|
|
DELICATE REASON Floating around in the water, The water of a fishbowl Floating around in the water, The water of a fishbowl Inner workings of the muse The case, the case, she gets confused, Eros is everything you do. Floating around in the water, The water of a fishbowl, Floating around in the water The water of a fishbowl Delicate reason softens the hit The fearsome body lay immaculate Washed by rivers of snow Into some unknown cavern I long to go, I long to go Delicate reason, softens the hit The fearsome body lay immaculate Shards of glass, arrows swift, lightning fuse, Shards of glass, arrows swift, lightning fuse Sometimes she gets, sometimes she gets confused, confused. The child births the mother, The child births the mother. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONS I want to run hard into the cold I want everyone to know what I don't And I'd rather be the one left out Than be the only one who knows. Thereís no pattern in my movements To forecast the future I've got 20/20 and he's 20/40 Thereís no telling where Iím going Will this come to something He's airy fairy and I'm heavy weight champion of the world. I really don't know where I come from Really don't know where I'm going Heís got a college degree in anthropology, Sci-fi, Wittgenstein, Kurosawa and Tai-chi And I've got a PhD, and honorary degree In heavy lifting, heavy brooding, Heavyweight champion of the world I'm solid as a tree, And heís slight as a world I want to run hard into the cold And I want everyone to know what I don't I'd rather be the one left out Than be the only one who knows. I really don't know where I come from Really don't know where I'm going I see designs in kernels and sunflowers mustard seeds A design in the swallows flying in a spiral A design in the rays interlocking the passage of a crop circle A design of an ancient city beneath the sea I want to run hard into the cold And I want everyone to know what I donít I'd rather be the one left out Than be the only one who knows. WILDFIRE There are people out there who are fully aware Of every whisper of loss And the air of desperation hangs like a thick smog Over a sky-scraped sidewalk We refuse to submit to the city weakened will. Visiting grades of our fallen parents Watching our health, youth, ravaged by device We march on With the diginity of the flowers Swells of chaos surface like tar bubbles And expel the fragrance of a city that doesnít any longer Know its function Power to the disempowered It's a wildfire, that burns A wildfire that burns Take this mission with me Let's walk the many paths on hand And sip the tea of great cities Oh brother have patience with me These words come slowly But they erupt like a Wildfire. Power to the disempowered Secret, silent, disempowered This fragile, fair, immortal flower Power to the disempowered It's a wildfire, that burns A wildfire that burns A-MINOR I want what everyone wants But it's not so pretty when we Crawl and scrape and climb A forty day walk in the wilderness Can take forty years if youíre blind I'm at the center of my universe Yet I feel your pain I want to justify A world of half meaning, half shadows, Partial lies. You know me like you know yourself We're not happy till we're like somebody else Don't mind the cage, I'm in prison Just as long as these bars are hidden We all want a taste of the forbidden Hey look - We're all model citizens Dreaming of rebellion, world renown While shuffling our feet round our little hometown I'm keeping it real these days I'll hit it hard with whoever can take the pain. Here's to my own private media My hidden away cinema I have to believe, got to open my mind, I have to believe INTERVENTION Don't tell me It's all as it should be Donít tell me. I've seen broken hearts I've seen suffering I've seen emptiness I've seen loneliness Don't tell me It's all as it should be Don't tell me. I've seen aimlessness I've seen bitterness I've seen the same mistakes Self deceit, self hate. Don't tell me it's all as it should be Don't tell me to accept things as they are Don't tell me it's all in the stars Don't tell me that it's all as it should be. Feel this pain, be this pain Settling like rain, settling like rain Donít walk away from this hurt Come on down, down to earth ABYSS Something's gone deeply amiss Do you remember or have you forsaken this? Have we forgotten, are we sadly remiss? The face in the abyss They say the union of man and woman Holds us together But love is a force greater than convention The wilderness speaks to no one of Birth, rebirth, apocalypse We are face to face in the abyss. Birth, rebirth apocalypse We are face to face in the abyss. We could live our whole life And never break through The cloud of our beliefs Lies the face in the abyss Above, beyond, beneath Birth, rebirth, apocalypse We are face to face in the abyss. Birth, rebirth apocalypse We are face to face in the abyss. Face to face, Face to face in the abyss. THE CALL If a star should fall beside us You and I will let it guide us And be done, and be done Lie down here Till itís over Lie down here Till itís over Lie down here And be done. NEVER GIVE UP Never give up, never give up, never give up, Never give up, never give up Never give up no matter what's going on Never give up, develop the heart. There's too much energy in our country Spent developing the mind instead of the heart Be compassionate, not just to your friends But to everyone Be compassionate, work for peace, in your heart And in the world. Never give up, never give up, never give up Faith dispels doubt and hesitation Faith is the root of veneration Believe in justice and human determination In the history of man it's already been proved That the human will is more powerful than the gun. Never give up, never give up, never give up So if you wanna change the world, If you wanna change the world Never give up, never give up, never give up. WAYWARD Dusk, the night feels right to me Do I dare say what I feel - that I donít need anybody Cause the night will take care of me The night will hover over me The night will take care of me The night will hover over me I squirm in my body to see what I feel Always the question haunting, Is this real? Is this real? Want not, have not, help yourself, Give a lot, fake some more, let's go, let's go Want not, have not, help yourself, Give a lot, fake some more, let's go let's go. Wayward, wayward, wayward, wayward. |
STOP BEING AFRAID Understanding of emptiness is very important to buddhist thought. Learning martial arts gave me more insight into the riddle of emptiness. In tai chi where one hand empties... the other fills. This song tries to reconcile the genius of "not-doing" with the necessity to very actively forge one's life. The Heart Sutra is the key: go beyond the limits of normal knowledge; empty the mind and a new intelligence awakens. I wrote this song at time when I was starting to understand that success is something you have to want… and is only attainable through an inquiry of one's personal measure of it. When I first began I tried too hard I was afraid of failing, not knowing what I didn't know Put yourself out there and take a bow Don't jump ahead, go blow by blow Learning is the way of how not to close Your mind to the knowledge that wants to flow {chorus:} Stop Being Afraid {interlude:} You're not alone, you're never alone You're not alone Face resistance, Not the easiest path Know what you want and then to act Persistence against the odds It's a very short life Don't take it so hard Know what you want It's a very short life Don't make it so hard {chorus} Emptiness Emptiness, Emptiness, Emptiness Gyate, gyate, parasum gyate Gyate, gyate, parasum gyate Bodhisattva. {chorus} PARIS Where is the Paris of Proust? Has the multi-national corporate machine swallowed up authentic real life art as a way of life? {chorus:} Come take a ride, come take a ride, come Another day, another gambit Come take a ride, come take a ride, come Another day another…. Children of no man Walk the desert sands Of the underground He walked along the Louvre Down the lane to the Pompidou Distracted by the streams of people And all the things he wished he'd do He thought of Proust Of Swan's Way And the love, life, meaning feeling In his being He thought of Proust Of Swan's Way It's a different world, A different world today {chorus} No flirt is the fashion dot com Of the imperial world gone wrong. Where living art in your hands is forbidden Like the sensual. Pas le temps de t'ecouter Pas le temps Swan found love in the strife- There's still life Swan found love in the strife- There's still life in the underground of Paris Proust, Swan's Way It's a different world A different world today! Pas de peux, pas de riz parris perdu o reussiz Quand en passe par ici, once per once pousse Car ici les gents son compresse SPHINX How do we know that we exist? Desacartes, "I think therefore i am"... Sartre, "I am what I do." Buddha might say, "There is no seperate self". Wonder, awe, a sense of the miraculous perhaps defines the borders of our being...> Like vertigo on the edge of a cliff I'm in awe therefore I exist, Always have I known of this: The riddle of the sphinx {chorus:} What crawls on four legs in the morning And walks on two legs by midday Walks on three legs in the evening We travel life this way. Surrender your will to what must be You can't alter its course or your destiny Ponder this well, what creature is this? The riddle of the sphinx {chorus} Incarnation, reincarnation The sphinx as symbol of timeless portal between the past and future; speed up the karmic process... get it done in this lifetime. BIRDSONG Birdsong was witten while living in the woods on Whidbey island about an earlier time when 4 of us were living in Matillaja wilderness of Ojai California. We lived several miles off the grid in a "MASH" style army tent where we were seasonally cut off by the caprices of a sometimes raging river. It was the height of the rainy season and helicopters circled overhead like vultures looking for helpless stranded hikers... but this was our home. An 80 acre Zen Ranch where we herded our goats and watched boulders the size of 2 story houses bulldozed down the river by the current... Raw experinece was so feral that it broke down barriers of friedship and intimacy in unexpected ways. It's like Birdsong, telling of your love, Your love without motive, love without motive The river was flooded so we walked no further forward. {chorus:} No further Didn't need anywhere else to go No further Didn't need anyone else, not anyone else The rain streaked down our face and wet our lips. One good memory rescues all of this One good memory rescues all of this life. Tweet-deet-dee-dee-da-lee-dee La-da-dee-da-dee Tweet-deet-dee-dee-da-lee-dee La-da-dee-da-dee {chorus} No further implies the end of thought. tweet deet dee is the new language..a syntactical structure actually capable of speaking of the murmurings of love. Several years after writing this tune I encountered the idea of "Soul Loss" in a James Hillman Post-Jungian text. Hillman equates soul loss with our abandoning of memories... both personal and collective. This contrasts but does not contradict the Buddhist emphasis on emptying one's mind... only when we "quiet" our thoughts can we call up the memories that are most important for us to remember at any given moment! GRACE This song was written over several years, and the theme of leaving something midstream only to reconnect later at a more appropriate time keeps proving itself true. The stream itself is never ending. I was living in a small cabin deep in the woods when I first started this composition (many of the songs written during what I call the "original mind" period were written at the base of a large cedar I call the "Tree of listening") and the woods were always there to invite introspective insight into the illusory nature of our emotions and experiences. When I think of you I feel like I'm gonna lose my mind I'm going crazy I can't be with you right now I have to go deep inside In feeling this loss I smile for I cry. Our paths diverge But things'll be all right Sometimes leaving things undone Is doing them right And with this broken wing I will take flight. Let it hurt enough And you can find the heart I smile for I cry, I smile for I cry. I journey, Oh I journey, I journey to the bottom Before I touch the sky. {chorus}: Grace in flight, grace in flight Grace in flight, grace in flight Now she's under arrest for Possession of a weapon And a bag full of contempt Grace young and discontent Thinks she can help the boys who Don't want help. She's got a thing for the dark side An angel with a wing half bent Playin' tricks street corner to corner The expense of all that good intent Grace young and discontent Thinks she can help the boys who Don't want help. Now who'd gonna protect you From the conviction to live for someone else? {chorus} I wish to know what we're all meant to do And what lasting meaning does pleasure bring There's a great many things I just don't understand {chorus} LEDGE This song was written as a direct response to an Ani Difranco album. I admired the interiority of her monolgue and appreciated her admission of just "trying to survive"... but felt that she lost sight of our need to move forward together as a collective, and that collective movement is the opposite of nationalism or any ISM because it is gentle in its power to bend everyone towards the light. The older I get the more I regret Not doing the things that young people do. A mistake or two might help me through The task of making life last longer I can't get there without you, I acknowledge that I'm part of a whole Whose parts are lost. I feel desperate and discontent, A lack of innocence, Like there's nobody left to be. I can't get there without you, But I'm pretty sure you're as lost as me. I can't get there without you, {chorus}: The stronger I stand, the harder I fall, Stronger I stand I acknowledge that I'm part of a whole Whose parts are lost. I feel desperate and discontent, A lack of innocence, Like there's nobody left to be. I can't get there without you But I'm pretty sure you're as lost as me. It's good to know you're out there On the fringes of it all, Good to know you're out there Where anyone can fall, Not just the righteous, Anyone at all! {chorus} ONE FINE SUMMER DAY This song was written also on Whidbey Island towards the end of my stay there when I was really torn between appreciation for the beauty of my surroundings and frustration at the extent of my isolation from mainstream society. Increasingly, I was prompted to share my music and experiences of nature with much broader strata of society. One fine summer day Fading into gray Don't make me have to say Our love just slipped away Don't make me have to pay For things I didn't say And please don't look at me Don't look at me that way. {chorus:} One fine summer day Never to repeat itself One fine summer day… Take these emotions out of my chest Give these tensions a good long rest I might always fail the test But I'll leave no trace, no trace of this. {chorus} I live in the space in between The real and the imagined Praying my life may yield a truth, A sign of what can be Help me to fell, help me be real Help me to feel real again… 'Cause my family I threw them all away To make room for a collective pain Please don't judge the things I say For you're my nearest kin Help me to feel, help me be real Help me to feel real again… {chorus} AVALANCHE We travelled out to play a festival in upper Montana a few years back and I became gripped by a desire to see a Grizzly. This wish instigated a number of field trips and new friendships which culminated in a momentary love match for one band member and an early morning face-to-face encounter with a Grizzly for me. When I close my eyes I feel you You're everywhere inside my mind I've travelled far to meet you But you were there all the time You shook the ground beneath you Turned me upside down Tripped into a waterfall I fell up from the ground. {chorus:} In pleasures we're born From one to another we drift Like a saucer in a sea of sorrow My lips do slowly sip. I wish this life would show me All I need to do. Oh I wish this life would show me All I need to do. I got a glimpse at my truth When you sang me yours And the truth is jagged like a cliff. I got a glimpse at my truth When you sang me yours And the truth falls like an avalanche Moves like a bear running through the brush And it leaves us in a trail of dust. {chorus} Hits me like an avalanche…. LIBERATE THE FORM (lyrics by William Rubel) I lived in NYC a long time ago. My brother William and I wrote many intense songs during this time. This song is the "Mother" of all my funky tunes and refers much to the literary gods we were so under the influence of at the time. In the original version there is further homage to Franz Kafka and Jidu Krishnamurti. Suddenly up high I see the casements Of a window fly open, I see the flicker of a rising light, A human figure faint and insubstantial. Is this a friend? Someone who'll sympathize? One person alone, Is this mankind? Where is the judge Who ordered me to die? Where is the courtroom? What is my crime? Faith is not belief in any form of anything, To feel the form is faith itself. Love is not the love of any form of anything, To feel the form is love itself. {chorus}: James Joyce, liberate the form. You and I, liberate the form. James Joyce, liberate the form. You and I, liberate the form. You've got to liberate the form, You've got to liberate the form, You've got to liber-liber-liberate the form! NEVER GIVE UP * excerpt from "Never Give Up" Copyright 1994 & 2008 * His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Ron Whitehead {chorus:} Never give up, never give up, never give up, Never give up, never give up… Never give up no matter what's going on Never give up, develop the heart There's too much energy in our country Spent developing the mind Instead of the heart Be compassionate not just to your friends But to everyone Be compassionate, work for peace In your heart and in the world {chorus} Faith dispels doubt and hesitation Faith is the root of veneration Believe in justice and human determination In the history of man It's already been proved That the human will is more powerful Than the gun So if you want to change the world If you want to change the world If you want to change the world… {chorus} |
SPHINX Like vertigo on the edge of a cliff I'm in awe therefore I exist Always have I known of this The riddle of the sphinx. What crawls on four legs in the morning And walks in two legs by midday Walks by three legs in the evening We travel life this way. Surrender your will to what must be You can't alter its course or your destiny Ponder this well what creature is this? The riddle of the sphinx. What crawls on four legs in the morning And walks on two legs by midday Walks by three legs in the evening We travel life this way. Incarnation, reincarnation. SOCA There's this attitude goin' round That we can indulge forever on borrowed ground I saw the cover of Time Magazine Says global warming's a reality In fifty years will we be shedding tears Lions and tigers and bears extinct What would our children's children think About our indifference Oh land of the free what have you Done with our freedom? It takes a one man revolution On drop on the pond We are the seeds of an evolution It takes a one man revolution On drop on the pond We are the seeds of an evolution I think production Should be put in the hands of the people Who sow and harvest and hew out of stone And turn the factory wheels for A biscuit and a bone It's time to cross examine The intelligentsia Who are too cowardly To cross the line into poverty The only place we can properly suffer The cruelty of corporate piracy Issuing gag orders to subvert Our true identity Institutionalizing mediocrity Oh land of the free What have you done with our freedom? There's enough for everyone If we don't always take But it feels like our birthright In the United States Where's the unity that's built on hate Where's the unity that's built on hate There's a quaking at the core Of our security Sovereignty is sifting through our fingers Like a handful of sand For a fistful of dollars You can pillage our land There's enough for everyone If we don't always take But it feels like our birthright In the United States Where's the unity that's built on hate Where's the unity that's built on hate? It takes a one man revolution One drop on the pond We are the seeds of an evolution My allegiance is planetary International I pledge Oh land of the free. It takes one man's vision One man's tears A one man revolution One man's prayers One man's song One man's evolution We are the seeds of an evolution Oh land of the free... BREAKING NEWS I've been trying to get together With my tears But they're unavailable for comment On this year's Breaking News Today the news breaks the truth With a voice of control It's a public voice, A careful delivery A routine report Subliminal slavery I've been trying to get together With my tears But they're unavailable for comment On this year's Breaking News It's not a case of international disgrace It's just a national disaster There's been an outbreak of Modified truths Serious laughter, Breaking News Read between the lines The story's bout the blind Leading the blind War crimes and corporates crimes A clear case of international plunder Breaking News Barrels of lies tinged with truth Leak out in the news Like the poisons that we consume Genetically modified foods Fill our insides Changing the nature of truth in to lies Forever changing, Our nature's changing... One day the truth will break the news Like Dylan and the blues Cause freedom speaks in poetry... MAN OF WAR Man of peace, man of war Can you say which one you really are Honor and action Set off a reaction I want to fight for what is right Can I do it without turning day into night Can you touch the potential of A human life Without causing strife? Courage carries responsibility SOmewhere it's written Love your enemies Cause when you choose a side You sentence others to die Can your passion be a state Of receptivity? The heart does set free The fleeting fragrance of caring This day, this love for all things in it Mortal and fleeting And therefore beautiful, Beautiful, beautiful... Man of peace, man of war Can you say which on you really are Honor and action Set off a reaction I want to fight for what is right Can I do it without Turning day into night Can you touch the potential Of a human life Without causing such terrible strife? Does this song ring true Or are you just speculating with me Is there meaning in the verse Or am I just humoring you? Man of peace, man of war Do you know what you're fighting for? Broken, the heart opens... Beautiful. |
|
WINGED JOY Lay with me awhile In your arms I'll rest The feathers are rustling In the arrows in my chest You see we try to run away To what we think is free But it's only the enemy, It's only the enemy We're here for light and For the light it brings Hold me in your golden wings And stay me in this place Sacred space Stay me in this place Still these dark waters Winded joy for you I'll weep There's no power on earth Whose force can keep The sparrow dips its head in sorrow For there is no tomorrow UPSIDED Trembling lights of desert sky nights Stretching the infinite horizon Drawing the strings tighter To set me free You left me curious, frightened Nothing decided Shaken, divided The world upsided. ONCE STILLED Grief has torn my chest I'm sorry I did not heed your light And your breath You showed me signs and visions Along the way I rose in ecstacy but lay there in pain. The forrestal conceals the ancient woods In the midst of our searching thoughts Once stilled, this frantic motion We find we're in the heart We are the heart Sing the poem of the heart's true speech Turn back the sorrow Forget the grief Cross the line the seas will part Cross the line the seas will part TRANSFIRE On the path of the musical seer Keep your heart and mind clear And feed the deeper movements Of the soul Feed the deeper movements Of us all A living sign Of the human divine Music can inspire All to rise higher Transfer the fire, transfire, transfire We're the dust, spirit warriors We're on our own gotta do it alone Through the dust of the spirit warriors We're in every unswept corner Lying in your unmade bed Only we can recognize Spirit Warriors, Invisible souls daubed by ashes We've been down to the grotto Now we're ready for the clear light of day. SAMBA IS MY HOME I'm not a man of many words I speak with my heart in simple terms Samba is my home I often choose to be alone Not that I don't love you You're my all my own But samba is my home Meditation, peace, regeneration Without aim or final destination Samba is my home, samba is my home Samba is my home Meditation, peace, regeneration Without aim or final destination I'm full of love and admiration For the warriors who joined In creation of the samba of my home Her touch moves liquid heat Through body and spirit we meet To dance among the thousand To the samba of my home, Samba of my home.... CONFUSED WITH NO ROOTS I'd like to speak honestly I'd like to tell the truth The wide world is passing me I'm confused with no roots Confused, with no roots, Without roots How is it we've come to live here We're all alone I fear Two by two we climb the ark But all the loves we've left behind Our souls still intertwined Intertwine, intertwine The divine, the divine In the hidden rhyme Call to mind the forgotten time The forgotten mind The divine The wide world is passing me I'm confused with no roots Close your eyes, there's a world To discover Look inside yourself to uncover The wide world... WHO AM I He-enshallah-hal-e-oh Who am I Where am I Why am I I woke up incomplete Ground shaking beneath my feet And everything seemed Foreign and strange And I started sensing with my gaze The world was rearranged According to a vibrant change Light was pouring in as waves Nothing, nothing was the same Nothing my name, nothing my name With the rough edges of humanity And the sharp edges of your sanity Everything seems foreign and strange AVATAR How to explain, how to express This emotion I feel for you This emotion You're sweet, sweet, sweet And full of delight Your eyes turned heavenward Praise be thy light It's difficult to see you For who you really are Is it possible to hold an avatar Invisible and infinite A soul with no shell A sea without water A ring with no bell A call with no voice A whisper that won't tell THE AWAKENED MIND Shadows on the wall Feeling frightened and small Night is coming, night is coming Time to look at things I would not see Night is coming Let the full force of reality Come and wake me Come and take me Night is coming Residing in nowhere The awakened mind arises *Sutra by Doyu and Dosho THE HEALER Blessed be the healers for Sifting through the shadows of confusion Delving through the forest Of our illusion It's a silent communication An unseen ordination A musical collaboration Oh praise be the healers and Raise our vibration Singe us with flames of Imagination Swallow our grief, smile as we weep Follow the stream to the source Down deep *Spoken word by Asun MICROBIAL SEA Constant stimulation, excitation In the spiritually impoverished Nation Suicidal recreations, Avoiding the true occupation Contemplation of the american malady Comparison, calamity Delighting the soul Adam and Eve embarrassed by their deed Driven to nature to Creation, procreation In invention of the machine Sitting on a power spot By an ancient rock Sinking to your knees Resonating frequencies Dualism, puncupressure, Lotus, coitus, Beyond pleasure to the horror Of death crept in with the mist To the bliss of the great brain Attention, satellite conception Immersion in the microbial sea Moving in transition now To the story of my condition Debriefing, decoding, self-unfolding like a hummingbird Buzzing quicky, moving slowly Sitting in a power spot By an ancient rock Sinking to your knees Resonation frequencies Debriefing, decoding, self-unfolding Violent Revolution Tireless waves on a tireless ocean Tireless waves on a tireless sea Sacrifice to the sands of creation Severing relations No longer serving you and me We tread the waters Of a violent revolution Got to rise up Without a gun We tread the waters of A violent revolution Got to rise up, rise up Above the machine Honor the ones who fell before us Honor their struggles denied history The story of change Is the story of subversion And the next act of protest Is told by you and me STARFISH I opened my hand and found That it's already open Stepped out to hear the wind And found that it's long been blowing It's being on the inside Knowing without knowing And this recognition Is like a mother's beholding Did I do something wrong Well I don't care anymore Cause we create our own living hell When we don't know who we are I opened my hand But it's already open Listen for the wind But it's long been blowing Seeing from within It's a different kind of knowing And it's making its way Out into the open. RESIDING IN URANUS Back in the day we got gay we didn't spay or neuter no computer or Roto Rooter in fact, no sewer SPIRIT CHUNDERS Spirit chunders teet'ring on the brink spirit chunders have another drink Spirit chunders narrowly avert spirit chunders smelly like a turd |