Wanderlust

I sat down to eat
A continental breakfast
That was by the water in
Some hotel I’m not sure where
When I heard her singing
A woman I’ve never met before
Did she work here?
Does everybody here sing?
Birds sing so people should too

She was singing loud in public
It was beautiful and
No one said anything about it
As if it was natural to do so
She continued with songs
I also enjoyed and felt like
Nobody knew so I joined in
Harmonizing occasionally
And then she was gone

But a man took her place
He too began to sing
Beautifully and loud
I thought about the last time
I sang
I couldn’t remember when
I also joined him
Looking around to see
Was anybody watching?
This was normal behavior
Around these parts?
He smiled and got up

I stood up from my table and
Found my friends sister
Laughing holding her sides
On a bench rolling about
I asked where did she go?

She said she wanted to go shopping
But she was running all over the place
I knew her memory had gone
Which made her a little unpredictable
But I loved her so
I was going to find her

I turned to see her coming down
A hallway arm in arm with a friend
Would she remember me?
Her hair looked just as I had been
Styling it for her
Pink and curly
As she was turning to go
Into the main room
She saw me

We made eye contact
Her arms went up
And we embraced
As if our whole bodies fit together
Perfectly in this moment
Two halves of a whole

Everyone applauded loudly
It was a hug that continued on
For so long that some of the cheers
Died down but there was
Still the occasional “Whoo!”
Amidst the silence
A never ending hug
Just hanging there
Suspended in the air
With one another
And uncontrollable tears

© GÄ

Ambigram

I tried to draw an ambigram
With my mind in my dreams
And otherwise to paint a picture
That could be seen and understood
From all sides day and night
Conscious and unconsciously
Below the moon above the sun
Upside down and right side up
I found the liquid in my cup
Travelling sideways every time
I wanted to create something to
Believe the writing on the walls
Would not lead me to deceive
Myself again hot or cold
Spicy or plain the whole engagement
Left me saying to myself,
“My heart couldn’t take it again.”

But in the mornings as I showered
Your memory gleaned and glowered
Like a fantasy or a fairytale
One of my elders read to me in
A library somewhere or in a bed
Before I lay me down to get some rest
And inevitably comes the morn’
And breaks the dawn and so the
Wanting and the longing and the warnings

Beware you cost yourself a lifetime of
Unloving for one occasional drop of honey
And the wet pillows that you left behind
Tear soaked should stand to be reminded
Of the sadder times you’d never quite
Caught on to realize would be the precedent
The winning factor the pine cones kicked around
Frozen fingers to the bone
Underneath one hundred blankets
Just to keep warm for all you wanted
Was to be loved

And when it ebbs and flows
It comes and goes it leaves you
With the worst of what recovering
From what you wanted
Then you had
Now it’s gone

That’s the way it is unwritten
In the song of our delusion

© GÄ

Inside

Separate heart from head
As long as you have to
When you carry a weapon
You’re not being a happy person
You’re looking to protect yourself
Or get into something
For my own sanity
I step back into the light
Take back broken pieces
Of my soul welding them fast
Burning them bright
Is it ridiculous to think that
We could find peace
Anywhere else than
Standing at the edge of a wishing well?
The story that I write
The history that I live to tell
Says farewell to the backside
Of impoverished heartbeats
As the leaves are turning
So is my body and the
Welfare of my nature
Internal song is a personal lyric

© GÄ

Can You Hear

Can you hear the song
The way that I hoped when I sent it
Can you feel my love
The way that I meant when I sent it
Can you understand me when
I look at you with silent eyes
Does the sun rise in your heart
When I send you all my sparks
Can you feel the heat in the ground
When I’m dancing with my feet
Thump thump pound pound lo lo
Love is the sound that we’re making
Love is the rhythm we’re creating
Isn’t the passion excruciating
Thump thump pound pound lo lo
Loves’ echoes shaking your body
Embracing you tightly
Morning and nightly
The sun’s shining brightly
Embracing you tightly
Morning and nightly
The sun’s shining brightly
Walking beside you keeping up
With your love if I’m high or I’m sober
Run with that feeling over and over
In my mind you’re in my mind
My body is your body can you feel
My sincerity trusting me
Waterfall all over you

© GÄ

Deathsong

No longer go on
No lingering on
Gliding towards the cliff
A romance with the edge
Could end the self torture
Eliminate the inability
To please them all
Eventually get over it
It feels so insurmountable
How many days are we
Counting waking up
On how many fingers
Is the blame numbered
Could’ve done it better
Didn’t do it right
The night before
The day before
Settle the score
Can’t turn back the clock
Wish I may, Wish I might
Lights go out tonight
No longer go on
No lingering on
No more waking up
Wishing that I didn’t
Just don’t wake up
At all no need to
Break the fall
Find my thick skin
Deathsong all night long
Deathsong calls the caw
Crawling away from
My insides want to
Erase all the feelings as
Though my existence is
Causing more harm
Than good one thing
Goes wrong it piles on
In a glorious chorus
The voice is crucified
Find my thick skin
Deathsong all night long
Deathsong lingering on
No longer go on like this
Death kiss death bliss
No more disappointing
No more vocally corroding
Those who listen
Peace from my mistakes
Stars that glisten
Breaks the fall
Releases it all
Sadness is still the
Purest form of suffocation

© GÄ

80’s Hair Metal

Love is a drug
It’s choking me to death
Love is a drug
And I can’t get out of bed
Love is a drug
It strangles me inside
Love is a drug
All the sleepless nights
I can’t take it no more
But I still want you baby
Love is a drug
Can’t stop thinking ‘bout you baby
Love is a drug
And it’s driving me insane
Love is a drug
If I go on like this baby
Love is a drug
I’ll be losing all restraint
I can’t take it no more
You’re the reason I’m saying
Love is a drug
(You know it’s true)
Love is a drug
(It’s after you)
Love is drug
(No place to hide)
Love is a drug
Get me off this ride!

© GÄ

Mixtape

When we’re ready to
Give it up
Say goodbye
Flip the script and pick
Side A or side B

Like charades falling apart
I’m looking through your eyes
From where I stand
Look at these possessions
That I presented
For you to love

Can I listen to this tape
And pretend that you’re there
Would it be the same if you were?
Will it sound better without you

All the stories that are sung
Chapter by chapter
Verse to verse
Can I listen
Can I watch
Before the one
Who wants it shows up
I’m arriving
Now that it’s done
You’re the one I haven’t met yet
The one I haven’t slept with

Do you want this with me
Can I offer my cassette
I couldn’t want more
Nothing more for what we would

To make love with a mixtape

© GÄ

Falls the Notes

I’ll write a sacred song for you
I’ll hum a reverent tune
Make music from my heart for you
Sing as the crocus bloom
My mind is awfully occupied
Of dreaming about you
A phenomena that even I
Cannot seem to unscrew
This is a lifelong passion longing
A chain reaction to be told
To all the thoughts
I’ve written down
To sing the lyrics of age old
To finally find your listening ears
And serenade you with the sounds
That hold you close to me for once
To sing the words in lyric rounds
That make you feel secure
To chip away the outer bark
That must protect you from the brutes
To soothe the heaviness of life
To sing a psalm I wrote for you
A tune that you can always carry
Throughout time where’er you roam
Where’er your boots may climb about
Where’er you’re walking into town
I’ll write a sacred song for you
To remember in your heart
Let your voice box tremble sweetly
Let the leaves that rustle play
In the trees the branch wood instrumental
Clicking drums the pace
Sit beside me on this bench
Rest your head in open lap
Let me comb my fingers round your crown
O’er your head so nicely found
Falls the notes
Of true loves magic
Falls the notes
Of dreamy sounds
Falls the miracle
Of music in a divinating sound

© GÄ

I Wrote A Song

Pleasing and perfect
My transformed will
Freed from the patterns
Of this world
I walk through a kind of
Corridor of love
Even towards the ones
That don’t seem
To deserve it
Who can judge the
Public heart
There is a sphere of sympathy
Wondered thereupon
Standing completely
Unhooked and resisting
Unhallowed uncertainty
The stars ring passionately
Healing bruises by a
Brighter pleasure
And you
Like to dance?
I wrote a song for you
A hidden source of music
Exploring every crevice
In nature
Fatal eye contact
Your conscious gift
Is my happy sound

© GÄ

Wheat Song

A witness that reflects
What has been
Passage to and from every cell
Arriving and existing
Counting the extraordinary
Hairs on your head

Five sparrows sold
For the encumbrance
Of your love is still not enough
Resounding in the sound
Of a refuge ever present
I tell myself
Drive right through it
That hollow darkness
Whisper in this mouth
Shaking wearily as we
Shadow box the backroads
In a triumph forever
Cultivating laughter
The yellow canary sings
To meet us graciously
At the roots
Of every tree
Reaching quietly
Into the absence
Of our bodies
As they once were
In the golden rustling fields
Sung sweet with wheat

© GÄ