Through the Cold

heart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh we are trying to leave

Yea we’re trying to make our way

But we can’t

No we can’t no no  no

Lord we can’t

Turnpike turned all white

These semis turned upright

Lord keep me away

From these wicked roads today

Driving around

I’ve got time to burn

There is one thing I’ve learned

Holding on going on

Make my way through this song

I won’t take too long

We shut lights out late

The snow won’t go away

Burnin candles in daylight

Makin’ me feel all right

In this winter cold

Oh I know

Oh, yes I know

It will be alright

I’ll hold

I’ll hold you close

Through the cold

Oh we are trying to go

Where this ole road, goes, rolls

Oh I know Oh I know

That’s there’s oh so long to go

With you

When I turned seventeen

So long ago it seems

27 I’ll make my way

Hear what mom and dad have to say

Bout me now

We are going to find a life

On America’s east side

Good friends left behind

This was the only time

To get away

Turn-in the countryside

For those city lights

A studio with some clothes

Good lord we got to go

And make it big

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The Sweet Smell of Rejection

Nothing like the sweet smell of rejection in the morning

To receive the call an early warning

Its not the right fit but I wish you the best

But if you had to receive a grade you failed the test

Refreshed I see it in a morning sigh

No more than a simple rejuvenating sign

That more must be done to push forward

No looking back or retracting your hand

Giving my best out there I cannot look back

The evening lines have been drawn in the sand

Take a breath and begin again

This will seem to happen every now and again

I take it as a compliment

That the successful plans have been laid

I will not give into some cheap demands

To jump at their will fall upon their command

People look for something to fill their own void

All the while they hold stiff while creativity is destroyed

Looking for something to replace the old

Will make the fillers seem out of place and cold

Wet and waiting on the driveway of replacement

Taking what just comes along seems way to complacent

They want someone who will fit the mold

Casting away the unique and the wanderers

The fearless and the bold

For someone who does not mind to grow mold

Upon their creative gears and will simply listen to their peers

Me that I am not and surely never will be

What will ever become of me I guess I will wait and see

As for now I am content on my bed of worthlessness

It does not fear me to be alone out here calling

Much better than rich and my creative mind mauling me

I recluse back to come back stronger

Eager to fight again

Rejection is nothing more

Than a reason to start again

The Daily Routine

Ah the challenge of keeping creativity alive in my life. As I am pulled to try and sell the art and the creations that have already occurred. It is hard sometimes to step back and try and let the creative juices be heard. So I sat down to try and document my daily routine of keeping creativity alive in my life. So here it is – enjoy!

The daily routine

Wake up in the morning

Make sure to exercise

Work out the arms and the thighs

Get back and get cleaned up

Got to write and practice

Keep the routine up

3 or four hours later

I now sit at the compu-tater

Life’s lines complex yet defined

I make this no place to wine

Letting go on paper what must be done

Seemed like a good idea

Challenging and fun

Poems must be constructed daily

This challenges what I have to say

About beauty, art, and the progress of today

The challenge is not to conform

But to set a new aggressive norm

Creativity must be engaged often

Or else the course muscles will soften

Decay and leave your soul

Looking for someone else to enroll

The creative spirit can be fleeting and gone

So I must capture these spirits in songs

Poems, writings, and other means

Or else I will be left with nothing

Creativity gone and no job to boot

I look pretty bad now in a business suit

Full of aspirations are these writings

Even though my mind is rattled with distractions

I must be real and stay ahead

Better off here trying

Than creativity dead

Summer Rain

Summer rain falls mid day

filling the pavements

washing dead bugs and twigs away

cascading on grass so needy

pulling it beneath the earth

taking its fill and nothing greedy

grass blades bend soft with water pose

hoping that the sun will keep it live on loan

but the cloud has filled with pulled cotten clean

billowing the small stacks of steam

I sit and wander

how the world rejoices in summer thunder

for me under the roof i sit and watch

that water falls to the ground

filling the parched holes in the earth

with a simple pitter patter

the wonderful summer sound

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.

Rest

This was written after a couple of weeks on the road. This trip included all of the major music hubs in the U.S. (in my humble opinion of course and for our particular genre). We had stops in New York, Chicago, L.A. and Nashville. We finally got to the end of our journey to a log cabin up in the woods on Traverse City, MI and I slept for basically 48 hours. At the end of the sleep I was able to get up and write some words that needed to be written down. They came to me in a early morning haze. So here it is a poem on rest – enjoy!

Rest

There is one thing that unifies

This no one can contest

That when we fall asleep

The mind now at rest

The heart

Beats

And beats

And beats

To no similar tune

But in similar fashion

The mind at rest

I can attest

This is the best

Way to connect to each other

There are no preconditions

No medication

Or temptation

For one to connect

To others

Through this sensation

Of mind cessation

Temporary of course

But this might lead a course of action

To rest away the weary eyes

To come to negotiation anew

Many a times it has worked for me

And surely will do the same for you

Lights out in gentle style

Let the mind take the lonely mile

And hearts beat sustain throughout the night

And in the morning

Everything will be alright

I am no Poet

This was written right after watching the presidential inauguration. I really enjoyed the poet Richard Blanco and his poem “One Today”. I used it, and the rest of the ceremony, for inspiration. I thought that it would be important for me to really focusing on what it is that connect us together as Americans, and also can devise and separate us through erroneous use of our egos etc. I hope you enjoy it! Cheers!

For I am no poet

No writer, nor musician

No athlete or businessman

I am but nothing and will return

I must be stripped of all

Before I know what I am

What I am made of

What wiring makes my soul

All the confusion and static

The noise and the stammer

Of what others want

And I need

In the confusion I believe one

And forget another

Only to remember

To be reminded of yet another

So I challenge myself and you

To strip away what is

And to find what will be

What is it that you stand for

To look at these flesh and bones

And find what the meaning is

Beyond the labels and toys

Finding a simple meaning within

For we are all connected in a manner

An inner webbing that connects us

That unites us

And if we so choose tears us apart

Yet we strive for more

To seek meaning that is greater

Than the sum of our parts

And unifies us

This is our challenge

Our calling

Our honor

To be what we are

To forget the other meanings

And find our own

Not in our own minds

But from deep within