April 9: All Around, Everywhere

All Around Everywhere

Lord God, my one abode;

The coolness within the desert heat:

Through a concrete jungle you make a road,

And within your love, our souls can meet,

Where there glows an ember

Within that meeting,

Which is joy to remember,

However fleeting.

Upon this highway, I’ve travelled long,

Watching the passing cars.

Then in the night, I unravel a song

Which I sing to the moon and the stars,

For I’m no more expecting a ride,

But  contemplating a scene,

And allowing the Silence to walk by my side,

And to tell me just what it could mean.

I stand in wonder at the base of a bridge

Away from the route of the crowds.

The light is emblazoned on society’s edge

Like the sun encircling a cloud.

And know that the spirit is alive in the steel

And in the flight of a low-flying plane;

In everything I can see and feel:

In signs and in soft-falling rain.

April 8: Making A Difference, Part 2

Making A Difference

Part 2

In this world we've got a whole lot at stake,
For we've compromised earth's ecology,
Your health may not hold up that great.
We've got kids we don't know how to educate,
While we're up against barriers of fear and hate,
And confusion about ontology!

We live in a matrix with big demands
Upon our time and our sensibility,
With shifting conditions that alter our plans;
Technologies no one quite understands,
So that people take matters into their own hands
Which really don't fit their abilities

Still, people are willing to accept what's the case
When it's something they can understand.
They're willing to work to secure a place.
They're willing to fight when they meet with disgrace.
They can put aside the dreams which they chase
When they're called on to lend a hand!

It's well that we're all doing this and that
While we're striving to get into focus --
Because some are too skinny and some are too fat.
Some have the conscience of a snake or a rat.
It's almost your turn to get up to bat.
Don't bore us with hocus pocus!

Because there's a lot of people in rage;

In corrupted and crumbling conditions.
They feel out of control, or trapped in a cage;
Pigeon-holed about their race or their age.
Their anger will no longer be assuaged

By some slick-talking politician!

The world has expanded our freedom and knowledge,

If we're wise, we have great opportunity.
You can be a scholar without going to college,
Take hold of a dream, however exotic.
We can't sell our birthrights for a mess of pottage,
We have got to be building community!

April 7: Making A Difference, Part 1

Making A Difference

Part I

Everything fits your intellectual scheme,
But meanwhile your town's going crazy.
They live in conspiracies; They live in their dreams;
In the mode of survival, assessing their means;
In the mode of loneliness, in search of a team;
In a surplus of choices, but lazy.

So as the voice of reason, you struggle to speak,
Disturbing the singing choir;
Invoking the truth, though you're feeling weak,
Of harmony, amongst voices unique,
Seeking to celebrate every freak --
Not forgetting that the house is on fire!

There are those that for spite set a building in flames.
And others who would not get involved,
Or see the destruction and get lost in their shame,
Or see broken lives as some kind of a game
Everybody's got to have someone to blame!
We need to strive for a common resolve!

We don't all get the breaks that we might deserve.
We meet with explicit or hidden barriers.
Justice doesn't follow a natural curve.
Laws don't cover who they're supposed to serve,
And if you have a complaint, you might not be heard  --
Unless voices are spoken together!

You can show us your charts and diagrams,
Hoping somehow to re-route the violence
Of angry people who don't give a damn,
'Cause they've tried to get free, but they keep getting slammed.
Hey!  I'm a musician, and I'm ready to jam,
Let’s get past the sham and our make-shift silence!