Trying to get back to a normal after life has been turned upside-down... Friends, I hope you are all doing well!!

shoots & ladders
spying clouds twist into shapes
turning laundry into capes
basement shelf with books and games
baseball cards and halls of fame
a lone balloon floats into the sky
and where it travels the winds decide

how we spent those summer days
selling cups of lemonade
every Sunday come to play
shoots and ladders come what may
and all our dreams drift into the night
spreading up and out of our sight

Sleeping over on my floor
wide awake and laughing more
slowly drifting into sleep
wrapped in hopes we’re going to keep
an errant wish floats into the sky
rising up and is cast aside

how we spent those summer days
selling cups of lemonade
every  Sunday come to play
shoots and ladders come what may
and all our dreams drift into the night
blooming up and out of our sights

how we spent those summer days
selling cups of lemonade
every Sunday come to play
shoots and ladders come what may

I’m climbing up, you’re sliding down
you’re climbing up, I’m sliding down
I’m climbing up, you’re sliding down
you’re climbing up, I’m sliding down
I’m sliding down I’m sliding down I’m sliding down

Shoots & Ladders

I saw you one day drinking coffee and 
penciling words on a page
Thought maybe she’s writing the passages 
or acting them out on a stage
Its clear from your efforts and focus, you’re
sworn to the oaths of your art
Since you’ve been sharing your pain with me
Its torn me apart

Joan
Cold like a stone
Why did you leave?
Where did you go?
Joan
You left me alone
The lies that you weave
I wish I had known

You told me the roots of your storyline
Had me perched on the edge of my seat
I said you could stay on my sofa 
Just till you got on the soles of your feet
I fell for your naive anthology
I got lost in the pink of your hair
and woke in the fog of the morning 
when your things weren’t there

Joan
Cold like a stone
Why did you leave?
Where did you go?
Joan
You left me alone
The lies that you weave
I wish I had known

Ghosted

when the solstice come and the season change
under charcoal sky
broad the landscape, dull and barren
swift like the crow would fly
I will meet you here in this quiet place
when you feel alone
down the hallway, in the kitchen
of a blessed home

shiver from the northern winds
someone turn the shutters in
warm light falls upon your skin
shed the grief you’re tangled in

frames and pictures on the shelves
with all the books we’ve read
woolen blankets, smooth the covers flat
when we make our beds
sit up talking in the evening, late
and our faces smile
tired of walking, would it be alright
if I stayed a while?

shiver from the northern winds
someone turn the shutters in
warm light falls upon your face
fire in the fire place

shiver from the northern winds
someone turn the shutters in
warm light falls upon your skin
shed the grief you’re tangled in

Northern Winds

We Don’t Talk Anymore

Sad when the summer came I sang to you
Sorrowful, somber, sable words
Buried the dreams you drempt inside of you
Ever alive and held on to

Straight into the eye of a powerful storm
Down electrical lines, keep me swaddled and warm
Winds whip through the trees, broad branches are broke
In the street there’s debris from an elderly oak
Men out on the sea being battered and tossed
Hear the captain’s decree, feeling hopelessly lost
Gave myself to the cause, sacrificed for a war
You use to write all the time, now we don’t talk anymore

Sad when the colors fade like joy we knew
Wittering blade and wilted limb
Wish it away this sleep we’ve fell into
Filtered, the sunlight seems so dim

Straight into the eye of a powerful storm
Down electrical lines, keep me swaddled and warm
Winds whip through the trees, broad branches are broke
In the street there’s debris from an elderly oak
Men out on the sea being battered and tossed
Hear the captain’s decree, feeling hopelessly lost
Gave myself to the cause, sacrificed for a war
You use to write all the time, now we don’t talk anymore

You use to write all the time
You use to write all the time
You use to write all the time
We don’t talk anymore

We don’t talk anymore
We don’t talk anymore
We don’t talk anymore
We don’t talk anymore

We Don't Talk Anymore

I’ve traveled the seas and I’ve wandered the lands
I’ve sprinkled the seeds grown into these grass
Encircled by peaks I’m unable to pass
I feel like a stone being crushed into sand

You can run all you want you can cower and hide
Fall asleep with a gun and wake up with a knife
The Devil has come to ruin our plans 
These are the deeds of a desperate man
You can dig all you want I’ve got nothing to hide
No blood on my hands no guilt in my mind
My body is old but I give what I can
These are the deeds of a desperate man

I came to a town where nobody smiled 
And tilted my hat to a woman and child
I offered support but the people were shy
Their soil ablaze and the desert is dry

You can run all you want you can cower and hide
Cloak your skin from the sun fornicate with the night
The Devil has come to ruin our plans 
These are the deeds of a desperate man
You can dig all you want I’ve got nothing to hide
Overcome by the heat and it messed with my mind
My shoulders are frail but I do what I can
These are the deeds of a desperate man

You can run all you want you can cower and hide
Fall asleep with a gun and wake up with a knife
The Devil has come to ruin our plans 
These are the deeds of a desperate man
You can dig all you want I’ve got nothing to hide
No blood on my hands no guilt in my mind
My body is old but I give what I can
These are the deeds of  a desperate man

Desperate Man

do you know what you want?

the same time everyday at the end of school
I’ll meet you in the grove where your books are strewn
you read your lines out loud to me
portray your role so flawlessly
the dramaturgy shown is your gift for sure
I clap and you bow in your play couture
a curtain falls and ends the scene
I feel your body wilt

when you stand and you're still
and you hold it until
you can’t breath anymore
maybe open the door
there’s a stair you can climb
make one step at a time
till you know what you want 
till you know what you want 
if you’re sad and you cry
wipe the tear from your eye
you’ve got so many tones 
painted dark in your sky
but you hang onto me 
like a lock hold a key
do you know what you want?
do you know what you want?

dreams thrive and they crest while delusions wane
the dawning of tomorrow ends all yesterdays
a sleeve to warm a shoulder
when autumn winds get colder
I’ll keep you in my heart when you’re far away
in a distant city on a brilliant stage
the day you read your lines to me
and kissed my cheek for luck

when you sit in your seat 
and you can’t calm your feet
and the walls start to close
and your heart starts to beat
and you run down the hall
and the clocks starts to crawl
till you know what you want
till you know what you want
when you walk in the crowd
with your head in the cloud
and your trying to think 
but the hum is to loud
will you hang on to me 
like a lock hold a key
do you know what you want?
do you know what you want?

Do You Know What You Want?

modern day

photos are memories I keep within my mind
stored in the basement in a crate I’ll never find
songs are the stories and the places I have been
authored before this mental knot I’m tangled in

modern day is here to stay
and all that was will fade away
heavens rain and hell will pay
our eyes are wet with tears

poets and prophets weave our words into their art
read in dramatic mien and spoken from their heart  
unseal the parchment let the words escape their cage
left with a book with seven hundred empty page

styles we made are old and frayed 
where all the past is filed away
a quill, a pen I’ll write the end
the sky is wet with ink

modern day is here to stay
and all that was will fade away
heavens rain and hell will pay
our eyes are wet with tears
modern day is bland and beige
remembrance of the golden age
a quill, a pen I’ll write the end
my heart is black as ink

Modern Day

A fun dance track!  I hope you enjoy!  Thank you, my dear friend, Steve Fennell (DARKAGE ONE) formally of the great 80's group, Forgotten Heroes from the greater Manchester UK area, for doing the artwork for this post!  Check out their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/forgottenheroes.uk/

Lydia

In psychiatrist Frederik Van Eeden's article 'A Study Of Dreams' (1913), he describes the phenomenon of being aware of the fact that one is dreaming and being able to control the characteristic, narrative and environment of these dreams.

Lucid Dreaming

In your mind is the echo of voices
Whispering and the scuttle of shoes
I want to walk away and undo all the choices
and fall asleep with the comfort of you
I want to wake in the warmth of the sun light
Shivering through the cold of the night
When you smile, your joy is electric
Like the sun at the start of its rise

This world will change forever
When will we come together?
Will you hold me as the buildings fall?
Bound together like a mortared wall
Birds fly through stormy weather
My arms torn from their tether 
Will you kiss me as the missiles sore
From the sky tonight the ash will pour
You don't laugh at my dumb jokes any more..

Strange Days and strange relations
At the end with the comfort of you
I going to plan to stay and dismiss reservations
I find we're judged by the things that we do
Hold me and we'll hold this good moment 
Memories from a forgotten youth
Crows will eat all the seed as we sow it 
Fly away with our kernels of truth

This world will change forever
When will we come together?
Will you hold me as the buildings fall?
Bound together like a mortared wall
Birds fly through stormy weather
My arms torn from their tether 
Will you kiss me as the missiles sore
From the sky tonight the ash will pour
You don't laugh at my dumb jokes any more..

Strange Days

I found the perfect place to cry
Away from any judge filled eye
I lay my head down in the grass
Forget about the reasons why
I’m watching all the clouds go by
I lay my head down in the grass
In the grass, I lay my head down in the grass

All our lives we’ve been living a lie
Waiting for the day that the movement die
To reach our hands into the prayer jar
Solve the world’s most desperate cry
Jail it up and does it’s time
Weighed your aspirations from afar
Oceans dry and turn to deserts 
Suns die out and disappear 
Left our homes for new endeavors
None as great as they appeared 
Joan in edit cut to early 
Paragraphs have disappeared
John in shipping called in surly
Now the orders fester here

Home, I’m going home
And I’ll sleep till the morning in rem
Then I’ll open my eyes
Home, I’m going home
And I’ll hide from the city alone
Till this vileness dies

I found the perfect place to cry
Away from any judge filled eye
I lay my head down in the grass
Forget about the reasons why
I’m watching all the clouds go by
I lay my head down in the grass

Oceans dry and turn to deserts 
Suns die out and disappear 
Left our homes for new endeavors
None as great as they appeared 
Joan in edit cut to early 
Paragraphs have disappeared
John in shipping called in surly
Now the orders fester here

Home, I’m going home
And I’ll sleep till the morning in rem
Then I’ll open my eyes
Home, I’m going home
And I’ll hide from the city alone
Till this vileness dies

Escapist

Trains late and I’m stuck at the station
Ease back with my back on the wall
Going to find a better relation
Going to go don’t care if I crawl 

God gave me what I needed to heal me
God gave me what I need to survive
Take with me all the virtues to help me
Leave back all the darkness to die

All my life I been waiting patient
Dreaming all about the places I could go
Studied maps at the transit station
Meet a girl I think I’d like to know

Fall asleep in the seat by the window
Wake up with the sun in my eyes
Big city where my future is pinned on
Going to spread my feathers and fly

Grew up in a town full of people
Everyone of them work to survive
There’s a gun laying flat on the table 
An image seared into my mind

All my life I been waiting patient
Dreaming all about the places I could go
Studied maps at the transit station
Meet a girl I think I’d like to get to know
Grew up in a town full of people
Everyone of them work to survive
There’s a gun laying flat on the table 
An image seared into my mind

Every summer I would travel further
Every night I’d have the same persistent dream
I felt the winds that met my skin get warmer
Until I finally saw the sea…

To The Sea

Factory

4:30 and I open my eyes
Tie my boots and they hit the ground 
As we sleep at night they keep the fire burning
Everybody wants to gather ‘round 
Everybody wants to lend a hand 
Everybody set to dig the ground
In the schools the children are learning
Everybody feels so civically proud 

When I woke up it didn’t look like the future
Same old bodies with the typical dumbed down heads
Close up the factory and all of the workers
Banned together to unseat the hand that fed
In the furnaces there’s metal that’s melting
Poured and shaped and forged to fit our plans
Politicians speak the people applauding 
They hide a knife behind their back and shake your hand

All along I thought I’d make a difference
When I was young, thought I could change The World
Over time I walked impossible distance 
Through the years set out to break my will 
Everybody wants to build a life
Hell bent it seems to take us down
Can we count on you to join the fight?
Can we count on you to make some sound?

When I collapsed I had a wondrous vision
Different bodies with new thoughts to share instead
Close up the factory and all of the workers
Came together to defeat the droning heads
In the furnaces there’s metal that’s melting
Poured and shaped and forged to fit our plans
Politicians speak the people applauding 
They hide a knife behind their back and shake your hand

When I woke up it didn’t look like the future
Same old bodies with the typical dumbed down heads
Close up the factory and all of the workers
Banned together to unseat the hand that fed
In the furnaces there’s metal that’s melting
Poured and shaped and forged to fit our plans
Politicians speak the people applauding 
They hide a knife behind their back and shake your hand

Factory

A Closer Distance

Took a walk down the shore 
Look at these skies, got me wanting no more
Get a glimpse of the world 
The way that you see it
And I notice your hair
Alive in the wind, is the color of sand
On your your ear is a pearl
Been lift from the sea 

With your arm around me
With my arm around you
There’s nothing politics can do
 With my arm around you
With your arm around me
Lets lean our backs into the breeze

Took a drive to a town
Got your own guide here to show you around
Get a glimpse of the world
The way that I see it 
And you notice my smile
Just happens to me whenever you come around
And my mind is consumed, abrim with ideas

With my arm around you
With your arm around me
Lets let them old tradition be
With your arm around me
With my arm around you
Feels like its something I should do

I grew up on the plains
You were raised by the sea
There must be commons in between
If I built us a house
Would you call it your home
We’ll write our story in this stone

With your arm around me
With my arm around you
There’s nothing politics can do
 With my arm around you
With your arm around me
Lets lean our backs into the breeze

A Closer Distance

Camp Fire (2018)was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history to date. It is also the deadliest wildfire in the United States since the Cloquet fire in 1918

Camp Fire
I have a dream reoccur in my sleep 
Each night I lay my head down
A modest house at the end of a street 
Wove in the cloth of this town
Third shift, walk the block on patrol 
Train tracks the local short cut
Wild fire burning out of control 
Discarded cigarette butt

Time, growing long, my whiskers 
Blown in the wind like whispers 
Punk kid that grew up tall
Long way down for the great to fall 
Days getting short in winter
Eyes trace the little dipper 
Stacked brick became these walls 
Long way down for the great to fall

Its hard to work with it still in my head 
Restless and wring my fingers
I lie awake and reflect in my bed 
Sadness, it always lingers
Flash back every time Iʼm alone 
Days of a damp September
A still frame of a family and home 
Events that our minds remember

Time, growing long, my whiskers 
Blown in the wind like whispers 
Punk kid that grew up tall
Long way down for the great to fall 
Look past the trees, the star light 
Feet walk the path at midnight 
Stacked brick became these walls 
Long way down for the great to fall

Youʼll never know how many times
These old eyes have cried

Time, growing long, my whiskers 
Blown in the wind like whispers 
Punk kid that grew up tall
Long way down for the great to fall 
Son, carry out my wishes
Forgive me all my misses
Stacked brick became these walls 
Long way down for the great to fall

Camp Fire

1429  North Astor

Please, stay strong for me
Please, stay strong for me

He left the house that they lived in alone
Walk to the market and run back home
He saw the town that they always had known
Look not like the future that they were shown
They looked in to read 
A clouded crystal, clouded crystal ball
All the joy they’d see 
Broken shards of glass will fall

She say, please
Stay strong for me, these times when I am taxed
An offered prayer, a soul to care
Whispered nothings hanging in the air
Please
Stay strong for me, hold firmly if you can
If you should slide, let God provide
The all essential vital food of life
Please, stay strong for me

She always tired but she never can sleep
Lost in the cycles of endless grief
She comes to rest but then scream insane
He always hurry to soothe her pain
They looked in to read 
Clouded crystal, clouded crystal ball
Untold density 
He want her but not like this

She say, please
Stay strong for me, these times when I am taxed
An offered prayer, a soul to care
Whispered nothings hanging in the air
Please
Stay strong for me, hold firmly if you can
If you should slide, let God provide
The all essential vital food of life
Please, stay strong for me

Stay Strong For Me

Wounded 

you’ve been waiting for a sign to change your life
every pigment slowly faded into white
all the colors from her honest days
that gave her joy have slipped away
she’s become a blazing lantern in the night

wounded Jane is going to say that she can’t love
flicks you off and slides her hand inside a glove
bottled up, subversive angst inside were sure
she never had a boy that treat her like a girl

every lost soul who never knew where to turn
found a light in the night cross a bridge as it burn
maybe out in the woods where the wilderness rules
maybe back in the cities with the ignorant fools
picking scabs loading weapons as you ask me to dance
looking down on my body as I lie in a trance
digging graves planting flowers
Jesus saves super powers
diamond eyes are a beacon
if salvation your seeking

you’ve been waiting for a sign to change your life
every pigment slowly faded into white
all the colors from her honest days
that gave her joy have slipped away
she’s become a blazing lantern in the night

Wounded

I hope everyone is well and staying positive in these difficult and unsure times!  I hope this brings a little bit of joy to your day.

You Don’t Want Me To Stay 

I took the long way to get here
I traveled up the coast
You have a strange way to sense fear
My face is like a ghost
My eyes are gazing past you
To where the wind might hark
The sun is crashing into
The enigmatic dark

It’s what I’ve seen Its what I know
I parked my car along the road
I raced to spy, I hurried so
Around the site a crowd had grown
I saw her eyes, a woman died
Her scattered things lay at her side
When I get home and end my day
I pour a drink, you turn away
You don’t want me to stay

I heard a sad, soft whisper
Quiver in the wind
The rains filled up the cisterns
As I confessed my sins
My life has faded into
A version of myself
I saw the changes in you
And where the blame had fell

It’ s what I’ve seen Its what I’ve heard
I took a walk, it took a turn
I met a man I’m sure I owe
He chased me down a cobble road
I lost my way, the sky got black
I feel regret as I look back
I touch your arms and kiss your neck
You pull away, my heart is vexed
You don’t me to stay

You Don't Want Me To Stay

Unkind 

hear my fable of past time
pull up close eyes wide
spend time in the maze of a dark mind
that escaped from a past so unkind
I use to hang out at night with the aimless
called them friends of mine
trouble makers, wild and wasted
too dumb for the art of real crime

John got on a train for his boomtown
James ended his days in jail
Peter wanted to make his dear mom proud
never ended the chase for his own tail
these days I count myself lucky
no need for a rabbits paw
chosen and beloved by an angel
no sense to be made of what I saw

these days spent by an ocean
warmed by sunny skies
past time all a blur like illusion
comes back with the shills of a gulls cry

I dream lyrics and cosine 
I walk through the forest blind
you pencil the points of a timeline
connects with a past so unkind
Jesus, send me the blueprint
grand scope of your one design
consider the facts of my own sin
entwined with the cycles of time 

these days I count myself lucky
no need for a rabbits paw
chosen and beloved by an angel
no sense to be made of what I saw
hear my fable of past time
pull up close eyes wide
spend time in the maze of a dark mind
that escaped from a past so unkind

Unkind

Lost Summer

give my best to your mother
Heaven knows when I might see her
maybe chat sometime in fall
if all is well we’ll pray St. Peter
remember how she’d lecture us 
and all the questions we’d discuss 
then we’d sneak out late at night 
and chase the beams of brilliant moon light

summer, staring out the window at the sky
think about my friends and our good times
melancholy, wistful though we stay inside

give my best to your sister
Heaven knows I more then miss her
will we have to wait till spring
to hear her lovely, pale lips sing?
hearts will race and time will fly
into the endless, starlit sky
can we light the fire pit
and strum guitars and laugh a bit?

Summer, staring out the window at the sky
think about my friends and our good times
melancholy, wistful though we stay inside

Lost Summer

lead pencil on a page
wearing it down for days
receipts found in my car
stained napkins on a bar
beige coffee cold and bland
black ink smeared on my hand
eyes tired and burning red
I’ll sleep when i’m dead

I am the writer
you are the subject
emotion denier
the heart is an object
we are the exception
to every rule
I am the writer
you are the subject
it’s all about you
every word

down where the type is set
and light a cigarette
them pages weigh a ton
going to turn them one by one
old paper, yellow tint
dog ears and faded print
and when my numbers up
I’ll hang it up

I am the writer
you are the subject
emotion denier
the heart is an object
we are the exception
to every rule
I am the writer
you are the subject
it’s all about you
every word

I am the Writer

exhilarate
(mixed media artwork by: Luke C.)

we wake up early and the 
day has yet to break
we pack our treasured things
I don’t know what to take
we hike through the prairie full of
blue eyed grass and rye
and set up cameras 
and wait for brilliant skies

dawn has led us here
daylight drawing near
dusk will come to dress us all
in black and stir our fears
dawn can ruin our shot
day can ruin our shot
dusk can ruin our shot
we may as well shoot what we’ve got

I switch from from my breaker to my
parka after while
you notice me shiver and you
giggle and we smile
a sip of my coffee and the
sound of distant trains
and race for the shelter
when the clouds pour down their rains

dawn has led us here
daylight drawing near
dusk will come to dress us all
in black and stir our fears
dawn can ruin our shot
day can ruin our shot
dusk can ruin our shot
we may as well shoot what we’ve got

Exhilarate

retro tango

when we were young I thought those days would never end
I use to spin you ‘round the floor, your legs could bend
we’d sit and talk until the dj was leaving
he’d say move forth but we were drunk on this feeling
we lost each other to our lives long time ago
an unfulfilled, entangled fate was never known
I’d call you up but I get weak in the finger
A burning question in my heart ever linger

time carries on at it’s tempo
we’re only given a window
fools never heed
what they’re taught about time
never crosses their minds

I lived through things I hope my kids will never know
my mind’s ideals were sacrificed for higher goals
when things looked dark and fearful thoughts crept inside me
I looked to you my guiding light to remind me
lets take a moment to give thanks for what we hold
come gather ‘round and hear the tales of other’s woes
our dreams that thrived are growing dim like the ember
I tie a bow with woolen string to remember

time carries on at it’s tempo
we’re only given a window
fools never heed
what they’re taught about time
never crosses their minds

Retro Tango

Songwriter based in Chicago, Illinois.  Contact via email simplecircuitsmusic@yahoo.com or PM.  Thanks for your kind feedback!


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