Are the lights not on tonight?
I can see but I can't fight

I was waiting on a street corner
Market and Main
Just watching as the taxis drive away

Are the bars all closed tonight?
Unplug the neon signs

I was sort of like an animal
Wild and free
Looking for a watering hole

Are the stars not out tonight?
I see them but they don't shine

I don't know how to love
Except the way I love
When a child is with his mother
A wide-eyed witness
To the gravity of the moon
And the rising tides of the sea

And spring now is coming
We can stop the birds from singing
Poison all the seeds
And keep the flowers from blooming
But nothing is going to keep
The seasons from changing

I don't know how to love
Except the way that I love
When the embers of the fire smoulder
And the lover becomes a fool
Still reaching for something
That causes him pain

This **** just shocked me!!!!!
I guess I took too hard a look at life

My limbs
Waiting for the bloom
Stark and barren
In the heightened desolation that only seems to grow
I remember color
I remember flowers
I remember having a heart that was warm
I become the winter

My words
Used to be sugar sweet
Becoming rotten fruit
The death of what was beautiful when it was alive
I remember growing
I remember reaching
I remember feeling and having feelings
But I'm a soul becoming cold

I become the winter

I couldn't win
Not because I wasn't the best
But only because
I would never play the game in the first place

nothing
is
unnecessary

Right now is forever
Because we live it
And relive it
And it becomes a part of us
A part of history
And when I don't have
It hurts me right now
Forever

How many times?
How may times will I see something tonight
That you don't see?
Ultimate truths
Every once in a while
Your gonna have a come down comes up
How many times will I see something tonight
That you don't see?
Probably as many times as I look
When you don't

My world is flat
My faults are lines down contenintal divides
And I listen to the music

My hemisphere
Is mostly northern where I can see the stars
But not the galaxy

Still vibrations
From the metal strings that leave me calloused
Bring relief

My old friends
My angels on my shoulder
My fighting against a current
To reach an island

And all my lovers will be there

I don't think
You'll meet one person
Who would tell you
They decided to fall in love

Red is red

Its just that pushing a river
Won't change its course
But going with the flow
Brings you to the ocean

Blue is blue

I want to use
An allusion
So vague
You have to look it up
To understand
What I said
What I mean

And I really hope
Once you understand
You understand

What do I have to give?
A rat in a trap
Chasing the cheese
After eating the poison
Slowly and slowly
And lower and lower
My heart beat descends
Until it stops

I only wanted
And it was too much

What can I give?
Not jewels and fortune
Not recognition and fame
Not anything really

Only my love

And it was never enough

I hate when I feel ugly
Less than the beauty nature conceives
And then throws in my face
Every time I gaze upon the night sky
I hate when I feel stupid
Like all the things I know
Bring me back around again to the fact
That I know nothing
I hate when I feel weak
Like my emotions the way they are
Have got their hold on me
And they won't let go
I hate when I feel like I'm failing
Flailing to grab the last ledge
But missing miserably
And tumbling to another death

I hate that I love
That I know
I can do so much more than I have
I hate that I haven't.

I could have changed the world
I couldn't change myself

I had a dream about the *** pistols
Which was pretty odd
Because they were playing songs by the Dead Kennedys
I said this be ******,
I would rather jam to the clash
Joe Strummer was pretty cool

I am a ****** up poet
A starving artist
A punk rock Elvis
Sometimes you just gotta go all out
Because your the king
Man
And you just can't help it

Van Gogh died poor
And alone
In a field that was his last expression
He died by his own hand
And it wasn't even raining
When it should have been

I don't even see myself when I look in a mirror
And you don't see what I see when you look at me
You see a smiling lover
Enjoying life though all the struggle
I live life as Pagliacci
A ****** up poet

I put on a great show
And I weep during intermission

What if the only thing I believe
Is that I don't believe in anything?
Even words only have the meanings
We give to them
I wish it was more symbolically clear
But wishful thinking never got nobody nowhere

And I'm here now

Its not a mirage
Just a memory
Of a face
That I see in the place
It used to be
This is a phantom
A troubled ghost
This house is haunted
The house where we used to live
Where I live alone

Mary had a little lamb
Who ran away from home
To follow a wolf
In sheep's clothing

I miss her eyes
Which I could use a million words
And never describe
I miss her voice
Like every single word is a note
In my favorite song
I miss her hands
Delicate and lithe and reaching
And holding strong
I miss her hair
Golden woven strands of silk
Sweet like honey milk
I miss her coldness
Like I could hold her in my arms
And feel her melt
I miss her warmth
Like her heart pumps a boiling blood
Fueled by passion
I miss her body
More to explore than outer space
A place I made my home

I miss her everything

I miss her highs
I miss her lows
I miss her car
And the way she drove
I miss her shoes
And the way she walks
I miss her dreams
I miss our goals


But most of all
I miss her laugh
Almost like since she left
Nothing is funny

We are all water
Flowing ancient rivers
Enveloping whirlpools
Subtle still koy ponds
Wild raging rapids
Geysers
Underground lakes
Dew on the summer lawn
Natural springs

Some of us are tears
We are all water
Some are felt as rain
We are all water

And we will all reach the ocean

I can't build a castle
If I don't have a queen
I can only build houses
And I build them on sand
I build them with glass
And fill them with mirrors

Just a stones throw away
From disastrous error

Her eyes a stained glass window
Shattered on the flor
And the windows to her soul
Told me all I need to know

Eros carved in bas-relief
Adonis on an olive jar
A graffiti portrait
Her face a painting fading slowly

And the windows to her soul
I saw all I need to know

In a black and white photo
You can tell my eyes are blue
With black ink on white paper
You can tell my soul is too

For those of you who understand
All I will have to say
Is that the sun doesn't shine as bright
And the night is a deeper dark

You will know its because I have a broken heart

And I can't see the stars through the clouds

Is there anything in the universe
That is completely absolute?
Or is everything changing all the time?

Yesterday you said you loved me

Lord Byron
Jack Kerouac
Ezra Pound
Emily Dickinson

Maya Angelou
Bukowski
Dubs B Yeats
John Updike

Pablo Neruda
My favorite
The greatest of all time

Still I hope a poem I write
Becomes your favorite

I say the most meaningful things
And know the meaning when it goes unnoticed

I'm trying to change the world
And the only way I have found
Is by changing people

And even worse than that
You can only change one person at a time
And there are seven billion people

And the worst of all
Sometimes you try to reach someone
And they refuse to reach back

Wasted energy

Some people are just born blind
I guess

Don't be too smart
Or no one will understand you
Don't be misunderstood
Or no one will identify with you
Don't be unidentifiable
Or no one will really know you

And you'll be completely alone

And even if I had a home
There is no place for me to go

My real fear is that my words
Will be like my body
That times makes both of them become
Only dust

I used to feel the tides
Feel at ease with them
Let the water wash over me
I used to be
Where the water met the land
The oceans wave at me
And used to drown
At low tide
The sea watching me recede
I used to
Be high as I watched the tide
Rolling in at night

But all the sharks
And shipwrecks
Riptides to pull me under
My nautical affinity

I fear
I may never see the ocean again

Well you know
History repeats itself
History is forever
From the stars we're born from
To the dust we become

And more than that
I hate to be smart
When everyone else is dumb
I hate understanding
What no one else can

But science has shown
Our current desicions
Can change the past
Almost like right now
Is a microcosm of forever

So right now
Would you decide you love me?
Its your choice
Its only what you feel
We can be stars together

I was born in Dallas Texas
I grew up in Charlotte North Carolina
Seven million people
Not one pornstar
I wonder what that means

No

I wonder what that means to me

I **** out ghosts for a living
Money exchanging hands and television executives
I must have done something wrong in a past life
Because I'm caught up in a game
Featuring distorted rules
Played by the formerly insane
And now merely misunderstood
Decent people with decent stories
That I have no care to hear

Me and my girls we are lost together
Still walking as a memory
When a moment became forever
And the loss of love
Only caused a gain in sorrow
Never ending

Living like a shaman
Reading stars in the night
And feeling the spirits
We are the same
Just cosmic reflections
In a pool of life

I speak to the shadows
My constant companions
I speak to them
But they don't speak back

Dying like a soldier
Fighting through front lines
Tanks and bombs
Bullets to strike me down
A manifestation
The pain of life

I speak to the shadows
As though they understand
And I understand them
We cry together

Being as a madman
A lunatic howling at the moon
With a pain I can't forget
A pain that pushes me on
A realization
The truth of life

I speak to the shadows
With nothing in my hands
A hole in my heart
And a hope that they can hear

I only want
A place to be
A light to see
A god I can believe in
You took it away
God help me
I used to want
But now I need

And the shadows stretch a little longer
And they follow a little bit closer
And they climb to the walls and walkways
They've become my only friends

I used to want
Something to have
Only to hold
Something I could call my own
You took it away
God have mercy
Its only love
But now I need

I tore you apart
I wanted to build a bridge
To an island
I couldn't swim to
I wanted to build a castle
Impregnable
Protection from the invaders
I wanted to build a tower
A beacon
A landmark

But instead I tore you apart
And then you gave me your heart
And then I tore you apart

Its not what I wanted to do
I never wanted to be so cruel

I can sleep so well tonight
Not because your by my side
But because you were
And your scent invades my dreams
And in my sleep
My dreams
Give me a chance to live it once again

" I hang my boots to rest
When I'm impressed
So I triple knot'em
And forgot'em"

Lying
Is a biological advantage
What else can humans invent
To lead us further from the path

Confuscious would be ashamed
Of the people we became

I know you as a flame
A fire burning
Consuming
Never sated

Hey there Mr ****** haircut
A meat packed refrigerator
Judge me now or later
While god judges you
And you focus on a letter b
Bitter brittle broken busted
Billion
Count the piggies
Count the sheep
And lead them to the slaughter

What's really sad
Is that the great
Go most unnoticed
By the normal

Takes one to know one
I'm sure I've said before
So great sees great
And wise see why

But the lowest common denominator spends the money

The ocean is not as deep
As you think it is

Its only as deep
As you think it is

Keep me from being a fool
When were in love we're fools
But I decided to write a poem
Without knowing what I would say
So
Planes are metal birds
And flowers merely symbols
For the god in nature
The good in nature

I didn't know what I would say
But I had to say it anyways
And honestly
In many ways
As a fool I'm glad I did

So
Moons will wax
And moons will wane
A greater part of everything
Of all my joy and pain

Keep me from being a fool
And even if I have wings
Be the one to let me know
That I'm not meant
To fly

I want to be a sparrow
Not a worry in the world
Just a song to sing
A song of vacillating notes
That comes as natural to me
As breathing

I want to be a sparrow
But instead I'm a crow
Cawing calling to the night
Not a beautiful song with stacatto notes
No music for the soul
But a warning

I am a crow
I am not beautiful
I am not lovely
I am not something lovers write about
Only mythology
A stigma surrounding
A mystery
When I long to be understood

I want to be a sparrow
Because people understand them
A dove, a pigeon
A bird of paradise
An eagle, a hawk
A falcon
But I'm a crow
Misunderstood

I was always honest
I didn't know
How to be any other way

And I know you hate me
And that you don't see
I only want what's best for you

I see
You were only waiting to hate me
Until you found someone else to love
Like I said
You'll hate that someone else before too long
You look for me
But I'll be gone

Imagery
Symbolism
Some of us have never heard of meter
Imagine this
A day and age
When poetical expression became base

I have feelings
And so do you
In a quick temperamental flame
Writing it down
Can never mean
That it is poetry

So avoid it
Or destroy it
Calculated words to fit the verse
Instead just say
Or just complain
Denying the works of great masters


I matter
Shouldn't you
Our voice becoming clouds to cover out the sun