Candy Land

 Mother, father I’ve seen signs
In the symbols of your faith
Gone are days of muscadine
Nightmares follow like a wraith

Tears of sparrows, Brothers blood
Laid a curse on holy ground
Buried boundless in the mud
For the joy of tainted crowns

Go down Moses lead the band
Fill their mouths with desert sand
Milk and honey in their heads
Dreaming of a candy land

Children’s sorrow, hidden well
Drowned out by a gospel song
Trouble hid behind the veil
Lost in plain sight all along

Go down Moses lead the band
Fill their mouths with desert sand
Milk and honey in their heads
Dreaming of a candy land

Milk and honey
Running wild
Hungry mouths are full of sand
Go down Moses, meek and mild
Raise your cane and lead the band
Say farewell to freedom child
Welcome them to
Candy land  

Rend Your Heart

VERSE

It's not a matter of propriety

If you should do your praying quietly

There's a private sort of piety

In the silence that you find

In a corner of your mind

Might be the God you love is Lord alone

But do you know Him like you know your own

Is it His footstool or is it His throne?

That your life is aiming for

While your knees are on the floor

CHORUS

My dear your soul is a hidden thing

Like a diamond in the coal or a bud before the spring

And what's gonna make you whole is gonna pull you all apart

So don't tear your garments, tear your heart

VERSE

There's no finding any clarity

Through the veil of your prosperity

It's better kindling for Charity

Just to burn up all you know

To just what's real left in the glow

What now seems just like a senseless beast

Is preparation for a wedding feast

Where first come last until the most are least

The beginning and the end

Are both a lover and a friend 

Human human

A
Human human, wallow in fear
Human this fear's Spirit killing 
Down down deluge, soul desert thee
Put down the fear, Spirit's willing

B 
Turn back to the source, the almighty
Take the smallest step - take the hardest
Go on, within. Listen within, 

Be still. Within. Spirit's willing

 

C
Can you see there? Look at the one
Burn up thee, torch your own karma
Channelling come feel it, the one

In touch within, Spirit's willing

CHORUS
Oh mighty creator
Let the light flow
Onto heads and into hearts here
So that they might get

CHORUS

God is everywhere

A glimpse

Realise inner self

Divine heritage

 

CHORUS

 

VERSE

 

CHORUS

 

MIDDLE

 

CHORUS

 

VERSE

 

CHORUS

 

MIDDLE

 

CHORUS

 

VERSE

 

CHORUS

 

 

Valley of decision

 

 

 

 

The Kingdom of Heaven lies within

 

 

 

 

 

 

The song “İnsan İnsan” by Fazıl Say featuring Burcu Uyar, Cem Adrian, Güvenç Dağüstün and Selva Erdener conveys the idea of discovering one’s true self, and the importance of knowing one’s identity; knowing what it means to be human. The lyrics talk about the realization of humanity through a questioning of the words “insan" (person/man) and “can" (soul). It also discusses the idea of faith, the idea that one can find the true essence of humanity within themselves if they look for it. The song is ultimately about the discovery of one’s true self through learning the meaning of basic words, and the importance of faith for self-discovery.

 

Human, human that they were saying,
Now I know what it have been a human
Soul, soul that they were saying,
Now I know what it have been a soul

Muhiddin says God is almighty,
he appears ready in everything.
That which is evident, that which is hidden,
That which is an engagement, now I know.

Human, human that they were saying,
Now I know what it have been a human
Soul, soul that they were saying,
Now I know what it have been a soul

Muhiddin says God is almighty,
he appears ready in everything.
That which is evident, that which is hidden,
That which is an engagement, now I know.

Human, human that they were saying,
Now I know what it have been a human
Soul, soul that they were saying,
Now I know what it have been a soul

Muhiddin says God is almighty,
he appears ready in everything.
That which is evident, that which is hidden,
That which is an engagement, now I know.

The seeker finds it in himself
Those left outside still look for it.

In the souls heart which is,
What is believing now I know.
That which is evident, that which is hidden,
That which is an engagement, now I know.

Muhiddin says God is almighty,
he appears ready in everything.
That which is evident, that which is hidden,
That which is an engagement, now I know.

Human, human that they were saying,
Now I know what it have been a human
Soul, soul that they were saying,
Now I know what it have been a soul

Muhiddin says God is almighty,
he appears ready in everything.
That which is evident, that which is hidden,
That which is an engagement, now I know.

The seeker finds it in himself
Those left outside still look for it.

Human, human that they were saying,
Now I know what it have been a human
Soul, soul that they were saying,
Now I know what it have been a soul

 

 

Afterlife of a painting

Now I'm convinced and I admit that dead is better

Only as long as there's a way to live forever

The choice was clear then as it is now

I walk the path for immortality

I lived bold with elegance and a sense of pride

Then passed away irrelevant and cast aside

Today I'm the beautiful queen you have crowned

Tomorrow I'm another woman drowned

I was the image of perfect grace

Encapsulated by the painter's trace

I keep the paintings in the afterlife

And for the image I paid the price

The people saw themselves in me with fallen grace

Then tore me down relentlessly to my disgrace

Today I'm the beautiful queen you have crowned

Tomorrow I'm another woman drowned

The fruit is gone now, the tree is bare

And though you've seen me, you will not stare

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

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

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 

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

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

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 

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

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

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 …

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

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

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