“Electric Candles”

I’m living fire
Bodily combustion
Burning blue under snow

Tendered words don’t warm me
I receive them—cold, cold, cold

I’m flesh and wonder
Presence ecstatic
But I feel alone

Emoticons don’t embrace me
I can’t feel what’s not here to hold

With an analog urge
I try to form myself into a sentence
To convey myself
On the digital surge
With only image to fill the lack of presence
I misspell myself

Electric candles
Burning not burning
In an alien, blue glow

You are without me
I only feel you—cold, cold, cold

Custom commons
Vicarious persons
Who the hell wants to know?

Be here with me
Let’s learn how to know and be known

Electric candles
Hissing with their flicker
Without human warmth
We freeze
A space so vacant
An air like static

Electric candles
A current from an outlet
Two simple pins that never truly connect
For real

Electric candles
Burning imagination
Visions as real as psychic hallucinations
That burn out when touched

Electric candles
Bluer than a held breath
The hope is lit
But shorter than a glim’s breadth
With no warmth to feel

- - -
Music by Corey Ball
Lyrics by August Lysy

Electric Candles

“Great Deceiver”

The greatest liar
You never knew
Hid behind your eyes
In every room

He’d weave a word
With fine half-truths
But tie-up the yarn
When threads hung loose

He’d warp with craft
Under your nose
You could never tell
‘Cause he never disclosed

But the greatest art
He ever wrought
Was you never knew
That he was you—

He was you
Great deceiver

Yes, you yourself
You never knew
Like a drunken man
By a mirror fooled

You sold your lies
And bought them, too
Laundering your shams
For a discount dupe

Your forked tongue
Thrust to point your lies
While its other tine
Stretched to spike your mind

Like a double spy
Doubled down in disguise
Your great fraud—
Was deep down you knew

Yes, you knew
You always knew

Fabricator
Decorator
You always knew

Manipulator
Collaborator
Great deceiver

---
Music by Corey Ball
Lyrics by August Lysy

Great Deceiver

“I Don’t Know How To Love (Anyone)”

She asked me if I loved her
If I ever could
My lust had made a promise
Beyond my will to make good

I pride myself as mindful
Being self-aware
But there’s always a place inside
That pride will spare
	And right then I saw it laid bare

I don’t know how to love anyone

No man is an island
But many plateau
They grow into tailored suits
But to men they never grow

I want for more than an island
But have I plateaued?
I look a full man in a suit
But this man has got a hole
	And, oh Lord, now I can’t not know

I don’t know how to love anyone

Should I strike out in anger?
Should I curl up and cry?
Should I lock my heart up?
Should I continue with my lie?

Oh, let me be a gentle man with a gentle dream
I want to learn to love someone who in turn loves me
Let me be selfless, caring, patient with my love
Let me learn to love someone

I’ve been living my life in anger
I’ve done nothing but curl and cry
I’ve never tried to give my heart up
I don’t want to continue with this lie

Oh, I want to be a gentle man with my gentle dream
I want to learn to love someone who in turn loves me
I want to be selfless, caring, patient with my love
I’m going to learn to love someone

---
Music by Corey Ball
Lyrics by August Lysy

I Don't Know How To Love

“Icarus (It’s Not Fair)”

If I was never meant to fly
Why do I desire heights?
Oh don’t burn my pride
If I wasn’t born to touch the sky
Why do I wanna try?
Why oh why oh why

Oh see how birds dance in sunlight
Oh so why not me?
It’s not fair
Oh see how clouds shape the sunlight
Oh so why not me?
It’s not fair

If I wasn’t born to aim so high
Why can’t I bend my eye?
	Oh don’t choke my pride
If I wasn’t meant for a lofty life
Why do I wanna rise?
Why oh why oh why

Oh see how birds dance in sunlight
Oh so why not me?
It’s not fair
Oh see how clouds shape the sunlight
Oh so why not me?
It’s not fair

O my father, let me soar!

Oh look how I dance in sunlight
Oh it’s so me
I’m so fair
Oh look how I shape the sunlight
Oh it’s all me
I’m so fair

O my father, see me go!
---
Music by Corey Ball
Lyrics by August Lysy

Icarus (It's Not Fair)

“Pitch In”

I try to open my heart
But anger slips quick inside
I try to be a man of peace
But I’m shakin’ mad all the time

I know it starts with me
But can’t anyone else—pitch in?

I try to be courageous
But I’m better at compliant
I try to stand by the truth
But I stand there dead silent

Some try to change the world
God bless ‘em, you’d never know
I’d like to change the world
So I guess I’m one of those

I know it starts with me
But can’t anyone else—pitch in?

- - -
Music by Corey Ball
Lyrics by August Lysy

Pitch In

“The Possessed”

Who else can hear the victims’ cries?
Who would claim to know what’s hid inside?

Who would dare speak for another’s mind?
Who would dare act for another’s life?

Damned is our mark
That marks us for warfare
Lo! Hear our voice
Hear us and beware

Join us, allies
We grow
Join us, allies,
We go

Hands we hold
And heads we hold proud
Heads that know
And hands that strike out

Righteous dreams
Righteous deeds

Silence—we all violent tongues
Fight we tyrants for those silenced

Join us, allies
We love
Fall to us foes
We loathe

Hands we scold
And heads we make bow
Heads will roll
And our hands will tear down

We’ve heard their cries
We’ve heard the victim’s part
We know your hearts
We know what’s hid inside
Shadowed deceit
Apologies are dripping lies

Now comes our hard justice
Now comes a true dictum
Now comes what’s been promised
Now comes a new system

Now—now comes revealed—LOVE!

O we can see it now!
O we can see it now!

Free from all lies!
Equal and unitary!
Free from disguise!
Freedom everywhere!
---
Music by Corey Ball
Lyrics by August Lysy

The Possessed

“Darkness”

Darkness
Down a pit
Within me fallen

Anguish
Thoughts dart hissing
Sting like hornets

Languish 
Spirit drips out
From its cornet

Helpless
Splintered sun
Casts down a solace

Save me
Flood down your rays
Save me
Flood down your rays
Save me

Darkness

Darkness
Dug in deep
I am my coffin

Starkness
Pasted leaves
Flake dry from dead flesh

Hopeless
Gathered dust
Collapsed with ascent

Senseless
Salted dirt
Chewed down for sus’nence

Endless
Tired wit
Revolves in torment

Helpless
Splintered sun
Casts down a solace

Save me
Flood down your rays
Save me
Flood down your rays
Save me
Flood down your rays
Save me
Flood down your rays

Save me...
---
Music by Corey Ball
Lyrics by August Lysy

Darkness

“Alleluia”

Down a hole, I cried
Full of yearning, sighed
In my heart—like a fool
I bent my love to pride

From my cave, you raised
All my yearning, slaked
In my heart—like a jewel
You set your truth ablaze

I will sing your name
I will sing Alleluia
I will sing your praise
I will sing Alleluia

Out the depths, you called
With your Spirit, hauled
By your voice—still and small
You set my ear enthralled

Amid the din, I heard
With your Spirit, stirred
In my heart—small and all
I loved your holy Word

I will sing your name
I will sing Alleluia
I will sing your praise
I will sing Alleluia

In mausoleums
	Of decrepit idols
I scoured tombs
	To array my life

I picked from bones
	Their tattered pride
A motley ape
	Smartly stupefied

A deathless fire
	Burned through my guise
Stripped of all
	But tears to cry

I hid my face
	With despairing shame
And found myself
	In a dead man’s grave

Out the depths, you called
With your Spirit, hauled
By your voice—still and small
You set my ear enthralled

From my cave, you raised
All my yearning, slaked
In my heart—like a jewel
You set your truth ablaze

Lifted up with
Supernatural joy
Clothed with grace
	Never to spoil

I lift my face
	With humble awe
To give due praise
	To the living God
---
Music by Corey Ball
Lyrics by Austin Lysy

Alleluia

“Silas”

Silas
While you were sleeping last night
I had a vision
So real I shook with fright
My room was a prison
Whose key was lost in my mind
I searched all, blindly
But felt nothing to find

How can I convey to you
What came to me immediately
When reason and words defy
If I were you, I’d doubt it, too
But it was no dream or fantasy
I saw it true as I do you
About this I’d never lie

Silas
Can’t you believe me, my friend
I am no zealot
Nor are my wits at their end
There came a sheriff
Whose open mouth shone a light
He lit inside me
And I saw him the Christ

How can I convey to you
What came to me immediately
When reason and words defy
You say my mind has become skewed
But such is said too easily
Harder to accept the truth
From across the great divide

He set me free
He is the key
He came to me
He heard my plea / He is alive

How can I convey to you
What came to me immediately
When reason and words defy
Would my joy could pass to you
But it came to me unwantedly
I resisted like a restless fool
But he’s changed my very mind

- - -
Music by Corey Ball
Lyrics by August Lysy

Silas

“Green Moon”

I found you when I was alone
Without a hope within my heart
When you waxed, I would float
You worked your charms just like Bogart

Green Moon
Where the hell was I floatin’ goin’ nowhere with you?

You filled me with smoke
Stroked my ego, made me feel so smart
Or at least when you glowed I thought so
Ergo I was Descartes

Green Moon
What the hell was I thinkin’ wastin’ time with you?

You pulled me in with your dark gravity
I nearly was absorbed

I fell in to spaced-out depravity
Oh how my mind was warped

But the Golden Sun heard my prayer at my fall’s apogee
Turned my stone heart to flesh and whispered adore me

Green Moon
Where the hell was I floatin’ goin’ nowhere with you?
Green Moon
What the hell was I thinkin’ wastin’ time with you?

Green Moon

“What’s a People Do?”

All we carried precious
To erect our paradise
Seems to lack the hardiness
To meet the present trials

For the damage is obvious
To all with level minds
And the laborers plenteous
Who might their hands supply

When a foundation cracks its full span
What’s a people do?
When their old tools fail in their hands
What’s a people do?

Not for want of meetness
Does a hammer miss its mark
Nor for want of handiness
If sturdy from its start

But the hands of the duteous
Are weak from leisure’s idle
And their skill but dubious
When untaught for such trials

When a foundation cracks its full span
What’s a people?
When their old tools fail in their hands
What’s a people do?
---
Music by Corey Ball
Lyrics by August Lysy

What's a People Do?

The 2nd page for English Minor (@english-minor), because one page cannot contain us. ✊

We're very grateful for your listening to our humble musical offerings and for your comments, shares, and likes. Thank you for checking us out.

We're a songwriting duo who continues to grow (hopefully for the better).

English Minor (II)

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