Sneaking Suspicion

I've got a sneaking suspicion, gone straight to my head,
Straight to my head
Got a sneaking suspicion, gone straight to my head,
Straight to my head
Got to beat it back, or it'll ruin me half for dead

Made a deal with the darkness when the sun went down,
When the sun went down
Made a deal with the darkness when the sun went down,
When the sun went down
Said "Take my soul but leave me this little town"

Saw the good times going bad,
Everybody's luck soon or later ends
Saw the good times going bad,
Everybody's luck soon or later ends
If we can't be lovers I don't wanna be your friend

Now I'm wond'rin' how it goes with my precious soul,
With my precious soul
Now I'm wond'rin' how it goes with my precious soul,
With my precious soul
A hundred friends fell in my empty hole

Don't you come too close, oh please, I ain't no good,
No I ain't no good
Don't you come too close, oh please, I ain't no good,
No I ain't no good
There's no point talkin', though you wish we could

But a sneaking suspicion, no won't leave my head,
Won't leave my head
But a sneaking suspicion, no won't leave my head,
Won't leave my head
There's another life to lose when love goes dead

It appears to be a long time, such a lonesome time,
Before the morn
It appears to be a long time, such a lonesome time,
Before the morn
I'm sleeping till the Son of Man gets born.

December Dreams

December is here, but not the freeze
Cloaking the day in early gloom,
Enticing the fragile winter bloom,
Begging us pity the naked trees.
I ambled beclouded in a fume
And dreamed (in a dream that could not be)
You left your right hand, believed in me,
And rested your head. I will assume,
Experiencing what I feel
And knowing that other dreams will come,
They're only projections coming from
My shadow. But if they are not real,
Someone explain how this was done:
I've fallen in love with everyone.

Mrs. Daniel

I write a song of days to come,
For Mrs. Daniel,

Whose beauty is dawn
And dusk--unmistakable;
Gentle, yet profound.

Forgive me if it's not for me to say;
A smile, seen like the sun, is not a secret,
And her man would not conceal
His gift from God from anyone.
Amen, in fading light I write a song
For Mrs. Daniel, the gracious one,
Protector from the sea.

She speaks to me the sound of settling skies.
Her eyes uplift the day in which I'm dreaming.
Watch her radiate the glow of eager motherhood
Across a humdrum home. Call her Mrs. Daniel,
Lady of ten thousand lakes, a garden, and a church,
A sister to her sisters, and to a city strafed by sin.
She sings a crystal tear of happiness,
She whispers, with her flute, echoes of the new creation,
Woven with the broken bow and splintered spear.
She does not fear the enemy within,
Or the furious circling nations.
Only say, "Be still,"
And then she trembles.
Whitened wonderer walks with hope
And an advent heart of merciful innocence
Past the siren sadness ... and her name is Mrs. Daniel.

June 8, 2003

Parable

She rubbed her tummy like it was a talisman
And she had become a fuzzy monster grape giantess
Pointing to her fruit, her fruit

Everybody wants to pick the grapes
Sweating under the low-hanging moon.

She rubbed her eyes and held her head down
And though she kept her mouth shut,
Before she knew it, she set everybody on fire

And she made sounds you couldn't understand
And they all grabbed her pink and scaly wrist
And they all wanted to slay the snap-dragon
With a gut full of currants

It's no fun picking raisins
Drying in the sun
Flaming from a pool.

I found them guarding the giantess
And sneering at the snap-dragon
Who was already dead.
They were standing on an overgrown hillside
Their feet were tangled in trampled vines.

Whose the sweetness? Whose the greening power?
Woe to those whose loving-kindness lasts but an hour.

An Annunciation

I am your hello
You are my hi
We are overshadowed by the spirit

The earth is your shape and its secrets your fashion
The fire is your hair
The water is your liquid face
The air is in your silence

The word is your body
Space is the width of your smile, light its brightness and darkness
Time is the curve of your lips
Heat is the flicker of your tongue over mine

The sun is your heart
The moon is your soul
The stars are your eyes

We are the galaxy
We are the journey
We are the destination, ours is destiny

Art is your speech, teaching me to see
Music is your sigh, high and soft
Science is your intuition
Beauty is our every act of defiance

Psychology is your impulse
Health is the ring of your laughter
Hope is waiting with you
Home is our faith
Eternity is our perfect embrace

Fear is what you took away from me
Death is a stranger you disarmed with kindness
Night is the thrill of hearing our names over mingled breath
Day is what remains after the night explodes

The past is our invention
The present is our inspiration
The future is our creation
Love is our imagination

The question is irrelevant
The answer is Yes.

Callista

Callista, goodbye,
Keep open your eyes,
Your future is finally here
It's not what you will but it's still
And it's yours and it's clear
In some other season
Had we governed reason
Our hands and our faces would meet
And the seas you water
Would dry up, my daughter,
The seas never touching our feet.

Most beautiful friend,
The time is the end,
And time has no meaning no more
The forges of fury
Are beating the plowshares to swords
The world has gone wrong
And you know you belong
To an unrevealed age of life
Let bad fall to ruin
And yield to the human,
A new birth of spirit from strife.

The stories they tell
Of heaven and hell
Will diminish and cease to be true
A little revenge on the gods
Who dared wrestle with you
They, the conceited,
They, who deceited,
Could never set you in the stars
Who love themselves only
They deserve to be lonely
And sightless and frozen and far.

But your vindication
Brings no consolation
The beauty you found they have missed
Your flag is unfurled at the top of a world
That does and does not yet exist
Callista, you're turning
Your God, she is yearning
The two of you one and apart
I hear you cry softly
How moving, how costly
To follow the prize of your heart.

O virgin, O mother,
We sing for each other
We watch across infinite space
A harmony passes -- it whispers
In silvery quavers of grace
Much more I would give you
If I could be with you
To ease, to lighten, to share
Your burden, O maiden,
So heavily laden,
That you and you alone must bear.

Callista, goodbye,
Keep open your eyes,
Your future is finally here
It's not what you will but it's still
And it's yours and it's clear
In some other season
Had we governed reason
Our hands and our faces would meet
And the seas you water
Would dry up, my daughter,
The seas never touching our feet.

New Moon

I saw the new moon--
Could sense its slivery silvery self--
Didn't need the sun to light it....
I'm de-lighted
Deeply, watching, shivering;
Sometimes it hides,

But it is!

And it is today--

Hiding!
I will go rising and hiding, too,
Where it is spacey and anechoic.
Room, room--I will find a vacuum!

Does it make you mad that no one sings of you?
Does it make you sad that no one paints your face?
Are you not the font of sight and sound?

Those who play, they say
The impossibility of silence is the future of music.
I'll add if I may,
The impossibility of darkness is the future of light.

Na na na, hey hey hey,
See how I play?

Moonfall, fall away.
Echoes in shadows betray the day.

You are the new moon
Dear missing one
Flying between me and the sun....
Go on, be gone
With your coy decoys--
I can lie low like you
Or do nothing as you do--

I shall lie high!

You can't see me resigning
Sore and nameless
(O honest silence, O!);
You'll never see me crying.

And though you pull and push and pull,
I'm not bound to the earth

I'll take to the air

And kiss you

Thievishly, feverishly
There.

Good night, new moon.
You will see me soon.