when the time comes round-about....

OLD FORGOTTEN TRAIN

I'm always runnin' a bit behind lately
Like some old fogotten train, yeah, baby...
Runnin' all clickety-clack down these old tracks
With every car and wheel complainin'....
Used to be be chuggin' along so fine
Makin' each stop on a dime...
You could set your watch on me
I always made the time....

Now, sometimes, I don't make the grade...
Don't even get my days work done...
Hittin' the rails in the setting sun, now, baby -
Cuz I can't find no reason an'
Can't find no rhyme - no, baby...
Not even on these tracks...
No rhyme....

I'm not lately leavin' the round-house, baby,
Jus' some stream train run out of steam...
Runnin' only if I have to and then slow-some
With brakes and wheels complainin'....
Used to accomplish way past my prime
Makin' a Life so fine:
You could follow in my tracks -
Get your stuff done on time....

Now, baby, I don't bother to get done -
Time and old tracks and old trains are one...
An' the day goes from sunrise to settin' sun -
Cuz I can't find no reason an'
Can't find no rhyme - no, baby...
Not even on old tracks..
Not one rhyme....

Jus' clickety-clack to fill the time...
No reason, baby, and yes,
No rhyme....

RAINWALKER IN PARIS is lyrics from a photo of a Paris street in the Rain and Peter said it was a Song and the Ghost of Lee said it's a Rainwalker's Song....

RAINWALKER IN PARIS

Rainwalker's unbrella is red and it's
Larger than Life and Melodic as Song...
Rainwalker's boots are of red Spanish leather
They won't take-on puddles for long...
Rainwalker's Heart is as Blue as the Rain is
All tumbling fine down from the sky...
And I wonder how Magic in sweet Paris Rains
Sweetens Hearbreaks of Paris Goodbyes....

Rainwalker's not Happy - Rainwalker's not Blue
But She hasn't got Time to be Playin' with You -
Her Liberty's Silver with a Sky-Grayin' Hue
Just a Kind Paris Rain...
And it's Rainwalker's Rain through and through....

Rainwalker's steps are with care on the pavement
of old bricks and cobblestones wet with the Rain...
Rainwalker's coat is a threadbare old slicker
It's got to meet Spring once again...
Rainwalker's Heart is so Joyful it's Singin'
All about Startin' Again...
And I happen to know Magic's Deep in the Song
Paris Rains can poar Hope in your hands....

Rainwalker's not Happy - Rainwalker's not Blue
But She hasn't got Time to be Playin' with You -
Her Libery's Golden with a Sky-Bluin' Hue
Just a Kind Paris Sun
And it's Rainwalker's Sun through and through....

Rainwalker's not Happy - Rainwalker's not Blue
But She hasn't got Time to be Playin' with You -
Her Liberty's Silver with a Sky-Grayin' Hue
Just a Kind Paris Rain
And it's Rainwalker's Rain through and through...
And it's Rainwalker's Sun through and through...
It's a Sweet Paris Rain through and through....

MAKIN' MAGIC BIRD is Lyrics inspired by a line I read that went something like this "...like the Magic you make when you're not afraid."...yeah....

MAKIN' MAGIC BIRD

Makin' Magic like you do
When you leap without no fear
I'm in your arms leapin' with ya
Best trip I've been on all year

You ain't ever gonna fall
Means that I won't fall none, too -
I practically got wings just flappin'
In these skies that you fly through

White Bird, that is what you are, Babe
White Bird, flyin' - by and by,
I'll fly on my own - just learnin'
What you're doin' when you Fly

You ain't got no fear - you say that -
Baby, I got Fear for two -
An' I'm standin' on the nest-side
Flappin' wings and makin' do

But you're jus' Wingin'-it and Goin'
Higher than you really should -
Ain't no 'shoulds' could ever stop ya -
You're jus' Flyin' real good

White Bird, that is what you are, Babe
White Bird, flyin' - by and by,
I'll fly on my own - just learnin'
What you're doin' when you Fly

So go make your Magic, Babe, I'm
Right beneath you if you fall -
An' Fear is what can keep me earth-bound -
You ain't got no Fear a'tall
You ain't got One Fear a'tall

White Bird, that is what you are, Babe
White Bird, flyin' - by and by -
I'll fly on my own - jus' learnin'
What you're doin' when you Fly
What you're doing when you Fly

EGRET is simple, simple Lyrics about passin' by an Egret in the Delta....

EGRET

There's an Egret in the delta
In the Fields all water-full
Lookin' for another meal
Tryin' to take Life down it's bill

I'm so like that Egret, baby,
So alone and white as snow
It don't snow here ever, baby,
Jus' I feel lonely so

Egret, I see four or five of
Other White Birds jus' like you
You could maybe fly with them
If you got nothin' else to do

Or maybe you could share your time
Be side by side - not so alone -
Maybe make some Egret Chicks
Or make some nest and call it Home

I'm gonna drive right past ya now
I'm on my way some other place
Ain't gonna look you in your wild eyes
Fathom your silent Bird Face

Still, I'll remember you in green grass
Wadin', silent Delta Ghost
Watchin' for your meal jus' passin'
In the waters you love most

CONFESSIONAL is a bit of a poem or maybe Lyrics about small-town-Catholic-Kid angst...so there it is...small, and long, long ago....

CONFESSIONAL

Shop-Liftin at the Five and Dime
When I was pretty darn young
Was candy and not much more -
No mam, wasn't me:
It was some other kid
Who isn't sure just why...
What it means to a Catholic kid -
You have no idea, mam,
No idea a'tall:
What it means to got to tell
That Shadow in the Confessin' all -
Without one dang Sin ta tell...
It's not good - makes ya feel
Low - so see, I gotta go
An' steal  some candy here
Where it's out for the takin' -
An' maybe get caught an'
Got somethin' to say
To my Mom and God and
Sister Superior-to -me...
An' all the Catholic kids
Who ain't got one thing to do
An' nothin' much to say
In Church where everybody knows...
God knows ya did 'it' anyways -
God knows, ya did 'it', any ways....  

NOT ONE MORE WORD TO SAY is Lyrics about how all tongues talk themself right into silence some times, when Love is Goin', Goin', Gone....

NOT ONE MORE WORD TO SAY

Away from all the chatter, baby,
Far away inside my head:
I can hear the Nothin', darlin',
Where I've thought -
An' what I've said -
An' nothin's goin' on there really -
Nothin' left I want to say...
Tho got to admit now, darlin':
Nothin' was 'said' anyway...
Not between us now, my baby,
Not between us then, my baby,
Not within us, anyway....

These are Blues without a note -
Without a word - without a sigh...
Ain't not a thing ta chat about -
Ain't no reason to even cry...
You're just you - and me, I'm
Nothin' worth the worry -
Hardly worth this little song...
But I can hope another lifetime
Growin' in me all along:
Where I'll be a better Lover -
Where I'll be a better Friend...
Bring us somethin' - in the end....

Heard some chat and left some text
An' then twittered some Baby Song...
About how all this Noise meant somethin' -
How I loved ya all along...
Couldn't stop my second-guessin'
From rattlin' inside my Mind...
Guess I got no where to go here -
Guess I got to be right kind:
Tell ya that I have to go -
On account of, just today:
Learned that I really don't have
Another word to say, my darlin -'
Not one word to say, my baby -
Not one more word to say.

LOVE IS LIKE SOME BRIGHT BIRD'S WINGS is Lyrics about passionately opening to the idea of Light coming from you and from me...in our Practice of Compassion....

LOVE IS LIKE SOME BRIGHT BIRD'S WINGS

Love is like some bright bird's wings
Hate's the Dark in everything
You can't see your self at all
Until you let some Light in
Until you light the Night Wings
Until you welcome Light...

So go to where the Sun is shinin'
Go to other shores and see
You are breathin' just like I am
Life is good to you - to me -
An' you can let some Light in
It won't be too bright - really...

Show Compassion with such Joy
Nothin' will bring back the Dark
You can really grow some wings -
You can truly be some spark
That lights the Fires in some Souls
That brings Light right on home...

Love is just some natural bird's wings
Hate's the opposite of Light
You can't be your self a'tall
Until you open Light in
Until you spread your Dark Wings
Until you welcome Light...

An' scare off Hate - like Night
Is cast off by the Dawn...
By the Light of Dawn....

THE WARM LIGHT THAT HOLDS YOU CLOSE is about not being afraid: the Light that comes from Love will see you through and warm you...It's LYRICS....

THE WARM LIGHT THAT HOLDS YOU CLOSE

When your dreams are low and you're not awake
It's the warm light that holds you close
And you feel alone and yet not afraid
It's the kind light that holds you close

Sailin' in your dreamin' - poor old ship at night -
It's the sweetest light out there at sea...
Harbor is some far-away - you can't find home...
Off to other ports your bound to be...
Never mind the lonliness - it's not so bad -
You are never that alone....

When your dreams are low and you're not awake
It's the warm light that holds you close
And you feel alone and yet not so afraid
It's the kind light that holds you close

Up there on the riggin' you are by your self
Keepin' all your hopes out there at bay...
Watchin' for your Mate who isn't by your side -
Hopin' that your Love is strong and safe...
Not afraid of possible- or even fear -
You will not be still alone....

When your dreams are low and you're not awake
It's the warm light that holds you close
And you feel alone and yet not so afraid
It's the kind light that holds you close
It's the sweet Love that holds you close
In the dark night, that holds you close 

SAD DREAM SONG is Lyrics about days and nights of Dreams going by with little to show for 'em...how you make it through by holdin' on to the one who loves you most and truly best....

SAD DREAM SONG

Not movin' anywhere, my Darlin' -
No where I can go
Where I don't find my self still dreamin'
Of some time from long ago
When I was all quite thin and pretty
Didn't really see you good
Cuz I didn't know from nothin'
Didn't know Life like I would'
When I was older, yeah, my Baby...
When I was me, now, older....

So hold my hands and hold my Heart
An' Baby, never let me go
Cuz I'm alone if you're not with me
An' I really love ya so

Got a lot of Friends and  Family
Got my years of Work and Gain
Got my loss of Health and some Hopes
Got plenty of Grief and Pain...
But you know, I've always had You
In my Heart, strong from some Past,
Where this Love was always Young
An' where this Young Love was to last....

Where is Time about to go, Love?
Are we gonna make it through?
Can we live or can we die
Without feelin' lost then, too -
Unless we hold on and we cry
Together, Baby, yeah my dear,
Together...yeah, Together....

So we're older - still we're wilder -
Not as wise as once before...
An' we're gonna live on Hope
An' open up most every Door...
Have Adventures by the dozens  -
Have a lot of Mishaps too...
Fight the Poverties and Hurts
Fight the Chance to Feel Blue...

So hold my hands and hold my Heart
An' Baby, never let me go
Cuz I'm alone if you're not with me
An' I really love ya so.