The sun hides
Behind distant clouds
A shroud of cover
Of mist and dew
I stand firm on the land
My mind on you
Mind on You
1
The Fresh Ocean
Fall asleep to the sound
Of the fresh ocean
Inland bound
The Southern shore of Lake Michigan
Eyelids flutter a bit slower and softer
Mind easing into a simple place
No place on the face of this earth
As still and quiet as the southern shores
It’s a magical sleeping potion
On the shores of the fresh ocean
The Dawning of the Fall Jacket
The dawning of the fall jacket
An awning of warmth
Feeling the fall creeping in
One evening it’s summer
Throughout the night
Falls moment seizes
It makes its presence swift
Moving in with the new revolving moon
It’s a time of year defined by a subtle change
A change that shifts
Then sets in
And out comes the jacket
The big purses and backpacks
Dawning falls on us softly
And with a blink of an eye
Summers gone
To yet come again
Unknowingly Unknown
A case of distracting news
One that one can not simply refuse
The future of art
Is held in the arms of one minds repose
Unknowingly unknown
Somehow the highest calling
Is called from a distant awning
The creation of art
To focus on filters
Rather than a focus in part
Somehow the filters of heard and unheard
Call out some higher prestige fallen
On a certain selection of words
The construction of words
All hail to the critics
It’s all pretty sick
A devastating form of salutation
Pounding into my mind
I hold back the gates
Unfiltered
Untamed
I learned from my mistakes
The best form of creation
Happens in pure refinement
In an attempt to fasten the muscles
To make a call to creation
A new creation in the making
The Sum of Us
Consume me fast
Consume me wild
Consume me across the miracle mile
Consume the waters
Along the east
Consume the land
For one big feast
Set your table
Pour your wine
Consume the world Devine
Heed no call for retention
In not one conversation
We will mention
That consumption is not the pinnacle
Why on earth
Would we be so cynical
Slaughter the cows and steal the berries
Worry not
The burden future generations now carry
Drill the oil and pull the gold
Wealth only goes to the strong and bold
Capitalize on every detail
Pack the ship
Set the sail
For we worry not of what we do today
We focus only on the day to day
For only a small minority would say
Is not our ground to conquer
The point of life is not the margin
We have more than humanity in common
We share what is now
And what is future
It is our commonplace
Our gathering table
For our generation and those that proceed
So let us be aware of every deed
There is more to life than capital pay
For some will have children
On this earth some day
That cause is greater than or equal to
The sum of us: me and you
Back in this town
We never grew up in
However we did live in
So this seems
With summers breeze
Lofty dreams
Four years ago
We grew up in
Chicago
Although never in residence
In learning and patience
Great drives back
To Lakeshore
And North Broadway
There once was a time and place
Where this felt like home
On a summers day
In Chicago
Holding the World
The pale pastels of the lake
Freshened breath with no mistake
On the horizon a rusted thorn
On the Northwest tip is worn
My home state moves
No chance to hesitate
Offering big tax breaks
For the industrial rake
Tearing up the land
I have yet to ever understand
How we can destroy such beauty
Beauty of our land
The water and the sand
Taken for granted our homeland
I will look out to the lake and wonder
If there is a beauty of fresh water
Upon this earth so mild
It is both mother and child
We must honor the world so
Unless mistakenly
We let it go
Satisfaction Distraction
The simplicity
Of a satisfaction distraction
On path
For an encore at the end
Of the work
Keep our hands covered
Like the county clerk
Jobs over perspective
It will be a shame in the great
Retrospective
For now we entertain our minds
With a immediate need
Rather than the sign of the times
Our in action becomes a soothing
Distraction
I hold hope that we can realize
That the ice caps melt
Our simple wants
Are going to be answered
While our deafening blow is dealt
Rise hope for future generations
Mine is caught in stagnation
Throughout thr nation
We watch
We hope
We think
Yet our delayed reaction
To a satisfaction distraction
The Familiar and Strange
A run in
With the old hood
Unkept feelings brushing in
Like they should
Faces familiar and strange
Somehow the world spins
And the hood stays the same
The coffee is still sweet
With aroma swept out on the streets
I miss and fear this place
Staying in place
Erase time with a new perspective
With my heart strings
All interconnected
We left years ago
To leave behind
The fields of northeast Indiana
Without a plan
We left our lives here
Unchanged and untouched
By the hands of time
The Target of a Padded Pocket
Cecil the Lion was slain
By nothing more than a human stain
Utmost disrespect paid
In each US dollar
Held all the locals
By the fabric of their collar
To get his intended target
He came prepared with padded pocket
I could barely stand to hear it
While he enjoyed to watch it
It is an unfortunate play
A game of intended consequence
Now we have one more reckless action
To answer for
It makes the honor of being American
Feel more destined to sicken me
Than free me
We now wear another badge of recklessness
Story of money paid for another nations trophy
Coldly executed
Lured out and destroyed
This making a living plucking plaque
Pleases himself with the attack
Of a icon
A symbol
Go ahead and cash it in your criminal
Let the fluorescent lights of your office
Offer a scathing reminder
That no bleach can undue
Hang your trophy on the shelf
But please never forgive yourself
A Cup of Songwriting 