2.89 : 7/31/05 : Courtiers

The courtiers and I
hurry up and wait
on the pleasure of the king
on the master of the gate
Duty trumps the comfort zone
but in the halls of court you see
the clock belongs to him alone
suppose it’s all the same to me
I feel that I’m on trial myself
the time I’ve wasted up to now
I feel it so strong on this bench
I’m slaughtering my sacred cow
to make a meal for angel men
who came to visit me with news
a mighty nation to be born
a generation to fill the pews
of the next great faith the promised race
the chosen people above retort
the next generation of the petty pace
the sycophants line up for court

What is the song of the day?

2.88 : 7/30/05 : Plank

Add another plank to the platform
It must support us all
It must conceal the armature
Of power hungry shysters wall to wall
In order to form a perfect union
sublimate your better sense
And if both sides seem much the same
just chalk it up to coincidence
Who put that trap door in it
What’s that crossarm for
Why am I stepping up on this
is this rope another thing I ought to try to ignore?

What is the song of the day?

2.87 : 7/29/05 : Captain’s Log

Captain’s log: stardate ought five
Appears that we’re still mostly alive
Deep space exploration was a really bad idea
it was a mistake to think that work would free ya
we’re growing yeast and algae in the life pods
nowhere to escape to not with these odds
Might be another two hundred years
to find another flyby worth changing gears
meanwhile we are the masters of drift
made quite the little civilization out of it
seventh generation less immortal every turn
less space left less time to burn
That’s it that about describes the year
I’ll check in again when the solstice is here
until then about a hundred other songs
Captain signing off so say: so long

What is the song of the day?

2.86 : 7/28/05 : Home (Hour of Power 12/12)

Home is where the heart is
home is where it all got started
home is home is on the range
home is haven home is strange
where from comes the inclination
build our 3 or five part nation
build our little castle boxes
proof against the paradoxes
that each generation wrestles
in the breast of family nestles
still yet whither I may roam
where my hat hangs I call it home

What is the song of the day?

2.85 : 7/27/05 : Over the Bridge (Hour of Power 11/12)

I wrote as over the bridge I tooled
going to the Man’s domain
Getting myself schooled
It’s possible the lesson wasn’t getting through
Cause I was thrilled when I figured out
My job was you
You can never cross some bridges twice
It’s a one way trip to paradise
It’s crazy to feel this way I tell you it is
I’m so glad I came back across
on the land bridge
The detours I made to meet the
other half of you
the strange long way around
we rarely know what we do
So try each day
not to be quick to judge
cause in this world we all
got a factor to fudge
As long as you keep between the lines
the bridge will hold us up
just fine

What is the song of the day?

2.84 : 7/26/05 : Midas (Hour of Power 10/12)

Says he’s got the lineage
says he’s got the magic touch
says he’s got the gold locked up
cornered every juggler’s cup
wants to see it all return
says we’ll have energy to burn
says we’ll have energy to spill
We’ll all light up he says we will
well sure enough the crown is gold
the gleaming floors
the polished molds
the modish shades
the lintels too
the crucifix
So proud of you
Hey Midas why the gloves and hat
Are you trying to prevent
an inflationary splat
when your plans run up against
the same old wall
stupid laziness and greed
get the better of us all

What is the song of the day?

2.83 : 7/25/05 : Sea Chanty (Hour of Power 9/12)

2,173 : 31 ?


The staunchest vessel
On the sea great and wide
She bobs like a cork
tossed so swiftly aside
you build her sides strong
you hope for the luck
and you know if you’re crossed
then you’ll truly be fucked
singing
Weigh, hey, up she rises
Weigh, hey, up she rises
Weigh, hey, up she rises
Early in the morning
Drunken soldier, drunken sailor
Drunken tinker, rhymer, tailor
Sew this crazy quilt for you
If you wanna see the man
you gotta sail through
And tales of those thrice twice score days
Would spill a lot of ink and fill many a page
Of hours of power
Of weeks of calm
Of the eye of the great cyclone
Of the peace before the storm

What is the song of the day?

2.82 : 7/24/05 : Trouble in Getting To (Hour of Power 8/12)

I had trouble in getting to
the King of the World
ocean is no joke anymore
Everything that coulda gone wrong
just about did
But I don’t want to be a bore

What is the song of the day?

2.81 : 7/23/05 : One Man Diaspora (Hour of Power 7/12)

In the future
nations’ fates will be decided
by brain drain
so much power
cast all about
imagine if we lost
the big idea we all tout
imagine if we got confused
snapped that slender thread
crossed that thin blue line
forgot to break our daily bread
And hundreds of years later
after billions dead
and billions unborn
so the witch doctors said
Every genius will be
like an atomic bomb
strolling around
heads fulla Kingdom Come

What is the song of the day?

2.80 : 7/22/05 : Tales of Enclave Dystopia (Hour of Power 6/12)

Buried of course
Wired of course
all the amenities
we eggheads have our
little habits
sadly there’s no
bunny rabbits
All the time
time in the world
So much money
at the problem we hurled
finally we just gave up
drilled the shaft
knowing hell is other people
we gave it a name
that seemed like a laugh
but it didn’t last

What is the song of the day?

2.79 : 7/21/05 : Sundog (Hour of Power 5/12)

Before the big cold
they say
there came a great heat
The sun dog bayed
every morning on the street
They even made some gadgets
ran on the sun
and if you believe my story
indeed I found one
I even dared to turn it on
high in the ‘rises when the sun is high
It opened up a window onto an unreal sky
that led me through the chambers
of magical scripture
Then took me to another mirror
a sort of moving picture
and that fellow in the picture
said that he was much like me
the picture just a light show
made by what he called the circuitry
And he told me many things
and those things were very strange
Then he said he had to go
The satellite was going out of range

What is the song of the day?

2.78 : 7/20/05 : The Century War (Hour of Power 4/12)

Across 5 generations
raging all the globe around
One hundred years causing mayhem
with all the rich detritus
our fathers’ fathers’ fathers
left sitting around
Today we signed the peace
to end the century war
Nobody could really explain
What we had been fighting for
Nothing much is left of what
they say it was said it was all about
cities, rides, gadgets and guns
We blew all the ammunitions
The oldsters said thank god by a host of flukes
We only managed to set off a dozen nukes

What is the song of the day?

2.77 : 7/19/05 : Planet X (Hour of Power 3/12)

2,167 : 25 ?


Fools and madwomen
told so many crazy
stories about the
traveling star
that nobody believed at all
until it popped up on the radar
it seemed it was a dark sphere
a hunk of rock
strangely prone to tectonic shock
when the solar system loomed
the crack appeared
and emitted a glow
then things got weird
and all those devices you see everywhere
piled up useless used to talk through the air
they say, anyway
they say they all just quit
When planet X did its
erratic circuit
that they say really tipped the scale
that’s when they finally saw
the hole in the pail
Too late too late the juice all poured out
while they fought and argued
what to do about it

What is the song of the day?

2.76 : 7/18/05 : Weather (Hour of Power 2/12)

First there came the weather
well the weather’s always coming
always blowing down the mountains
always rising off the ocean
They said once it all was different
even then they couldn’t agree why
and before their mighty instruments
could trace out every sinister bent
the big waves rolled the hurricanes
The twisters that settled in never to disperse again
Rolled all over that fucker like a wrestling star
And pretty soon nobody was doing science any more
Anyway anyway that’s what the oldsters say
it started with weather but every day
brought another little nasty surprise
that’s what they say the ones so old and wise

What is the song of the day?

2.75 : 7/17/05 : Lamplight (Hour of Power 1/12)

What if we really burned up all the juice?
Kept playing every hand so fast and loose?
I gotta believe that it could be right
that one day every evening will have only lamplight
We can’t imagine how it would all change
And every power structure rearrange
In the dark without lamps and our silent boxes
Son of man got no hole to lie up in like foxes
And midnight would be an hour of power
Every twenty fourth all seven the witching hour
Would come around each great midnight
catching us all by surprise writing by lamplight

What is the song of the day?

2.74 : 7/16/05 : Tomorrow Never Comes Again

What is not can never be
Or so said good Parmenides
So thinking of another day’s
Like thinking of a shifting haze
Now’s the only check you have to cash
Yesterday is in the trash
And while you calculate your plans
Tomorrow never comes, again

It’s easy to be tricked by it
Seems never to have started and it never quits
Yet just when you think you’ve found the middle
You find it all was wrapped around another riddle
Yet if you burned the midnight oil
you’d find for just one moment on the mortal coil
you rock eternal breath to breath and then
Tomorrow never comes again

And if you choose poised on the peak
To act before you think to act before you speak
to lay down one sweet act of will
you might detect a small still thrill
The message simply comes down to
That at this moment I chose to do
the work that today comes to my hand
because tomorrow never comes, again

What is the song of the day?

2.73 : 7/15/05 : Two Kinds

There are just two kinds of people in this world
and most of us are both
are you a glutton or a miser?
Are you a fop or an oaf?
Are you a singer or a dancer?
Are you a duckling or a swan?
Do you want what you never ever had?
Or always what you once had
long after it’s gone?

Are you a barker or a mark?
Are you a hammer or a screw?
Do you always do what you said you wouldn’t?
Or always do what you said you’d do?
Are you a gambler or a counter?
Are you a cheater or a loser?
Are you a ducker or a dodger?
Did you miss opportunity or did you refuse her?

Are you going or coming?
Do you stumble blind or stop?
If I hold my heart out to you
will you scream or call a cop?
Are you a hawk or a pigeon
Are you cold or are you hot?
Don’t be both you’ll end up lukewarm
spit right back into the pot

What is the song of the day?

2.72 : 7/14/05 : Cliché Hero

If not now when?
If now then what?
And then so what?
No matter what
there’s always a but
Now or never
Is this big stick a lever?
Or just some branch I sever
I found it but I never
found the place to stand
to move a world
and all the curses
into the void I hurled
Cliché hero
thought by all a zero
tough act: like De Niro
If it’s now or never now
I better take a clever bow
and make this strange endeavor how
I imagine
I imagined
my clichéd heroics
could make it now

What is the song of the day?

2.71 : 7/13/05 : Shake

Everything’s gotta shake
little or lot of
rocking rolling
undulating like a snake
they say it’s from the first principle
He threw some English on the dice
they say it was the
eccentricity
that shook the gates of Paradise

What is the song of the day?

2.70 : 7/12/05 : Scratch

A little something called scratch
a sound like a metal stylus
digging your brain like a hot meme virus
30 thousand bright electron beams
and nothing nothing what it seems
coax, fiber, copper, wireless
ether, fire, RCA
every plug in every orifice
at the signal all plugs play
And the sound is scratch, scratch
word to the gasoline word to the match
mind is just a wet recorder
brain is just a false division
freedom just one small incision
through the soft spot through the skull
download the scratch parable

What is the song of the day?

2.69 : 7/11/05 : Serious

2,160 : 18 ?


Let’s destroy the serious
What’s it ever gotten us?
What’s it ever done for us?
Taking everything so serious
Let’s destroy the obvious
The ashes and the ashes and the dust and the dust
First will be last and last will be first
But from first to last consumed with thirst
Let’s delete the old clichés
the status quo, the everydays
Start a new pattern from whole cloth
no more to embrace the old flames and moth
It starts with a single word
that you’d read but never heard
it ends with another night
of innocence and sweet delight
thus and how you know the one
whose brave approach has just begun
scorning ladder path or door
scorn all but excelsior
and if a few miles down the road
it seems in fact a heavier load
discarding makes the burden light
the easy yoke will lead you right

What is the song of the day?

2.68 : 7/10/05 : Chance Dance

Everything spins everything in the world spins
everything waves every tiny bit
Nothing’s got a sign where it ends or begins
Nothing goes away not a bit of it
And back behind the final veil
We have no choice but to call it chance
beyond the grave beyond the pale
It does a silly little dance
All things move about a center everything’s a wheel
Everything is incidental to how the great turtles feel
Everything jumps, everything bumps
to the chance dance like a little clown
Everything gathers everything clumps
Into turtles turtles all the way down

What is the song of the day?

2.67 : 7/9/05 : The Chart Part Two

Next thing is the chart
part two rhymed it’s true this time
I’m raising hell and shaking every paradigm
this time this is real
I feel that I have just begun
I meant it every time but one
run with me if you want to
I’ll get there same as you do
we’re all born with a
chart inside
the secret that the cell within our cells doth hide
the secret now revealed
symbols and code
Yet still we lack the will to tap the motherlode
I’ll make do with my books
the treasures that I tuck into the crannies and nooks
If looks could kill like an act of will
I guarantee you that I would be looking still

What is the song of the day?

2.66 : 7/8/05 : Step

While they lingered, while they slept
I carried the thing forward another step
while they reveled, while they sang
I stacked the balance of loss and gain
while they mumbled and averred
I reaped the shrunken carcass of a dream deferred
plans keep changing, boundaries cross
I keep keeping on in face of doom and loss
while you waited, patiently
as I seemed to drift along complacently
I was working, every day
writing my invisible soliloquy
while we all pursue the ring
of brass in the nose of the golden king
we must wonder, we must fear
nobody has ever gotten out of here
Nobody has ever gotten out alive
There’s nothing less permanent than to survive
There’s nothing more transient than this flower’s bloom
born to fade forever in the waiting room
while they danced their nights away
I went to a lonely lonely place to pray
without water, without food
without a map, a compass or an anodyne to fix my mood
And it was perfect, full, complete
I saw the devil place the world beneath my feet
And invite me to cast myself from on high
I said I hate to tell you Scratch, but you grabbed the wrong guy

What is the song of the day?

2.65 : 7/7/05 : Song of Triumph

My triumph is crawling across the floor
My triumph appeared the third time I walked through the door
My triumph is an ascending shining star
Bound to fall but first that fucker will fly far
Song of triumph trumpets from the heights
dating from the day I finally sought by my own lights
roaring like a rocket ship singing like a lark
born at the very moment I first fanned that single spark
The world is corrupted; it’s ruled by sudden death
every day might be the last I’m privileged to draw breath
all I love will be lost to me I know by and by
in the fracture of my consciousness, the fading of my eye
so just where do I find the stones to sign a triumph song
in the breaking of the endless night I waited out so long
in the Naming of eternal day the moment never ending
that I saw the moment I know it was my attention I was spending
so the last verse must be writ though song it never stops
just wait another minute till the next beat drops
my triumph is inviolable forged in perfect flame
reveals the perfect white stone with my perfect secret name

What is the song of the day?

2.64 : 7/6/05 : Didn’t We Tell You So

Started without
knowing how or why
just an ordinary guy
despite the thousand times before
didn’t expect another to be such a bore
a new design is desperately needed
the words of warning were left unheeded
so why did you let it go
well didn’t we tell you so?
started again hell and gone behind
expecting something different but
no one know why
Nevertheless set a goal and meet it
or do your best
get hammer’d to the ground and beat it
I’ll be back MacArthur style
I’ve dogged this bullshit train
so many a mile
now I’ve got it in me so I’ve got to go
Oh didn’t we tell you so?

What is the song of the day?

2.63 : 7/5/05 : Horn of Plenty

2,153 : 11 ?


It sits on a dusty shelf
behind glass too precious to keep to yourself
we revere it
symbol of our industry
we fear it
such a godawful mystery
in the museum back against the wall
the solution it is said
for an order much too tall
smash the glass
and sound a blast
upon the horn of plenty
How stupid that we all forgot
about it for twenty
years seven fat and seven lean
seven more now this is the one
it seems
smash the glass
and sound a blast
upon the horn of plenty
Give it a sounding
give it a shout
put some back into it
and see what comes out

What is the song of the day?

2.62 : 7/4/05 : Catch the Wind

Run with me my boy to be
we will chase the wind
We’ll throw our arms out run into it
laugh and gasp and spin
what better way to waste an afternoon
make up silly songs and crackpot tunes
chasing the wind trying to find its home
trying wherever it may roam

What is the song of the day?

2.61 : 7/3/05 : King of the Plaid Delta

King of the plaid delta
his post modern blues will belt ya
into next week, one down ten to go
and when he rolls in this town will blow
such a tragic sense of fashion
A rude reminder to the feel good faction
His sombrero ringed with human teeth
blood of a badger his aperitif
Riding a hog that runs on neon
Charged with an ozone-killing blast of freon
how could he turn his back on all we know
feel that cold air blast you by he goes
the banjo cross his back is strung with gut
his bandoliers are loaded watch him strut
his draw’s fastest but he never kills
he’s only concerned with acts of wills
anarchy is the state of man
try to tack an -ist on and I’ll tip the pan
and dump your ass right back into the fire
I didn’t make this shit up I didn’t string that wire
I just waited on that clapboard porch
my God I sweated in the rude sun scorch
waiting for the Delta King the Blue crossed Plaid
he ain’t no villain but the shit is bad

What is the song of the day?

2.60 : 7/2/05 : Yet Another New Day

Yet another new day dawns
dawnless black eight past midnight
The tale unreels
Must not must not forget the fight
Must not
let these bright notes fade and die
resolve is just a bit of fuel
it’s no use if the sparks don’t fly
today they fly I’m here
still fighting still alive
shake off the forgotten song
this not near so fine just one of five
One for the one
the only the first last ever
two for the rival
and the bonds they sever
three for the little lads
clad white made of light
four for the gospel kings
the tale carried through endless nights
five symbols these are mine
the vow I took and drank the wine
oh for scotch neat and sour
a little liquid courage to face this hour
nonetheless the story new started
I’ll not leave this brokenhearted
rather with a song on my lips
of wax, and lathe, and sailing ships

What is the song of the day?

2.59 : 7/1/05 : Has the New Leaf Already Withered

Has the new leaf already withered on the vine?
How we smoked and argued
How we drank that wine
if the new leaf falls winter will be so long
And we’ll have to be content with the old song
The tides circle the planet
the jet stream stirs the air
and the answer to the summons
Could be hidden anywhere
The wind rattles the branches
And you rattle my cage
mocking me for declaring a brand new age
Are the dog days going to wither every leaf
time creeps like a mantis
steals past like a thief
If the new age dawns and passes without note
we’ll be reduced to verse we learned by rote
The dogs bark as we pass the court
the cats howl every night
the rooster crows all morning for the coming of the light
the new age isn’t living up
it’s just the same old thing
we may just have to wait and see
what the next age and leaf might bring

What is the song of the day?