Evangeline

Today we've got a way to go
I love it, if you want to know
You're back to life in front of death
I thank the stars with every breath

I saw your face down in your lap
My eyes could blurt, my heart could clap
The track is tricky till the end
Don't ride this train without a friend

You'll never know the hour you're being seen
I'm gonna put us in the movie scene,
Evangeline.

I came to you to make a home
And lived in your inspired poem
To touch your flesh would be absurd
How wise of you to make it word

The sun brings everything to bud
The sun is simmering my blood
You wait inside the cool of shade
It's hard to believe that you were made

You know me, woman, but by other means
We are the strangest lovers ever seen,
Evangeline.

I think we've been this way before
You make me sure of it the more
You smile -- O how my soul would burst
The last is better than the first

The days are turning to the midnight dream
You're gonna rise a precious body sheen,
Evangeline.

The Deaf-Mutes

I need you to forgive me

You can't hear me

I can look at you

Don't want you to

Who are you
Intruding traceless

Faceless

I won't give you

Then I won't see you

Then I'll wait and write about you

And you'll lie too

Show me

I have told you

No you didn't

Stay

No

I'm here

You don't know

Come back

It's too late
I'm gone with a wave

To hell with yesterday
O can't you see what I say

Forgive me

I said give me

A Treasury of Wind

Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.
I command treasuries of wind.

God will say to me, the dust:
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why do you go mourning,
Oppressed by the foe?"

If you want to become what you ought to be,
Then you better learn to fear your misanthropy.

Sleep through your dreams, and you will wake up to your nightmares.

I want the kingdom of God, not Augustine's seed.
Truly there is no use in crying over spilled milk.

Wait for some things. But for other things, never wait for them again. You are not one in waiting.

Proof is not enough. You must transubstantiate your claim.

Pirate! Whose song are you singing?

"Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!"
It will be done, friend; only sing also for your prey, for you are hunting yourself.

You are not a writer. You are a spy, a mail thief, an interceptor of messages that creative genius intended for other eyes, ears, and minds to receive. The least you can do is become an excellent thief.

"And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?"
Look for the cornerstone, and you will know.

Another night on your own
No urge to go home
Your friends are strangers on the way
On a fast red line
To pull you
Bearing your burdens
Always singing your way into abstractions
Talking about God
Speaking to no God
It's colder than the summer ought to be
I've lost the magic left in me.

On a Cold Beach

Stuck in the step
Between prayer and later
On a cold beach

Painting my feelings
In oils and jams
With picky fingers

Counting up the grains
And down the time
Weathering clay to bone

Some fool wants to silo
The dungy leavings
Of my barnyard mind

Oh, don't you feel so small
When you wave to the bloody sea
On a cold beach?

Nocturne

You've never been depressed
You've never tried to bounce
A concrete ball
Get up or down
Who ever saved a boring frown
Go live on a bridge
Go play in traffic
Fear is a cure for static
He who takes an oath upon a dollar
Will swear upon a dime
The days will come when you're too poor
To spend even time
There's wool to scratch your back
A pillow for your chin
And shaky dreams to put your shaken images in:
Short blond hair
Warm lip cushions
Gravity's living daughter is silently grasping
To pull you under into holy matter
The antiquity of spirituality
The geology of soul
Come, oh, come, boy
Down the caving hole
To the pips of moons
To the frosty air
Windy windy waves of water
Lashing where the squalling storm of baptism never ends
Oh mercy, oh me
See the eunuchs in the street
And they're giving you a chance, too
Buy the beggar's banquet feast
Peopled with people
Symbols that crash like cymbals
And break into fire hear fire dear fire.

Loser's Blues

Lose the blues
They said lose the blues

Heads they win
Blues you lose
Heads they win
Blues you lose

Don't save yer money
Gotta save yer soul
Don't save yer money
Gotta save yer soul

Lose the blues
Lose the blues
They said get the green
And lose the blues

Gotta live for the body
Live for the body
Live for the body
Live what you know
You don't know no soul
You don't know no soul
You don't know no soul

You gotta choose
You gotta lose the blues
You gotta choose
You gotta lose the blues

All I got to lose
All I got to lose
All I got to lose
Tellin' me to choose
What I got to lose
Tellin' me to choose
What I got to lose

Don't wanna, mama, wanna lose the blues
Don't wanna, mama, wanna lose the blues

Done lost a woman
Haven't got a home
Don't got bad religion
My friends are few
Done lost a woman
Haven't got a home
Don't got bad religion
My friends are few

Up come the devil
Say up come the devil
Up jump a devil
Up jump a devil

He say lose the lose
Lose the lose he say
Lose the lose
Lose the lose

Woe-is-a-me-bop
Woe-is-a-me-bop
Woe-is-a-me-bop
Woe-is-a-me-bop

Don't wanna, mama, wanna lose the blues
Don't wanna, mama, wanna lose the blues

Gimme rock cross fire
Dove harp boogie
Gimme rock cross fire
Dove harp boogie

Gonna be a virgin
Soon as you stop touchin'
Gonna stop drinkin'
Soon as you stop pourin'

Boy gonna win no sin all in
Boy gonna win no sin all in
Gonna sin all win boy in
All sin gonna in
Boy gonna lose the blues
Lose the blues
Lose the blues

Why don't you leave me alone
Ain't got a thing of my own

Lose the blues
Lose the blues

Why don't you leave me alone
Ain't got a thing of my own.

89 Degrees

Up, up and under the roof, in sweat and sticky dirt
Getting hard to sleep, don't wanna see that dream
Up eighty-nine degrees, another few might hurt

I don't wanna like you, now love me do
I don't wanna like you, now love me do
Well now, what you said, now what you gonna do

Got your bag in hand, time to turn your cheek
Got your bag in hand, time to turn your cheek
You've been going so long, been standing still for weeks

Ain't a fox or birdie -- where you gonna go
Ain't a fox or birdie -- where you gonna go
Well I will go to the desert, ain't none to lay me low

What's the matter, woman, did you lead him on
Said what's the matter, woman, did you lead him on
They're all drunk in Cana -- the hour's come and gone

Got no use for money, only made me poor
Got no use for money, only made me poor
It's eighty-nine degrees, don't let it rise no more

Hey hey oh my Jesus, how long John be
Said hey hey oh my Jesus, how long John be
It ain't none of your business -- you're gonna follow me.