A Family Portrait

We’re just a bunch, and I mean a bunch

of people swirling and swirling

at different speeds in different directions

and sometimes we get swept up 

in each other’s current, for awhile, we connect on that level 

over coffee under smoke-filled ceilings

and I wonder if they’ll take offense if I crack the window

for a breath of fresh air

or will the sudden change in pressure sweep us all out and alongside the rest of humanity.

NaPoWriMo Prompt: http://www.napowrimo.net/day-two-3/

A Lune

Eighteenth Century
Vienna
My soul for a wig

NaPoWriMo Prompt: http://www.napowrimo.net/were-off-to-the-races/

Easter and things that don't belong

Sometimes the sadness of the absence
of what you know is possible
is like Ballads and Blues
and a photo of a wheat field
on a golden day

One Small Gesture

Strum: DownDownUp UpDownUp

C Am C Am
G G7 Am Am
Dm C E Am
G G7 C C

Bridge:
B7 B7 Em Em
B7 B7 Em Em
E7 E7 Am Am
E7 E7 Am G7...

What if I was standing next to you
And my eyes were sad and my heart was blue
Would you lend me your ear and open up your arms to me

Just one small gesture
Can make the world smaller
And that's the world I want to live in til I die

What if I was 93
And all my friends had passed ahead of me
Would you call me up on the phone sometime

Just one small gesture
Can make the world smaller
And that's the world I want to live in til I die

Bridge:
The world came into focus
In this dream within a dream
Your loss became my loss
And all the rest was so fleeting

There really is no difference
Between you and me
Today's the day we wake up and see
We're all on the same journey...

What if we all dared to care
And knew we had more love to share
Would we ever look back at the way things used to be

Just one small gesture
Can make the world smaller
And that's the world I want to live in til I die

Just one small gesture
Can make the world smaller
And that's the world I want to live in til I die

Just Love

Wrote a song for Matt for his birthday back in August.  First chord is Amaj7, then some stuff, then some D, A, A7, repeat. Still a beginner.

Love
Just love
Love
Just love
That's all we really have
Is love

And when
We grow old
And I'm sitting by your side
Holding your hand

That's when we'll
Look back in time
To this day
And say

Love
Just love
Love
Just love
That's all we really had
That's all we really had
Was love

Darling I'll love you
Darling I'll love you
All of our days

On a train to god knows where

Working on a song (and a title) and a tune for acoustic guitar. And I can't get Bright Eyes' Bowl of Oranges tune out of my head when I sing this. Going to set it aside and come back to rework it later, fresh.

[verse I]

I dreamed I bought a ticket

for a train to god knows where

Packed no bags just took a seat

my mind was light as air

As we pulled out of the station

I noticed strangers everywhere

Their faces looked so heavy

from the thoughts they could not bear

[chorus-y type part]

And I wondered...

What is it that you share

For whom do you care

Are they no longer there

And we felt so all alone...

[verse II]

The landscape out the window

began to blur

And to my right I heard the sigh

of a fellow passenger

Their breath was strained and I felt the pain

for which there is no cure

I said I understand, reached out my hand

with intentions quite pure

[chorus-y type part]

Their eyes they said...

Are you sure

Mine said, We're in this together

It was like looking in a mirror

And everyone raised their eyes...

[bridge-y part? more speaking than singing]

And I could tell this was a dream...

When I looked down at my ticket

and did not question

No time of arrival

no destination

This was a beautiful dream...

Where we all woke up and recognized

we're all on the same journey

[verse III]

After some time the speed let up

the train released its steam

The world came into focus

in this dream within a dream

Your loss became my loss

and all the rest was so fleeting

There really is no difference

between you and me

[chorus-y type part]

And the truth of it all...

The ungraspable

The intangible

Is that we're in separable

And this is how we live on...

Asleep, silent and small

I feel like it's not ok to write a poem about texting like when poets first dared to write of the telephone it must have seemed so modern so shallow so empty.

And then I think

it must be communication 

itself a step removed from the source

the act of conveying a message

about the mechanism of conveying messages

it's all so meta I want to sleep forever

but you know, in a good way

sometimes I think I'll lose my mind

if I have to reply to a text

please for the love of god

call me

call me

let me hear your voice

so I can be silent

and let my lips touch and eyes close

halfway sink into myself

the way I do when I think 

how beautiful this existence

where nothing lasts

and even identical things are not identical

I want to cry how perfect

to feel so small

please for the love of god

let me be small

When I cry

When I cry

I cry from the beautiful

destruction of my life

the tearing down

and tearing down

and disintegration

of what I was

and what I've known.

I cry of what is unique

in this world, of sameness

of ideas gone wild until

there is no sense

in maniacal laughter

in having no breath

the morning after

the scent of death

and ash and river

and pyre

of course the fire

and monkeys.

Monkeys.

I lost the back of my earring

three years ago 

in Kathmandu the power outage

blinded me

and I banged the side of my head

on the doorway and I heard it, 

the ping ping ping

of my earring

bouncing across the tile until

it disappeared into the drain

and I smiled, knowing

I'd touch the place

where it should be

the beautiful destruction

here with me

Time Out

Sometimes my love for you 

wants nothing to do with you

I'd rather sit here with it

and have a love affair with my love

Waves of 5/4 time spill over

crowded voices, distilled

a dry martini, chill

it's 1959

And people are trying to sleep across the street

while images of earth are transmitted from space

It gets really confusing, looking out, looking in

between hands pressed together, Take Five

from http://magpietales.blogspot.com/2015/05/mag-269.html

Things aren't what they were and that's how it should be

Today I heard someone say
Oh, fiddle
And I fell in love
with everything that is wrong
about being on the verge of losing
a generation