Living Better

Some days I wake up

My heart is aching

I don’t know, I don’t know how to fix it

The sky in my mind is heavy with clouds

The sun has turned it’s face from

That’s when I look for your voice

I feel your arms around me

You help me find my strength

O brother I’m trying to live better

Get to my feet

Raise the blind

Take a razor to the hairs on my face

Lift my burden to my shoulders

I’ll carry it for you and me

That’s when I look for your voice

I feel your arms around me

You help me find my strength

O brother I’m trying to live better 

The Dogs of God

Heavy is here on the mountain
Where I am slipping away
Heaven was you in the valley
Running free on a spring day in May

Oh sweet Margie,
Lay beside me
And I’ll whisper in your ear

Go tell Saint Roch
No more I’ll walk
And could I lie with the Dogs of God?

I think of the times that you stood by
I think of still calling your name
I remember the feeling of freedom
As we stood in the fields of Spain

From Alabama
Oscar came and
Lived like he dug winter’s bone

Come down St Roch
By the collar
Pull him up to the Dogs of God

In the morning
Golden Basil
You weren’t waiting by the gate

Laid underneath
The cherry tree
I saw you rise with the dogs of god

So I’ll come down to you in the morning
As the sun kisses your golden hair
I’ll come down to you in the evening
In the breeze of the cool mountain air

Oh sweet lady
If by evening
I’m not waiting by your gate

Then bury me
By the old tree
May I run with the dogs of god
May I run with the dogs of god
May you run with the dogs of god
May you run with the dogs of god

Change or Die

On Earth we’re briefly gorgeous 
Connecticut gray 
Wraps me in its carcass  
Where the fall meets fall from grace 
I’ll never come up with a life hack or anything to save me from this place 
Nah 
I seek change not a savior 
Some days living off loose change in the sofa 
Don’t know the exact day that I became a grown up 
Just know it was too soon 
Live quick like a throw up 
Graffiti or the bile 
Since I was a child 
Been breathing wild style 
From heaters to the dome 
To cooking rock  on stoves 
With black & gold  kings as kid 
to make a few bones  
Like 
Jack Skellington 
Mother fought hard to give us everything she did 
Nightmares still stick to skin 
Like my sins 
And fucked up plenty times but tough like Ocean 
Vuong 
Don’t ever say the homie’s soft 
Mother is a hoarder 
Mother raised a boss 
Never disrespect me in my city little cop 
I promise you the ending won’t  be pretty 
So stop 
Baby 
I’m a Hartford Wells Fargo heist 
1983 
Swimming 
In my dirty blood for life 
Trying to get free 
Boricua Machetero in my soul 
Independent as fuck 
Company Flow

Carry Me

Go on, sweet gift of grace.  
Step into the light
sorrows heavy on my back
as I walk through this dark night

I guess Ive seen the other side
I get from my Mother
She’d go dancing with the faery kind
she would love me like no other

these times they get the best of me
and feelings take their toll
but everynight I lay it down
and sink into my soul
I sink in to my soul

Cary Me, over the hill
say a prayer
to keep me still

This lonliness, a pale freind
I know will some day shine
I sink inside the daydream
that I knew was never mine

So i called upon an unseen thing
And it shook loose at my core
something deep inside me
That id never felt before

I wandered in the wilderness
It almost broke my heart
i asked for all your mercy
if again I fall apart
 again i fall apart

Carry Me, over the hill
say a prayer
hold me still

If I fall
you know I will

Carry Me, Over the hill 

Thresholds

Leave me here
Beneath the moment
To tend the distances
Disappearing

I am the night
Drawing closer
Skyward, the silences
An entrance opening

Move the silver
Plough the fields
Of darkness
A homeland

Return Return Return

The wound permits the light
The portrait re-surfaces
An open window
Love held eternal

A state of change
Barefoot,
Beyond the trees
The moon appears again

Move the silver
Plough the fields
Of darkness
A homeland

Return Return Return

TND

VERSE

Prayers to fill the silence of the void

Notions of control have been destroyed

When enveloped and caressed

Doubt collapses under its duress

CHORUS

It goes on and on and on and on, we go,

We start and stop, we speed and slow

Now we know we're all we ever had

We all worship idols good and bad 

VERSE

Preaching to the prophets in the crowd

Heretics and loyals all allowed

Every leader's worshipped like a God

Hanging on the words they offer us

CHORUS

We go on and on and on and on, we go,

We offer up, we cast below

Do we know we're all we ever had?

When we worship our idols good and bad 

REPEAT VARIATIONS

Lost Connections

I’m sad today but I don’t need a pill to make it go away

It’s not my brain, there’s a bigger story to why I’m not ok 

home should be the place where people notice you’re not there

Sanity is having a few friends that I can share my burdens with 

Plant a garden with

Please, believe that the world is a safe place for you, and everyone else feels the same way too

Still something’s lost

Society is disconnected from the heart 

It’s no one’s fault

Instead of pointing fingers could we open up our arms

Together we’ll remember that we’re more than just our thoughts 

Depression is a chasm that you can not crawl across 

All by yourself, if you need some help 

Please, believe that the world is a safe place for you, and everyone else feels the same way too 

Destiny

Everything's the same everything changes

As the sun burns behind the ranges

I think of my language and my nation

Sad times and celebrations 

The father I am 

Where I've been I still don’t understand

Don’t tug too hard on the line my friend

Gotta wear out some shoes

Give your destiny time to find you 

Cold winter time in Boston

But I'm warm here by the fire

We all live young forever

And we all fade away with the weather

Into the water gently wade

All your debts left paid and unpaid 

You made the medicine here it’s true

Give your destiny time to find you 

A forest gone a crying shame 

But with a new seed and a bit of sun and rain 

We can turn around the darkest pain my friend

Through the rock water flows

Where we’ll end up I don’t know

But you don’t have to push out now into the blue 

Give your destiny time to find you

Give your destiny time to find you

Give your destiny time to find you

Hold On

 Weave yourself a way out of this cave

The water's rising to your feet

The hours speed and time is ticking

All alone you started out but

Listen to the breeze the sky is

Coming in to see how you are doing

Hold on

Open-eyed and eager you have

Followed every siren now you're

Stuck here in the dead and born and gone

Small and silent hands are waiting

Simply say the word, oh there is

Reason to believe the morrow's dawn

Hold on

And in and out the needle goes

The rise, the fall, the rest, the note

The in between, the never seen

And out and in the tidal waves

The pull, the push, the knife, the blade

The marks we make, the line won't break

Hold on

Hold on

Are You Gonna Rise? (For LeVar)

If you get that call are you gonna rise?

If you get that call are you gonna rise?

If you hear their cries are you gonna rise?

If you get that call are you gonna rise?

If the children sing will you harmonise?

If the children sing will you harmonise?

If you hear their cries are you gonna rise?

If you hear their song are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

If fate comes in disguise will you recognize?

If you hear their call are you gonna rise?

If the ancestors call are you gonna rise?

If the ancestors call are you gonna rise?

If you hear their cries are you gonna rise?

If the ancestors call are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

If fate comes in disguise are you gonna rise?

If you hear their call are you gonna rise?

It echoes from the skies are you gonna rise?

It echoes from the skies are you gonna rise?

All the birds and butterflies, and all the stars in the skies?

If you hear their song are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

Are you gonna rise?

If fate comes in disguise will you recognize?

If you hear their cries are you gonna rise?

If you hear their cries are you gonna rise?

If you hear their cries are you gonna rise?

Time is a River

 

Time is a river

Rushing by my door 

I hear the babble

Hidden inside the roar

The mystery of existences

Dances in my dreams

Closing the distances

Nothing's what it seems

The call of possibility

Gives me the courage to be free

To open up my mind's eye

To see what I can see  

And I don't have to go there

Cos I'm already here

On the road to nowhere as it disappears

When I'm feeling low down

Like I'm just about near the end

I listen to the sound and it picks me up

And takes me home again

Takes me home again

Takes me home again

With songs of another world

Painting pictures in my mind

Travelling towards infinity

I leave this world behind

I don't need a TV screen 

To carry me away

I've got Frieda, Jack and Mojo Sam

To take me where they may

And I don't have to go there

Cos I'm already here

On a moving road to nowhere as it disappears

When I'm feeling low down

Like I'm just about near the end

I listen to the sound and it picks me up

And takes me home again

Takes me home again

Takes me home again

They say a picture's worth a thousand words

But for me I know that isn't so

Cos the pictures come to me in a woven tapestry

Of audio

On the radio

Change or Die

On Earth we’re briefly gorgeous
Connecticut gray
Wraps me in its carcass  
Where the fall meets fall from grace
I’ll never come up with a life hack or anything to save me from this place

Nah

I seek change not a savior
Some days living off loose change in the sofa
Don’t know the exact day that I became a grown up
Just know it was too soon
Live quick like a throw up

Graffiti or the bile
Since I was a child
Been breathing wild style
From heaters to the dome
To cooking rock  on stoves
With black & gold  kings as kid
To make a few bones  

Like

Jack Skellington
Mother fought hard to give us everything she did
Nightmares still stick to skin
Like my sins
And fucked up plenty times but tough like Ocean Vuong

Don’t ever say the homie’s soft
Mother is a hoarder
Mother raised a boss
Never disrespect me in my city little cop

I promise you the ending won’t  be pretty
So stop

Baby
I’m a Hartford Wells Fargo heist
1983
Swimming
In my dirty blood for life
Trying to get free

Boricua Machetero in my soul
Independent as fuck

Company Flow 

She's a Teacher

I can see you, bright as the sun

Oh you're a teacher, yea she's a teacher

Clear as I see

Wave after wave, space after space

Oh She's a teacher, yea she's a teacher

Taking the lead

In a million pieces, my thoughts dissolve

Time is an ocean, my body's a sail

It's illuminating, and I feel so small

Hold hands with creation, a profound ideation

Color me pink, color me black

Oh she's a teacher, yea she's a teacher

keep me on track

Is it the drugs, or is it in me

Or are you my teacher, oh you're a teacher

Clear as I see

Painted on the ceiling, show me what you mean

Glitter and thunder, pulls me down under

Tell me how much further, my brain can stretch

Hold hands with creation, a profound ideation

Hold hands with creation 

Threads

 A book is never just a book

there's always a backstory

an uphill climb that's overlooked

or something grim and gory 

Someone had to find the pieces

and put them together

Write a letter, get on a plane, go out and find the answers

There's so many stories to be told

all the threads that connect us

so many things we can't control 

all the different perceptions

Gotta let perfection go 

before it breaks us

On your desk, something grotesque

we hold hidden seasons

a paperweight, the skull of a snake

tell me all your reasons

So many stories to be told

all the threads that connect us

so many things we can't control 

all the different perceptions

Gotta let perfection go 

before it breaks us

It's okay to take some time

have the room to yourself

to make up your mind

Every look is just a look

we get to share the stages

take what we know and what we learn

and read between the pages

So many stories to be told

all the threads that connect us

so many things we can't control 

all the different perceptions

Gotta let perfection go 

before it breaks us

Rest Between Breaths

 CHORUS
 
C Am F
What the world needs now is a rest
G
Between breaths
C Am F
All the world needs now is a rest
G
Between breaths
 
G
 
Verse
F
When you’re feeling upside down
G
If you’re longing for higher ground
C
Might be with you all along
F
Just a breath to bring you home
 
Am
Butterflies and bumblebees
C
Feel the wind move through the trees
F
Settle with the flow of life
G
Finding treasures deep inside
 
CHORUS
What the world needs now is a rest
Between breaths
All the world needs now is a rest
Between breaths
 
One chorus Instrumental (theme) C Em F G
 
VERSE
Some might say that we are lost
Overwhelmed with such exhaust
Let each breath restore your soul
As you share that inner glow.
 
Butterflies and bumblebees
Feel the wind move through the trees
Settle with the flow of life
Finding treasures deep inside
 
Chorus Instrumental (theme)
 
MIDDLE
Am
Where you go
Em
Now here you are
F
You found yourself
G
You come so far
 
Em
There you are
Am
Now here you were
F
All this time
G
Glowing in stir
 
Dm Am Em F
There you’ll find..... me
 
 
CHORUS x2
C Dm Am Fm
 
Dm Em/C F G
 
C Dm F G
 
Am G F
 
 

Riane (Made For Love)

You were raised in domination

But there is another way babe

Take my hand and come with me

No bully boys or dictators father gods or fascist figures

No lords ladies or queens

Incels and redpills you aren’t wrong

You’re getting shafted all along

But don’t try and blame it on me

they ‘ve got you looking up and down

Instead of to those all those around

Who want to set you free

Riane Riane

Tells the story of man

And the truth about our creation

She’s seen enough

To know that love

Is the real wealth of nations

Well it can be real depressing

To see how we are regressing 

Into strongman theocracy 

They tell you it’s traditional 

But we know thats a load of bull

Their domination fantasies

From the homicidal bitchin that goes on in every kitchen over who serves and who eats (Like Leonard said)

There’s room enough for us all at the table if we’re willing if we’re able to give up hierarchy

Riane Riane 

Wrote the book on emancipation

She knows that love

Is the real wealth of nations

Tell me about sacred pleasure

The things that we do together

To give and to receive 

we don’t need force and coercion

Tainting erotic inclinations

Those movies or television

That destroys imaginations

And our relations

Cuz you were made for love

We know the time is running out

Our planets burning crying out 

For respect and for peace

She laid out all the facts about it

That war is just another tactic

Not our destiny

Riane is a hero of mine

She tells the truth and opened up my eyes

You were made for lo-o-o-ove

You were made for love

You were made for love

And that is enough

Storybook

This is a tale of life on planet earth
This is the story of the story’s birth
I found the answer in a cartoon frame
I heard a song and so my future changed

You draw from life which I believe in
You tear down walls; you raise the ceiling
To save the world depends on slowing down
And standing up for those you care about

Color and line
Give and take time

You are the answer to the argument
Our power lies within our resonance
This is the tale of how you plant the seed
This is the tree of fruit empowering how we see 

Cathedral of Pine

I hold discarded bows
That held your hand like
I wish you had held mine.
In the dark, I taste the earth,
As the loon calls prayers
Into the night

Oh This is way
Of the chapel of light
Where the fire can grow
Something deep inside
Oh Take me away
To the cathedral of pines
Where my heart can be still
While the whippoorwill cries

The thrush it ducks and weaves
Through rose and lets me know
The sun has caught fire
Does he like me come here
to chase away his fear,
And ease a troubled mind

Oh This is way
Of the chapel of light
Where the fire can grow
Something deep inside
Oh Take me away
To the cathedral of pines
Where my heart can be still
While the whippoorwill cries

I count the breaths to take the shot,
The light is still, my heart is not
I dress him down, the hours wain
His tale, my day, The end the same

Because This is way
Of the cathedral of light
Where the fire will grow
Something deep inside
Go on and take me away
To the cathedral of the pines
Where my heart can be still
While the whippoorwill cries

Freedive

From the surface where

Light meets water

Breathe in, push down

To the deep where I am

Just creature

Just bone, just flesh

Just blood, just breath

What's a tear that falls 

Underwater

Just you, just me

What is weightlessness

With a stranger

Two hearts, one sea

Where I come from

We don't deserve your trust

What we're made of

We couldn't earn your love

Like a spring from the center of the ocean

Breathe in, push down

There's a gaze that can cut through my commotion

Breathe in, push down

What are words when two are

Beholding

Just you, just me

When the tear and wave are

Communing

Just salt, just sea

Where I come from 

We don't deserve your trust

What we're made of

We couldn't earn your love

Where I come from

We use our strength to crush

What would happen

If we received your trust?

All my days I dream of

Returning

Breathe in, push down

To the deep where I am

Just creature

Just bone, just flesh

Just blood, just breath

Credits:

"Breathe In" was written by, arranged and produced by Lowland Hum at Home Team Studio just north of Charlottesville, VA
All instruments and voices by Daniel and Lauren
Mixed and Mastered by Rick Parker
Artwork and layout by Lauren Plank Goans
Lowland Hum is Lauren Plank Goans and Daniel Levi Goans

"Breathe In" © Daniel Levi Goans Music ASCAP 2024 

Secondhand Lemonade

Don’t overthink it
Even if you feel like sinking
Time will tell the tales of tomorrow
Sorrow will only get you so far

Only get you so so so so so so far

And it’s easy to believe
That everything will be handed to you on a plate

And it’s easy to concede
To the doubt that’s rife
That pulls you down

But strengths comes
To those who wait
Stand strong
Believe in fate
Believe in fate
Believe in fate

Secondhand lemonade
Still tastes the fucking same
But they just throw it away like it’s nothing

Secondhand lemonade
Still tastes the fucking same
But they just throw it away like it’s nothing

Secondhand lemonade
Still tastes the fucking same
But they just throw it away like it’s nothing

(She grabbed my hand
Told me to stay
Asked me what I wanted
I didn’t know what to say)

Secondhand lemonade
Still tastes the fucking same
But they just throw it away like it’s nothing

(Moment like this
They define us
Rise above the noise
That confines us)

My mind is caged by the doubt you see
Suffocates these dreams
Tell myself I won’t succeed

And I’ve been living like this
I’ve been living like this
Far too damn long now
Trying to find my way out

But my mind is maze
Circus tent ablaze
Clowns running round my head like little birds
Cartoon confusion depicted

And I’ve been living like this
I’ve been living like this
Far too damn long now
Trying to find my way out

So it’s time to reset
No time for regret
Time to turn this story around

So I’m holding on
Just about
Praying something comes from all these lyrics that I shout

Please someone to take a chance on me

Please

Secondhand lemonade
Still tastes the fucking same
But they just throw it away like it’s nothing

Secondhand lemonade
Still tastes the fucking same
But they just throw it away like it’s nothing

Secondhand lemonade
Still tastes the fucking same
But they just throw it away like it’s nothing

(She grabbed my hand
Told me to stay
Asked me what I wanted
I didn’t know what to say)

Secondhand lemonade
Still tastes the fucking same
But they just throw it away like it’s nothing

(Moment like this
They define us
Rise above the noise
That confines us)

I found myself
Caught in a landslide
Troubled youth
I Troubled you  

I learnt my lines
You taught your lessons
Beneath the lights
Sat down in our comfort

People grow
People change
Brand new beginnings

It’s alright
To feel this pain
Don’t live within it

Don’t overthink it
Even if you feel like sinking
Time will tell the tales of tomorrow

Sorrow will only get you so far