Crack in the wall
A crack appeared inside a wall
A door sprang up around it.
Each of these so finally drawn
I could not believe I found it.
A wildish wind blew it open wide
My childish mind followed on outside
And so I found myself among
My hearts delight surrounded.
A world of wonder lay without
It was all of nature’s calling.
With field and forest, cloud and sun
Cascades of salt water falling
With heights and valleys, dark ravines
Ivy thick and wild, deep and thorny scenes
And yet each thing did love its place
In the lap of all of nature’s sprawling.
And so and so it goes.
I asked the one whose land this was
If I could have a token
To take with me back to the other side
To have and hold unspoken.
I asked three times and was thrice denied.
I asked again without my pride
And found I’d lost the life I’d lived
Returned as one now broken.
A rag, a crumb, a withered leaf
In chilly winds of cold relief
I found myself as I once was
As from a dream awoken.
And so and so it goes.
But then a crack appeared inside a wall
And a door sprang up
Around it.
Fool’s Complaint
How I hate the Queen of Pentacles!
Sitting on her golden throne
In her domestic tyranny
All roads lead back to her alone.
The whole wide world
Is a great big drain
With the vortex as her heart.
All her needs and wants
Wishes and whims
Take precedence on this chart.
But what do I know?
My card’s the fool, the fool, the fool
That merry rootless man.
With air beneath his footstep
And providence as his plan.
Providence as his plan.
Oh it’s such expensive innocence!
Never knowing any cost.
She throws around her finery
For us to fetch when it gets lost.
She’s on the golden platform.
I’m down here in the fields.
I wage my way through the kitchen
Salting her next meal.
But what do I know?
My card’s the Fool! The fool the fool.
That merry rootless man.
WIth air beneath my footstep
And providence as my plan.
Providence as my plan.
But what do I know?
I’m just the Fool! The fool the fool.
That merry rootless man.
WIth air beneath my footstep
And providence as my plan.
Providence as my plan.
I Never Wear White
I never wear white
White is for virgins
Children in summer
Brides in the park.
My color is black black black
Black is for secrets
Outlaws and dancers
For the poet of the dark.
Black is the truth
Of my situation.
And for those of my station
In life. All other colors
Lie.
I never wear white
White is too blinding
Always reminding
Of the innocent who fall
My color is black black black
For the crone, and the bastard
The schoolgirl in uniform
The servant in the hall.
Black is the truth
Of my situation,
And for those of my station
In life. All other colors
Lie.
My color is black black black
Like the gangster and widow
It’s the shade and the shadow
It’s the depth into your eye
My color is black black black black black
Don’t Uncork What You Can’t Contain
A man finds a bottle on the bottom shelf
Forgotten and covered in dust
The label is already half worn off
Still, open it up he must.
As the corkscrew into the cork it goes
He hears the weird refrain,
“Do you what you like, but never uncork
Uncork what you can’t contain
Do what you like but never uncork
Uncork what you can’t contain.”
Pandora had a pretty little box,
Wisely she kept it hid
Until one day she couldn’t resist
Playing around with the lid
As the demons flew and the shadows grew
This song went around her brain:
“You can do what you like but never uncork
Uncork what you can’t contain,
You can do what you like but never uncork
Uncork what you can’t contain.”
As the demons flew and the shadows grew
This song went around her brain:
“You can do what you like but never uncork
Uncork what you can’t contain.”
Macklemore went to the thrift shop
Looking to pop some tags
Found an ancient oil lamp
Hidden among the rags
So he picked it up and he rubbed it down
Thought he’d gone insane
Cause a genie flew out singing
“never uncork
Uncork what you cant contain”
Genie flew out singing “never uncork
Uncork what you can’t contain”
He picked it up and he rubbed it down
Thought he’d gone insane
Cause the genie flew out singing “never uncork
Uncork what you can’t contain”
Sometimes though you have to
Let out what you’re keeping inside
If you keep it all in, your head will spin
And your mouth is all tongue tied
You’ve got to find the way to say what you say
And get it down on the page
Or the stage
It’s the cage for that tiger rage that you can’t contain
Yes the page and the stage is the cage for that tiger rage
That you can’t contain, for real
The page and the stage is the cage
For that tiger rage, what it is that you feel
So do what you like but you better uncork
Uncork what you can’t contain
Do what you like but you better uncork
Uncork what you can’t contain
Cause the page and the stage is the cage
For that tiger rage that’ll cause you pain
Do what you like but you better uncork
Uncork what you can’t contain
Song of the Stoic
I am a man
I’ve been working all my days
This is my accounting
Of my means and of my ways
More years are behind me now
Than years that are ahead
Looking back I feel
This is my story to be said.
I faced my father down
Inside the hallway of our home
18 years of pain
Upon my body to the bone
Demons lived inside of him
They forced him to the act
The layers of the bruises
To my body was the fact.
Ooooh
I grew and went into the world
And learned to know it’s code
Of spoken and unspoken
And I learned to love the road
I shoulder every burden like
A mule with a heavy pack
Every coin I earn is another
Knot within my back.
Ecstasy and pleasure come
At much too great a cost
I keep myself upon the earth
But measure what I’ve lost
Winged things they brush against me
Never mine to hold
I keep my eyes upon the ground
And carry on as old.
Ooooh
I met a woman
She had the gifted touch
Her hands were wise with healing
And with wonder and all such
As the fates would have it
Each to others we are wed
We confine ourselves to friendship
And we stay out of the bed.
Oooh
Now I turn around to face
The specter of my age
My soul it fights my body
Like a bird will fight it’s cage.
I see that last horizon
I hope it brings me peace
I look forward to the day
At last my body knows release.
Ooooh
Ooooh
Road beyond this one (Horizon) for Vaclav Havel
There is a road
Beyond this one
It’s called the path
We don’t yet take
I can feel how it longs
To be entered upon
It calls to me with a cry
And an ache
As we go
Along this one
And we live
The way we do
Love pulls us on
To that distant horizon
So true.
I knew a man
Who lived in jail
And his tale
Is often told
He dreamed of that line that he called the divine
And when he was free
He led his country
Yes he taught
the way of love
And he lived
In that way too
Love called him on
To that distant horizon
So true
There is a road
Beyond this one
Called the path
We don’t yet take
I can feel how it longs
To be entered upon
It calls to me with a cry and an ache
As we go along this one
And we live in the way we do
Love pulls us on to that distant horizon
Love pulled him on to that perfect horizon
Love pulls you on to that distant horizon so true.