Sunday, March 23, 2008
Last Time In Love?
Last time in love
And I got suddenly scared
That I'll never get
to fall in love again
All my life, I opened up
myself to anyone
I tried for a while
and always let 'em down
Moving on was something I mastered
Is it fair to say I go so good
at that went to town?
Then I met you
Falling for you wasn't hard to do
But deja vu
Always falling but this feeling's new
Is this my last time?
Last time in love
Oh, it's time I asked myself why
I'm not learning my lesson
If it's my last time
Last time in love
Then it's bittersweet because I
Know I'll never get to fall in love again
Hanging in has be hard up 'til now because I
Tried to be someone else
but it wasn't doin' any good
Everyone I ever went out with thought
I had to change
Anyone who knows me
knows I never could
Now I'm with you
Sticking with it can be hard to do
But I can say
wouldn't have it any other way
Now it's my last time
Last time in love
Oh it's not that I never cared
For the others way back when
But it's my last time
Last time in love
Oh, and I got suddenly scared
That I'll never get to fall in love again
Yes it's my last time
Last time in love
I wonder who'd have believed
Of the ones who knew me when
That it's my last time
Last time in love
Oh, but part of me is relieved
That I'll never have to fall in love again
An Easter Broken Hallelujah
That David played and it pleased the lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ....
Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah .... .
Baby I've been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
But love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ....
Well there was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show that to me do you?
But remember when i moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah
Well, maybe there's a god above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
It's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ....
People Think They Know Me (But They Don't)
but they don't
People say they know me
but they don't
People say they love me
but they don't
People say they know me
but they don't
They don't no more.
They know a bit about
some things.
They know nothing
about other things.
People say they know me
but they don't
People think they own me
but they don't
People think they know me
Don't make this personal
like you don't know.
It's only personal
I'd like to know.
Am I little bit warm?
I know a bit about some things
I know nothing about anything.
People say they know me
But they don't
People say they love me
But they don't
People think they own me
But they don't
People say they know me
But they don't.
Easter Sunday!
Come on
come on
come on
come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on take it easy
Come on take it easy
Take it easy
take it easy
Everybody's got something to hide
except for me and my monkey.
The deeper you go the higher you fly
The higher you fly the deeper you go
So come on come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on make it easy
Come on make it easy.
Take it easy
take it easy
Everybody's got something to hide
except for me and my monkey.
Your inside is out and your outside is inYour outside is in and your inside is out
So come on come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on make it easy
Come on make it easy
Make it easy make it easy
Everybody's got something to hide
except for me and my monkey.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
I Shall Be Free
I'm just like him, the same as you
I'm everybody's brother and son
I ain't different from anyone
It ain't no use a-talking to me
It's just the same as talking to you.
I was shadow-boxing earlier in the day
I figured I was ready for Cassius Clay
I said "Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay, here I come
26, 27, 28, 29, I'm gonna make your face look just like mine
Five, four, three, two, one, Cassius Clay you'd better run
99, 100, 101, 102, your ma won't even recognize you
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, gonna knock him clean right out of his spleen."
Well, I don't know, but I've been told
The streets in heaven are lined with gold
I ask you how things could get much worse
If the Russians happen to get up there first.
Wowee! Pretty scary!
Now, I'm liberal, but to a degree
I want ev'rybody to be free
But if you think that I'll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter
You must think I'm crazy!
I wouldn't let him do it for all the farms in Cuba.
Well, I set my monkey on the log
And ordered him to do the Dog
He wagged his tail and shook his head
And he went and did the Cat instead
He's a weird monkey, very funky.
I sat with my high-heeled sneakers on
Waiting to play tennis in the noonday sun
I had my white shorts rolled up past my waist
And my wig-hat was falling in my face
But they wouldn't let me on the tennis court.
I gotta woman, she's so mean
She sticks my boots in the washing machine
Sticks me with buckshot when I'm nude
Puts bubblegum in my food
She's funny, wants my money, calls me "honey."
Now I gotta friend who spends his life
Stabbing my picture with a bowie-knife
Dreams of strangling me with a scarf
When my name comes up he pretends to barf.
I've got a million friends!
Now they asked me to read a poem
At the sorority sister's home
I got knocked down and my head was swimmin'
I wound up with the Dean of Women
Yippee! I'm a poet, and I know it.
Hope I don't blow it.
I'm gonna grow my hair down to my feet so strange
So I look like a walking mountain range
And I'm gonna ride into Omaha on a horse
Out to the country club and the golf course.
Carry the New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds.
Now you're probably wondering by now
Just what this song is all about
What's probably got you baffled more
Is what this thing here is for.
It's nothing
It's something I learned over in England.
-Bob Dylan
Why We Vote
We can use these tools, if we wish, and to some extent they are quite helpful. But only among those who play political games, love to examine the minutia of political theories, and in doing so play fascinating mind games with each other.
But no tool, theory, or postulate has yet been developed to weigh a person’s individual conscience or their own heartfelt decision. When it comes down to it, I know that whenever the next Democratic primary is held or when the general election in November is held, many will pull the lever, scribble in the box, or touch the key pad having made up their mind at the last minute. Many will be truly committed, but many will be lukewarm as to who they truly support until the moment of reckoning comes. Many will be torn and ambivalent as to for whom they will vote until the last possible moment as they secretly and individually cast their ballot.
Their motives are intrinsically selfish, as are all decisions we make. Often voters vote not for the common good, but "what’s in it for me?". And if we want to vote for ourselves personally, we can do that.
We can rationalize and spin and allow personal bias to filter through and make us blind to the fact that we are our brother’s keeper. We are our sister’s keeper. And we can also understand that whomever we vote for is a steward of not just our trust, but the trust of the people. This is why voting is so vitally important and the strategic nature of whom we cast our vote for trumps high minded ideals.
If we wish, we ask ourselves "What President will screw me the least?"
As I said, we can do that.
Not this time.
Because if we do that, then NOTHING will change.
The Good In Everyone
First off
Here's what you do to me
You get rough
Attack my self-esteem
It's not much
But it's the best I've got
And I thought you saw
The good in everyone
Ooh, the good in everyone
You see the good in everyone
You see the good in everyone
I close my eyes
I can't give it up
I close my mind
I can't get enough
I'm in no shape
I gotta turn it off
Just let it play
The Good In Everyone
Ooh, the good in everyone
You see the good in everyone
You see the good in everyone
You see the good in everyone
Ooh, the good in everyone
Saturday Video
by Blur
Street's like a jungle
So call the police
Following the herd
Down to Greece
On holiday
Love in the 90's
Is paranoid
On sunny beaches
Take your chances
Looking for
Girls who are boys
Who like boys to be girls
Who do boys like they're girls
Who do girls like they're boys
Always should be someone you really love
Avoiding all work
'Cuz there's none available
Like battery thinkers
Count your thoughts
On one two three four
Five fingers
Nothing is wasted
Only reproduced
You get nasty blisters
Du bist sehr schon
But we haven't been introduced
Girls who are boys
Who like boys to be girls
Who do boys like they're girls
Who do girls like they're boys
Always should be someone you really love
Girls who are boys
Who like boys to be girls
Who do boys like they're girls
Who do girls like they're boys
Always should be someone you really love
Girls who are boys
Who like boys to be girls
Who do boys like they're girls
Who do girls like they're boys
Always should be someone you really love
Girls who are boys
Who like boys to be girls
Who do boys like they're girls
Who do girls like they're boys
Always should be someone you really love
Friday, March 21, 2008
To Those I Needlessly Wounded
it was my father.
Forgive me,
please.
Dad tortured me in
his own way.
And the only way
he knew how.
as my father.
with words.
400 Metres
Can't you see the black strap
It holds me up, for the last lap
I know I said I had a good time
But now I'm sprawled across the finish line
I'm pickin' up the straws
And now I'm wonderin' how I did because
The situation's heavy
And the competition's thin
Now I've got to wake up
So I can get back on my feet again
Could you spare some common sense?
It's a brave gamble, so just give it up
Now you know about
those people in the sky
Well they're the same folks that held me up
I'm sortin' out my flaws
Because they're runnin' last place
And the look on my face says
This record's disappearing
And my system's on the mend
But I'll never know who wins
Until I make it to the end
Take care of what you preach, right
'Cause no one cares about her mike fright
But when the pen is to paper, I never stop to think
That I should stop thinkin' about you that way
The signing of this mock simulation
Plots a course towards some clarification
It's a keenly realized fabrication
Comin' from your radio station
But I'll be running 400 metres again
Interjecting Personal Life with Politics
I contributed to a drama storm at my library job and fanned the flames of those who love fire. And the consequences of this action are yet to be fully known. I interjected a cannon volley of grapeshot to hawks, chickens, and those that cluck.
Trust is a difficult issue with me for many many reasons, which I will not extrapolate upon in depth in this forum.
Suffice to say that dysfunction breeds dysfunction and I do not enjoy resorting to the part of me that is vicious and cruel. I am a Confirmed Pacifist, but how quickly that warlike part of me, of my old self, that competitive and cruel part of me rears its ugly head when the opportunity presents itself.
No more. No matter what comes back to me, I have cast my die.
Some will surrender and some will only be reloading.
At least I know who my enemies are.
The Irony of Good Friday
For practicing and non-practicing alike, for believers in God and believers in morality, for spiritual seekers and religious followers alike, let us remember today as Good Friday.
A good man who challenged the status quo was today crucified by the forces of evil for daring to speak the truth. A radical prophet who threatened the Jewish political parties in control, particularly the hypocritical Pharisees, was given a criminal's death on a cross. An innocent man, puppet to some, God to others, prophet to many more, and a threat to a few entrenched members of Jewish and Roman society that saw any threat to their power base as a direct attack, he was flogged, persecuted, and died a horrific death of which torturous might be the kindest definition we could assign to the whole proceedings.
This is the irony of Good Friday. The irony that, for many Christians, this man who was Father, Son, and Holy Spirit defeated the forces of evil and rose again. This God/Man died so that we should not perish and instead have eternal life.
This is the irony of Good Friday. The irony that, even for those who see him as merely a prophet, this radical rabbi who spoke the truth despite the consequences serves a both a stern warning for those who would speak against the forces of money and power and an uplifting message that his death became a victory in the end when it empowered those who came later to take up his message and, metaphorically, bear their own cross.
This is the irony of Good Friday. The irony that even those who downright question the idea of any God or any theistic presence, or see the divine in every human and living being can understand that to do good requires skill, dexterity, grace, wisdom, and poise. But these character traits only go so far, and when the evil hearts of men turn against any fellow person and their own sense of self is threatened, they often try to destroy the offending party or parties.
Such is the irony of Good Friday.
And from this theist, may I say,
Amen.
A Few Thoughts From a Typical White Person
Obama's speech on Tuesday was bold, daring, but also quite risky. By daring to open up Pandora's Box with a frank discussion about one of the most divisive issues in American history, he turned conventional wisdom upside down and attempted to take control of the discussion on no one else's terms but his.
This is what true leaders do. This is how great politicians respond to such crisis: swiftly, promptly, decisively, and upping the ante for their opposition at the same time.
As for his comment about his white Grandmother being a typical white person. Let me just say that my own white Grandmother on both sides at times whispered racial epithets, though not a certain word beginning with N that I'm not going to say because I reject and denounce how loaded a word it is.
Instead, my Grandmother, a lady of her time, would refer under her breath to "the colored lady" who served us at restaurants or "that colored man" who we might have passed on the street. In that regard, she was a woman of her times. And I can no sooner disown her, than I can disown my own white skin.
My Grandmother, my mother's mother, was a social activist of her own kind, and established Sylacauga, Alabama's, first recycling center, YEARS before it was trendy. She recognized, being a member of a family well drilling business, how economically advantageous it was to recycle and reuse strictly from a cost-efficient standpoint. And she was also a child of the Depression who saw her chance at ever attending college slip away when banks failed, her father died at age 10, and her mother was committed to a lunatic asylum. She lived most of her remaining childhood and adolescence under the care of her four brothers.
My Grandfather, my father's Father, was very much of man of his time. I never heard him utter racial epithets of any hue or color, but I do remember him stating, privately, that he believed that interracial marriage made him uncomfortable. He believed that the races should not mix and that we should be with our own kind. He, too, was a child of the Depression. He had a sixth grade eduction and the economics of the times did not allow him to go any further. He spent forty years working in a textile mill, for low pay, six days a week, until it gave him white lung disease from the combined efforts of breathing in cotton dust. He remembers fondly that during the Depression, he received two precious gifts for Christmas: an apple and an orange. Fresh fruit was hard to find in the Depression and very expensive.
When I am frustrated with the limited number of choices I have, I realize that things could be so much worse. I recognize that my Christmas presents as a child were so much more than two pieces of fruit. How often we take for granted the struggles of those who came before us, while ripping apart their views, which are centered in old prejudices and old dreams still yet to be deferred.
I could sooner disown both sets of grandparents than I could disown a member of my own family. Wait, they ARE family. And they are both parts of me. So in that respect, they are typical white people. And I am a typical white person.
And as a spokesman for no one but myself, this typical white person was not offended by what Barack Obama said yesterday. Taken out of context, by itself, it could be construed as offensive. Put into the context of my story, I understood what it is he meant. All political statements are inherent risky, though some are more risky than others. And all truths are inherently risky in that those in the public eye will be held to a higher standard than any of us. Our representatives are expected to be more perfect than we are, and more perfect than this union we try to hold between ourselves, our family, and in the world around us.
