Thinking Amelia

Turning like a leaf in changing weather
Feathering down to the earth
Like a moonbeam come untethered.
Chalk it up to bad timing, bad signing
Maps are misleading, are to be mistrusted
Are no two paths alike.

I think Amelia had it okay
She had a one in a million bad day
With her eyes in the clouds
The clouds in her eyes in a big, wide sky
Expecting to fly
Doesn't sound so bad to me.

Here on the ground in a big, busy town
Where there's more air above us
And the schoolboy alone greets
Every person he sees riding the public bus.
Pretends the driver is his father
Strange how a city
Can make blood seem like strangers
Strangers like family.

Whetstones

Something about these woods, something I like
Moss and an "old man's beard"
Dripping rain from a branch in the fading daylight.

And the way you move is dancing
While your mouth says funny things
I'm staring at your neck, thinking
Could I rest my faith in there and stay a while?

Something about your eyes, something that might
Melt the winter in my heart like a tongue touching snow.

Something about your mind, different, clever, kind.
Maybe we offer each other, other.
If I'm with you long enough to whet our wills as we grow old
Could you let me close, to breathe your breath?
To touch your soul?

The Gladdest Thing
(lyrics in the chorus are the poem, "Afternoon on a Hill" by Edna St. Vincent Millay)

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds
With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
And the grass rise.

Doesn't each of us have a place
Where we belong.
Could be a sidewalk crack
Or a sad song.

Inside our searchings is desire
To etch a silent thought in stone
To make a tender heart known.

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds
With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
And the grass rise.

And when the lights begin to show
Up from the town,
I will mark which must be mine,
And then start down!

Everybody wants to be a hero
Or a savior of small things
I want to be champion of evening
To forget not the beauty of the in-betweens.

Every one of us an orphan
Our bodies born from dust of the stars.
We can comfort each other in this place
I can look into your eyes
And see my own face.

A Good Day's Work

A good day's work, leaving
Pack it all in, no time to remember.
Don't look up, the sky is falling
Watch your shoes taking that first step
Out the door.

The look on his face, I will not forget
Time is a healer, just not yet.
Unfair and remorseless
But I had no choice:
Leave him, or leave me.

He takes the house, he needs our friends
I keep myself, my hope and my right to not pretend.

A good day's work, leaving.

My Favorite Coat

My favorite coat
Hangs in the hallway
Waiting like a good friend
To keep me warm.

I love my coat
Sturdy and versatile
Solving all my problems
Nirvana in the rain.

And it's raining, and raining,
Been raining for weeks now, crying a torrent
And the rain is washing us clean.

In my coat
I am a superhero
Traveling through space and time
Impervious to pain.

Me and my coat
We are a symphony
Blanketing the world outside
An oasis in the storm.

Forgiven

You worry on hurting anybody anymore
You worry on, small comfort
One of us seems not to tremble.
You make a rift inside me every day
That you choose to stay.
I walk the edge and
Push it wider.

You are forgiven, I open all my doors
You are forgiven, what a heart is for
I am no martyr, you give me reason
I try harder and wait for a warmer season
Meanwhile, you are forgiven.

I hear a soft noise, like a sigh
A singing like a lullaby
It is my heart, it is this wind that blows
Through where you held me closer
Where we whispered, "this is true."

And it's time to go
I cannot stay, you cannot know
My love, so dear
Will it be faith or fear?

You are forgiven...

Thanksgiving

I picked this yellow for my curtains
It's warm and true and it looks like you.
I catch sight of a wild bird on a lone post, on a long fence..

And I can see you everywhere
In the trees outside my window
On the street in the frozen air
I can see you there.

There was a seed, grey and small
In the ground of the earth between our hearts.
We'll never know what mystery made it grow
It will just be our history, now...

I can see you everywhere
In the trees outside my window
On the street in the frozen air.
Waiting, it's a promise
Waiting, it's like a dare
But you are with me, when you cannot be
I can feel you here
And I can see you everywhere.

I twist in a world between
Hovering, wanting
But I don't with this love away.
I wish you back to me to stay.

Something Burning

Like water swirling cold into warm
Our eyes were turning, before the storm.
We did not see the fire
But we could taste the smoke of
Something burning.

Now every time I ride the Broadway bridge I think of you
Kiss me in the open places
And every time I see a cardigan I think of you
No ordinary sweater.
I drive past the park just to remember
Touch me through the trees love.

I have faith in you, and I have trust in me
I feel the pull of the river now and I want to go.
I hope you find your river soon and you meet me
When we have followed our rivers down to the sea.

When you are dancing, do you miss me arcing under you?
Watching the stars fall from your eyes into mine.

Wild Horse

I keep thinking about your eyes, and the shape of your lips
I keep tasting your kiss, and the touch of your hand is still on my hip.

It's a wild horse and I can't break it alone
Tosses it's head like it knows me, been waiting.
It's a wild horse, but I can take it down.

This hunger for you it's near enough to heaven, it's an open door.
Not like what I had before
Always wanting more.

It's a wild horse and I can't break it alone
Tosses it's head like it knows me, been waiting.
It's a wild horse, but I can take it down...
I want to take you down with me.

I keep hearing your voice, like the ocean in a shell.
Deep inside my heart I feel it, and it echoes...

A Bridge

You get a taste sometimes, don't you?
Of that tender kind of connection
That reaches deep and holds you
By the bones it fills you up
But do you get enough?

I need a bridge in this city of rivers
I need a bridge to run across with my face wide open
Nothing held back in my heart
It could be wide enough for two
On the other side.

It's so hard to say what is not there
In confusion, impossibly clear
I have a wanting ache, and you have the steady
Gaze of a snake.

I need a bridge in this city of rivers
I need a bridge to run across with my face wide open
Nothing held back in my heart
It could be wide enough for two
I will be waiting for you
On the other side.

The Darkest Season

The last few golden leaves
Are clinging tightly to their branches
Like they don't want to let go
Like they don't trust what they don't know.

It's not quite winter, and it's not quite fall
And even though it's been a year
I cannot pass you by, not at all
I tell myself, "enough"
My heart can't feel the reason
Why must we into the darkest season.

It's cold, getting colder
I dreamt last night of being older
I looked in the mirror, there was so much grey
If I saw you tomorrow, what would I say?
What could you say?

It's not that I'm not thankful, or grateful
To what we've grown.
It's not that I'm not living my life
Alright on my own.
I just feel the empty space
I just feel the wind blow through
I just thought in any case I would always know you.

Tenderness

We did not ask, thought things were defined
Some pieces were missing, but the puzzle looked fine.
One day we looked up from inside a song
Something felt more right, something was wrong.

Should we regret love like this?
It's not a shame, it's tenderness
But we made a mess
And that is how we'll be remembered here.

The months go by, you with your wife
It takes time to disassemble a whole life
And I can't ask you for anything
I take what I get.
Other people would say it's more than I deserve
Maybe it's true, I don't deserve you, but should I regret...

It's the end of an era, so unexpected
Clear as the lines on the palm of your hand
You and I we started stumbling
Into the next dance.
We didn't plan this death of our friends innocence.

But we can't regret love like this...