Thrills Colours thrill me Rainbows, flowers, paint the world with Light and beauty Colours can take you there Numbers thrill me Capture what the world is hiding Fact or theory Numbers can take you there Walking thrills me Put one foot before the other Places to see Walking can take you there Singing thrills me Raises talking to devotion Thinking heavenly Singing can take you there People thrill me Friends and family all around and No more lonely People can take you there |
Fathers and sons Through the air our thoughts are tied When we are both alone A channel shared, a voice inside Keeps you close to home The times between, when we don’t hear Your simple day-to-day So much unseen, you still are near You’ve gone, but you stay O, the heartbeats fathers and sons See the glory of fathers and sons Through the years we’re hand in hand Footprints as a path A way was cleared to understand That this connection lasts As heavens turn, and learning grows And burdens weigh you down Our light still burns, our baby knows Where safety can be found O, the heartaches of fathers and sons See the glory of fathers and sons Years from now when thoughts have died And you are on your own A remnant of the light inside Reminds you of home A light that burns, though fading now A warming after glow A light returned, to yours endowed To live the love we know O, the heart makes us fathers and sons See the glory of fathers and sons |
The man in the islands The man in the islands holds all the cards Seeing beyond the shore He lives in the weather where life is hard Where none of us wants to go Waits for a story to tell the truth Happy to take his time Never use two words where none will do Waits for the prose to shine Writing for shirts buttoned without ties In search of a public face Imagining how someone with his eyes Appears to a finer taste Dreaming of Vikings in open seas Dreaming of Celtic haze Weaving with time as he paints his frieze Letting the voices say Hard to unravel his secret aims Running beneath his eyes Changing the rules as he plays the game Waiting for closer rhymes The sea rushes in and removes the waves Parting the empty sands Gone to the peace that his nature craves Safe in his mother’s hands |
Land and sea Earth shakes man he holds the side Back from where the fathers lie Back from where the ground was home Face the east where cliffs are thrown Fathers did what fathers knew Sons were raised kept nothing pure Mothers raised the heirs of land Men and women hand in hand Cast beside the rock and shore Lost, betraying life before Learning how to live again Starting where the record ends Stand before the mast and see Men who bind to you are free Stand before them, show the way Men who follow come the day Go down to the sea to find Life lives in the waters blind Life to bring back home again Life is growing, silver rain Scream the storm and fear the sea Wonders that he brought to be Souls melt children fear the king Home at peace the angels sing |
Arizona High on the Conino plateau Here is Flagstaff Arizona Oak creek with its painted mesas In the east the painted deserts Smell of pine pervades, perfuses Red Conino sandstone houses Dudes kick spurs and drink cool beer While blacks and Mexicans cut timber Walking though Arizona Spending a year on my own Leaving an old world behind me Finding pleasure in being alone Walnut canyon disappears behind Along the interstate 89 Finding Mormon homes in Pine Creek Houses scarred, reserved and lonely Little people water orchards Tend their animals roaming free Ignoring tourists in the summer Ignoring hunters in the fall Walking though… Tonto natural bridge approaches Travertine fills pine creek canyon Payson on the frontier still Low grade rodeos and cowboys Rye and Maztal, Tonto basin Roosevelt Lake provides the ending Little town that serves the water Below the waves the settlers crossing Walking though… |
The tall blonde Beat your breaking heart Dance your twisted ways Don’t play to the crowd Don’t compromise first Don’t cultivate praise Sweet but rebel mood Time passed in the breach Time didn’t do harm Time filtered the good How long How long to Loftholdingswood The dance is done We cried for years The pink skinned man saw truth in our tears Your fragile skin Was conscience clear You paid each kiss with the veil of your tears Green, grey, blue the strings Six years minor keys Draw pictures of pain Draw milk from the pail Draw blood when you please Bleed your angry mood Make other men dance Makes enemies cry Like enemies should How long How long since Loftholdingswood The anger’s cold In all these years The tall blonde girl never wanted his tears Your fragile sound Brings winter cheer You caught our throat with the veil of your tears |
13 DIFFICULT LESSONS |
Cool He’s so Eurovision Simple tunes that hide precision Clever words to hurt her feelings Girls, they don’t mind when you’re cool He outshines Apollinaire He brings out the doll in her Tells her words are incidental Girls wait in line when you’re cool And all around her she hears laughter She never feels the heat from boys Rose-tinted lenses ever after Poupée de cire, poupée de son She’s so controversial Inciting teenage rituals Wants her boys on motorcycles To be in line and be cool He sings life as miserable Golden Lights are irresistible Brings her back for new attention And she’s in line to be cool His heart is full when he’s singing He knows that love is not in songs Takes forbidden pleasures while he’s winning Canon de cire, canon de son He’s so uncontrollable Talking back but staying lovable Knows his mind keeps him attractive Likes to be told he is cool She wants to live inside her singing He put the sun inside her hair Borrowed sun and roses are not living Chouette de cire, chouette de son He’s so influential Miteux and continental Given love and understanding That’s what it’s like to be cool |
The red shadow Change the green into black and white Purge the night with permanent red Landscape razed, only seen in flight Raise a model town to the dead Keep a hammer safe for a bigger fight Keep the shadow under the bed The fire rages perpetual heat Monsters swallow and kneel The ribbon runs in perpetual sheets The blades cut square in the steel It’s all the music they ever hear A dismal human lament The noise is loud but the tune is clear Solid, pounding, intent From a green hill industry looks so small To witness, stop and receive The heads and horns of the form that falls From a height where angels can breathe A welcome silence, a louder call Revelation, future, believe The fire rages… |
Assembly All these years Meeting here In our place Just like every time You talking Me listening Smiling face Wrapped in all your lines When I saw you go away I thought that this was over But it’s just the same today Girls like you Are so few And you’re mine Ears are all I need Good and bad Times you had Held the line I follow your lead Never thought you were the one Grew between the others In my sky always the sun Time goes by Hours fly We’re here still Wrapped in others’ sound Now I know you’ll never go Others still deserve you I still see your goodness grow Time to go We both know ‘Bye until Back to claim our ground |
Scarred by love Who could harm her when they see He was as fair, as any in his position can be The future is done, they wait for the past to return Addicts to affection, abstainers from time She could hope but he could see Lying in peace, who can dance as fine as we Darkness appears, the mood goes from sadness to fear No more affection, the end of their time Lying in peace, here is love And it has left her scarred Here is love, interim needs And they have left her scarred She is blinded, he can see Closeness remains, but empty when love disappears Hard to believe, something so fair was conceived Voices against him, a victim of time Lying in peace… They will conquer, they will see Counting the days, till it’s done and they are free You can’t look back, just replacing emotion with facts Absent affection, love wasted by time Lying in peace… Leaves leave the trees The church/view outside the window clears And wonder why it took these years To stop time |
Four times on the floor I can hardly recognise the faces Smiling at the things that you have done Changing rules and men and changing faces Making sure that you’re the only one You never thought that this could be so easy You pushed the wall and it came tumbling down History and fate hand out the prizes If you make the acts outdo the sounds Making life uneasy for the brothers Deaf to your ideas and banging drums The’ve got you, how could they love another They don’t appreciate how far they’ve come You never thought… Spin the words and make a good impression Don’t be too precise in what you say Four times on the floor’s a heavy lesson Keep the faithful warm from day to day You never thought… |
Time alone There’s room in the attic to sing about lives And show their poetry There’s more to be said and the eloquence hides The life that chains you here The nights are too long as you wait for the spring And end unconsciously Time alone brings fear There’s room in her life for the letters you made And where the rest is shown There’s more that she needs than the lines that evade And leave the truth unknown The days are too long and she waits for your call So you can live in stone Time alone brings fear Only observing preserving oblique Only unhappy in attitude speaks What will survive is the record we see Time alone brings fear There’s room for the others to retell the life And miss the poetry The man in the fire, the list of asides Are who you used to be The emphasis changes, the legacy slides But what they still don’t see Time alone brings fear Only observing… |
The dance of the black mouse Facing danger in every action Hoarding compliments, hiding treasure Never mentioned in your dispatches Always waiting on your displeasure Flirting, flattering, fighting, friendly None so busy, with no assisting What you value is small and empty Your achievement has hollow ringing Time imagining left excluded Find the weakness and help survival Then you realise what is stupid My deliverance, my arrival |
