When the One Lets You Down

I have had this car for years

Made it through many laughs

Hard fought tears

Somehow these metal and plastic walls

Have converted into more of a hollowed hall

Celebration of years worked

Half worked

Double time

But when it starts to go south

Off the linear path

It’s hard to decide

When to let go

To let the old vessel

Stroll alone

Down the final road

No more strategy

No more money

It’s the end of the road

When can I decide

These hollowed halls

Have lived through thin truths

Thick lies

But in the end

Life goes on

It’s the memories not the material

That I will take from this world

Hand Smoked Heat

Back to Chicago

Toll road to the city strolls

Winds blowing street tires

Filled with air pushing forward

The trips become a frequent chore

We open doors to adjust leather seats

Broken in and ripped

Hand smoked heat from summer shores

Semis headed off to 94

As we head for Lakeshore

Same city

Same sound

Familiar from the skyline to the broken ground

Chicago

My first city

Lake Michigan shores

We head back once more

 

Hails the Sun

The skyline hails the sun
In a stretch upwards
Calling the blue from the moon
Orange flecks gold over the estuary arm
Setting for the even
The empire reaches high and mighty
As the east river ferry barrels through
The wind stricken water
The brooklyn bridge reaches Manhattan
Strong and grounded
As planes launch from the ground
One world trade as new as a baby in the sky
Brooklyn in the back
Heralding the spring night
The rocks
Tucked with miss on the Brooklyn beach
On a Friday night
In New York City

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Keeping the I can

Keeping the I can
In a world of can’t
Can lead the mislead
Push the final pedal down
Until the spring rose is dead

It is important
To believe in what you can’t
That someday you can
Be where you want
The belief
Rather than stricken grief
Must grow

People won’t think twice before
The remind you once more
That you have never done
This before
Heed only to your own calling
Hold yourself up
From falling

Let hope and belief grow
Let it take you were you want to go
Raining on summer plants
Thirst quenching with water
For your soul will grow
Just like a spring plant
When you say you can
In a world of can’t

Distortion Drawers

Distortion drawer
Tucked up high
On the fifteenth floor
Looking scraping skies
Off buildings 529 feet high
Steam belts
Ring around tops of structures
Under the sky punctured
In the city sound
When it’s your home
You’ve found

Big City Big Plan

Big city
Big plans
We go
Where the unknown
Is full
Certainty
Empty
While we grow
Outside of comforts
Lined growth
And direction
To set out
To find our own reflection
Among skyscrapers and the Hudson
We stay warm
With eyes on the empire
Feet pushing through
The snow and sand
In a big city
With big plans

Birds of the City

Would city birds leave if they could
Fly away from the skyscrapers and sirens
Over the lake to Michigan and rest
To land no longer on towers but trees soft and green
To escape the busy city scene
Or do they enjoy the rush
Soaring from tower to tower
Picking up scraps from late night prowlers
Living off the city streets
Begging to make ends meet
This is their home and ours
We share it willfully but not willingly
Would we dismiss all of these birds
Shunned away from the city, scourged
But the what would float from rooftop to rooftop
Making its way with wings expanded and strong
Calling out in its evening song
They are part of the landscape of this city
They too are the blood pumping in the veins underground
Keeping us connected to nature in the cement ground
I look up to see a bird fly by
This keeps me connected to the life
That lies beyond these city skies

People at Heart

People are at the heart of the city Pumping through the veins of streets alleyways tunnels metros and do the skyscrapers
Keeping the towers breathing and vibrant
With no people these artifacts would collect dust and deconstruct
Without these bodies with hearts pumping this city would die
In vacant earth
It is the men and women that keep these skylines alive
The janitor the construction worker
The business man the musician all working for one
Keeping the city alive and well
The streets are moving with people
Pushing and sliding in and out of stores and restaurants
Keeping the city alive and well

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.