Commitment

I wrote at some length and elsewhere of my reaction to the memory of a particular scion of technology's definition of "commitment". So I won't rehash that here. While I will surely never work hundred hour weeks in the service of a desperately next century startup, I will say I felt some small personal version of that sentiment when, racked with fever and wringing bodily pain, in the throes of the illness that had kicked me out of bed early that morning to the tune of violently ejecting the contents of my stomach, thrice, in rapid succession, I crept out of my bed of pain some time around 10 in the evening, made my way to the kitchen (as far as I felt was wise, all things considered, my blank books being down a steep set of stairs), tore a page off the memo pad...

and wrote a song.




You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

661 : 1/31/00 : Piece of Piss

Piece of Piss:
That’s not easy but this is:
a raz a raz a raz a raz
a razmataz
uh hu hu

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

660 : 1/30/00 : Dismal

What a dismal little lot
The average slop has got
pushing this stupid culture up the hill
A rare message for a six line verse
never laugh as you pass the hearse
We don’t believe we’ll die but we will

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

659 : 1/29/00 : Paracelsus

Paracelsus father of Alchemy
can you guide me to the fifth principle
Paracelsus can you help me
I’m searching for the philosopher’s stone
I’m looking to get rich and vile
Paracelsus am I gonna hafta make it on my own
It all looks all right to me
gotta be plenty of opportunity
Paracelsus will you show me how to turn it into gold
Paracelsus father of chemurgy
we’re still seeking transformation
praying makes anyone but me repent
I read a pamphlet that said
The hour and the day come quickly now
we must prepare for what heaven sent

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

658 : 1/28/00 : Sphinx

Here’s a riddle sphinx
What has a head but never thinks
What has a tale but never speaks
Passes years as we do weeks

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

657 : 1/27/00 : Lizard Music

It’s not so interesting
always to be puzzling thinking
Mind over matter matters on my mind
I guess I’m just that just that kind
was I trying to hear lizard music in my sleep
is there a promise my soul can’t keep
if the rhythm wrecks the rhyme
or vice versa how do I tell time?
I’ve got the secret in my hat
Just like the Chicken Man I like it like that
If you understand you’re one of us
and if not go stand in front of a bus
Or wait for one to take you to the fourteenth stop
It’s a jungle out there we’re waist deep in slop
LA cops leave the games early to beat the crowds
I’m staring at shapes in the clouds
On the other side Australia
The last place there is if your heart don’t fail ya
Make your way there when the shit goes down
Look for the Lizard Music store in the nearest town

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

656 : 1/26/00 : Record of the Long Journey

Early in the record of the long journey
Weak handed, weak eyed, dying to return
To some simpler paradigm long gone by
Some sea change to shake this ship stem to stern
chapter four there were incidents
of mutiny and temporary insanity
Some ships were lost with all hands at sea
better them than me but oh the humanity
On an important day of the long journey
The captain realized the time had come
Deep in the throes of a fit of passion
Strapped down under Damocles’ pendulum
You’ll never know if you’ll finish a journey
Or what will wait for you to come back
So best keep a record of the Long Journey
If you manage to return we’ll add it to the stack

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

655 : 1/25/00 : The Worm In the Lotus

1,727 : 105 ?



The student came upon
a lotus bud
that had been
preyed on by a worm
He took it to his Master
saying,
there is a worm in the
Lotus, Master
The Master replied:
The worm
is not in the lotus
the lotus is in the
worm
and at that moment
the student was
enlightened

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

Milestones 2010

Been tough going lately. I feel stuck in various thematic and structural ruts with the current writing, frequently questioning whether I'm really forging any new or worthwhile territory or just obeying the dumb dictates of an obsessive structure. Not the first time, of course, and what is there to do? Push on.

Note a couple of milestones in spite of this. Yesterday I finished Notebook 23, the 10th volume (!) of the second song of the day project.



For many years my dad has kept a journal in those green hardbound RECORD books. Over the years of my youth I asked him for three of those books, all of which were short-lived attempts at keeping a journal of my own (the pages of which were eventually torn out, some destroyed, some socked away somewhere with the many, many journals I eventually kept in notebooks of my own - a habit I no longer carry out for many a long year now). What was left of all three eventually became Song of the Day books, volumes 1 and 2 of the first project, now finally volume 10 of the second project. Waste not, want not.

And, as will be noted in today's song's status update note, for the first time the continuity figure (how many songs I have written in a row without missing a day) passed three digits. Yesterday was the 105th consecutive day of continuous daily songwriting.

On reflection these observations don't exactly argue against the "obsessive structure" argument but hey, you take what you can get.

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

654 : 1/24/00 : Buddha’s (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 101/101)

Buddha’s ashes are falling
slowly in the temples
in the mountains above Hiroshima
Don’tcha know the score by now
up is down and north is south
That’s not the same thing at all
Nothing means anything
that’s the only lesson of
the modern post nuclear age
I regard all things on earth
passing flickers drifting by
mind drifting along another page
What you see is what you get
It may miss the mark but I’m not there yet
I only get to glimpse it now and then
I should have mentioned it
I guess I did a while ago
I don’t know nothin’ about Buddha’s Zen

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

653 : 1/23/00 : Silent Temple (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 100/101)

How do I get to the silent temple
Who do I ask the way
As the leaves fall in autumn
This autumn I'm falling through the silent Play
Watch me falling through the motions
of another grand campaign
that's not how the Silent Temple
transacts its buck's bang
Show me to the silent temple
This must be a proof
Sometimes silence is the
only answer to your spoof

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

652 : 1/22/00 : Vinegar (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 99/101)

The vinegar is sharp sharp
but I my friend am mum mum
edging past the Buddha
Amida please excuse my bum
vinegar vinegar
Clouds then clarifies
watch the mystic transformation
pass before your eyes
alchemy astonishing
and me working for coins
My vinegar is all I need
and watch how past and future joins

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

651 : 1/21/00 : Non Attachment (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 98/101)

If I gave up smoking
and defied all augury
gave up always looking ahead
then where would I be
Hey na na na non attachment
Nothing not present is required
I will stay the course I’ve chosen
full or hungry rested or tired
If I gave up telling fortunes
just lived in the day
If I gave up writing songs
What else would I have to say
Hey na na na non attachment
Rising it collapses to a point
I am free of everything
falling it creates another joint

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

650 : 1/20/00 : The Ultimate (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 97/101)

I am blind and I am sleeping
I must wake up I must gain my sight
Is it true what I said
everything would turn out all right
The ultimate thing in the whole wide world
Is to hold your lantern high
the ultimate objective of
living is to one day die
Brother could you spare a light
and a cigarette also
could you smoke it for me too
I had to give them up you know
Brother could you spare a candle
Seems my lantern’s lost its light
Somewhere on the unseen path
I navigate through second sight
If you run into a stranger
on your blind path let him by
listen close as he goes past you
he’ll reveal the ultimate lie

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

649 : 1/19/00 : Drop of Water (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 96/101)

1,722 : 99 ?


I didn’t like the doctrine
I resented the creed
I was hearing around me
all thought word and deed
singing I’m just a little
drop of water
like a rain drop in the sea
or a tear-drop on the blotter
One day I’ll dissolve
into the sea at last
to my scattered millions go
on by me through the door into the past
why to go on from there?
Oh just like a drop of water
the story always turns a page
and my wage is just a
drop in the lottery

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

648 : 1/18/00 : Letter to a Dying Man (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 95/101)

Hey brave little trooper
All that I can say
Is it’s a little bit closer
That it’s not as far away
Every song’s a letter
to a dying man
And all that I can say
is I am what I am
That’s a sad song
but then every one
is just a letter
to some poor dying mother’s son
watch another
disappear into air
like a snowflake
here then nowhere

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

647 : 1/17/00 : Midnight Excursion (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 94/101)

Daytime the extended version
Me still pondering the midnight excursion
station to station day to day
channel to channel hell to pay
when it's all done and it doesn't matter
anymore just more dust to scatter
the answer is hidden in a recursion
M.C. Escher version of a midnight excursion
If the master catches me scaling the wall
I'll never go out at night again at all
No more midnight excursions of pleasure jaunts
No more to revisit these old haunts
Rewriting the aspect in new designs
rereading the roles the sun assigns
Living in the day in the noontime sun
So this excursion day version begun

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

646 : 1/16/00 : Storyteller’s Zen (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 93/101)

I can tell a story
with storyteller’s Zen
that will take you back to where
it never happened way back when

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

645 : 1/15/00 : Firepoker Zen (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 92/101)

Whether a lover; a fighter
a dancer; some kind of cosmic joker
old lady jumped up from her loom
and smacked me in the head with a firepoker
Firepoker Zen
It’s not easy
Firepoker Zen
What else can appease me
I went to get a glass of tea
in a shop the other day
that old lady walloped me
and sent me on my way
Firepoker Zen
It’s not easy
Firepoker Zen
It’s not easy

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

644 : 1/14/00 : Taste of Sword (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 91/101)

Once you got a taste
of the sword
once you got a taste of
the sword of word
You'll never stop dodging it
You'll learn so fast you'll wish you'd quit
Once you taste the edge
of the sword of word
You'll have to think of
every one you ever heard
searching for the one that shatters
all that shakes and all that matters
If you take a vow of silence
Be on guard for sudden violence
If you get a taste of it
name of names
taste the blade the edge
of it through the flames

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

643 : 1/13/00 : The Last Rap (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 90/101)

I don’t mind leaving
I’m not afraid to go
I don’t mind spinning off the coil
It’s only natural
The way of all flesh
ashes to ashes and soil to soil
all I’m really
worried about
Is that last rap on the head
one more shock
the final blow
that sends me evermore to bed
the last rap
an affectionate tap
from the hand of the diligent master
I can’t think of a
better way to go
the dice roll from the hand of the caster

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

642 : 1/12/00 : Dialog (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 89/101)

Wherever the wind may blow
or if you think it’s a shame
we have to go the dialog will show
a future bounded by strict correlation
the dust bin of history is
rolling down the street
threatening to knock a
poor boy like me off my feet
it can’t be beat
its inertia the philosopher’s equation
As the leptons vanish to escape our wicked gaze
It’s a race between me and the ancient of days
don’t mind what he says
the dialog is merely a demonstration
of the mists of causality parting like a veil
the beginning of the end of
the thousand and first tale
don’t bail on me
speak unreservedly
without hesitation

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

641 : 1/11/00 : Chinese Poem (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 88/101)

1,714 : 91 ?


A Chinese poem in twenty five words
Instructions from a book of tales
I dreamed about a wooden boat
Writing poetry rhymes in the gunwales

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

640 : 1/10/00 : Disciple (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 87/101)

Make me into
a good disciple
knock me around
real good
I can do it
for you if
you really think
I should
I’ll stand out
among the
bags of french
fries on the street
And the Calvin
Klein clothes horses
that patrol
the strip mall beat

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

639 : 1/9/00 : Living Buddha (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 86/101)

Hey living Buddha
where are you at
won’t give me audience you’re
one elusive cat
If I were a tubmaker
at least I’d make some sense
have a reason to hang ‘round
on this side of the fence
I need a mentor
to lead me on the path
I need some guidance
and an abacus to do the math
I need a metronome
to keep a steady beat
I need a stiff one now
to keep me on my feet
hey living Buddha
try and help me out
I really want to learn the way
to live beyond my doubt

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

638 : 1/8/00 : Time to Die (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 85/101)

Time passes time moves
time flies right by
time to rise time to fall
time to live time to die
Time to die moving on
to the next escapade
I must be a lucky star
got it all got it made
could it be that the end
of the melody
is not the point at all
Yet if there were no end
to the melody
I’d never have heard the call

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

637 : 1/7/00 : True Friends (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 84/101)

If I could lay me down to sleep
I’d pray for God my friends to keep
And should I die I hope that
You won’t cut the strings of your harp
True friends are few and far between
I know how lucky I have been
To find so many who would
listen to me rant and carp
I’ve sung a song bitter and black
I’m trying to work my way back
without my friends I’d wither up
a branch cut from the vine
it’s eerie when love cuts the strings
a taste of what tomorrow brings
sends a shiver up my spine

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

636 : 1/6/00 : No Work No Food (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 83/101)

No Work No Food
uh huh uh huh
No work No food
uh huh uh huh uh huh
gird your loins up
uh huh and
adjust your mood
find your tools
No work no food
uh huh uh huh uh huh uh huh

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

635 : 1/5/00 : Nothing Exists (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 82/101)

Nothing exists there is not one Word
and not one song and not
one note and everything is
meaningless is nothing more
then its own exhibition
of an insensible cacophony

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

634 : 1/4/00 : Go To Sleep (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 81/101)

1,708 : 84 ?


Go to sleep
little ego
give me peace
go to sleep go
let me be
disappear now
let me be
only hear now
what I sing
praise and curses
in one breath
and four verses
go to sleep
count to three
clothes your eyes
I am me

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

633 : 1/3/00 : Miracle (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 80/101)

It's a miracle I'm breathing
That I'll probably survive
through to the next tomorrow
It's a miracle I'm still alive
I'm eating when I'm hungry
I'm sleeping when I'm tired
I'm writing every chance I get
Look at the strange procession I've sired
look at this foolish rambling mess
it's a miracle heaven knows
it's a miracle I'm still around
it's a miracle my eyes can close

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

632 : 1/2/00 : Incense Burner (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 79/101)

judge this song for free
one in a thousand
imperfect, of an imperfect hand
expressing what will be, will be
I used to drink and smoke and carry on
didn’t make me a better writer
another man would give up but I’m a fighter
so I blindly follow the fairy song
Sung by the will o wisp
in the dark woods of an uncertain past
flag of childhood dreaming flies half-mast
I weighed 67 pounds, spoke with an endearing lisp
I’m on the path but I’m a slow learner
So put this one in your pipe and smoke it
does discipline give birth to creativity or choke it
I’ll torch that with my other
imperfections in my incense burner

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

631 : 1/1/00 : Real Prosperity (Flesh and Bones: An Homage 78/101)

Father to father son to son
Real prosperity is in the progression
Who can hold onto time at all
And you’re lucky if you wind up
as a painting on the wall
Father to grandfather son to grandson
3 generations and a hundred years are gone
Look how it changes never stays the same
At least they’ll carry on the family name
It’s the order of things I guess
It works out in the long run
but the details are a mess
Real prosperity is just in the day
Fathers or sons for the moment anyway

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here