Tuesday, 23 May 2023

Comedian

 My neighbor came to my door asking for a half a cup of sorrow

So that we might come to know each other better in the lull 

Between the air raid sirens and I asked her in for tea and then we 

Smiled there in the rubble of what used to be my home 

And sang the only song that really stands up

To the mess that men will make

When they are finished being sweet and gentle boys 

And then they rise up from the ashes of their innocence 

To break the world and then we all sing:


God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh


In Memphis Tennessee there is a window in a basement

Shining green tornado skies down on a bunkbed and a bookshelf

And the girl  who’s down there hiding from her high school full of zombies

While her grandpa’s on the back porch smoking weed and watching

All the skinny squirrels that chase each other up and down the scraggy maples

And if he would only tell her of the lover that he jilted

Then the two of them would understand that they are

Roughly the same person and sing


God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh


Have you ever been so wretched that you sat there with your oatmeal

And your coffee in a Starbucks and you cried alone in public

And then noticed every soul around you humming like an orchestra

Just warming up and then there was the hush before the first note 


God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh

Thursday, 27 April 2023

Peace on my mind

I know i am strong With peace by my side The story is power Will truth out in time? This one's for all The shame in our lives I need you to call me by my name I need you to let me be my way The story is power With peace by my side I know I am strong I know i'm alive Time and again Building a bridge Change happens when they hear what we did Build with the pen Building with stone Building with fire Building with bone Burdens are ugly The burden is real I know I am strong I know I will heal I know what I know Change happens this way We work from within It ripples away It ripples away We work from within We all gotta live If you felt under-loved And you're at the edge Call your nephew and niece By the name that they choose Be a sensitive man Put your skill to good use Go write a good book Go write a new song Go practice your love With everyone Make it all real Make it yourself Because you are here And you're nobody else This one's for all The love in your heart I know you are strong As I fall apart' This one's for all With peace by their side With peace in their heart And peace on their mind


Wednesday, 26 April 2023

Une ville avec un fleuve enterré

Une ville avec un fleuve enterré

Voilà la ville avec un fleuve enterré
Qui coule sous les pavés
Ciel de plomb
Bas en dessous de la place dorée
Bruxelles des années 80
Ma joie et mes remords

Dans le vidéo bar branché où
Sans un sou sur la rue
Des superstars inconnues
En longs manteaux noirs
 
Je suis assis sur une rive lointaine
Savourant ce chagrin ancien
Perdu dans la musique
Déformé par la musique
Posant dans le cimetière
Debout sous la pluie


A city with a buried river
 
Here is the city with a buried river
Which flows under the cobblestones
leaden sky
Down below the golden square
80s Brussels
My joy and my remorse

In the trendy video bar where
Without a penny in the street
Unknown Superstars
In long black coats

I sit on a distant shore
Savoring this ancient sorrow
lost in the music
Distorted by the music
Posing in the cemetery
Standing in the rain 

Tuesday, 18 April 2023

Dr Harries



Dr Harries I’d invite you to

Hear a song for you that I’ll sing

Though for real I’m shaking in my shoes

At the thought of you listening


Illuminating strands unseen

You helped to open up my mind

And ruminating on everything

You changed the way I look at life


Dr Harries you’re too cool for school

Letting us consume snacks and wine

As you deftly guide us through and through

Concepts fated to blow our minds


A timeless goat song, a rite of spring

At once the sacred and profane

And in the threshold nothing

Can ever truly be the same


Dr Harries I’m inspired by you

All the things you do to make us see

Just how real this life can be in truth 

Makes me glad it’s them, and not me

Monday, 27 March 2023

Recipe for something better

In a cupboard by the larder
I found an ancient book
With recipes and stories
And lots of things to cook

So meet me in the kitchen
We’ll brew some nettle tea
Then put on silly aprons
And get busy, you and me.

I’ll meet you in the kitchen
I’ll meet you where you are
We’ll bake something together
Why stop now, we’ve come this far?

We’ll start with preparations
And gather what we need
Once all is on the table
We’re ready to proceed

A bucket of acceptance
Warmed up by the brew
Sprinkle it with humour
It’s the start of something new

I’ll meet you in the kitchen
I’ll meet you where you are
We’ll bake something together
Why stop now, we’ve come this far?

So, easy on the ego
In fact, just let it be
It does nothing for the flavour
Replace with empathy

Mix up and let it simmer
Don’t burn and don’t reduce
A heart, all charred and scolded  
Is not of any use

I’ll meet you in the kitchen
I’ll meet you where you are
We’ll bake something together
Why stop now, we’ve come this far?

It’s a journey of perfection
The culinary art
Of baking a confection
To heal the human heart

Tuesday, 21 March 2023

Public land

We grew up on a dead end street out on the edge of town 

We didn’t have much land to call our own 

We had big dreams of the mountains and tall pines 

We needed those wild places we could feel it in our bones 


Every weekend Dad would take us to the forest to roam around 

We learned to hunt and fish just like he had planned 

It was as much a part of us as that house that’s we called home 

I thank god every time I step on public land 


Those hills were like a classroom they taught me all I know 

It wasn’t hard for me to understand 

Leave it better than you found it cause we only get one chance 

We have to be good stewards of the land 


Every weekend Dad would take us to the forest to roam around 

We learned to hunt and fish just like he had planned 

It was as much a part of us as that house that’s we called home 

I thank god every time I step on public land 


Meaning in the Moment

Everything you see is impermanent
Every last star in the firmament
Everyone you love or you ever met
Every single thought running through your head

Every setting sun, every morning mist
All the works of art and the sciences
Every “out of body” experience
Everything you see is impermanent

Try, try, try not to let it throw you
You know you can find
Meaning in the moment
Meaning in the moment

Every sweet song that you ever heard
Each turn of phrase, every perfect word
Every back corner of consciousness
Every single thing is impermanent

Try, try, try not to let it throw you
You know you can find
Meaning in the moment
Meaning in the moment

No one will remember us
When we return to sand and dust
But there’s one thing that you can trust
When you feel all alone
Meaning in the moment 

Sunday, 5 March 2023

Galileo - with a microscope

 (verse - G / C / Bb / F / Gm / G)

Trust yr gut and it will tell you
"Put your love in the ground"
Make amends with inside friends
Help them to feel at home

(chorus - E / C / A)
Galileo
Galileo
Galileo - with a microscope

Wobbling on the pottery wheel
Microbiome from Ma & Pa
Lord of the Flies meets Silent Spring
I'll be glad to wake from this Piscean dream

Galileo
Galileo
Galileo - with a microscope

(bridge - A / A / D / G / D / G / 
Tuned in by choice 
Had I not been in pain
Would I choose the same?
Dr. Natasha 
The worlds that you found
When you looked around
The Universe inside us

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride
I've got yr yellow book



LYRICS

Trust your gut and it will tell you
"Put your love in the ground"
Make amends with inside friends
Help them to feel at home

Galileo
Galileo
Galileo - with a microscope

Wobbling on the pottery wheel
Microbiome from Ma & Pa
Lord of the Flies meets Silent Spring
I'll be glad to wake from this Piscean dream

Galileo
Galileo
Galileo - with a microscope

Tuned in by choice
Had I not been in pain
Would I choose the same?
Dr. Natasha
The worlds that you found
When you looked around
The Universe inside us

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride
I've got your yellow book

Thursday, 16 February 2023

The new convention

VERSE
Am
A journey into moments
G
A journey out of mind
F
A journey through the possible
Em
Collated and entwined

Telescopic netherworlds
Portals into space
Hyperplexic Ferris wheels
Cut up and replaced

CHORUS
F                               C
Welcome to the new invention 
G                                        F
Where everyone is an artist - Why would anyone disagree?

It's dark inside the great convention
Exhibitors are reminded to be uniformly free

VERSE
Pixelated prophecies
Prompted into being
Will we ever be able to
Believe in what we're seeing

Artistic instability
Call it what you will
It comes without a warranty
And this is not a drill

CHORUS




LYRICS

A journey into moments
A journey out of mind
A journey through the possible
Collated and entwined

Telescopic netherworlds
Portals into space
Hyperplexic Ferris wheels
Cut up and replaced

Welcome to the new invention 
Where everyone is an artist - Why would anyone disagree?

It's dark inside the great convention
Exhibitors are reminded to be uniformly free

Pixelated prophecies
Prompted into being
Will we ever be able to
Believe in what we're seeing

Artistic instability
Call it what you will
It comes without a warranty
And this is not a drill

Welcome to the new invention 
Where everyone is an artist - Why would anyone disagree?

It's dark inside the great convention
Exhibitors are reminded to be uniformly free






VERSE

Gaudi employed everywhere
Buildings that you drink
See your world as psychedelic
Or etched in pen and ink

A self-curated comedy
Or an open-source asylum?
No a digital dystopia
My poor poetic Byron

Democratised - homogenised
It's spherical despair
Comfortably curled up inside
An avocado chair

Pixelated prophecies
Prompted into being
Outsourcing imagination
Believe in what we're seeing

Artistic insecurities
Melovolently mined
All this time a filter setting?
How awfully unkind

Thursday, 9 February 2023

Two Cokes for Paul Nelson

Two Cokes for Paul Nelson
(Murphy / Lethem / Stratford
These are the elements of a verse
Sherman cigarettes - but it gets worse
Footprints on the running board of his wall
And by the way his name was Paul
And let’s not talk of his fall … just yet

Oh starved to death – that’s what the tabloids say
But you know - I don’t see it that way
In fact for me - the opposite is true
Paul was a glutton for everything he loved and knew
From Orson Welles, Ross Macdonald, Howard Hawks, Raymond C, Chet B, PKD, and
Warren Z … oh The New York Dolls and me

So let’s take a seat at the Jackson Hole
Let’s raise two cokes and toast his soul
The soul of a man - our friend
Paul Nelson – Paul Nelson

A magnum forty-five and a snub-nose thirty-eight
But books can kill if you can’t get them straight
A paragraph, a sentence, to a starving mind
Some die for want of an opening line
Life on a shrinking editorial island
Paul couldn’t lie, he couldn’t lie

Hey Rod Stewart - bashed out on a lark
Typing as fast as Lester Bangs could bark
Paul the quiet man, living in a borrowed head
An enabler who couldn’t get out of bed
Marathon man in a hamburger booth
He told the truth, he told the truth - that’s Paul

Let’s take a seat at the Jackson Hole
Let’s raise two cokes to toast his soul
The soul of a man - our friend
Paul Nelson – Paul Nelson

Abiding mentor, with a guiding mind
Freeze-frame, isolate the details, and then rewind
A stickler for the director’s cut
His own mis-en-scene, he fell into a rut
Scraps on the cutting-room floor
Shut the door, shut the door, shut the door

Now somehow he lost his way and that’s a pity
But in the words of Norma Desmond
The movies got small not Paul not Paul not Paul not Paul

A drink at the Jackson Hole
Two cokes oh let’s toast his soul
The soul of a man
Our dear friend
Paul Nelson – Paul Nelson

The older you get, the more you live with ghosts
And that’s according to Nick Tosches
who’s now among them
And Paul …

Tuesday, 7 February 2023

Lagom

Strip the leaves
And pick out the flowers
Toast the seeds
And harness the flesh

May your cupboard
Be abundant with
Flavours and colours
And the produce you buy
Be exactly what you need

Not too much, Not too little,
Just right, Just right, Just right

No life is linear
All days are adventures
To enjoy or endure
And all food still matures
Without you in mind

One day you want pizza
The next you want pie
It’s kind of easy
If you eat what you buy

Not too much, Not too little,
Just right, Just right, Just right
Not too much, Not too little,
Just right, Just right, Just right

Wednesday, 1 February 2023

Always gonna be the same

I could spin a story that would make you freak
But I’m not thinking of ways to manipulate you - I don’t hate you
I just want you to enjoy your life
And I hope you’re a really good potato - Kato

I don’t wanna live in a stupid world
I don’t wanna live under their control
I don’t wanna buy all their useless shit
That should just be thrown in a giant pit
I don’t wanna be hooked on all these drugs
Pushed to fund someone's expensive rugs
I just wanna live and have some fun
I don’t need to feel like I have won

Cuz it’s gross
They’re lying to our faces

It’s a show
They stripped away their regulations

What we don’t know
Is that they multiplied their operations

So if we don’t vote
Then its always gonna be the same

Someone’s gotta play the adult in the room - with a broom
We can’t let these greedy fuckers take another dime - waste of time

I would rather be out on vacation - in another nation

But we seem to be living with some bad potatoes - Kato

I don’t wanna live in their stupid world
I don’t wanna live under their control
I don’t wanna buy all this useless shit
That should just be thrown in a giant pit
I don’t wanna be hooked on all their drugs
Pushed to fund someone's expensive rugs
I just wanna help out my fellow man
Any fucking way that I can

Cuz it’s gross
They’re lying to our faces

And it’s low
They bought a house with our donations

What we don’t know
Is that they buried all the allegations

So if we don’t vote
Then its always gonna be the same

Tuesday, 3 January 2023

Miracles

I saw Jesus in a parking lot
he said to give the world what I got
but nobody believed me
yeah they said I was crazy

and now it's gonna turn me to stone
like milk for the baby that never came home
it's the saddest thing that I've ever known
and can't nobody save me

Sometimes the heart breaks
just like an egg hatches
tiny and barely breathing
hungry for some meaning

Sometimes the world laughs
just trying to hold the tears back
sometimes we're lonely
sometimes we're only dreaming

We were short on miracles
Guess they needed them for the war
so we said "we don't believe in miracles anymore"
but I don't wanna be scared to love
I don't wanna be scared to hope
I don't wanna be scared to call out just cause there might be no answer

She misses her brother today
asks me why he went away
I say "honey, it's beyond me"

I been trying to wrap my head around the whole damn thing
trying to find the truth, trying to make it sing
sometimes the truth just seems so ugly

We were short on miracles
Guess they needed them for the war
so we said "we don't believe in miracles anymore"
but I don't wanna be scared to love
I don't wanna be scared to hope
I don't wanna be scared to call out just cause there might be no answer

Sunday, 1 January 2023

Bravery will be the first freedom

The first freedom will be bravery
To free you from mental slavery
To free an aspirant from fakery
Discoloured outlook whenever he
Allows fear accumulating fatally
Whether petty or potent unsavoury
The first freedom will be bravery

Bravery will be the first freedom
There's no need to fear another man when you see him
If you abide by the unchangeable laws you will lead them
Fear will be burnt in the enlightenment that will come
Cos bravery will be the first freedom

This is the freedom that comes first
Cos in strange fears we're immersed
Imprisoning our actions, outlook, mind and at worst
Our psychic abilities are submersed
Fears a weapon which we're coerced
But dark forces who are well-versed
And making pawns and the culture cursed
Break by delving deep into what's submerged
Headfirst into the inversed
The dormant powers from which you're inversed
Breakaway with a cloud burst
Render this weapon useless
Dawn enlightenment like a sunburst
But freedom must come first

Study fear for what it is
Cold analysis
Without emotion study this
It's a state of mind
You've formulated to bind
Karmically inclined
Environmentally defined
& Outlook designed

Karma you start to leave behind
With a pattern that will mastermind
A completely new life in time

Environment is this point in your lifetime
Out of which you can climb
A changing thing like an enzyme
A thing which is not even real

Outlook is changed by the proper playbook
Make your adherence to the laws consistent
For a stage of enlightenment that is fear-resistant
Change a state of mind in an instant
Good and evil are not co-existent
It's just as easy to have a mind that keeps fear at a distance
As is to have an intrusion that's insistent
Have this outlook; Act this way
And fear becomes non-existent

When fear has been transmuted
Diluted by the fires of applied knowledge
Muted by love
Rooted in wisdom
- with fortitude and bravery

Dispel fear
Go forth and things will be clear
For you on the frontier
Of your evolution

In this light you'll be examined 
Prepare for the exam and
Mastery can be imagined

Know this: terrestrials
These tests were designed by celestials
Experiences that may seem laborious
But are essential
And with bravery you can be victorious
Be brave, not foolish - but brave through wisdom
And your victory will be glorious


Saturday, 10 December 2022

I am solidified

VERSE
Bf              F             D#
There was something I knew I couldn't do
But I just said I'm gonna do it anyway

Screaming out 'my God, this isn't fair'
I had to bear, what I couldn't bear

              F
But I go tough, by saying - "I am enough"

CHORUS
            Bf
I am solidified
             F
I am a whole 
                  D#
A bundle of damage and crashes and hardships I've seen
F
Wrapped in one beautiful soul

I am a solid
I am a mass
Containing the failings and scrapings of so many scenes
A mishmash of shyness and sass

VERSE
Fear was a story that I told myself
What got me through was cultivated courage

Now I'm feeling universally known
I can be a little less alone

Cos I go tough
By saying - "I am enough"

CHORUS




Peace is a serious matter

VERSE
Build peer-to-peer propaganda
Techno-feudalists position for mate
The social media memoranda
Hypnotize to a suggestible state

Reaching peak psychological dysfunction
Going down an infinite scroll
Pulled out with intentional suction
No self-control 

CHORUS
Son rise become all that you're meant to be
Son rise over everything and be free

VERSE
Queuing up for micro-targetted rapture
Enjoy the pleasure of the new world order
Addicted to attentional capture
A self-diagnosed disorder

Overcoming the shocks of existence
Che Guevara's in the shopping mall
Hendrix plays Star Spangled Resistance
Slowly we fall

CHORUS
Son rise become all that you're meant to be
Son rise over everything and be free


LYRICS:
Build peer-to-peer propaganda
Techno-feudalists position for mate
The social media memoranda
Hypnotize to a suggestible state

Reaching peak psychological dysfunction
Going down an infinite scroll
Pulled out with intentional suction
No self-control 

Son rise become all that you're meant to be
Son rise over everything and be free

Queuing up for micro-targetted rapture
Enjoy the pleasure of the new world order
Addicted to attentional capture
A self-diagnosed disorder

Overcoming the shocks of existence
Che Guevara's in the shopping mall
Hendrix plays Star Spangled Resistance
Slowly we fall

Son rise become all that you're meant to be
Son rise over everything and be free








Launch intercontinental assistance

Part of the techno-feudalists planner
Hypnotized into a suggestible state
On the Fentanyl of social media
By techno-feudalists positioning for mate
Hyper-agents in a tragic comedia

Seeing death as a problem to solve

Individual difference dissolve


We have art as the antidote
Heal attention and lift up the veil
Rewrite the laws and embrace the vote
Through art existing exponentially


Monday, 5 December 2022

Where Eagles Live

We can’t soar above this
Or migrate away
Just leaden on the land without wings

We’re deafened and deceived
An outcome out of sight
Lost without non-human rights?

Oh where the eagles live
Over the rim of a far long cliff

Where I lay on my belly and look over the edge
So I could get a glimpse of what eagles have
So I could get a glimpse inside an eagle’s head

I wish I could get up there
Glide through the sky
As chaos plays out on the ground

Where money does the talking
But could it be contrite?
Can it say non-human rights?

Oh where the eagles live
Over the rim of a far long cliff
Where I lay on my belly and look over the edge
So I could get a glimpse of what eagles have
So I could get a glimpse inside an eagle’s head

It’s more than philosophical
An upgrade for us all
Replace positions we’ve been claiming for so long

It’s a necessary call
An unexpected rule of law
And change the patterns that would otherwise go on

Oh where the eagles live
Over the rim of a far long cliff
Where I lay on my belly and look over the edge
So I could get a glimpse of what eagles have
So I could get a glimpse inside an eagle’s head

Saturday, 3 December 2022

Bring Forth What Is Within You

(Capo 6th - chord shapes)

CHORUS 
G
Bring forth what is within you
Em
Forth and it will save you
C
Let the line outshine the dark
D
That which is the divine spark

Bring forth what is within you
Or it will destroy you
Break you down, then build back up
'Til the lesson learnt has stuck

VERSE (Same chords)
Unbearable grief
Apportioned blame
Furrowed heads
Hung in shame

The reality
Of the unseen
An enigma to us
Inside a dream

CHORUS

Wednesday, 23 November 2022

The Meaning in the Moment

VERSE
                                       F
Finding meaning in the moment
                                      C
Appreciate the time we have
                                    Bf
Try communing with creator
                                            C
Instead of drowning in the data
                                            F
Find the meaning in the moment
 
Read the Denial of Death
Accept your own mortality
Perfect the art of passing on
Sound like a princess dying young
Read the Denial of Death

CHORUS
Dm                         Am
In the solace of solitude
C                     
The space there to create
Bf
Inside the flow state

In the lineup of molecules
Some meaning in the strife
The unhealthy pace of life

VERSE
For an assertion of self
We compile our poetry
Like the ageing fading star
Thinking more about who we are
For an assertion of self

On recovery from success
Adjusting to the valley
Oh God how I miss them
glimpses of magic realism
On recovery from success

CHORUS



Thursday, 17 November 2022

The Ghost of Paul Nelson

VERSE
Dm
It started as a rumour
A whisper went around
G
Then sightings started happening
All over town

In his favourite haunts
Objects were there to find
Ash of Sherman Cigarillos
And some post-its left behind
And---

CHORUS
A7
Two cokes to toast
                              Dm
The ghost of Paul Nelson

VERSE
It was seen wandering on Fenchaw
And the record store on Vine
It ran the New York Marathon
In record-breaking time

At Jackson Hole his table
There was a burger floating there

CHORUS

In the old video store
It was unpacking DVDs
Except now the shop sells lingerie
The manager was peeved

...
...
...
...
And spilt---

VERSE
It was caught smoking in the Brazen Head
And an old lady screamed
And now it's stopping traffic
So the mayor has intervened

Friends gathered for the seance
It's exorcising time
Clint he took a whisky
Bobby wanted wine
And---

CHORUS