In the open
Unprotected
And if someone 
Chooses me
I may fool them
To let someone broken in
Let me in
Let me in

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Joke's On You

The tears aren’t interesting anymore
I want to feel the continents behind closed eyes
If my karma is a knot I can’t untie
Then I’ll pass away with both hands moving
Into the morning
Hear them blowing branches folded
Crepuscular bruised starry maroon
Memory soon

Stills hold me as a child on VHS in a box in the basement
Unforgiven at the end of the cul de sac
They won’t love you but you can

My fingers touch the lawn as the sprinklers turn on
I can’t get the knot

Please help me
I can’t get the knot
Please help me
I can’t get the knot

I can’t get the knot

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Memory Soon

We all have the (heartbeat of belonging) heartache of suffering.
Tangles of branches we all have the birds of waiting,
Singing and ready to burst into the flight of warning.
Loss of the morning, the new of the day.

We all have the heartbeat of belonging.
Science and film, we all have something more unspoken,
Flickering sputtering trying to tell the surface.
In our hands, un-crying, together we might find it.

We all have the heartache of changing.
Traffic and, and windows we all have cars of progress,
Idling and ready to drive not to the horizon.
In a loop, but dying, the ‘proregress’ of man.

We all have the heartbeat of belonging.
Science and film, we all have something more unspoken,
Flickering sputtering trying to tell the surface.
In our hands, un-crying, together we might find it.

--
Written lyrics © Bobby Speaker 2024

Temperance

An angel descends with fake news
The theaters collapse at high noon
Revelations cascade on deaf ears
Cashing in everything for nothing

Data brokers catch tears on touch screen
Demographics walk into the sea
Revelations cascade on deaf ears
Office buildings fall down like wet tears

This isnt the end
This is only the end
This isnt the end
This is only the end

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my Soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my Soul to take.

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

This Is Only the End

Standing up on the shore, the sun was warm all over my skin, and the water rumbled the air with an overlapping roar a million years old. 

I could feel it inviting me to disregard all order and become drenched in chaos. Over my feet, cold water cascaded in rushing sheets that burst up to my knees. 

I ruddered my way through the fans of current flourishing the coastline. Tumbling lips of overlapping water crashed up my waist, I went out a little farther. 

The horizon had now fallen behind translucent green shelves of shifting water that crested and spilled over. I ambled into this exploding terrace smiling as the moon.

The surface fizzed with a lace of swallowed oxygen as I quickly turned my back to an incoming swell. Water exploded all around me as the wave crashed past 

but I was picked up and placed back down gently in it’s bubbling fists. I was laughing from my belly after years of worry had been living there. I was being washed clean. 

The water pounded up sand that billowed beneath the surface. The grains caressed my skin like if the stars had fingertips. 

Wading back to the shore, tasting the salt on my lips, I felt shadows pulling away from me that I’d been steeping in for lifetimes.

I heard them drowning, pulled into the gnashing water and dropped over the coastal shelf into dark depths by the riptides.

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Overlapping Roar

High winds open their eyes 
And with open mouths 
Hiss me away 

I'll go where the cottonwoods grow 
And ask the meadowlark 
How fast does the old river flow? 
He answered in time 

I'll go where the cottonwoods grow 
And ask the meadowlark 
How fast does the old river flow? 
He answered in time 

These machines, turning and smashing 
With open mouths 
Lullaby lie

I know where the cottonwoods grow 
It's where the city dies 
At night when the lamp posts ignite 
You can hear it cry 

Low tide opens her mind 
For the mollusk 
And star 

I'm washed out to sea with the silt 
Of memories and guilt 
How fast does the old river flow

I'll go where the cottonwoods grow 
And ask the meadowlark 
How fast does the old river flow? 
He answered in time

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

The Meadowlark

When the time came 
I was waiting 
I could feel them come down on me 
The central offices
Have released their ghosts
And there is no escaping 

And when they take me 
Into that room 
I will have to let them record 
Record over me 
With their faces closed 
As if no one is speaking

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Ghosts

Inside the beautiful sea of people 
Is the fiercest flow 
If you try to change it, you will die

Inside the beautiful sea of people
Faces come and go 
You could never change this if you tried

You will never be the person I want you to be 
You will never be the person I want you to be 

All of the ocean is dark behind me
And you’ve sunk so deep 
I don't even see you anymore

Please don't try to be the person I want you to be
I will never be the person you want me to be 

Inside the beautiful sea of people 
Inside the beautiful sea of people 
Inside the beautiful sea of people

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

The Beautiful Sea of People

In the forest of wanting 
Animals are walking
Along the patches of morning 
Hidden by the branches 

In the forest of wanting 
Animals are walking 
Along the river of language 
Hidden by deception 

And when the animals appear 
To the clearing of question 
One of them will show their display 
Of displeasure

All the birds will leap for the air 
The forest knows what the answer is 
Before it is made 

In the forest of wanting
Animals are walking
Into the open shadow of night
With hungry anger

And when the animals find themselves
Upon the mirror's answer
One of them will show their display
Of who’s stronger

All the birds will leap for the air 
The forest knows what the answer is 
Before it is word

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Love & War

I’m lost out there
At the dawn of human evolution
Two thousand something
I laugh my dreams away

Oh, do you know where we’re going, my friend?
I wanna be the first to know…

I said, ‘Good morning’

I’m lost out there
In the fog of the early morning
Five forty something
I live my dreams away

Oh, do you know where we’re going, my friend?
I wanna be the first to know…
I wanna know…

I said, ‘Good morning’

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Excuse Me, I'm Lost

The way I go
Beyond the door
I can never return

Beyond the door
Along the road
I can never return
Never return again

The way I go
Along the road
I can never return

Along the road
Between the walls
I can never return
Never return again
Never return

Between the walls
Under the lights
I can never return
Never return again

The way I go
Beyond the door
I will never return

Beyond the door
Along the road
I will never return
Never return again

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Missing Person

Wednesday was made clear
I want out of here
Clouds are rolling in
Under my skin

Now the me you know
Is no longer so
And you are the same
Totally changed

Maybe I’m a smile that always tells a lie
Or maybe I’m a sky without a cloud in sight

What if I was a place?
Well all my trees would break
All of the earth would quake
Such a mess I’d make

Hope I’m being strange
And this is a game
Thursday will take care
Of the repair

Maybe I’m a flame that’s looking for the end
But there’s no end for fire till everything is dead

What if I was a song?
Well I’d be written wrong
And I would try too strong
I’d be far too long

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Wednesday

In the forest of wanting
Animals are walking
Along the patches of morning
Hidden by the branches

And when the animals find themselves
The way the mirror answers 
All of them show their display 
To win the other over

In the forest of wanting
Animals are walking
Along the river of language
Hidden by deception

And when the animals appear
To the clearing of question
One of them will show their display
Of displeasure

All the birds will leap for the air
The forest knows what the answer is
Before it is made
Before it is made

In the forest of wanting
Animals are walking
Into the open shadow of night
With hungry anger

And when the animals find themselves
Upon the mirror's answer
One of them will show their display
Of who’s stronger

All the birds will leap for the air
The forest knows what the answer is
Before it is made
Before it is made

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Love & War II

Nothing to be afraid of
All tangled up
Pulling away, I’m sorry
Not keeping up

I know it doesn’t hurt you
Cuz you’re just having fun
I’m trying to keep a straight face
But I’m coming undone

Nothing to be afraid of
All tangled up
Pulling away, I’m sorry
Not keeping up

I know it doesn’t hurt you
Cuz you’re just having fun
I’m trying to keep a straight face
But I’m coming undone

Nothing to be afraid of

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

The Fear

Out of the ocean with it’s blood on my hands
Into the markets with my laughing lament
Carrying tokens of the sun and the moon
Out of the sanctuary dark of the room

In the millennium
You are forgiven 
To lay down your gold
Lay down your ghost
In the millennium

Out of the harvest with my horn of despair
Into the markets with my hands in the air
Begging for tokens of the sun and the moon
Away from the productive dark of the loom

In the millennium
You are forgiven 
To lay down your gold
Lay down your ghost
In the millennium

In the millennium
You are forgiven
Lay down your ghost
In the millennium

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

The Millennium

I didn’t realize the truth
The truth that in this world you have to prove your worth
Or starve to death

I always heard life is unfair
I thought that meant that things don’t always go your way
Not that nobody and nothing matters

I thought there were checks and balances
Maybe there used to be but not anymore

Is all there is just market forces
The cheaper it gets the less free it is
Is all there is just market forces
The cheaper it gets 
The less free it is

I didn’t realize the truth
The truth that in this world you have to prove your worth
Or starve to death

I always heard life is unfair
I thought that meant that things don’t always go your way
Not that nobody and nothing matters

I thought there were checks and balances
Maybe there used to be

Is all there is just market forces
The cheaper it gets the less free it is
Is all there is just market forces
The cheaper it gets 
The less free it is

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Prove Your Worth II

You’ve been a strange kind
To a beginner’s mind
A smile in the night
To tears in my eyes

I had a bad dream
You left me in a forest at night
Does it mean anything?

You’re always there waving
Always welcoming me in
Why don’t I believe you?

And so I show you how afraid I am
Thinking maybe that's the key
But it only makes things worse

You’ve been a strange kind
To a beginner’s mind
A man on the moon
With a hand on the wound

I had a bad dream
You left me in a forest at night
Does it mean anything?

You’re always there waving
Always welcoming me in
Why don’t I believe you?

And so I show you how afraid I am
Thinking maybe that's the key
To show you how in love I am
Despite how much I’m me

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Despite How Much I'm Me

I might be wrong
But now that the trouble of what I need is gone
Suddenly you’re so available

I might be wrong
But now that maybe you can have your cake and eat it too
Suddenly you’re in my bed again

You said you think I’m naive
I thought you might be right about that
But I think I might be right about you
I think I was right all along

I don’t want to feel like I’m together without you
I need you to understand
There’s no way to be together without you

I might be wrong
But now that the trouble of what I need is gone
Suddenly you’re so available

I might be wrong
But you seem to have an olive branch in one hand
Bury the hatchet with the other one

You said you think I’m naive
I thought you might be right about that
But I think I might be right about you
I think I was right all along

I don’t want to feel like I’m together without you
I need you to understand
There’s no way to be together without you

I don’t want to feel like I’m together without you
I need you to understand
There’s no way to be together without you

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Naive

People in the city
Buildings in the body
Something doesn’t feel right lately
When we’re broken open
Maybe we’ll be loveless
Driving in the moonlight
Feeling sleepless

Driving into the night
(Feeling sleepness tonight)
Driving into the night
(Going nowhere)
Driving into the night
(Driving into the night)
Driving into the night
(All night)

Nothing in the headlights
Nothing in the headlights
Something doesn't feel right, baby
When we're broken into
Maybe we'll be untrue
Driving in the open
Feeling sleepless

Driving into the night
(Feeling sleepness tonight)
Driving into the night
(Going nowhere)
Driving into the night
(Driving into the night)
Driving into the night
(All night)

When we’re broken open
(When we're broken into)
Maybe we’ll be loveless
(Maybe we'll be untrue)
Driving in the moonlight
(Driving in the open)
Feeling sleepless
(Feeling sleepless)

Driving into the night
(Feeling sleepness tonight)
Driving into the night
(Going nowhere)
Driving into the night
(Driving into the night)
Driving into the night
(All night)

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Midnight

When I saw you in the dark
I thought we were in the sun
But I was always in the dark
Now you're shining in the stars
I was always in the dark

When I saw you in the dark
I knew you couldn't see me
Even though the lights were on
All these lights pollute the sky
You and the stars are long gone

Always in the dark
I’m always in the dark
You cannot see me

Always in the dark
I’m always in the dark

When I saw you in the dark
I thought we were in the sun
Even though the lights were on
All these lights pollute the sky
You and the stars are long gone

Always in the dark
I’m always in the dark
You can’t see me

Always in the dark
I’m always in the dark

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

Sight Unseen

We are the Western souls
Live fast and all alone
Every man for himself
Got no room for no one else

Dust is what we breathe
But love is what we need
Every man for himself
Got no room for no one else

We are the Western souls
Live fast and all alone
Every man for himself
Got no room, got nothing else

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

The Western Souls

I want to remind you that
You are real and this will pass
Everything will be OK

There’s humbling that happens when you realize
There’s things that life submits you to
That you just can’t control or escape

When you’re younger
You feel like you can overcome things
As you get older
You have to learn to be with everything

I want to remind you that
You are real and this will pass
Everything will be OK

It’s not important that you
Overcome it or you change it
But that somehow you can take it and survive it

And what you learn
When you’ve been with things that you can’t change 
Is a gift that you can give to all the people you connect with

This is what the human experience is

I want to remind you that
You are real and this will pass
Everything will be OK

I want to remind you that
You are real and this will pass
Everything will be OK

--
Written by Jen Lemen and Bobby Speaker © 2025

Passage

If you want to you can climb the ladder
Is there a difference between friend or foe?
Keep your eye, keep your eye on the resources
Wise as a serpent, innocent as a dove

If you want to you can close the door
And be carried away downstream
You can do what you like all lifelong
And find that you’ve never been free

It’s still the wild
You thought it was safe here in the light of the fire
But it’s still the wild
It’s still the wild

If you want to you can climb the ladder
Is there a difference between friend or foe?
Keep your eye, keep your eye on the resources
Wise as a serpent, innocent as a dove

If you want to you can close the door
And be carried away downstream
You can do what you like all lifelong
And find that you’ve never been free

It’s still the wild
You thought it was safe here in the light of the fire
But it’s still the wild
It’s still the wild

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2024

It's Still the Wild

It happened again
I opened the door
And let them come in
But no one was there
When no one is there
There’s not much to give

So I walked outside
Back into the world
I’m finding the words
But sometimes you learn
Some things that you find
Will never be heard

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2025

The Stoic

Standing up on the shore, the sun was warm all over my skin, and the water rumbled the air with an overlapping roar a million years old.

I could feel it inviting me to disregard all order and become drenched in chaos. Over my feet, cold water cascaded in rushing sheets that burst up to my knees.

I ruddered my way through the fans of current flourishing the coastline. Tumbling lips of overlapping water crashed up my waist, I went out a little farther.

The horizon had now fallen behind translucent green shelves of shifting water that crested and spilled over. I ambled into this exploding terrace smiling as the moon.

The surface fizzed with a lace of swallowed oxygen as I quickly turned my back to an incoming swell. Water exploded all around me as the wave crashed past

but I was picked up and placed back down gently in it’s bubbling fists. I was laughing from my belly after years of worry had been living there.

The water pounded up sand that billowed beneath the surface. The grains caressed my skin like, like if the stars had fingertips.

Wading back to the shore, tasting the salt on my lips, I felt shadows pulling away from me I’d been steeping in for lifetimes.

I heard them drowning, pulled into the gnashing water and dropped over the coastal shelf into dark depths by the riptides.

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2025

Overlapping Roar II

I didn’t leave you, I left her
We were young and still unhealed
I know you must remember me differently

I know there’s nothing I can do or say to change the picture
Framed in the past
If I loved you less I’d go after you now
Now that she’s gone

I know it doesn’t sound true to say you’re the only soul on earth
I’ve ever loved 
I never stopped loving you
But I know you must think of me differently
The truth is I’m terrified to learn if you never loved me
Or maybe it’s my fault that you don’t anymore

If you love it let it go
It probably doesn’t matter 
That she’s gone

If you love it let it go
You’re probably moving on
Moving on

If you believe I left you, 
not her, back then

If you love it let it go
I love you
If you love it let it go
(Goodbye)

If you love it let it go
If you love it let it go

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2025

If I Loved You Less

Not everyone is open
You’re not open, but I am
I look into your eyes full of love
You can’t see past the horizon

Out here in the open
You would be terrified
Closed, like hands folded
Repeating a prayer

I look into your eyes full of love
Busy and hungry
Touching the surface
I tried to break you open

I led you to the clearing
To where your eyes were looking
But you got lost and you left me
And now the way is closed

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2025

Not This Time

When we zoom deep
Into the bottom of things
Try to touch the pieces
Try to touch the pieces

The world we think we know
Dissolves away
Away in rippling waves
While people count and measure
Building something out of numbers

And all our language, metrics, matter
Float like dreams upon a shadow
Where meaning lives in spaces between
What we can touch
And what we can not explain

We build our certainties on darkness
Claiming to know what we can only experience

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2025

What Dreams Are Made Of

When we zoom deep
Into the bottom of things
Try to touch the pieces
Try to touch the pieces

The world we think we know
Dissolves away
Away in rippling waves

While people count and measure
Building something out of numbers
And all our language, metrics, and matter
Float like dreams upon a shadow

Where meaning lives in spaces between
What we can touch
And what we can not explain

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2025

What Dreams Are Made Of II

That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, that's not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did, then you deserved it.

The Narcissist's Prayer, written by Dayna Craig

That Didn't Happen

Let us live forever
‘Cuz we’re under the weather
Praise be to the hand that pulls us in
We live in a movie
We’re dead in our body

First we swam the ocean
Then we were the first amphibians
Then we were the dinosaurs
Who fell to rest by falling stars
The stars made our blood warm
And we walked across the ice into a luxury sedan

Now we have arrived
Alive in the 21st century
This is it, we win
We finished the race
To the top of the food chain

Let us live forever
‘Cuz we can’t live together
Deliver us from the awkward conversation
We live in a movie
We’re dead in our body

First we swam the ocean
Then we were the first amphibians
Then we were the dinosaurs
Who fell to rest by falling stars

First we swam the ocean
Then we were the first amphibians
Then we were the dinosaurs
Who fell to rest by falling stars
The stars made our blood warm
And we walked across the ice into a luxury sedan

Now we have arrived
Alive in the 21st century
This is it, we win
We finished the race
To the top of the food chain

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2025

We Were Dinosaurs II

What I say goes
Wherever the wind blows
Until everything is great
Better than ever forever
Flooding the zone
Flooding the zone

What I say goes
Even if they say no
We'll put everyone on planes
Never say never, we're clever
Flooding the zone
Flooding the zone

Get to higher ground 
If you live in a flood prone area 
Get to higher ground
Fell asleep to the screen bright
Get to higher ground 
If you live in a flood prone area 
Get to higher ground

What I say goes
Wherever the wind blows
Until everything is great
Better than ever forever
Flooding the zone
Flooding the zone

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2025

Flooding the Zone

The grey blue foliage brushes up against me gently, the moonlight of what is. I'll open endlessly in emptiness opening. I keep forgetting and remembering, in tides. Simplest things, forgotten but never-ending. Who I am but continue to become.

--
Written lyrics are © Bobby Speaker 2025

The Grey Blue III

Original songwriting, AI-assisted arrangements.

Peak Angelic

Pinned to spotlight

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