Screw Texting

This is a song about the disconnect between someone on a phone and someone not. I was really inspired to write this song as I walked through a grocery store and almost got whacked by some guys shopping cart as he laughed and texted to someone. That shit is dangerous – and i see people texting all the time when I am driving. I would say that is just as bad as drunken driving. One time i stood on an overpass in LA and 13 out of 30 cars were distracted drivers. Just zipping by doing 80 and texting. Shit be crazy. So this song explores the texting dilemma in a the form of a confused love song.  I felt this would make the song most intimate and revealing to do it in this way. I think I achieved what I was going for – you tell me. I will be posting the video tomorrow. Enjoy!

Stop texting

When we are talking

There is nothing

Better to do

Feel like I am dying

Cause I am holding

I am holding my breathe

for you

Your friends calling

Just ignoring

All l the little words

I try

It feels vacant

In this party

Yeah this group

Of just me and you

It just kills me to hear you say

Don’t go

I wont go if there is a reason for me to stay

Don’t stay

I won’t stay if there is a reason for me to go

(Repeat)

I fight feelings

We have outgrown these

Damn phones

Lets throw them away

What could make you

So happy

Looking at that

Box in your hand

Fingers punching

Always talking

While your lips

Have nothing to say

It so quiet

In the room now

That the phone is

all tucked away

We can just talk another day

Quiet Minded

This just captures the way I feel today. Not quite sure what it all means or where it is I am heading. I just try to put something to paper and this is what comes out. My mind does not seem to have linear thought today, more scattered and sporadic. Probably a sign of fatigue but i must write on! Some quiet minded writing.

Pushing and pulling

Twisting and moving

All these parts around

The feelings burst from corners

Onlooking

Stomach churning wide

Open mouths yearning for life

Sliding in spaces

Hands holding their places

While fists beat upon chests

The feelings melt around

Filling valley’s under pressure building

Eyes bustling hoping to discover light and air

Yet there is just the simple sound

Of an air conditioning running

An elevator moving

A city bus forward thrust

Streets being lashed with rubber

The city blinks in a quiet stutter

Life comes back as quickly as it passes

Staring at the coffee on my glasses

Resting arms and legs on a sofa

My mind will surely not rest until this night is over

Light and Meaningless

This is just a piece written out of inspiration after watching a documentary about a pop star that has had her “big break”. I found the most ridiculous part of the movie was how they talked about her writing had developed her vocabulary. Then they showcased this horrible song overusing mediocre simile. So I have some simile thrown in for effect here and how ridiculous it is to claim that good simile can create good poems. It can help, definitely, but I believe there is a lot more to poetry and learning how to write than that. On top of all of this, she still co-writes all of her work with major hit writers. So lets not get over zealous with how much she is doing. Anyways – RAWK!

Heartbreak

Why does every song have to be about heartbreak

As though what you say

Has never been said

The book that was written

No one actually read

Or took any time to look it over

Over and over

My stomach turns listening to stale bread

Filling up the holes in my head

With words so light and meaningless

Where is the controversy in all of this

But a love song will sell

It will land you on the charts

That is all you should care for anyway

Get charted make some dough and roll away

I have no appetite for that no calling for swooning

My heart cannot be pulled anymore by this

Songs about how ones hearted is wounded

Do I really have to be relatable and and marketable

At what point does all of this become a song

Whether I seem to have it right or have it wrong

I can debate this question all night long

When my eyelids glue open to ceiling above

There is no point to this all when push comes to shove

The feelings fall like honey down a wilted tree

I used the word honey there

Isn’t that so creative of me

I have no calling for simile or rhyme

I just try to create what I feel I can call mine

A concoction of words so bitter and so timid

Just the flesh of a peach left when it is pitted

Try to make something small everyday

Quick painting of what is going on around me

To look back one day and truly be able to say

The meaning was left in the heart of the words

There truly is no right way

Great Nostalgia – 13 Years Ago

Tonight post is short and sweet. We just rocked out at a sweet house party in Downtown South Bend the night before our big show here in the bend for St Paddy’s Day. I am kinda wiped out – but I will give it my best. I am feeling a little nostalgic because I realized that tomorrow will be our biggest performance in South Bend ever and I have been playing in the bend for 13 years!!! Holy shit! I played my first show when I was 15, my mom dropped me off at a local coffee house called “Higher Grounds” in DT South Bend. It was an amazing show and now tomorrow I will be on stage in front of 8,000+ crazy to look back at the journey – and funny how life works. But I am super excited – a poem will be written post show to summarize the feelings and emotions. For some reason word press is not letting me space correctly so this will be read by using commas (not for grammatical purpose)

All the chatter, Play it this way and what is the matter, Chords still ring out, I cling to this guitar like a mad hatter, I have seen many a shops open and close, Sang them a song before they had to dispose, Of all their assets and move out of town, Kinda sad to think that I would never again see them around, This town or any other for that matter, People have come and gone, Some great inspirations, Some not so much, But in some meaningful way it was my life that they touched, I think back with great nostalgia to the first show posters, My life since those first days has been nothing short of a great roller coaster, I have now traveled from coast to coast, I have found places I loved the least and the most, With my guitar I have traveled, I say this not to boast, My humble beginnings playing in Coffee shops to onlookers playing chess, I did not have a fabulous voice, I can honestly say that I gave it my best, Only 15 looking for a grand time, Little did I know that love and a calling I would find, Years went by, I continued to play, I tried to give it a little something just about everyday, Then music led me to my love, She landed in my life as gentle as a dove, She would sing I would play, Anywhere and we did not worry about pay, 10 years have gone by since then, I can not believe it has already been 10, Now we get to play on a much great stage, I guess you could say that we have turned the page, From the empty coffee houses to people packed in, I used to know this city when the music scene was thin, Now it is robust and growing, Songs are being written, People now create great art, I am humbled to think that I played just a small part, I hope South Bend continues to grow, What it will become in ten years nobody really knows, To do my part I will just continue to pick up my guitar sing and play, I hope for the best for this city one day, Wishing it the best on this St. Patrick’s Day.

Elkhart’s Eternal Flame

Late night band practice in Goshen, IN led to a midnight drive to South Bend. Even at the late hour you can see the flame burning off of the highway in Elkhart. It reminds me of how that thing burns 24/7 and how we are filling it with every step that we take. So this is a short poem about where it all took me.

 

Elkhart’s Eternal Flame

Elkhart’s Eternal Flame

Lights my mind up every time

Drives me insane

The heap of garbage burning bright

The smell that seeps out

Lets you know something’s not right

Trash carving it’s way in Midwest trees

Coming from all over the land

From the mountains and the seas

Landfills in Indiana seem to run a plenty

Follow your nose and you will find

One, two, and oh so many

As with all trash it must be disposed

Where exactly it goes

I can’t say anyone really knows

But on a Tuesday night the flame glows

On highway 20 when you see it

You will know

Blue flickers orange pops red in too

Depending on where the wind blows

Is where all the scent blows to

Racing over fields and famers

Streams and trees

Through our nostrils

Into you and me

Into our lungs and through our livers

Into your soul giving you shivers

Into our blood

Through the water that we drink

Bubbling up through the faucets and the sinks

Shame should fill the hearts of the waste

But toss it in the trash

And don’t really face it

The next time you waste

All the trash that you disclaim

I may see it burning one day

In Elkhart’s Eternal Flame

Futile to Fertile

Spring is right around the corner. On a warm spring day this came to me as I relished in the final days of winter. Those days are some of my favorite of the year. Enjoy!

Winter days fade

Into spring

Quiet mornings

Where the birds

Sing

The final snow

Begins to melt

And fade away

Winter is moving out

And

Must be on its way

For today

I admire

The winter cold

Windy gnarly

And brutal

My attempts to leave the Midwest

Always seem to be

Futile

Until the fertile lands

Of spring bloom

Once again

Bring back

Warmth and summers moon

All of this will be back

Very soon

And soon indeed

It will bring me joy

A young child

With a brand new toy

To run around under the sun

My heart swells

When it is warm

How the feelings come back to me

On this winters morn’

Wonder

This is the revised version of a song that I am currently finishing up. It is about being in the grind and trying to find meaning in your work. For me it is grinding through all of the social media/marketing day to day activities of running my own company. It is a simple morning – but my mind begins to wander. That is where this song comes from. Hope to have video up soon. Cheers!

When I wake up

Feeling fine

Get up put the coffee on

I’m in the grind

The TV rings out so clear

In subtlety

Weather man’s telling me

These thoughts are free

But you will find

You will find

You will find

That in due time

That OH

Don’t you just wonder

How the clouds can fade

They just fade away

And oh

Don’t you just wonder

How life it fades

It just fades away

It fades away

Every time I think of her

I fade away

All these people telling me

Move this way

What the fuck is wrong with you

He will say

You’re head is tucked in clouds

But I’m OK

Then again

And again

And again

Love I will send

But OH

Don’t you just wonder

How the clouds can fade

They just fade away

And oh

Don’t you just wonder

How life it fades

It just fades away

5 am grabs me

Very informal late night ramble. Drove from 8:30 am until 5 am and this is basically where my mind was at. It is crazy how you almost start to hallucinate and you definitely need some time to recover. So here is to late night, cheers!

5 a.m. grabs me

not asleep yet

soon

maybe

probably not

the skies lift a heavy fog

from evening shoulders

passing lines

and green street signs

late night

driving all around

better prop up these eyelids

so they had not fall down

the next day is no better

wake up late

in somewhat of a lucid state

but 5 a.m will take some time

to recover

my mind works slow

slower on those days

it stumbles through

with a velvet glaze

my eyes bloodshot

all around

last night was late

and there is still a ringing sound

i muster up the courage to write

let the words fall and thoughts take flight

i feel alright as my muscles warm

to poetry I return

with no care for content or form

that is where I stop

as vision blurring mind distort

better put the pen down

on days like today

it is best

to keep it short

Fades Away

Here are the lyrics to a song that is currently under construction. Most of the ground work (guitar parts and melodies) have been written. Now I am just taking a couple of different approaches to the lyrics. The key of the song is the chorus where I was caught looking at these massive clouds in the air and how they just vanish. Reminds me of how my life sometimes creeps away from me too. But it is a love song because these feelings were not experienced alone. I would like to call this a rolling post because I will edit it and change it as I refine it. Hope to have a youtube video of the final product up in a couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Oh I think of her

Feeling fine

Laying in the summer grass

On borrowed time

Oh the world is new

For you and for me

This is the where

We will live

Between thoughts

And dreams

Where you will find

You will find

You will find

Us

-Chorus-

And OH

Don’t you just wonder

How the clouds can fade

They just fade away

And oh

Don’t you just wonder

How life it fades

It just fades away

It fades away

The world is different now

Than yesterday

Change will not know itself

In shadows grey

But then again

Days like this we remember

Velvet nights in late September

Between your arms

We will make it through

To mornings light

Wn the light

And morning bright

We will be

Damn these Grocery Isles

I was left in turmoil, searching for croutons at the local grocery mart. I have found that you can not find simple croutons – by simple croutons I mean the real toasted bread stuff for salads – not the overly chemically treated flavor enhancing shit. I will pass on that. But who am I anyways just some major corporations test rat? Well here is to you corporate USA, and your bullshit croutons.

Damn these grocery isles

Full of shit

For miles and miles

High fructose, maltodextrin, and corn syrup

Oh the additives

When it comes to mind

My soul is stripped of superlatives

All the great fields and planes

This is the food we eat

To fill our bellies

With such great disdain

Chemically induced sudden pain

Full of hydrogenated oil

The corporations want more money

They save a penny

Wrapping it in foil

Up and down I walk

No one to ask

I don’t even want to talk

I am filled with bitter remorse

For what people will by

For the main course

Of course there are options

Not when it comes to croutons

Croutons

Croutons

No?

I want some so

Filled to the brim with MSG

Forbidden additives to sustain shelf life

And the bottom line

The corporate mission

Corporate moguls feed me shit

While in 5 star restaurants they sit

Shit

In skyscrapers

Content and careful the scheme they run

The paychecks they are sent

It is $30 tonight

A couple of items

I will move on and write in a poem

Because that is the only way

For me

To forget ’em