As You Like It

Somewhere

If I’m dying let me die. If I’m living let me live
If I’m taking let me take. If I’m giving let me give
If I’m breathing let me breathe,
but if I’m choking give me air,
sometimes I need to be somewhere
If I’m reaching let me reach. If I’m falling let me fall
If I’m teaching let me teach. If I’m stalling let me stall
If I’m listening take my ear.
Whisper burdens I can bear
Then take me to a place somewhere.
Somewhere, there’s bound to somewhere.
Somewhere where nothing beats a pair
where the restless find more rest
where the boundless might be blessed
There’s bound to be a place, beware...
Somewhere
If I’m crying let me cry. If I’m sleeping let me sleep
If I’m flying let me fly. If I’m creeping let me creep
If I’m walking let me walk. If I’m knocking let me in
Sometimes we must begin again

How Lucky Can A Guy Get?

This evening darkness shed some light on
Something someone said to me
A passing notion almost passed me by.
Just like those chimes that no one hears
An evening’s darkness sheds no tears
Another bell that chimes when someone sighs
A trumpet fell into your hands
A falling star to understand
“Blow away,” he said
“your worst regrets.
How lucky can a guy get.”
A bird with broken dreams for wings
Might sing a song I used to sing
or lift me up into a climbing tree
Put us in a tree so high
Or deep inside a storm-filled sky
I still hear the trumpet say to me
Let me fall into your hands
A falling star you’ll understand
Blow away your worst regrets.
How lucky can a guy get.
Sometimes walls come tumblin’ down
Or someone leaves without a sound
all the best-laid plans can still fall through
A song takes hold when you’re alone
becomes a story of your own 'cause deep inside
the trumpet sings to you.

He Walks With A Cane Better Way

He walks with a cane,
she talks like insane people do
Or people on cell phones
plugged in to a wire talking to
Someone who isn’t quite there
Who vanished right into thin air.
Who hasn’t found themselves
talking with no one around?
With no one around then
no one can hear what you say.
But you might want someone
who’ll listen and not walk away.
You be my cane and I’ll be your able to do
anything you want me to.
She walks with a gait, he talks
like he’s waiting in line.
Or people who find themselves
marching, but never in time
People who really don’t care
are people who really aren’t there.
Who hasn’t found themselves
talking with no one around?
I’ll talk till my nonsense makes
more sense to people like you.
I’ll show you that purple is more
than just red mixed with blue.
I’ll walk ‘round the color wheel
And show you no color’s real.
Who hasn’t found themselves
walking with no one around?

Fortune Cookie

Crack it open,
try not to tear your good fortune
even though you don’t believe in luck like the Irish do,
or so they say,
the Ids of March get in the way
when I’m waiting for you
my good luck charm
my fortune cookie
won’t break in two,
I’ll just hold this cookie here and
wait for you.
Another little cup of tea,
I fumble chopsticks on my knee,
I look around at every sound
that might be you.
The shiny cars roll slowly by
and carry with them glancing eyes
that find me looking at reflections in my shoe,
some scenes of you
inside my mind,
my little cup of tea
my fortune cookie and me.
Don’t break apart,
Let’s make a start
of what we finished
much too soon.
Let’s fall inside
a broken ride that takes us
back beneath that
half moon
fortune cookie
A Piece of paper offers words
thrown down like wisdom
Wrapped inside some alley
out behind some laundry up in Chinatown
And children talk to one another trusting
what each other trusts
they toss their pennies
at the curb hoping
for a dragon dance
With firecrackers popping
pretty colors cracking smoke and trouble
And good luck bubbles up and floats like
lanterns on parade
on New Years Day,
but not the 31st,
another. just like my mother.
Cable cars come off their tracks,
collide with lovebirds in the sack
who can’t see straight ‘cause
Cupid’s arrow met its match,
another heart, another chance left,
or right,
another broken fortune cookie.
Another fortune cookie
broken for you
and for me

  Not To Go

Everyday I wake up
Everyday I break up
And find some way to make up
A reason not to leave
A reason not to get up
A reason on the set up
I’ve set up so many times
A reason not to go
Not to go
Away from here
Not to go
Fog horn off the pier
Some things better left unsaid
Or not to go to sleep instead
Not to go
Every morning make up
Every morning cake up
Take up one more reason
Not to walk away alone
Together for the sake of
One more night to make love
Pull that moon across the sky
Something in our eyes say

Going Nowhere

Where I’ve loved you
I’ll remember
Where I’ve seen you
I’ll be there
Where I’m going
I can’t tell you
Okay, I’ll tell you
I’m going nowhere
Do you know
how to get there?
Do you know the way?
Could we go
together?
Together
we’re going nowhere

Ticonderoga

Can I hold her by the waist
before these words can be erased
And blown away?
Will she stay between the lines
or will she take down all the signs
and lose her way.
Ticonderoga
Wears yellow dress
Ticonderoga
Got a green tattoo and
scribbles what she can’t confess
Will today be yesterday,
will she make me go away
Like old dreams do?
She sharpens up the rest of us
everyone can’t help but trust her
point of view.
But sometimes when she’s all alone
inside some box, or by the phone
The pens and pads can ridicule,
like notes we wrote when still in school
Walking down the hall, she awaits a call
then I take her body in my hand,
she shades a place for us to land
when we must fall.
She pencils in the best of me
then sketches all the rest of me
so I can call

  The Rub

To be or not to be
my best friend
Ah, there’s the rub again.
To be or not to be
my best friend
Ah, there’s the rub again.
I’ll drink with you
if you want me to,
or have a cigarette.
I’ll break my last rule
in two for you
with very few regrets.
I lean out my window
and look for you,
see your sillouette,
I’ll do anything
in the world for you,
for you I’ll not forget.
Could there be love in the moon above,
one’s fate and destiny?
How could all I’ve never done
bring you so close to me?
I’ll hold your head,
be your pillow in bed,
lay down with me and rest .
I’ll dream with you, watch our dreams come true,
our kingdom will be blessed

Losing Ground

You start out with horizons promised in the west
Places on the map to find a detour and some rest
And when the day is done, is finished, put away for good
Shooting stars can lead you to another neighborhood
to another morning when the sun says, “Try again”
Your boots have other plans today,
they know it’s gonna rain.
Your eyes don’t pay attention to the images that pass
For photographs and billboards and cars run out of gas
And no one ever notices there’s hardly any sound.
Nobody ever hears you
when you’re losing ground,
losing ground
Bill and John both came and went
before I ever knew
The meaning of the blues, or envy’s ivy hue.
I used to have a plan for when
this day would finally come
Way down a road that never bends
becomes a home for some
But some folks find a twisted turn they never ever saw,
Others stay between the lines and never break the law.
As for myself the road’s much shorter than it used to be
Maybe it’s the distance come, or maybe it’s just me.
Never take for granted what was never granted first
One day the fountain’s flowing,
then you’re dying there of thirst
A mountain’s just a molehill waiting for a dance
Beauty just a point of view, or a misdirected glance
And maybe when your friends are gone
your other friends show up
Or could it be the tax collector found another cup
Someone’s sure to miss you when you finally bound away
Just like someone else is surely bound to stay

Too Far

Sometimes
someone’s
lonesome
when someone
else is gone.
Sometimes someone’s hopin’
that someone won’t
be long.
Sometimes
someone’s wishin’
for a wishing star
‘cause sometimes
someone gets real close,
then someone goes
too far.
Sometimes
no one’s left at home
when someone wants to play.
Sometimes
someone else gets lost
when someone
finds the way.
Sometimes
there are no words left,
just empty bar,
and sometimes
someone gets real close,
then someone goes
too far.

A Song for Tomorrow

Snowdrifts and pinetrees on the rim of the world,
on the edge of a lifetime before sand turns to pearl
when everything’s possible, dreams hang on a star,
when hope is this morning, and the answer ain’t far
from the question ‘cause
the question wasn’t buried too deep
beneath snowdrifts and pinetrees
and trails too steep, here’s
A song for tomorrow, but you can sing it today,
‘bout yesterday’s echo, about finding your way.
When words can’t catch memories,
when they don’t match at all,
close your eyes, take a listen to all a song can recall
Roads winding, sleet blinding,
through the mountains we drove
till we walked in our cabin,
thawed our toes by the stove.
I remember the gray skies, I remember the cold,
and a baby boy wrapped up in swaddling clothes,
a new mother rocking and rolling to sleep
a song for tomorrow, a song for to keep
A song for tomorrow...
A little boy’s hands reaching up to the sky
towards the big hands that lift little boys up to fly.
Big hands hold promises to never let go
but you must change your shoes
when your feet want to grow
And the dream that you’re dreaming
is worth two never dreamed
like a treasure uncovered
ain’t a nickel redeemed like
A song for tomorrow...
When words become sentences, stories unfold,
roads become passages, tall tales are told,
spun like a spiderweb ‘cross a sycamore tree
filled up with dew drops, diamonds for free.
Trails to hike, forts to build, treetops to climb,
when you’re too young to know that a good poem don’t rhyme. Here’s
A song for tomorrow...
A mountain worth hiking can sometimes looks steep,
the path that’s divided offers two roads to keep.
turn left, see a river, turn right, find lake,
some say be quick with the choices you make.
Somebody told me, “Drifting can kill”
and I know he meant well, but I’m singing still ‘bout
A song for tomorrow...
Now comes another road winding up north
you’ve had many teachers, you’ll have many more,
some will enlighten you, some will confuse
some you will teach, and some you’ll amuse.
So keep eyes open, keep your ears to the ground,
hear that train that’s a rumblin’
it could be the sound of
A song for tomorrow...

Day's Too Short

Been drivin’ with primer
on my fenders for a couple of years
There’s a shelf in the cupboard
held up by a couple of beers
The fence needs a post
and a couple of rails
There’s another job waiting
for a couple of nails
My pick up needs tires, a tail light,
and a rearview mirror.
Sometimes the day’s too short
and the list too long
You thought you had it all right
but you had it all wrong
There’s always one more verse
and no more song
When the day’s too short
and the list too long.
A ditch needs digging and
a trench needs filling in
A book needs binding,
a leak still needs finding to mend
There’s weeds in the garden,
seeds to be sowed
That wheelbarrow’s crying out
“Lighten my load”
One job says, “Sit down!”
while another says, “Time to begin.”
A telephone sits all alone,
waits for a call
Those rocks piled up in the field
need a wailing wall
Some sin needs confessing,
a confession needs sin
Someone asks why, while another asks when
My days are numbered and
standing in line down the hall