my hope is higher than any belief my heart was tired i sat by the sea i buried despair in an anger so deep i arose with a prayer and a promise to keep hope is a burning rage!!!

the day you were born bad medicine stole your momma's dreams you were called "no-one-at-all" a bad omen of destiny sad youth abandoned to progress feels like copper street hard to pine for anything else never knew chestnuts when they were free lonely are the brave but you felt it was either death or escape hitchin' rides was going slow i stole a car when it started to snow it was tar dark when i hit that deer i parked my car and said "i'll stay right here and we shall descend into the dust together" and with my hand upon his neck he breathed his last breath by my side then i felt compelled, i tried and i failed to make a blanket from his hide when the morning came why was i still alive? back in town on a sunday evening in the sleet you were standing in a parking lot like your stomach it was empty why'd you come here you forgot watching your breath through the air it moved you naked and purple shaking and old a peregrine falcon was watching you perched on a wire it was blazing gold "are you aprophet or a thing of evil?" you tried to speak but your words they froze i lay me down in a puddle to sleep for the first time in my life i had a dream i caught the vision of the whole world suffering i heard the melancholy chorus of a convicts soar singing "go down ol' hannah don't you rise no more! go down ol' hanna don't your ride no more! and if if you do rise, set the world on fire! if you do rise, bring judgement day!" when i woke up i was singing this too i was dissapointed to find the sky was blue i though, i don't know what i'm gonna do maybe i'll ust go back to school ...nameless here forever more... ...come though Spirit who move through all things...

I don't wanna get up for church in the mornin, church in the mornin, souls alive! Heaven come to earth and there won't be no church we'll meet down by the riverside, there we'll swim with all creation, never get tired never bored, don't worry someday there'll be no dam between us and our Lord In Jackson you keep you hoods up, you keep your hoods up, and you stay up late, oh in Jackson, you keep your hoods up, keep your hoods up and stay out late. Well we don't mind a cold night but we might mind if you leave too soon so come on now, it's still early besides what else are you gonna do? As we kissed in the alley by the Michigan Theater , the falling snow was glowing in the lights of the downtown I saw a spark in your eyes I just spoke it they said “we're gonna turn this whole place upside down” then you said “my dear do you really mean this?” I said, “I only know what I feel right now.” Poets lie but sometimes it comes true, stay awake with me and we'll see what we can do, Poets lie but sometimes it comes true, stay awake with me and we'll see what we can do, in our town I don't wanna get up for church in the mornin, church in the mornin, souls alive! Heaven come to earth and there won't be no church we'll meet down by the riverside, there we'll swim with all creation, never get tired never bored, don't worry someday there'll be no dam between us and our Lord In Jackson you keep you hoods up, you keep your hoods up, and you stay up late, oh in Jackson, you keep your hoods up, keep your hoods up and stay out late. This is the kind of place people get stuck in, yeah people get stuck here but I chose to stay for if you ever want to know something or know someplace you just can't know them all so at some point you must make a choice and choose someplace and someone and make a home there was a time not long ago when we'd look out this window and see a wolf pack running free except there'd be no window or this building separating us from all the life we see behold the Lord makes all things new; that sounds good I wanna do it to oh dear God, destroy my city! Make it a place that the wolves think pretty so they come back here and stay I wanna hear their howl someday in my life time in my place before my body's in the grave before my body's down in the grave in my place I don't wanna get up for church in the mornin, church in the mornin, souls alive! Heaven come to earth and there won't be no church we'll meet down by the riverside, there we'll swim with all creation, never get tired never bored, don't worry someday there'll be no dam between us and our Lord In Jackson you keep you hoods up, you keep your hoods up, and you stay up late, oh in Jackson, you keep your hoods up, keep your hoods up and stay out late. We're all just a bunch of hoodlums the skies are always gray, just like the ground of post-industry ruins we grew up around hope to my neighbors, family, and old friends, hope to all desperate and beat-down we're all beat-down Groans of the dying are trying to rise from the sprawl souls of wounded sing hoarsely if they can at all we all loves leaves' colors, sweet ciders of fall til it turned to technique perfecting winter on the whole earth now it's all one big subdivision icy cold though I'm told can be melted by God we drove looking but slipped and went into a ditch, walked to find God's house, couldn't tell which was which of if only I knew where God's house was to find I would lie on Her couch and then speak all my mind What should we do, just watch as this whole world gets worse? Naw, we're told “blessed are those souls who for justice thirst” but that You will quench this they all tell me “be sure” You're the one to start the fire, for Your fire is so pure but I don't wanna go out like no prophets of baal well baal never showed up though they danced and they yelled yet I know I'm afraid of what my words imply deep down I am not ready to face up to Your fire... O-kay oh mystery mercy me may it be O-kay oh mystery mercy me may it be O-kay oh mystery mercy me may it be holy Thee we all need You, You know us we hope that's the grove of oak leave where faith's fire could glow but it's so hard out here in the cold, when it seems all we do is wait and get old it's so hard out here in the cold, when it seems all we do is wait and get old la de di, la de di, la de di, la de di...

my mind is made up of opposing demands. i'm trading my perception away to buy the latest apps. my love and my hate are feeling fenced in. tame on blog pages that no one's reading. i'm a hamster in a wheel, i used to be a mouse running from traps. though i eat safely now - i'm not sure if i got a deal perhaps. i remember my youth feral and free, blankets of sweet dresms sleeping outside, full of faith and no money but face it, the ways of the worlds are the bottom line. i grow old. the swimmer fight the undertow like the string between the cello and the bow. though the player doesn't know the note there's no stopping the show. we're the crumbling earth where the river meets the bend. we're standing on the edge wondering how it's gonna end, as we grow old. all those magic words (all those magic words), hills and trees and fires and birds, wind and seas and love and birth, it's better in real life so i've heard (it's better in real life so i've heard). all the moving backgrounds of my life (all the moving backgrounds of my life) sit and spectate to pass the time, it's not what i thought but it's alright. i picture me and my pocket knife, i'm sick of that screen to i take a swipe i slice that so-called breeze and trees and all, but on the other side there was nothing but another wall i should've been a pair of ragged claws but instead i just went back to bed. i should've been a pair of ragged claws! i grow old. i wipe a little hole in my frosty window, i look out at all the snow and i say "no, no, no, that's much too cold!" i'll stay in bed in my warm flannel robe and just grow old. BEHEMOTH...BEHEMOTH...BEHEMOTH!!! brother behemoth you always were the wild one but i know sometime ago we both were our mothers sons. somehow i got lost, i ended up in the wrong crowd, all they do is talk, talk, talk. they love to hear the sound of their own mouths run on. o sister wisdom

O Lord Motherbear roar again that we may hear O Lord Motherbear roar again that we may hear Wild Love, ancient ones say that you defend your cubs o Lord Motherbear roar again that we may hear the way back to the tree of life hellhounds on our trail tonight; o Lord Motherbear roar again, let hell be scared you dwell in the dark though it seems of late deep caves you hibernate dark night of the sense filled only with solastalgia faintly hope for synesthesia, growing so hungry solstice this time has gone too long we ain't strong like stone if you can't cahnge our woes leave us alone o for the fortitude of bare trees in February how long til You heal things? will You frighten a wind-blown leaf? how long til spring when we eat nettle greens? they don't sting half as bad as the wind-chill of Your distant gaze You unstrung my bow so a harp i made and i turned it to blues of loud morning O Lord Motherbear roar again that we may hear O Lord Motherbear roar again that we may hear many now are through with You i guess they found out You ain't true they must have better things to do than pray to nothing in this world of war it's hard for anyone to find the wild joy we all desire i know sometimes you have to go your own way but i've got nowhere else to go and I cannot get over You and i've got nothing better to do i am not over You...i am not over You...i am not over You... why were we ever born with this great wound at our core up against such unfair odds and no time to practice? out in my praying ground i still call out Your name in moonlight the moonlight dew paints me wet and i sense You are up to something new i don't believe You are dead yet O Lord Motherbear roar again that we may hear O Lord Motherbear roar again that we may hear o Lord Motherbear Thy cubs are under attack! Mother, are You there? Mother, are You there? Mother, are You there to defend us and fight back? the builders of hell march on, we lose our direction Savage Mother God, sing Your song, we'll sing along i don't forget what i first saw when the woods were old and tall Your fresh tracks in the mud, Your scratch on the cedar i've prayed the power of Your paws, my rock, my shelter, Your sharp claws nevertheless i'll defend my chest until you rip it open You have the Song of Life, i only have one tree left to climb (Because they killed all the rest!) i sit in the upper branches everyday and cry: "why have you forsaken us?!" i feel that i may fall off soon, be rushed to town in an ambulance and forget all about You the branches are so cold and stiff, but a memory makes me tighten my grip and though i say no to Your silence it's still You i speak with for now... how long, o Lord? we've seen Your tracks, now show us Your claws. roar again and save us all.