Your Home…

In a graveyard of discarded trains and railspikes,
I chased your ghost till daylight came my dear.
Like a butterfly just out of reach you eluded me, and with slurred speech
you cursed my birth and my every living year.

I’ve grown so tired of chasing you.
I’ve grown so weary.
Thank God I’ve found you.

My God is your God,
your home is my home,
and your want is my pleasure.

2nd Song of the Architect

Here I’ve sat for these grueling weeks
watching the days go by,
recounting when paper jumped to pen,
and graphed its own design.

This pen is dead in my hands.
This paper is limp on my desk.
Every attempt at beauty is failure.
I am no architect at best.

I’ll smile when I’ve made something so beautiful
the sky cries when it meets her tender lines.
I’ll smile and I’ll smile.

The greatest of arches point inward.
The tallest towers stand on their own.
There is no beauty in independence.
There’s no romance in being alone.

Well here I’ve sat watching these clouds sail,
shifting like jelly fish fly,
and thinking these cities look so small
under the big sky.

This pen is dead in my hands.
This paper is limp on my desk.
Every attempt at beauty is failure.
I am no architect at best.

Silhouettes

Keep the lights down low.
Silhouettes bring confidence and peace to me.
I’ll only tell you what you’d know
from a careful glance or a greeting by chance,
less I lose the romance
of an altogether admirable man.

I have fashioned a marble image
of everything I’d like you to see.
Without the things I hate about me.

This is all that I am.
I am all that I am.
If I accept this, I am free,
In mind, In body.

So don’t ask; I won’t tell.
Just read the insert of the c.d. in the player
because the player’s got it figured out,
with all the hype and the hooks but the facts left.

I have fashioned a marble image
of everything I’d like you to see.
Without the things I hate about me.

Captain

There is a layer of clouds between me and you,
that block out the sun,
a thousand ways to break my heart,
but I’m stuck on one.

Shotgun my pleas to heaven,
deep down I know you’re there,
but tonight my heart is heavy.
I really need you here.

This is mine; I claim this.
Your promises sustain me.
Like captain bound to ship,
I’d rather sink than swim.

There are fifteen steps from here to my bed.
I’m so tired my vision is blurring.
Your voice rings clear in my head.
Tonight sleep will elude me.

Shotgun my pleas to heaven,
deep down I know you’re there,
but tonight my heart is heavy.
I really need you here.

These idols,
not of gold,
but of flesh and blood.
These idols,
oh I know,
they’ll break my heart.

I’d rather sink then swim.

Beautiful Like Words

Your blessings are flowing
like words from a poets mouth.
Each blessing, lovingly,
scripted into my life
like words, set for best effect.

My life is poetry.
Part of the greatest library.
Our Author knows us all by heart
because His love is for his art,
and we are beautiful.
We are beautiful.
We are beautiful like words,
Like honest words.

My life is poetry.
Part of the greatest library.
Our Author knows us all by heart
because His love is for his art,

Sunshiney Day

Sunshine. Sunshiney day.
My lover, she ran away.
The note left on the table read,
“I won’t be back unless I’m dead
because I hate this place.
P.S. I hate your face.”

Sunshine. Sunshiney day.
I took a walk to clear my head
to the super market for day old bread
to feed the birds because they don’t care
about what they eat or what they wear.
Sunshine. Sunshiney day.

I won’t come begging back. No.
I won’t come crawling back, nonono.
I won’t come begging back to you.
You left me anyway.

The Sea has Taken My Darling Away.

My darlings eyes shame the skies.
The sea grew jelous of their gaze,
and raging waters cannot be calmed
by a lovely face or a woman’s charm.

They pulled her down to the bottom.
Her eyes can’t see the light of day.
They pulled her down to the bottom.
The sea has taken my darling away.

Return to me strong Poseidon
from the sea my darling,
and I swear, I swear you’ll never see us again.
We’ll never see the sea again.

My darling sat at the bottom
of the sea and wept for her misfortune,
but raging waters cannot be soothed
by a saddened face or a woman’s mood.

They kept her there, below the submarines,
where no man could ever go.
They kept her there, where no fish is seen.
Tears and water are all she’ll know.

You’re Always Guiding

Sweetest Jesus, I am so tired.
I want to close my eyes and wake up next to You.
I’m dreaming of those golden streets.
I’m dreaming of those pearly gates.
I’m dreaming of the harmonies we’ll sing.

Sweetest Jesus, I am so tired.
I want to close my eyes and wake up next to You.

You are my hope when I have given up,
and when I’ve given up on You, You wait for me.
You’re always waiting.

You are my strength when I’ve no strength to stand,
and when I’m lost You hold my hand and guide me.
You’re always guiding.

3rd Song of the Architect

As far as I go, I’ll never ever make beauty on my own.
With sky as backdrop, the foreground’s grandeur is forgot.
In failure I realize, I only really failed because the way I tried.
As far as I go, I’ll never ever make beauty on my own.

With smoke stacks I’ll adorn the skies.
Plumes of steam billowing,
and over cityscapes they’ll rise
as rain clouds, storm clouds.

Hallelujah.

I Still Hate New Hampshire.

It’s the day before August and summer is waning.
It’s festival weekend and it’s just started raining.
It’s one more reason to hate this state,
with its noisy kids filling venues that don’t pay.

Across the parking lot I catch your eye.
No girl should stay wet if I can keep her dry.
I say, “Hey there,” you say “Hey fella,
you going my way? Want to share that umbrella?”

I say, “ok.”

Up until now I’ve never noticed
how cute you are.
How cute you are.
Rhonda, I like you.

Firm Foundation

He and she and I will share
the strongest bond of any pair
of pillars on a firm foundation.
The rain may fall
and the waters swell.
A weaker house would not fair well.
We’re on a firm foundation.

My love is gentle,
like daffodils in the breeze.
I’ve been missing her
one day less three weeks.

I’ll be back my love.
I’ll be back for you soon.
The bloody queen herself
could not keep me from you.

He and she and I will share
the strongest bond of any pair
of pillars on a firm foundation.
The rain may fall
and the waters swell.
A weaker house would not fair well.
We’re on a firm foundation.

I’ve been wandering
from London to the Black Mountains.
Ain’t seen nothing
to coax me from you darling.

Let’s run away together.
Let’s build a home together.
If we’re poor, we’re poor together,
but we’ll never be alone together.

He and she and I will share
the strongest bond of any pair
of pillars on a firm foundation.
The rain may fall
and the waters swell.
A weaker house would not fair well.
We’re on a firm foundation

feet tied to the ground,
and what You set no man can claim,
so who am I to be afraid.
When every other house is falling down,
we are safe with You.
Dragged out to sea they’ll soon be drowned.
We are safe with you.

Open Coast

Stretched across this continent I’m home.
Boston to Las Angeles I’ll roam.
I’ve fallen in love with each coast for a reason.
These reasons so rooted I can’t choose between them. No.

Pacific’s coast is so open.
You ain’t seen it’s waters; you ain’t seen the ocean.
I’m trying so hard here I can hardly keep up.
I’m breaking my back, but it’s barely enough…for you.

Home is where the heart is,
and my heart I gave to you.
Wherever you may lead
I will follow suit.

We packed our vans in the summer
of 1998.
I swear each year that I return,
not a thing has changed.

Because time stands away from me,
and I am always changing.
Everything is just the same
save a few more lanes on the highway.