2.242 : 12/31/05 : The Catch Up

It may be catching up with me
but I can sneak one last
unconscious melody
Into the vortex of all recorded thought
Started with the scripture
now see what we have got
if information overload
is the century’s curse
I guess I’ll throw my own
handful of verses on that purse
Simpler than you could imagine
this is all it takes
jump it with a sweet line
and a bass escape that shakes
and it’ll go down sweet
as any other
thinking bout the new year
thinking about my brother
thinking about my aching hand
I surely bust that nut
If there’s anything I’m not
thinking about I don’t know what

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2.241 : 12/30/05 : Next Penultimate

Next penultimate
next big thing on the ultranet
some diseases pass all boundaries
something forged in
exquisite foundries
something truly dark and twisted
every scenario ever listed
might pale before the fact of life
might redefine both woe and strife
plenty new under the sun
I’ll work as hard as anyone
to carry through this simple pledge
I balanced every moment
on its edge

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2.240 : 12/29/05 : Thunder

Thunder distant
thunder rolling under
just below what you can hear
but you feel a little
tremble
you might misinterpret as fear
it’s nothing to
be afraid about
though it’s gonna get near by and by
though it’s gonna really shout
it’s just a changing of the season
things still happen for a reason
meaning may have died
with irony but
reasons still abide
This year I’ll crack the meaning of life
it’ll just be a joke by then
but it’ll still amuse the wife

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2.239 : 12/28/05 : Near

It’s a near light but so very dim
I can hardly see a thing
the energy was never fully dissipated
and what a chain reaction it created
So near to the center of me
revealed at last the central fallacy
nothing ever really stopped
it’s all still rocking on the beat He dropped
on the first day ever
whatever that means
A man makes a mess
and he just cleans and cleans
When God makes a mess
all creation sings
And I wind up hung upon
by a thousand things
But nothing ever really stops me either
So I guess you could say I’m a true believer
Or I guess you could say I am fortune’s fool
But I’ll give it all up to gaze
Just once more in that pool

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2.238 : 12/27/05 : Pop the Cork

Pop the cork a couple early why not
I got a lot to be excited about
It’s been a year like none before
and I fully expect the next’s gonna be even more
You can’t exactly call it evolution
You can’t exactly get behind the revolution
televised or not it’s surely bought and sold
oh they’ll do anything for filthy gold
This is barely a scratch on the surface
I’ll keep on digging till I find my purpose
I’ve got my row to till my furrow to plow
It started out so small but look at me now
Look at how it’s rolling crazy
I’m not always quite so lazy
but I love to just roll it along
pop the cork and pour out another song

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2.237 : 12/26/05 : Powerful Impact

2,427 : 4 ?


Powerful impact boom! no dodging
deep into the mantle lodging
sent in by a bad old crew
that flew long before me or you
the tidal waves that rip the sphere
reverberate through oceans clear
throw up a spume to cloak the earth
happened before for what it’s worth
maybe the first five shots went wide
the longer they fall the harder goes forth pride
if it happened and it surely could
I guess I’d try to hang on I surely would
‘cause after all it’s just another day
I’ll still be signing if the music still plays

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2.236 : 12/25/05 : Hurtling Down the Cellular Time Tunnel

Was it the acid sent him round the bend
He saw it all the way down to the end
and saw the beauty inner eye
of telling this becoming lie?
hurtling down the cellular time tunnel
vague remembrance of a harsh k funnel
So on fire to be the chosen
In that crystal valence frozen
turn on turn on turn on turn turn turn
I feel it you’re about to burn
and issue forth a wild decree
not so different from ol’ J.C.
The priesthood and West Point
don’t need much of an excuse to fire up a joint
pass that pass that flaming coal
only thing I can’t give up believing in’s my soul

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2.235 : 12/24/05 : Song Plow

I’m gonna hitch my oxen
now I’m gonna hitch my oxen
I’ve got to get on up behind my song plow
Got to plow a furrow
today there’s no tomorrow
Plow this veil of sorrow
behind my song plow
You get up in the morning
as soon as it’s light
As long as there’s another song left
we’ll be up all night
driving the song plow

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2.234 : 12/23/05: Trucks Are Fun

Trucks are fun! Trucks are fun
wheels that roll and gears that run
and rumble when you pull a string
lights that light and cars that sing

things that rattle rock and roll
dump a load into a hole
trucks with winches trucks with cranes
pretty soon you’ll be on airplanes
let’s just play trucks on the floor
after that let’s play some more
and at the end of every day
put every single truck away

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2.233 : 12/22/05 : Epiphany

While I was building a booth
to house the Son of God
Moses and Elijah
both reverted to sod
and the lesson I was told
by the Voice from the sky
was try not to let the moment
pass you by
this was my epiphany
while the glory was revealed
I was fretting on the sea
that was getting very choppy
that was getting very rough
I remembered I had already
Said I’d had enough
but we didn’t stop we went
on up that mountain anyway
and that’s how I came to see the son
transfigured on that day

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2.232 : 12/21/05 : Photograph

Light travelled from the sun
93 million miles
took 8 minutes to get here
for light that’s quite a while
refracted through the atmosphere
bent and colored shining
through the clouds and through the air
polarities aligning
bounces off some mass of mass
whatever doesn’t get absorbed
reflected at the angles of
the incident and tangent of the orb
and so reflected passes by chance
focused by a lens
and tangles with a chemical plane
thus the photograph begins

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2.231 : 12/20/05 : The Trackless Track

There’s no roads left less traveled by
or so it seems it seems to me
He said you’re wrong by definition
If there’s more there’s less it’s a tautology
And do I really care at all
why stray off the beaten track
except for all my trackless dreams
and even they lead me endless back
to this well beaten mortal coil
weaving to a center so well known
that’s been so many times before
but mine will come for me alone
and few reports are even claimed
across from that dim other shore
Are we surfeit past the trackless track
or do we useless beg for more?

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2.230 : 12/19/05 : What’s Coming Up

2,420 : 1 ?


What’s coming up the shifts
the shut down rifts
the watchers of the watchers
the exploding gifts
the bomb squad units
the terrorist label
the last transmission of
the Tower of Babel
What’s coming up
the satanic angels
releasing a report that
Only sex and pain sells
displaying the latest rolling stock
sliding a slim hand
over your stopcock
coax another drop from the tap
collecting your dividend of sap

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2.229 : 12/18/05 : Chasing Light

Mistaking the reflections for the source
Shadows on the cave wall
will occur to you of course
Don’t mistake an archetype for a legend
You can’t eat metaphysics
So we’re fishing off the deep end
chasing light that dances
off the walls
shakes and shivers rises falls
mistaking movement for
real life
grinding dull the edge on
Occam’s knife

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2.228 : 12/17/05 : The Liar

The liar has not stopped
it must go back
ten twenty thirty forty years
playing on the prejudices
playing on the fears
another inquiry to get ducked
Some time they catch
Somebody getting sucked
But who the hell can keep up
with abstracts like liberty
and that’s the nature that’s
exploited by the liar of the free

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2.227 : 12/16/05 : Steps and Ramps

The reactions proceed by steps and ramps
collecting baseball cards coins and stamps
led to the cabin back up in the sticks
led to the manifesto and the package tricks
There ain’t much excuse or even explanation
Just inexorable ramping station to station
First the crystal radio from Radio Shack
Next thing you know the terrorist attack
Demand an accounting be demanded by the masses
better arrest anyone wearing glasses
raid the universities the college kids
who knows what sedition lurks beneath their lids
cleanse society of every intellectual
after every other method proves ineffectual
give the whole thing over to you numbskull jerks
see if all the average joes can make it work

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2.226 : 12/15/05 : Talking About God

I hate talking about God he said
I’d rather talk about dogs instead
People really want to talk about
theology
tautology
politics and gold and ideology
nobody
wants to talk like me
about anything
they’ve actually felt or seen
if people talked about love
the way they talk about God
pop radio would perish
there’d be lectures on your iPod

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2.225 : 12/14/05 : Garble Garble

Garble garble what’s it matter
in the face of history all
meaning is reduced to tatters
words do not mean
what they used to
Text hid eons
are reduced to
fire starters
scratch for accountants
leaving garble garble
interspersed with the amounts and
subtotals ain’t that tragic
Once upon a time
it held a little magic

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2.224 : 12/13/05 : Cheap

Cheap trick lay it down,
old pattern on the low down
fake smile hides a frown

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2.223 : 12/12/05 : Vision Fifteen

2,413 : 14 ?


Learning something new every day and
getting pretty sick of it
Still I don’t really know what to say
still I don’t get the trick of it
Learning to take it a day at a time
And really it isn’t any easier
It just makes it possible: the choice is always mine
It’s creeping like molasses though the lightning couldn’t get
greasier:
My God what misbegotten tripe
what a a waste of good time after bad
And even if it’s at myself I snipe
Still it surely makes me sad
not enough time for all the visions
vision one through vision fifteen
Only time for snap decisions
and the hope for a break that is
clean

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2.222 : 12/11/05 : Stone

I stacked my bricks up
stone on stone
I could not finish
or leave it alone
And when a thousand and one
days had died
still I was not
satisfied

I knew one stone could not
remain upon another
I knew that brother
must rise up against brother
I knew the name writ on
my secret stone
I knew the name of the
beast who usurped
the throne

It’s just a dictionary
I said
It’s just a contemplation
of daily bread
I’m just a messenger
so kill me if you must
ashes will stay ashes
and you’ll still eat dust

I don’t look for any
final end
Nobody at all knows
what’s around the bend
but I can feel it
In my bones
Hello to another day
of stacking stones

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2.221 : 12/10/05 : Place Holder (First of a Million)

This ain’t the first time plans went astray
Surely not the first of a million
Head’s too full of thoughts they say
If I had a penny I’d be worth a billion
Place holders may mock resolve
Promises made silently all alone
so I write another apology that will not solve
these questions etched as deep as bone
So I write another song in which
I write another line about the song I’m writing
at this point’s the truth’s a bitch
and the outcome is neither surprising nor exciting
the best that can be said I suppose
I did one thing I said I would do
today and even if it’s another one of those
just holding a place well its intent is true

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2.220 : 12/9/05 : First Day Not Yet Started Blues

It’s the first day
not yet started;
blues are forecast
Reminiscent of the time I started
year on year two years ago
four years five years six years I know
this is the real one
I’ll make it so
So blue
not yet started
formalism says the day’s begun
and I am broken hearted
thinking of the paths all
unwinding
Such a precious stone
I’m finding
tonight
endless night
one last time
pursued by every light

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2.219 : 12/8/05 : When Will the Truth Set Me Free

When will the truth set me free?
When will the truth set me free?
I’ve been raising up its name a long time you see
And I only ever asked for what was said would come to me

When will we meet face to face?
When and in what kind of place?
I waited such a long time hoping for just a small taste
Though I guess that I’d be waiting here in any case

When will the work be complete?
This good work in me be complete?
I’ve raised my voice so many times I’d rather not repeat
I wish though you would answer while I’m still on my feet

Oh when will I be free?
When will the truth set me free?
It’s lined up there with all the other things they said would be
But nobody gave me a vote -
And this is no democracy

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2.218 : 12/7/05 : Another Dog

Another dog makes three
listen babe to me
if this one doesn’t work out
We’re going to get a cat
A cat with socks and stripes
aloof you know their types
And if that kitten should prove false
we’ll get a fast evolver vat
And grow it up into an ape
I warn you it may well escape
and make it’s way all the way
to the talk show set I guess
Then I will get a bird
less trouble so I heard
And if you wonder if it
makes much sense I couldn’t say yes

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2.217 : 12/6/05 : The Grim

Divide the grim from the merely realistic
If the parse suggested seems absurd, far too simplistic
Think about it think about it such a Sisyphean task
Just another maudlin ditty, songs about another mask

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2.216 : 12/5/05 : Chance It

2,406 : 7 ?


Chance it says the inner mind
Not expecting pay in kind
All convinced the consequences
will not overwhelm our senses
Twisting upward in an updraft
Something between warp and witchcraft
And adventure no mistaking
with each dubious turn we’re taking
Ask why does this maze exist
ask what lies lost in the mist
find the gem the sword the scepter
I left a thread who knows what kept her
Who knows why she came at all
to see us off against the wall
but we appreciate the support
Nevertheless backtracking is the last resort

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2.215 : 12/4/05 : Time Out

Is there a way to slice some time out of my day
without a seam or glaring gap
is there a method or a map
can you bewitch the clock to count the hours
but skip a beat at your command
halt the pendulum still the sand
Time out of hand
Time out of mind
Time flies time creeps
Time is money time is blind
I don’t have the method you are seeking
we all have to heed the same clock
In our walking and our speaking
In our wander round the coil
Get no time out to reflect
Or revise our strategy
Or our hidden motives reject

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2.214 : 12/3/05 : Bedlam

Just another jolly day in Bedlam
chewing on the carpet bouncing off the walls
Napoleon and Chamberlain facsimiles in human skin
muttering and wandering the halls
I can’t tell the doctors from the patients
whose side I belong to
we’re all locked in here together anyway
We all know we’re bound to sing the same song too
Bedlam oh Bedlam home of my madness
Good fences make even madmen good neighbors
just how sure are you of which side you are on
Where do you look for reward of your labors
Lord oh dear lord to whom shall I go
for words of eternal compassion
there is no better than a good Bedlamite
for invoking you after his fashion

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2.213 : 12/2/05 : Keeping the Faith

Do any keep the faith?
Do any turn the cheek
Do any give their cloak as well
And do these only find what they seek
Do any find a world without war
without injustice
without greed
Keeping the faith is so hard
So unnatural
So many in need
I do not keep the faith
I have a violent soul
I want to cling to what I think is mine
I don’t want the path
Only the goal
I pray to be completed
A good work once begun
I pray that this might be accomplished
by the holy son

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2.212 : 12/1/05 : Batshit Insane

Batshit insane holes in the brain
little bitty bell goes klang klang klang
Roaring void another nitrous train wreck
cashed check writ dreck
gosh I’m mad as all heck
Zippy zippy doo-dah
Fed up with the hoo-hah
Lined up with the light brigade
All shouting booyah
Suck it up
it’s a simple mistake
gotta chunk
get with monk
gotta get drunk
shake

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2.211 : 11/30/05 : Unfinished

Unfinished business painting book
masterpieces half uncooked
Striving for completion
tempted by deletion
got there but what a toll it took
You can’t tell me this ain’t progress
You can’t so I’ll just say God bless
And stick another dismount
Try to pretend I’ve lost count
Try to ignore the agony of abscess
I could say it will all change from now on
I could say forever now I’ve got my plow on
but all I got is magic beans
produced by magic elf machines
I worried they were not so smart
a thing to spend my cow on

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2.210 : 11/29/05 : Peril

Dangerous questions perilous thoughts
The most dangerous game
played with crosses and naughts
Look where mathematics got us
Who woulda thought trinity could be
So thoughtless
I smell peril it stinks in here
I smell danger I smell fear
I smell a rat something rotten
Scratching at the back of my mind
Something I’ve forgotten
I watch the news for secret signs
I wait for what tasks
the overlord assigns
I wait to go all the way crazy at last
for the signal
for the omen
for the ocean
for the blast

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2.209 : 11/28/05 : Profligate

2,399 : 0 ?


Such a dissipation
Such a shame
This maze of words without a name
Work made for hire
Work done for free
the work to carry meaning
to you from me
Profligate, it spills all over
It gets about a bit
it’s sure a rover
It’s got six shots a week it’s a revolver
Still dreaming that one extra push
is going to solve her
God forgive me profligacy
I only ever wanted to be free
Instead again it backed me right in
to a corner
dodging the tomatoes of each
passing scorner

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2.208 : 11/27/05 : Prolific

There’s a lot of it a lot of it
a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot of it
Can’t always vouch for the quality though
You ought to know
you’re always telling me so
What can be said it’s not a full time job
just a modest graph
of the spaces between
waiting in the dark
for dark lord Psyche
for muse or inspiration
for our faces to come clean
It’s prolific you can’t deny that
ready to enforce it with a baseball bat
ready to lay down
another and another
Till a lot becomes more
Till I figure out why I think
it’s worth the bother

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2.207 : 11/26/05 : Mind’s Eye

The world I see in my mind’s eye is
Nothing but a chaos haze of interactions
Every cup of coffee is a little crisis
The endless reflections of the endless refractions
It’s a point source in theory but the point is massive
So theory doesn’t cut it but the sun still rises
And if my take on it seems still and passive
I’m just a little glazed by non-stop surmises
I’m hypnotized by the process behind every product
I’m overwhelmed by all the stuff so plastic
Still I’m miles away from sorting out my conduct
And every plan that I concoct just seems so drastic
Would it be better to close my mind’s eye
if such a thing could ever be achieved
For a while yet I guess I’ll have to try
till the man in the back finally says I can leave

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2.206 : 11/25/05 : Elementarium

In the elemenatarium
creation’s crucible aquarium
fire and water and earth and air
they can’t see you don’t be afraid to stare
steam and lava
plasma too
fog and mud
it’s all true
Dust devils
Smoke angels
Perfect cosmology
We’ve tested all the angles
And now will shake down
every combination
the new man will be born
of the new creation

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2.205 : 11/24/05 : Pop Cult Resurrection

Pop cult resurrection
hear my
harsh inflection
The bastard son of the mother tongue
but I gotta use the voice I got like anyone
Televised revolutionary
I fear the movement has grown stationary
There’s a hella lotta mess on that stone
And the depth of our sleeping
has only grown
Hopped up electric messiah
Age of Aquarius passed right by ya
And everything they said would happen
Came to pass
their only mistake
was thinking it would last

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2.204 : 11/23/05 : Cross the Water

Cross the water fisherman oh fisher go across
the fish you seek are over there
the bounty of the lost
As a result of map-makers’ error
Your boat is gonna be a holy terror
When you
Cross the water cross the water
cross the water fisherman
throw your net over the side
then lift it if you can
A bounty of a thousand thousand
every kind the mind can
understand
And then some
fisher come

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2.203 : 11/22/05 : Dwelling

Exist: persist
remain aloof while still within
Reflect: inject
I’m almost ready to begin
what if nothing really ever changes from now on?
I had a dwelling once
but now that place is gone
Predicate: masturbate
the universe abused itself
Undermine: disincline
You shoulda listened to someone else
All the things we dwelt upon
we dwelt in altogether
Ever scrap and spell we lashed
to try to keep out of the weather
Instill: fulfill
transcend: contend
command: pound sand
foretell: indwell

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2.202 : 11/21/05 : Consequently then perfection

2,392 : 1 ?


Consequently then
perfection is no more than
to say: this is so

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2.201 : 11/20/05 : Momentary

Momentary loss,
Yet all value will persist
Today, forever

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2.200 : 11/19/05 : 3 Haiku

How the path is found:
3 haiku each more perfect
than the one before

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2.199 : 11/18/05 : Trailblazer

Once upon a battered clock
Somewhere between tick and tock
the road untraveled’s start defined
who will blaze the trackless trail
go where all before did fail
and just what will they find
Hey hey trailblazer
She didn’t allow the weird terrain to phase her
it’s no profession for a navel gazer
the likes of me can only sit back and praise her
and who can say she’s not out there still
I stayed home with my page and quill
One day the correspondence ceased
each day the weight of silence increased
Hey trailblazer you still on the track
For those who wait and serve by standing back

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2.198 : 11/17/05 : Basalt

Is this bedrock far enough down
do I have to make it in this town
is this the answer? is this the mission?
is this the moment of great decision
it seems a lot like all the rest
probably get a solid C on the test
and end up in the stupid person’s club
the sad little bottle said glub glub glub
And that was all the basalt I could bear to mine
trying to build a fortress against the slow decline

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2.197 : 11/16/05 : Pentagram

In the pentagram
I dropped a centigram of the blood
of a child-stealing jackal
you know that raised her hackles
Yes but
I didn’t notice or care
I killed a cock
and a piebald goat
it’s worse than it sounds
hear what comes out of my throat
It’s all just a metaphor
For everyone stuck on this boat
trying to be a voodoo child
I got no secrets
I got no spells
I got no incantations
and it’s probably just as well
this superbly tempered pentagram
is forged in salt
And I probably cannot deny
it’s all my fault

If you would like to support my song of the day, please consider purchasing something from the Shop
What is the song of the day?

2.196 : 11/15/05 : Once Fool

2,386 : 18 ?


Fool me once
shame the fool
won’t get fooled again
Says the fool
We got fooled by indifference
we got fooled by vice
Only a fool would argue
it ain’t happened more than twice
Once fool twice dupe
third time’s a charm
the depths we’ll stoop
It’ll stop being a cycle
when we stop being fools
Stop ignoring reason
Stop obeying the rules

If you would like to support my song of the day, please consider purchasing something from the Shop

What is the song of the day?

2.195 : 11/14/05 : The Eighth Time Get Up

Get up get up get up get up
get up get up get up get -
Down
The eighth time
get up
I know this thing seems like a set up
But get up anyway
Hey
It’s the new day
And he said
What a bunch of trumped up nothing
You said you were working but I saw you sloughing
I’m not impressed by the dog and pony
I’m not about to eat that stack of baloney
So I knocked him down but he got back up
I smacked him on the temple with a half full cup
I kicked his legs out he got up a third time
I pushed him over just to make the words rhyme
I took the sucker on on in fisticuffs
Got up a sixth time when I called his bluffs
I pulled the rug right out from under him
He got up a seventh time so I hit him again

If you would like to support my song of the day, please consider purchasing something from the Shop

What is the song of the day?

2.194 : 11/13/05 : Psychonaut

It all spins down in a deep spiral
DNA, the mimetic viral
landscape topography
metaphysical geography
observation transformation
creation’s hagiography
Psychonaut how far you getting shot
into the undiscovered country of thought
Integral tautology
empathic eschatology
after all these years deserve at least an apology
what should we expect to find
behind the character of mind
only the psychonaut knows
the place that only his kind goes
And yet it’s said the same wind blows

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What is the song of the day?

2.193 : 11/12/05 : Will

If rules exist it seems that this
perception of free choice must be
a sad illusion of self-reference
deluded by the word free
Pain exists pleasure exists
compulsion in a thousand forms
How sweet to think that we’ve got options
And will to navigate the storm
I’m not saying I don’t believe in it
but the possibility must be thought about
that the whole system’s just blind chance
that there is nothing that we’ve brought about
And we’re no more than schools of fish
darting with the mindless mass
that one day in some storm we can’t control
the whole of humankind will pass

If you would like to support my song of the day, please consider purchasing something from the Shop
What is the song of the day?

2.192 : 11/11/05 : The Cover Up

Lies upon lies upon lies upon lies
Flies swarm from your mouths
Brass glitters in your eyes
From day one the cover up began
From here it seems we still don’t understand
What is the function of the ruling class
Telling you be thankful
for your half full glass
And if this is the height of man
I think I’ll pass
All the lies that we debate now
will get swallowed up in the
cover up somehow
in ages to come
And even the best think to themselves
They better get some
Before the next collapse
And so we all end up saps

If you would like to support my song of the day, please consider purchasing something from the Shop

What is the song of the day?

2.191 : 11/10/05 : Moments

Moments grow like leaves on trees
A thousand million simultaneously
They have their sun time strong and green
That passes never to come again
Their colors fade to gold and red
green life gives way to past and dead
and in the mind of endless time
they drift and swirl a dance sublime
You cannot hold a single one
past when their sunny season’s done
Ours is just to watch their day
their bud and growth and fade away
and soft descent to join the rest
and to this truth I do attest
that we like moments, we like leaves
have got no last tricks up our sleeves
we each one have our appointed hour
though we defy or run or cower
still when it strikes we too each fall
and join the drift in silence, all

What is the song of the day?

2.190 : 11/9/05 : Taste

Well if you’re gonna break down
the brand new taste
be prepared to end up with
egg on your face
because you gotta break a few
a few what? don’t ask
if you remember the tower
remember the masks
a house all of doors
a broken spine
tell you true I broke it down
with a lot of friends of mine
the fundamental particle
well now it’s just me
trying to decode the new taste
trying to define what is free

What is the song of the day?

2.189 : 11/8/05 : Strategy Guide

I think it’s better to muddle through
the long approach by way of
one thousand good-byes
I don’t need your secret passage
your cheat code or your
strategy guide
There’s so much more satisfaction
when you’ve settled every option
then reveal the one that clicks
The gap between a Rembrandt
and a paint by the numbers
That's the lesson I learned
playing Zelda in the Sticks

What is the song of the day?

2.188 : 11/7/05 : Critical

2,378 : 10 ?


Critical juncture critical mass
critical density of the boil on my ass
critical malfunction of the
critical function that joins it all
or would have in the critical conjunction
I wouldn’t dare expose it all to critical review
Because right now there’s no evidence
That it isn’t all just spew
And some goats’ milk give spider silk
like some trees give you apples
God help me I ooze this stuff out
when with the Lord I grapple

What is the song of the day?

2.187 : 11/6/05 : Marginal

If this seems a marginal accomplishment
another speech about how hard
the job I have to do is
Please excuse us
We are indisposed
Dumbstruck by the question you posed:
If the goal is to be goalless
what does motivation mean
Are you sure I’m not just
Some kind of
machine

What is the song of the day?

2.186 : 11/5/05 : Roll Reversal

I don’t want to levitate
or fly through the air
I just want a five second delay
For when I gotta stop myself
before I go there
I don’t want a time machine
or the power of mesmerism
Just give me a quick replay
just give me a prism
to split the difference
‘tween the lesser of two lesser evils
when I got to navigate the breaks
when the breach is narrow
and th’ observance has gone missing
let me redo
just a few of my mistakes
The roll reversal power
when the roll has gone against you
Otherwise I’ll have to muddle
through it like I’m prone to

What is the song of the day?

2.185 : 11/4/05 : The Track (Bonfire Night)

Get on get on
get on the track
that’s what every one was
tellin’ you all the way back
Don’t let your wheels
roam their own way
don’t give into fate
Lock your mag lev
on the main rail
Succumb to the steady state
First there was anarchy
then there was patriarchy
matriarchy
The ancestor gods
Then there was theocracy
then monarchy and aristocracy
and it would be hypocrisy
to say Guy didn’t talk to me
Some nights
Tellin’ me to blow the rails off
the track tonight

What is the song of the day?

2.184 : 11/3/05 : If You Really Have to Know

If you really have to know
Today was the day I let everything slide
I drew a line I numbered it five
succumbed one last time to that old jive
And if you asked and I didn’t tell you so
Six years three days to the day just so
Now I’ll tell you
If you really have to know
Time is an illusion it doesn’t
really matter
You can think about it till your brain’s in tatters
You can think about it all live long day
this too this too shall pass away
I wrote it down just to preserve
a record of the too many masters I served
On the way to try to pare it down to one
I sensed that my trial had just begun
the littlest sentry just would not sleep
I got my big last number
but the price was steep
I gave it one more minute, plunged into the fray
reminded that every single day was today

What is the song of the day?

2.183 : 11/2/05 : World of Words

I am lost in the world of words
what I wrote
and said
and read
and heard
It’s unquestionably real
but is it what it seems
and could the same be said
of our experience and dreams
but I’m given to believe
it’s a deceptive path
So many throw the baby out
and keep the dirty bath
Yet still I seem entranced by it
still I can’t seem to stop
I can’t escape that feeling if
I don’t write my skull will pop

What is the song of the day?

2.182 : 11/1/05 : So It Ends

2,372 : 4 ?


So it ends for just one day
This is all that I can say
There is only sleep and death
All else is just revolving
Still yet a month to set things right
Still yet it seems an end in sight
Another hangs on bated breath
Try to see what I’m solving
Here’s a thought to wake up to
believing something doesn’t make it true
But belief goes on it seems
And each day comes regardless
And so it ends begins or pauses
the small print in your escape clauses
warns in sleep may come such dreams
warns of softness warns of hardness

What is the song of the day?

2.181 : 10/31/05 : So It Begins

So it begins
in the middle
the end nowhere in sight
Confessed my sins
Pronounced the riddle
Keep hammering the wrong until
the wrong becomes the right
I did my time
None can deny it
It seems it’s going to take something much more
I’ve said my rhymes
and I’ve kept quiet
and one last nod to what is left in store

What is the song of the day?

2.180 : 10/30/05 : Five by Five II

The sun also sets
everyone eventually forgets
And down there on the killing floor
I swung my maul and called for more
waiting for the clock to strike five
at least it’s a living without the
shuck and jive
why does inspiration sometimes strike
And other days just takes a hike
It’s pretty aggravating man
Never knowing when it’s showing
no way to plan
How could I have gone
a thousand and one
and felt like I had
just begun
when this shit is over do I get to
stop for good
do you think I’ll want to?
Do you think I should?
I’ll find a way through I guess
Try as I might to always say yes
the revolution is in person and live
and it’s all gonna shake out five by five

What is the song of the day?

2.179 : 10/29/05 : Five by Five I

Everything’s gonna be five by five
If I get outta this thing alive
If I manage to close the gap
If I manage not to snap
If I make an effort true
So I keep saying to you
Even though there’s no evidence
At least perched up there on the fence
You better believe that’s right
No more smoke no more endless night
I imagine that’s not quite certain
Cause this is in the past so pull the curtain
Forget about it too much to explain
Every line every beat I gain
Every time into the pool I dive
I come out hoping to be five by five

What is the song of the day?

2.178 : 10/28/05 : Tedium

Here’s a riddle a puzzle for sure
what’s the function of tedium
Shouldn’t work be a pleasure no?
Since work is existence’s medium
What kind of genetic blunder
Makes persistence such a chore
Makes forbearance such a nuisance
Makes surviving such a bore
Maybe something’s missing there
an obvious little clue
Maybe DNA works just fine
Maybe the problem’s with you
The tedium is calling you
to live your life even better
write the reminder to yourself
sealed in a secret letter

What is the song of the day?

2.177 : 10/27/05 : Why Bother

Why bother is the biggest question
in all of philosophy
And the fact that almost no one asks it
is just more proof
If you ask me
Is it just an itch we scratch at
Is it some compulsion of evolution
Or are we just so stupid
that we’re still expecting a solution?
People get worked up about
their little brainstorms true
I’m no better than the rest
Hey neither are you
And if I ask why bother
and come up with nothing at all
Well the fact that I just
keep rolling anyway
must hint at the genuine fall

What is the song of the day?

2.176 : 10/26/05 : Rocks Are Heavy

Rocks are heavy: hills are steep
That’s it: you pretty much got my deal
This is a sequel: you may have read the prequel
I fear it won’t have quite the same appeal
‘Cause I just roll roll roll roll roll
till gravity wins again
that’s it that’s the whole movie
what do you think of my concept friend?
I guess you could say we’re speaking in code
And breaking the rule so lately set
The author tells his own tale stealthily
And it shows in the product you can bet
Is there really any other way
Do all tales tell the same
Are they just a long and fruitless task
relating really just one name?
ten thousand nights ten thousand nights
ten thousand nights in a row
And I can barely bear the irony
if you really want to know

What is the song of the day?

continuity, once again

Continuity is what I call it when I don't miss a day writing a song.

This is the fuzziest aspect to what is the otherwise bone-headedly simplistic high concept for the projects: write a song a day. I knew at the outset of the first project that if missing a day meant ending the project then it wouldn't last very long. Maybe if making songs and music were the larger part of my life I would be able to keep it continuous except in the condition of extreme duress. But writing song lyrics is something I jam into the interstices of my life and it doesn't take that much for me to miss one. A sufficient disruption of routine can generally do it.

I also knew that if I didn't have to catch up with the missed songs I would very rapidly be working on the "song of the every once and a while" project. I could point you to a number of "I'm going to do X every day, well most days, well pretty regularly, well I haven't done X in 5 months but..." progressions of well-intentioned creators on ye olde internette.

Although some of my favorite songs have certainly been catch-up lyrics, from the project perspective a totally "proper" lyric has to be written on its assigned day. But the only way the project can function (for me) is to allow writing songs on other than the day they were assigned to.

All kinds of hijinks are possible in the context of this single loophole. I could skip a song for six years and write it in. I suppose that if I made some sort of critical tracking error and skipped over a date without properly recording it I would end up doing just that. I could put off writing all week, every week, and jam seven songs in on Sunday. I would be within the letter of the law on the project though clearly in violation of its spirit. That's a funny sort of line to judge. When I wrote the first project I wrote missed songs in red ink - an approach to tracking continuity that was typically literal-minded of me. At some point early in on the second project I decided to stop tracking missed songs completely. Not long after I fell radically behind for a period - weeks, maybe months of songs in arrears. The failure to track continuity may have been a culprit though of course the first-time parent thing probably played a role.

Since I wasn't keeping track I have no idea which songs are which except when some of them reference the situation. I remember clearing the backlog as this Sisyphean task running as an undercurrent in my life, trying to get back onto continuity with the current time line while painfully dragging one tardy lyric after another out of the aether, writing songs backwards from the present and forward from the past and all the time wondering if I could really even stand by the project's central premise any more.

Well, clearly I decided I could... The more this period recedes into the past, the less significant this solitary major deviation from the ideal of a song a day seems in the scope of the overall project. Meanwhile, I started tinkering around with tracking continuity again. My thought was to track just numbers of songs written consecutively and post it weekly - a way of keeping a touchstone with continuity without exactly tracking the provenance of every song as was the case with the red ink paradigm... So I was totting up little hash marks on sticky notes and suchlike but I'd lose track and wonder if I'd missed marking a song I'd written or skipped a day and forgotten to reset the count. I eventually started to grid out what amounted to calendars on the endpapers of the books and without quite seeing it coming I ended exactly tracking the output again and there in the calendar grids a big X for every missed song - back to literal-mindedness again I guess.



What is the song of the day?

2.175 : 10/25/05 : Persist

Why does the theme persist
the mirror against the mirror
Everything receding shrinking
growing darker and obscurer
Will it always seem so hard
to strike out on fresh trail
to mine a vein of purer strain
to tell a new untrammeled tale?

What is the song of the day?

2.174 : 10/24/05 : Rebel Bear

2,364 : 10 ?


Oh... My people let me tell you a story
The story of Rebel the bear
You know he roamed this town and all around
And people knew him everywhere
And when he came upon anyone
The were never made or scared
For he was a kind and gentle soul
That fine old rebel bear
One day rebel came to town
and found everybody in a state
And when they asked him what was wrong
This tale did they relate
It seems a certain jackrabbit
the name of Flopsy Bindle
Had taken all the townfolks’ money
In a junk bond swindle
So Rebel went to see this hare
at his burrow that night
Flopsy said I’m well within the law
So Rebel ate him in one bite
And the townsfolk said oh Rebel we thought
Your were of a gentle peaceful habit
And Rebel just said hey relax:
It was just some stupid rabbit

What is the song of the day?

2.173 : 10/23/05 : Consume

Consume consume consume!
If it be but the least part
still open wide and let it in
We shall not stop until we split apart
It is a sacred bond indeed
to close our eyes to those in need
and keep on shoveling it in
Get up each day begin again
The hole inside has grown so great
the void stares hard into our eyes
so fill refill load up the plate
Don’t hesitate devour the prize
And at the final end of time
only the loser and the winner left
One devours the other completes the paradigm
The quick becomes the dead the swift the deft

What is the song of the day?

2.172 : 10/22/05 : Stars

Light of an ancient ancient days
light of just a few years past
In one mind’s moment distilled
Each night from heaven’s sphere is cast
How uniform and dull they seem
And yet one fascination holds
The only real history there is
And watch as now it it yet unfolds
Some say it is the start of everything
while others mark it just as chance
And some insist on naming each
And others just observe the dance

What is the song of the day?

2.171 : 10/21/05 : Caliper

Brass caliper blues brigade
trying to assert which end of the egg
is proper and moral to start with the breaking
we’ve gotta break a few
on this high road we’re taking
I’ll measure every bump on your skull
record the tolerances of a parable
After each thing is marked and measured
you’ll find out just where you stored your treasure
don’t be surprised by the unexpected
not a thing was done that was not directed
bow to the caliper it reigns supreme
bow as the metric revolution gains steam
present yourself for examination
we’re gonna measure every inch of creation

What is the song of the day?

2.170 : 10/20/05 : Big Picture, Tiny Blinks

Obsessed with the abstraction of the
big big picture
But reality comes to us in
tiny tiny blinks
we constrained the revolution
with the very sort of stricture
And still we couldn’t bring ourselves
to say just what we really think
every illusion that passes
for a reason
every good idea harnessed
to a stupid plan
Maybe we must all attend
to each small blink within its season
leave the big picture be
and just do what we can

What is the song of the day?

2.169 : 10/19/05 : Element of Light

Element of light: element of light
isn’t it nice when you can
buy the perspiration
to effect your inspiration
try and try again until they get
the element
right
there are always names unremembered
the sideshow barker gamely ventured
It doesn’t mean that fame is false
You’ll seek it if you have a pulse
Beneath the arc flood spot
flash running indicators
take me to your syndicators

What is the song of the day?

2.168 : 10/18/05 : Fish Line

2,359 : 4 ?


What did the fish
say to the fish
your place or mine
what did the spoon
say to the dish
I need more time
what can I say to
one whose response is to
wave a guitar in my face
here’s the old punch line
caught on the fish line
Mine or your place

What is the song of the day?

2.167 : 10/17/05 : The Sense of Flight

Rushing on a plane of light
the screens that flared from blue to white
so do it if it feels all right
the illusion the sense of flight
the signal does not need a plug
it’s wireless heads so pass the jug
and give the frontal lobe a tug
You feel it now you’ve got the bug
stretch out your arms you’re king of cliché
I never wanted to be big anyway
As long as Simon can come out and play
he says I do guess who will have to pay
The feeling may come down with power and might
I might receive the gift of second sight
I made my bed baby I picked my fight
If only I could tell to you that sense of flight

What is the song of the day?

2.166 : 10/16/05 : Dogs

Every dog every scrap of doggerel
all the pathetic issue of
this stumble through the foggerel
I could think straight if they’d
just stop barking
I could sleep if my
brain would stop remarking
on how none of it seems to hang together
on how unlikely that it seems I’ll weather
whatever the hell you call this stage
with any shred of belief intact
that it’ll ever be the rage
Anywhere for any reason
Despite the parable that for
every dog there is a season
And it’s a pity that I got to
sleep in this bed
But I can’t make nothing
but what seeps out of my head

What is the song of the day?

2.165 : 10/15/05 : Time Against Us

Count the clock of time against us
running fast it seems to some of them
If they’re wrong we might sneak past
If they’re right we better solve the theorem
The meteor strike will raise a cloud
Doom the whole world to winter’s shroud
Or if it misses by a hair’s-breadth
the nuclear options still existeth
The collapse of the submerged cliff
will send a tidal wave and if
The volcano below old faithful blows
All the west will rock and then who knows
The super plague the melting caps
The great extinction when the web finally snaps
The hyper nova might be a truly great
event to finally clean the slate

What is the song of the day?

2.164 : 10/14/05 : The Locked Room

Trapped in a locked room woken by the boom
when the trap snapped shut came to then but
There was no clue what I was meant to do
Or why I ended up there locked up in some nowhere
collect the seven sticks collect the magic tricks
collect the strange machine its sensors need a clean
fit the key into the box reveals another set of locks
the combination’s in the book under the table take a look
the slip of paper has the code to realign the electrode
then fit the sphere into the slot and point the lens at the sweet spot
follow the pattern that’s revealed pull back the wallpaper that peeled
Put back the picture in its place see how the light plays on her face
Array the sticks into their pattern set up the mysterious urn
tune the machine to the frequency observe the subtle sequencing
then dial the safe according to the projected study in blue
opens to reveal the key simple as that you’re free

What is the song of the day?

2.163 : 10/13/05 : Oscillator

The oscillator is registering
a fluctuation in the status quo
The great moment is rising swiftly
telling me I got to go
there’s no leaving I am fixed here
I cannot abandon my post
So I guess it has to happen at home
I guess I got to play the host
What could one do anyway
Against the billions against the cosmos
no resources no special knowledge
invoke a little prayer at most
Observe the mighty oscillator
Call its changes watch the glass
Lament the impotence of one alone
take comfort that this too shall pass

What is the song of the day?

2.162 : 10/12/05 : Urban Refugee

Escapee from the old backwater
Lined up with the lambs ready for slaughter
Just keep dancing as fast as you can
Urban refugee number one fan
A smallish city a smallish world
Immediately the beads of sweat pooled and pearled
rolled down his face as he circled the ring
Li li li and a big kaboom
Eyes shut headphones in his room
Feel the shifting tectonic plates
trying to negotiate the steady states
Got to put in his time in solitary
gotta put in time with the dictionary
It seems the lad will find a place
and wipe the smiles off every face
And write the urban manifesto
Grab the gleam and let the rest go

What is the song of the day?

2.161 : 10/11/05 : The Sticks

Voyage of discovery
the path that led to the full recovery
One thousand memories of one thousand nights
that ain’t the half or third of it
One time I saw the Northern lights
One time I saw a badger hole
A crayfish in a crick
That’s what passes for a busy
day down in the sticks
I walked gravel roads and dirt tracts
I saw the days break
I traced the waters back
I trespassed a lot of property lines
and nobody once ever gave me a hard time
Those days are gone
those friends are mostly gone
The bands the breakups
the drugs the songs
I remember a brunette
remember a blonde
Remember how insane I was
to get out of that town

What is the song of the day?

Catching Up

And that wraps it up for A Song A Day Volume 2.1 also known as Log Book. Tomorrow we'll kick off Volume 2.2: The Catch Up. As a note of interest it was during this period that I became, for the first time, profoundly behind in the writing - close to the breaking point behind, mired in a backlog of unwritten songs that put the whole concept that I was actually engaged in writing "a song a day" into significant crisis. I recall that I had seriously (and fairly typically, I gather from anecdotal reports) underestimated the demands of stay-at-home parenting, as well that I was engaged in some ultimately not-very-successful experiments in DIY digital self-publishing for money and my whole relationship with writing and creativity in general was very rocky and ambivalent. I wasn't tracking continuity at the time so I don't know how far I really got behind, I think it was somewhere from one to two months, and that it took me the better part of half a year to get back on track. I never get more than a couple days behind these days.

What is the song of the day?

2.160 : 10/10/05 : Destroy the Paradigm

2,350 : 6 ?


Destroy the Paradigm
of fixed reality
raise up the deity
of life fluid as time

unleash the rein of night
monsters of reason’s sleep
all archetypes buried deep
geist specter fury wight

What’s seen becomes what is
Our minds’ eyes shape the truth
dark engines, wet uncouth
So here’s the last pop quiz:

How could you ever know
if all your reason’s trash
with every market crash
the reservations grow

What is the song of the day?

2.159 : 10/9/05 : Working Backwards

We’re all working backwards
foolish mortals see time
just one way
remember it from back to front
ambition goes the other way
Maybe birth’s the destination
death the origin
Maybe confusion is the root of all evil
the staff of life the spring of sin
I’m working back from somewhere
in the middle of where it went off track
Can’t bear to think of the future
How could I end up still off track
I can’t see into the future
I cannot confirm the past
see but dimly in the present
All I see is the sand running fast
Slipping through my fingers swiftly
none can stop it none forestall
and if I could where would I be then
without time there’d be nothing at all
time is an illusion some say
lunchtime doubly so
but there is one who needs me timely
So I really have to go

What is the song of the day?

2.158 : 10/8/05 : Scrub

I scour my hands and scour my hands
a minute
two and three
the same old scheme the same refrain
here’s one for you and
one for me
the skin sheds off
it flakes and peels
it’s all in a good cause
As long as I don’t catch the bug
I’ll wash and wash and wash my paws
As long as winter’s icy grip holds
drawing me back to a year’s memory
It’s been so sweet to have you here
to have you here to stay

What is the song of the day?

2.157 : 10/7/05 : Spheres of Influence

Karma dogma health and reason
energy entropy signs and seasons
drugs and doldrums books and pieces
bits and dottles in the interstices
show me the spheres of influence
show me a man of consequence
one that I may emulate
And aspire to a higher fate
Words and writing songs and singing
what then in my hand I’m bringing
laws and science sacred knowledge
sure as hell didn’t pick up much in college
Take me to a practical nirvana
Feed me full on holy mana
That I might keep up my wandering
Forty years of moping maundering
clocks and time and ducks and rows
maybe I figured it out once who knows
Always seeking revelation
Maybe I’m tuned into the wrong station
Maybe I just need to relax
lighten up accept the facts
And roll with just the here and now
wrap things up and sell the cow

What is the song of the day?

2.156 : 10/6/05 : Wereworld

The moon is always full somewhere
from the perspective of the planet
This world is more than it seems
Though nobody knows what geas began it
The transformation slides across
Along with full moon’s light
It turns into a dreambound world
Far out in the depth of night
wereworld transformer enigma
Unknown property of silent deeps
A mysterious ichor flows
while most around the wellspring sleep
And any that are drawn into it
become the wereworld minions
full of power distilled night
full of strong opinions
Helping all the world transform
Though whether for worse or better
Each play must have its vital cast
To follow each line to the letter

What is the song of the day?

2.155 : 10/5/05 : The Gatefold (Right)

Welcome gentlemen gentle ladies as well
Welcome to the right hand path
Thank heavens that you came across
Didn’t throw the baby out with the bath
Here the narrow path is cutting
Far as human eye can see
And even further far beyond it
bound by holy symmetry
Honor here the gatefold bridge
That spans more than mere ages
But even past all earthly power
claims to bridge across the pages
The album holds two disks of gold
Inscribed by Moroni
That hold the wisdom of all time
If you buy that baloney

What is the song of the day?

2.154 : 10/4/05 : The Gatefold (left)

The dark track my surprise you as
the lesser traveled of the two
the gatefold spans continuums
from good to evil from them to you
But far far from the border yet
The left hand stretches forth
unveiling every dark design
from east to west from south to north
The great divorce joins at the spine
of some great bridge of years gone by
And I perceive the ghost of chance
still glimmers faintly in your eye
No keep that glitter to yourself
I know it is not gold
No mirrors on the gatefold bend
But I know that I’m growing old

What is the song of the day?

2.153 : 10/3/05 : This Then

2,343 : 15 ?


This then the conclusion of the moment
All the ferment one might foment
That nearly perfect score I got
didn’t mean a single thing
I went along just for the ride
to show for it this plain brass ring

What is the song of the day?

2.152 : 10/2/05 : Shame

It seems a shame
So many brief thoughts
out like a candle
the infant on my knee I dandle
perfect life incarnate
but it needs instruction
I just need to keep in mind the line
between form and function

What is the song of the day?

2.151 : 10/1/05 : Finality

There ain’t no real finality
It’s just a veneer we call destiny
It keeps rolling forever far as anyone can tell
And considering our conduct
That is probably just as well
There ain’t a bit of slack
in this bad old world
All the words that hid so well
all the bombs we hurled
And we’re nowhere near to stopping
Or so it seems
Though one day I guess
we’ll blow ourselves to smithereens

What is the song of the day?

2.150 : 9/30/05 : Home Stretch

Call it the home stretch
that’s such a joke
nothing to drink there
nothing to smoke
no bed to lie in
made or not
nothing but black mud
nothing but muck
They say we wandered
in from the stars
our hearts are bellows
our brains are jars
vessels we’re trapped in
adrift in the foam
hang my hat on my head
I’ll call that home

What is the song of the day?

2.149 : 9/29/05 : You Didn’t Expect That

Seriously you didn’t expect that
that’s a little bit sad
and your reaction is distracting
Don’t try to make me wear the black hat
If you think this is bad
You should see me when I’m acting
All high and mighty paragon
Full of wisdom
Mad as a monk
kid it really won’t be all that long
Soon you’ll forget some
‘Cause History is bunk

What is the song of the day?

2.148 : 9/28/05 : More Sleep

More sleep more dreams
productivity must be enhanced
It’s a seller’s market
we’ve already sold all we advanced
Launch the blimps release the gas
All the kingdom must be dosed
Let every dream collector fly
A ring for those who harvest most
Ring of silver ring of gold
a ring around the sun
cast the grand prophetic net
about the chosen one

What is the song of the day?

2.147 : 9/27/05 : Crybaby

Crybaby doesn’t understand
why the world sometimes grows small
enough to hold in his tiny hand
so big you can’t really see anything at all
we like to think we’re educating
we like to think we’re candid
But who really knows what we’re relating
whatever we think the situation demanded
I hope at least the love shows through
and softens all my blunders
I know I do my best by you
yet something in me always wonders

What is the song of the day?

2.146 : 9/26/05 : Shorties

2,336 : 8 ?


Here’s to all the shorties
yeah yeah
all summer in a Day
the handsome sailors, hoo-ya
Possession over Judgment Day
Here’s to that Greek urn
your refrigerated plums
Here’s to the book of Jonah
So many brilliant crumbs

What is the song of the day?

2.145 : 9/25/05 : Marathon

This terrible marathon
got to run it on and on
no space for pace you gotta
pelt all out
Let me tell you what the whole thing’s
really about
It’s about falling behind
and the big catch up
A half convinced endorsement
of the overflowing cup
And not even remembering
why you’re running anymore
until suddenly that moment
there you’re knocking at that door

What is the song of the day?

2.144 : 9/24/05 : Paradise Towers

Defenestrate the johnny-come-lately’s
Mob law rules these rises
By order of her majesty the queen
Get ready for the welfare paradises
seven hundred stories high
the stairs are truly vicious
And every level you ascend
the natives get more suspicious
for travelers from past the line
of quarantine come exploring
You’d never know how strange life is
How trying and how boring
Hell is other people stacked up
seven hundred times
And sure enough you know you’re
going to pay for all your crimes

What is the song of the day?

2.143 : 9/23/05 : Streak

Is it the beginning of the end
or the start of a mean streak
a mile wide a mile deep
a mile above sea at its peak
if the streak is true to form
it will begin without a sound
and terminate far past regret
a thousand miles underground
I cranked up every faucet spout
I let the holy water flow
to swift evoke the baptism
of all of it flowing where I don’t know
I’ll surf the streak up on my plank
I’ll ride the rim and see the sights
and in my mind compose a poem
of failed resolve of endless nights
I prayed for just one last small taste
though I knew it was over and done
yet that was in the future still
this day I was still having fun
this day I kept my eyes tight shut
Ignored each obvious deceit
ignored the streak was yawning wide
prepared my little plans to eat

What is the song of the day?

2.142 : 9/22/05 : Autumn

First day of the saddest season
first hour of the hour past reason’s
sleep of monsters unremembered
it’s a damn fast slide right into December
No big symbol no metaphor
Who could ever say what Autumn is for
Time rocks the cradle of all there is
we stay afloat with a little gee wizz
until the maelstrom catches up
each one has one lurking at the bottom of the cup
The punchline is on the other side
the white hole overflows the override
And autumn I guess reminds me of that
it shouldn’t be sad but it’s a little old hat

What is the song of the day?

2.141 : 9/21/05 : Thistledown

A rising tower of spikes
razor spurs and clustered pikes
If you say there’s nothing new under the sun
I propose you haven’t looked at this one
built of C and N and O
And hydrogen of course you know
A little sulfur phosphor manganese
little girls and boys are also made of these
and following a trace unknown
under the spikes a bud has grown
explodes into a purple fist
that opens to reveal a sweet kiss
for a flatly higher being
who carries for this green spiked thing
the stuff of life the vital spore
revealing in royal depths much more
while flowers whither on the vine
It could be your backyard or mine
the fist uncurls once more to show
a special kind of summer snow
a legion parachuting minions
launches thistledown on gossamer pinions

What is the song of the day?

2.140 : 9/20/05 : Goat O’ God

The goat o’ God passing all understanding
good sir I’ll thank you to be unhanding
my goat
lest I take you by the throat
though nothing’s quite perverted as the atom bomb
I’ll get right up into your face like Squeaky Fromme
You leave my goat alone
I’m saving you from that for which you’ll never atone
Goats got curly curly horns
goats come black and pale
Every goat’s got cloven feet
Some goats got curly tail
Great God counts each of his goats
He knows each billy kid and nanny
Good sir I will thank you now
to back away from my goat’s fanny

What is the song of the day?

2.139 : 9/19/05 : Metal Box

2,329 : 1 ?


Despite the absence of
keyholes or locks
the fundamental question remains
what’s inside the metal box
hinged and clasped with
a lozenge of jade
I know by whose hands it was made
I’m afraid of the box
because it might contain evil
I’m afraid the fabric of the
almighty weave will
unravel if I let the cat out
another dare beyond compare
another new year that I sat out
but it seems it belongs to me
reminds me of the me that longs to be
opening every mystery container
and the message of that dream
could not be plainer

What is the song of the day?

2.138 : 9/18/05 : Pocket

What’s in its pocket
not a fair riddle
the cat and the spoon and
the high diddle diddle
I ain’t got me no
magic ring
I only have
just three things:
a stone that’s petrified
alien egg
a silver bound oval
of polished jade
and a semisphere of silver
hammered and slight
from which Ike’s visage flashes
when you hold it to the light

What is the song of the day?

2.137 : 9/17/05 : Jasper

I can taste the iron
precipitated
lichens that grew
for a thousand years and faded
suspended in raw veins
slaked with lime
oceanic pressure
for uncounted time
speckled and clotted
mixed and swirled
in every brick of earth
another fantastic world
a history of life and death
a wholly other eon
jasper rising once again
in rust and chalk and neon

What is the song of the day?

2.136 : 9/16/05 : Rhinoceros Tusk

An asymmetric cone
parabolic section ground not-bone
Sawed off a throwback from dark ages
killed for no reason rarefied by stages
from the belly of a whale or glands of musk
the darkest totem of them all
rhinoceros tusk
black or tan wide or narrow lip
the buckle on your belt
the stings on your whip
the pick of your guitar
the handle of your knife
there’s no way to pretend
life does not depend of life
but ground into a powder
devoured in a pill
hard to believe people believe it still
but who can deny
it’s not a gorgeous stone
erupting from the head
an asymmetric cone

What is the song of the day?

2.135 : 9/15/05 : Parsnip

Rough chopped parsley
rough chopped fresh chives
a little of that black truffle oil
on parsnips you better
run for your lives
a sprinkle of dry provence herbs
Sprinkled from a tin
a chunk of butter cold and sweet
then toss the parsnips in
This shit they sell on teevee
it isn’t really food
though I admit I’ve stuffed it
down my hole in certain moods
but all that toxic poison
does not compare the slightest
with a plate of steaming parsnips
at their oiliest and whitest

What is the song of the day?

2.134 : 9/14/05 : Rutabaga

In fact the rutabaga
in my humbly opening eye
should be called the apple of the earth
trust the French to
screw that one up
It’s a lowly radix true
yet grows to a prodigious size
and in my opinion for what it’s worth
is a jewel of the dirt
and a fine thing on which to sup

What is the song of the day?

2.133 : 9/13/05 : Psychedelic Turnip

banded with rings
a cross sected tree
cast in three-d
it’s obvious to see
that the potential was there
purple or beige
mealy fleshly of a certain age
you couldn’t say it was the rage
but a certain psychedelic musk was in the air
lowly turnip made superhero
doors of perception blasted back to zero
Even that fiddling bastard Nero
couldn’t have guessed the fire
it sparked
at the County Fair

What is the song of the day?

2.132 : 9/12/05 : Black Truffle

2,322 : 13 ?


Very much a corrupt globe
oblong and irregular black pitch glob
an unctuous oil held in the cells
a gelid skin holding in the death life throb
You might imagine
such a little chunk might blow your mind
You wouldn’t be wrong
love and hunger are blind
the black oil oozes out to coat
your tongue
listen to the melody that
black oiled corrupt globule sung

What is the song of the day?

2.131 : 9/11/05 : Snout

My truffle pig with his
piggish snout
he’s gonna set the root to rout
He’s gonna smell that soil bound pearl
He’s gonna lead me straight to you girl
under the surface
how no one knows
worth a fortune
white gold grows
I got no radar
got no x-ray specs
I got super snout detector
so high-techs
sadly like so much that
is linked to mind
The pig behind the snout
does not appreciate my find
Even as I’m kneeling
to release my knot of valuable rot
pig may lose its patience
gobble my white truffle on the spot

What is the song of the day?

continuity (or the lack thereof)

You know how I know nobody is paying attention to the continuity tracking (including myself)? Because I just discovered (via one of my periodic checks against an elapsed day calculator on the internet) that something like five months ago I started mis-numbering the songs again - I just dropped a round hundred off the total and went along my merry way. Not quite on par with the original numbering mistake set, but still. This is the peril of relentless production - I don't even notice a hundred songs gone missing. In any event every continuity report from April through this week has been a hundred short of the correct number of songs currently written in the second project. Like you care.

2.130 : 9/10/05 : River Trout

Hey river trout
what’s the whole thing about
are you swimming with the current
or just rolling with the torrent
if the river is on second step
not the same as the first
are you always changing with it
or do even you feel some thirst
that will guide you in the water
to the place where you belong
there to make all little fishies
with a troutish spawning song?

What is the song of the day?

2.129 : 9/9/05 : Opportunity

Opportunity knocks constantly
that just once line is only advertising, see
false scarcity to drive the price up
the common theme that runs in every story
just how inevitable all the glory
is that fills my ever half full cup
There is one thing that happens only once
it’s called eventuality and any dunce
can tell you that history never repeats
this moment will never ever return
this fire once lit cannot unburn
doesn’t matter if you jump up or stay in your seats
So what’s the use then of regret
everything you choose to have you’re gonna get
everything’s available it’s for the asking
and if you don’t believe that then I guess you’re right
but you might go ahead and try again tonight
you’ll find me up there in my soul light basking

What is the song of the day?

New Album Release: Go By Train

Back in 2006 my brother David invited me to participate in a collaborative art project for an exhibition he was going to participate in, the Minnesota Biennial 3D II at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul (2007-2008).

The artwork was Archival Structure Two (Version 2). Dozens of "conservators/collaborators" received a component of this structure and created an original artwork based on the contents of the component they received. I made Go By Train. The songs are songs of the day based on the contents of the box I received and the artwork was made with scanned images from these contents.

Go By Train was written between the 19th and 25th of September 2006 so its lyrics will be published here in a little over a year.

I released this album through my Bandcamp page today. It is free to listen to and $3.00 to download. As a reminder, any former patrons of Jonathan Hamlow presents 33 Magazine receive free downloads of my released digital works for life, contact me for a download code if you do not yet own a copy of Go By Train and wish to.

Go By Train at Bandcamp