Gray Lodge Wisdom

Why sing about death when I've just almost died? 
Why sing about life when I'm still alive?
Why sing about god when she don't exist?
Why sing about love if it's just a tryst?
Why hope for good news when it strings you along?
Why hope for the best when the worst just makes you strong?
It makes you strong, it makes you strong, it makes you strong
Why long for the east coast when I'm on the west?
Why long for peace while I beat my chest?
Why long for fame when it's trite and it's grotesque?
Why long for home when there's none of it left? 
Why hope for the past when you're outside of time?
Why hope for salvation when you're in your prime?
You're in your prime, you're in your prime, you're in your prime
Why sing about the dark? Sing about the light
When you know you'll never go, never leave your sight
Why sing about your sorrow, a song to a stone
Why sing about your solitude, when you were never really alone
Why sing about your questions, the questions that you had
No matter the answer, you're always gonna ask

Dreams Of Big Sur

Shall I stay here on the bed that you made
As the sun dances on the waves
Or will the answer trickle out in steps
Like the sweat on the nape of your neck
Will I go to California with my eyes sewn closed
Or will I stay east by the water, the windows growing cold
Have you named the three children that you'll have
Picked the flowers for the garden in the back
Matched the colors for the kitchen and the drapes
Lined the walls with your ordinary fates
Will you miss me like I'll miss you
Hearing rumors from afar
Or will the spite take hold like poison
A desert for a heart

Wild Rose

My wild rose
I might have never seen you again
Both six years back and when I got so sick, but then I lived
When we met
Perhaps something was already there
A rapid glance, a slower stare, oh what I'd give
For you to have me once without my scars
Running down my chest like a river in the dark
For us to be so guileless and free
That each mistake would snap just like a bough on a tree
But back then
I was so fickle and so torn
We were both too young and too forlorn to understand
How things go
How they wander and they mend
And turn up unexpected, cold, and wait to be brought in
So I'll put my hand around your love
And hope that it's just enough to keep the warmth up
And you'll speak just like you breathe
As clear and as sweet as the Adriatic Sea
My wild rose, my wild rose

Yeah, I'll Requite Your Love

Maybe there's time for one more go at this game
One more hand at the wheel; c'mon let's do it again
Let's turn in the streets, the cold wind it bites at our legs
The fall is coming, no it's here, no it's lost in the race
Yeah, I'll requite your love
I have missed my home like I've missed the summer fires
Through the nights' cool , first through the air,  then to the stars
But the days were warm, and they were longer than we knew
To take that all for granted, to come back there for you
Yeah, I'll requite your love
I got no use for wisdom, wisdom is for those with time
While all I've got is a headache and a taste for the divine
Who knows if you'll cure me; who knows if I'll help you at all
But we owe each other favors, might as well heed that call
Yeah, I'll requite your love

Long Live The Hudson River Valley

I have seen a bit of Amsterdam and a bit of Prague
I've seen a bit of London twice, in between the fog
I've seen the Nantes cathedral and the Barcelona beach
And Dublin and Vienna and a dozen more of each
But long live the Hudson River Valley
I have spent a year in exile in the forests of the deep
The clouds a mile thick overhead, the spirits that they keep
The wonderment of opening your eyes in your old place
The resignation falling with the scales on your face
Oh, long live the Hudson River Valley
I have stopped in California near the place where I was born
I've shed the last remains of my self-pity and self-scorn
I've come across the embers that are left of my old ways
I'll come up to Valatie and I'll set them all ablaze
Oh, long live the Hudson River Valley
I have fed off New York City like a fluke inside its host
And still I must return to always hold its heartbeat close
Until I can retire far upstate where I can hear
The silence that my own heart has now come to cherish dear
Oh, long live the Hudson River Valley

Do You Love Where You Live?

Tell me, tell me
Do you love where you live?
Do you love where you live?
Do you love?
When the sun sets, 
When it rises again
What kind is it then,
Hawk or dove?
As you go out into the warmth of day
What is work and what is play?
What do you love?
And as the rose staggers up the sky
Who makes you laugh, who makes you cry?
Who do you love?
Tell me, tell me
When nothing washes ashore
And you're not young anymore
What will you love?
As some old friends
Turn to strangers again
Who's left for you then?
Who will you love?
Choose wisely and choose by the wind you barely hear
Choose someone kind and someone dear
Go find your love
Don't you worry if they're far or they are near
Just see them close and see them clear
Go see your love

The Arrow Darkens

Are we immune to natural beauty
Or is all this just a temporary feeling
As the poison courses onward
And the wheels skid along the path to healing?
Lest we forget all of the times
That we have been struck down by self-deception,
Let the sun in through the foyer, 
Let us bask under the strength of its reflection
And I resolve to come back stronger than before
With every instinct pacing, hungry at the door
The habit cowed by stronger memories than pain
The arrow darkens and recalibrates its aim
Did you explore along the coastline
As the fireworks flickered down a silent mile each side
As we struggled with the bonfire, 
Olympic wind stronger in the moonlight
It all came to fruition, the tide receding further after sunset
We had our own sun hissing, gladly taking all the driftwood that we gave it
And I resolve to come back stronger than before
With every instinct pacing, hungry at the door
The habit cowed by stronger memories than pain
The arrow darkens and recalibrates its aim

Fate Song

I've got no plot to my name
No fortune waiting for me still
And my own self's to blame
For the fear that almost got me killed
And for the surgeon's blade
That opened up my veins
So I must thank some god
That I'm alive today
The last of the morphine's gone
The needles swept away
I've taken the last of my pills
And the clouds lift from my brain
I greet the warm light of the dawn
Alive and ever sane
So I must thank some god
That I've survived my fate
The sky is filled with the open eyes
Of the last few years I've known
Each empty expanse full of life
Unseen and unresolved
All roads awake and up at night
Unwinding without sound
And I must thank some god That I am still around