I'm ok
what a day
feeling good
maybe I should not
be feeling so totally wow
the way things are right now
but I'm so exited
I really like
that I'm still alive

but we all know to well
what is going on
the pandemic swell
the state of the globe that we're living on
all the narcissist power lovers
behind populist covers
all completely free
of all empathy

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Rodrigo Duterte
Jair Bolsonaro, Xi Jinping
Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu
Narendra Modi, Viktor Orbán
and dancing on the dump, where he belongs
there is Donald Jesus Trump, in his thong

I'm ok,
what a day, 
feeling good, 
but maybe I should - be
more concerned - about 
our aversion to learn
and our willingness to trust
anything that makes us feel
justified and entitled

people don't wanna know
people don't wanna be in doubt
people just wanna believe
cause belief is free
of responsibility

conspiracy theories Galore
Q-anon, and many more
science deniers
vaccinophobics
flat earth believers
and Donald Trump

I'm ok
'cause today
and all the way till my dying day
I won't ever believe
just because I've been told
I wanna keep learning
I wanna keep on yearning
for a grasp on how
things hang together

I'm OK

I've been walking this street for weeks
on my way to school
and then back home
to get a glimpse of you
or even a smile

To get to our respective schools
you and I would walk our opposite ways
and to have a chance of meeting you 
I had to drop my usual route

So the street I now am walking
is a little bit out of the way
but I couldn't care less
about spearing my feet
if there was a chance 
that we would meet

you were the prettiest girl I had ever seen
and I was totally and helplessly in love.

This was the last year of school
and our classes had met
and would meet again
charging up for the end
but I was too shy to make an advance
and you never looked my way, anyway

you -- you never looked my way
no, you never looked my way

you were the prettiest girl I had ever seen
and I was totally and helplessly in love.

Image Source: Author Jan-Tore Egge. licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International. Cropped and color enhanced by Ospyearn.

Helplessly In Love

By original sin
a relation will spin
down its preordained way
from betroth to betray

I want you to go
don't wanna see you no mo'
I really don' know
what you came her fo'
You've told me its over
you've resigned as my lover
so just let me be
and hand in your key

I'd beg you to stay
I try my best to sway you
I look for a way
to rewrite the play
but our parts were cast
by events of the past
beyond our control
we're stuck in our roles

You've told me its over
you've resigned as my lover
so just let me be
and hand in your keys

Your Keys Please

Your Keys Please

Today is the day we are going away
This is no place to stay
Too long we have been under its sway
of bickering and snickering and hearsay

We start over at the turn of the moon
we're leaving at noon, not a moment too soon
first we find ourselves a quiet lagoon
where we can bask in the sun and dive for doubloons

In the evening we'll be listening
to the everchanging rythm of the waves against the beach
beating, retreating
bringing the vastness of the ocean to our reach

Then we ascend to the top of the mountain
to drink from its icy cold fountain
we slip down its slopes on hanggliders
frolicking happy sky riders

For a while we will settle at the mountains foot
build a workshop and create some brand new output
our lines will be clever with meter and rhyme
we won't be staying forever but we'll give it some time

Starting Over

Kind of naive chord progression and melody line that comes out as a pleasant combination

Beyond

Don't walk away
Why don't youy stay 
but for a day 
here by the bay
Don't make me pray
Don't make me pay
for what you may
have thought you've heard me say
when all I said
was hey
what's goin' on?

no cause for doubt
no need to sound me out
stop questioning whatever
you think I might
have said or done
under the sun.
There's not a thing
that has to be excused
I'm just confused, 
about
where our love has gone

Don't Walk Away

Image: https://flic.kr/p/2p4d5ns

Drowsing on a dull September noon
no sun breaking through any moment soon
not feeling so well for no appearant reason
sensing the sigh of a spent summer season

I guess I'll have to get my ass in gear
take a bicycle ride outpace my fear.
a nagging feeling slowly brewing
'bout all that I'm supposed to be doing

get out of bed
tidy up my shed
bake a bread
or maybe a cake in stead

sweep the floor
go to the store
protest the war
and then some more

Drowsing On A Dull September Noon

Where do I go
I need someone to show me
now I just flow
letting aimlessness towe me
my hartbeat is slow
like steps through deep snow
there's no glimmer
there's no glow
you gave me purpose
you gave me hope
now it's all circus
parties and dope

your goodbye kiss on my cheek
feels like a wound
the world looks all bleak
under a ghostly moon
I was worn out and weak
couldn't hold on
there is no next week
it's already gone
ashamed that it's over
I've lost all my pride
where do I cover
where do I hide

Aimless

I'd never go out on a date on a monday
and to ask for a date, I just wouldn't know what to say
so if I never get a call for a date on any other day
my quirks leave me stuck in the driveway

Image copied from https://www.alliedoutdoorsolutions.com/gallery/driveways-walkways?id=508

Stuck In The Driveway

(Maybe I shouldn't have put this out. It's private and dark. I wrote the song as a way of coping.)

it doesn't apply to you
It's none of your concern
it doeesn't apply to us
and then suddenly it does

you read about some star
opening up 'bout her plight
you remember back far
a classmate actually died
but you're still alive
alive and well
and something as dark and blue
won't ever happen to you

your doctor tells you
she'll need to run some tests
and then she gives you the bad news
hopefully this hasn't gone too far
but surgery can't be avoided
you're going under the knife
and your ordinary life 
is going to be
turned around forever

It's not like life's unfair
it's not like the world has turned on you
it's just unreal
you're falling into a life
you know nothing about.

Just Unreal

In math and logic the slashed circle denotes the empty set.

People say, it's gonna be ok,
I tell you, I promise
Don't be afraid, hang in there, stay,
you're strong, you'll get through this

The medical science of today
can fix whatever's not ok
send your worries back to yesterday

Where do they get it from? 
from anectodes? maybe from faith?
or do they just guess?

A doctor would never appeal to faith
she'd give you statistics at best
the typical survival rates

A consoling remark can be empty,
abstruse or just strange
and a soothing remark can never induce 
any substantial lasting change

I am usually better informed 'bout my own situation
than whoever is trying to cheer me up.
When you're in for a surgical operation
and your brother in law says it's just a breeze in a cup

Tell me a joke or give me some dope
in stead of giving me baseless hope
hello

Baseless Hope

This is an abbreviated version of "Akerselva Ripples" from 2021. Akerselva is the river running through Norway's capital Oslo, which is situated in the Aker region around the northern end of Oslofjorden. The word "elv" means "river" and "elva" is its determinate form.

Akerselva

September, October, November, is the run of the fall
and then comes December, the darkest of them all,
but the ultimate gloom is not the final doom
'cause now darkness soon will move to yield more room

We huddle together through Christmas clamor and noise
but when solstice arrives we all rejoice
easing up on our brooding
singing hymns to whatever or whomever we believe in

Still a winter lies ahead all snowy and cold
but as the days grow longer winter slowly looses its hold
it may be hard to call to mind in the middle of December
that the ground will thaw for the budding straw
and the season of spring will finally unfold

December Ember

Image: https://flic.kr/p/2qzXBqN

you and I, we were quite a pair
the two of us, out there,
among folks and friends
the good times would never end

but then the good times ended anyway
not just like that, more like faded away
having started out young we began to stray
until finally we went our separate ways

and then -- after years out of touch -- we

agreed to meet for a walk in the glen,
from back then, like old friends
and here we are, you and me,
so, what's it gonna be?

I used to love you so much
but after years out of touch
I really don't know
how our rendevouz is gonna go

We'd meet for å walk in the glen
like old friends
and here we are, you and me
so what's it gonna be

Been A While (two)

I dream about you now and then
it's nice and warm and never sad
unlike most other dreams which tend
to be confused or even bad

I see you in my dreams
but  when  awake there's not even a gleam
so I see my hope dwindle
past any chance of rekindle

When I'm awake, I fully know
our story played out long ago
you moved to some big city
and all I'd left was self pity

I'm past that now and do allow
myself to reminisce about
us going out to twist and shout
and then to hug and kiss and vow

I see you in my dreams
but  when awake there's not even a gleam
so I see my hope dwindle
past any chance of rekindle

you are in my dreams
but nowhere else, it seems
just like yesterday
you just went away

can I move on? I do not know
I'll wait and see how things turn out
and one fine day, across my doubt
I'll find strawberries under the snow


Strawberries Under The Snow

See the hi-res illustration here: https://flic.kr/p/2prZqCZ

like a skygazer's boon
hangs a crescent moon
on a lavender sky
nearly makes me wanna cry

from a chimney rizes
a water vapor plume
being wafted away
it never reaches the moon.

the color of the sky 
undulates softly
through the shades of dusk
from lavender to orange

Lavender Sky

I got some balls 
and I got a bat
do you wanna play with me

just gonna make some calls 
and rescue my cat
from the top of a tree

I'll meet you at the mall 
in my signature hat
how about a quarter to three

In the entrance hall 
by the automat
I won't be hard to see

but if you don't like the mall 
or don't know where it's at
or your aunt is coming to tea

or you just don't wanna play ball
if the idea just fell flat
then how about next week, maybe

dating ain't easy
you got to have it boxed
don't get distracted, don't stray

Don't come across as sleazy
or fawn her like a fox
just say what you have to say

and if she's feigning hard to please
or walk around in krocks
maybe you should choose to stay away

if I were a hunk with lots of tats
would you wanna play with me?

Ball Playing

Blue Circle is the chord seqeunce C, E, F, A, B transposed and transformed to 
Fmin, Fmin/A#7, G#,  Fmin/A#7, C# maj, D#7, A#min, C7,
with a heavy square rythm and without lyrics.

Blue Circle

This is, ever so slightly edited, the soundtrack for the animation of Bjørn Saastad's series of paintings of the Dark Tower in Scorpius, inspired by NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for August 22, 2024 (used here as thumbnail). The animation can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/qYfB3x740E4.

The Dark Tower Of Scorpius

I used to meet her in my dreams
not often, though, not even occasionally,
still, thinking back now, it seems
I must have met her more than just once,
in that alley.

We'd fall in love in an instant
smiling but never talking
never dancing or running, just walking
down the street, holding hands

As I woke up the dream would linger
as if I still could feel the touch of her fingers
and there would be a warmth inside me
and a low key joy, all through that day


In My Dreams

On my way back from a picnic in the woods
I got lost

I was walking through the undergrowth
not yet out of the woods
with burs sticking to my clothes
and sticks poking into my hood

I was draped in the web of a spiders spindle
in my pocket slumbered a toad
daylight had started to dwindle
when I stumbled onto the road

so finally
I was out of the woods, 
the woods

Relieved I sat down on a stump
released the toad from its slump
plucked off the burs from my pants
brushed off the web and some ants

The moon was full and the sky was clear
so I hit the road with a low key cheer
assured I would find my way home
to my snug and comfy dome

So my mind returned to today's event
it certainly was a day well spent
and next year again I'll be ready
for the picnic with the bears of the clan of Teddy 
To celebrate the decency and kindness of Theodore Roosevelt, 
carried on by Rupert Bear, Pudsy Bear, Paddington, 
and Winnie-the-Pooh.
-------------------------------------
The Republican Party started out as an anti-slavery party and fought for their cause, under Abraham Lincoln, in the American Civil War (1861 – 65), which they won. While still in the lead, they went on to promote a minimal-government policy focusing on business and industrialism, but lost support during the Great Depression (1929-39) to the New Deal coalition. They regained power in the 1950-s under Eisenhower who embraced a pragmatic acceptance of the New Deal principles of solidarity and wellfare. From there on, however, the Party has been on a continous decline with regard to ethical standards and governing policies in general, falling into right-wing populism, until it now has reached an absolute bottom under Trump; and their strongest demographics are rural voters, White Southerners, evangelical Christians, men, senior citizens, and voters without college degrees. From Lincoln to Eisenhower there has been some decent republican presidents, though, one of which was Theodore Roosevelt.

The Woods

You're so good to me, you're so sweet
You don't have to be, you just can't quit
You make me see, the world is not complete
Without you and me between the sheets

You're So Sweet

This is a about the late night jester -- Stephen Colbert
and the lord of the fief -- CBS
 
Seems I've been shown the way out
Said the Jester to the Lord of the fief
I sense, maybe, some doubt
But still no reprieve

I hear complaints 'bout expenses
And hollow praise with funny vibes
Just admit you were offended
By the naming of the big fat bribe

Low IQ Donald praises the lord
knowing his wits are too feeble
To match any joker
His skin glistens ochre
(like a fried chicken gone stale)

Envy is his impetus
Adorned with insult and derision
Gluttony shades his gimpus
His biology is in recession

Far beyond the mountain
I see the sky comes dancing
Reaching for the finger of the Lord
Failing and flailing toward
the abyss

And the sky comes tumbling down

Late Night Jester

Hope I'll see you soon
maybe friday afternoon
we could go for a walk
don't wanna walk too far
we'll find a coffee bar
where we can sit down and talk
'bout everything and all
big things and small
forget about the clock
until the evening gloames
and you walk me home
where I put the key in the lock

Friday Afternoon

I wanted to apply a 2 chords progression to a new song, but was constantly reminded of other songs on 2 chords and wound up writing a medley of three pieces.

From 1966,. "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, with Stephen Stills as song writer and lead singer, and Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin and Richie Furay as co-members.

From 1969, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as songwriters, Jagger as lead singer, and Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts as co-members.

From 1972 "Walk on the Wild Side" written and sung by Lou Reed.

2 Chords Medley

This is the latest version of a song that I wrote when I got my first MIDI software in th 1980s. I wrote the second version when I got my first DAW after I retired in 2013, and that version is the audio track on my YouTube video "Fuzzy Foliage" from 2015. (https://youtu.be/Tdp8cYovUY0)

Foot Notes

I wasn't ready for this
what did I miss
I don' recall being warned
unless I count being scorned
Yet hindsight makes me see
veiled hints likely meant for me
but not well versed in games
I didn't take the hints, so I am to blame

wether or not, as it may seem to be,
it's over and done with for you and me
learning to master clever games
might be a way to circumvent shame
but that ain't my way
I prefer to stay
sincere and mostly harmless
not slick and charmless

honest is not stupid
earnest is not boring
trusting is not gullible
straightforward is not foolish
 

What Did I Miss?

The commander in mischief
gives us no relief
his idiotic tarreef
causes a lot of grief

the orange king's hallucinating
riots all around
nocturnal fits of rage
in all caps expound
ICE is on the double
dressed for halloween
lookin' for trouble
bringin' schackels and skeans

we don't need a king
don't want a president who clings
we don't need a king
we need a potus who can sing

farmers are despairing
soybeans do not sell
jobs are disappering
we're not feeling well
most food is not affordable
water isn't clean
foundation is unstable
house is cavin' in

we don't like James Vance a lot
don't like him at all
a furniture harlot
outlines his eye balls
We don't want a garden
paved with concrete
We dont need a ballroom
ninety thousand square feet

Need No King

Take your measures 
and count your treasures
and watch your steps as you leave
you've had your say
and you're not going to stay
so make your goodbye brief
I take no pleasure
from games of pressure
whatever you care to believe
and when day has dwindled
my flame is kindled
by bitternaess and by grief

you never promised me to stay forever
but you didn't prepare me for this endevor
to meet the days and weeks ahead
always waking up single in a double bed

I wish I knew
if there was something I could do
and I wish I could unsay what I just said
I'll leave this room
of pending doom
I'll shake my gloom
and try birdwatching in stead
I'll trade my madness
for silent sadness
and root these thoughts from my head
and with love to guide me
and time to side me
I'll make it back to your bed

but in the end 
there is not gonna be any making it back, is it?
just a receeding madness
and a lingering sadness
and I weep


As You Leave 3

Soundtrack for an animation based on a series of paintings by Bjørn Solstad. (https://youtu.be/8tOrn5XE0ZA) Since he wouldn't say what the series is about, I call the track Enigma.

Enigma

we went down to the park
for a round after dark
there we found kenneth clark
and the hound of ned stark

we found a bundle of quarks
giving off colored sparks
but being drowned by the dark
we didn't find any snark

on some plonk made from peach
we got drunk on the beach
then we sunk out of reach
of the muffled blue funk speech

we went back to our dome
along a track made by gnomes
a frackin' half finished drome
a trail of half-finished poems

then we got stuck in a loam
but a whack with a brome
opened up the biome
so we hit our shack and were home


In The Dark

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143525604@N06/50779587437/in/dateposted-public/

How could I not fall for you
the way you looked at me across the room
a bit shyly and slightly amused
dispelling all my blues

I had been feeling out of place 
until the moment I met your gaze
leading me out of the maze
of brooding and emotional haze

Almost imperceptibly we closed the reach
between us 'cross the floor
defying the entropy that blurred out each
of the party of  mindless bores

I had been feeling out of place 
until the moment I met your gaze
leading me out of the maze
of brooding and emotional haze

we're the lovers elite
we move to the beat
we only have eyes for each other
come sun come rain we don't bother 

we rise up to the mountain high
we sink to the ocean floor
we ride on the clouds high up in the sky
we sail away to distant shores

I had been feeling out of place 
until the moment I met your gaze
leading me out of the maze
of brooding and emotional haze

How Could I Not Fall For You

Way back in the previous millennium I used to play in a band. These days I only do programmed music, tending toward funk, with aberrations.

Ospyearn

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