Mike Altrin - Lyrics

Brand New Eyes

Somebody knocked the fourth wall down
You like to watch what’s happening all around
Just turn me on and I’ll open the door -
new rules to be aware of, new things to care for

Trade your mind for brand new eyes
your life comes out of cutting rooms
And anyway, what difference does it make
they’re just as real, the true one and the fake

Sit back, relax, learn to participate
then I shall keep you informed and entertained
and satisfy your need to know
Rebuild your conscience with the remote control

Chain Breaker

Come, chain breaker
rest me in the air
loose me off a cliff and let me be found
blow winds through my hair
replace my blood with sound

I need a halt
I need a refill
out of the storm and into a revelry
of lucky memories
Or else follow me
and bow before the stones of survival

Delia
Traditional

Delia, Delia, how can it be
You love them rounders, don’t love me

Delia was a gambler, gambling all around
Delia was a gambling’ girl, she laid her money down

Up above the house tops, high as I can see
Lookin’ for them rounders, lookin’ out for me

Delia’s poor mamma took a trip out west
When she returned, li’l Delia‘s lying in rest

Delia’s mamma weep, Delia’s father moan
Wouldn’t have been so bad if their child had died at home

Rubber tired buggy, double seated hack
Took poor Delia to the cemetery and failed to bring her back

Delia, Delia, why didn’t you run
When you saw that Cooney a-comin’ with his 44 caliber gun

Cooney lookin’ high, Cooney lookin’ low
He shot poor Delia down with his fateful 44

Delia, Delia, how can it be
You loved them rounders and don’t love me

Judge said to Cooney: what’s this fuss about?
All about those gamblers, judge, they’re tryin’ to jerk me out

Judge said to Cooney I’m gonna tell you a natural fact
Son, you’re gonna wait in jail ‘til Delia comes back

Cooney said to the judge: what may be my fine
Judge said poor boy, you got 99

Now Cooney’s in the basement, drinkin’ from an old tin cup
And Delia’s in the boneyard, she may not never get up

Men in Atalanta tryin’ to pass for white
While Delia’s in the graveyard, six feet out of sight

Delia, Delia, how can it be
You loved those rounders, never had time for me

Etretat
Instrumental

Exit The Rain

I’m leaving the country
hope to get far away from the city
maybe to Sintar, where the flowers are
There’s plenty of space here, but not enough room for fun
Exit the rain and look for the sun

A crappy old feeling flows in the town -
a feeling of failure when the sun’s going down
They’re all about problems and I ain’t got none
Exit the rain and look for the sun

I want to go to Comeat, even Timbuktu
then somebody tells me ‘it’s raining there too’
That’s so optimistic, I feel like I’d better run
Exit the rain and look for the sun

Nasty vibrations are getting to me
and I find myself thinking of Hunter S.T.
the light to follow, the freedom to be won
Exit the rain and look for the sun

I always ride easy, illegally glad
Instead of being serious, I’d rather be dead
so I’m doing the one thing that sane men have always done
Exit the rain and look for the sun

I’d throw a big party, but my train’s leaving soon
I’m taking a vacation from July to June
Got plenty of days and kicks to get from each one
Exit the rain and look for the sun

Fields of the Lord (live)

I'm the spring in the mountain
and the bee on the flower
I'm the greedy old banker
and the plane in the tower

I'm the whore in the streetlight
and the president's wife
I'm the single mom stabbed
and I'm that kid with a knife

The bird eats the fish that’s eaten the fly
same old game plays anew
With every heartbeat I'm born and I die
Truth is - I'm you

always at play,

always at play in the fields of the Lord

I'm the guy selling weapons
to both warring sides
I was taught that God wants me
to rule and divide

And I'm the dangerous Ali
stunned by my baby's bed
watching his clean white sheets turn
to fast spreading red

I heard of a place where everything's one
all waves on the same sea
me and you under the same sun
or is it you and me

always at play, always at play in the fields of the Lord

I work in shale gas extraction
plundering the Earth for a dime
and I’m the angry reaction
waving a ‘no fracking’ sign

I'm the greatest of leaders
and the itch you can't scratch
I'm born to make history

I'm the never too much

One beautiful morning with a sky still blue
we’ll wake to a surprise
for a split second, for half a view
to see the light shine through

Always at play,

always at play in the fields of the Lord

Make your way dancing to the end of the world

Five Strings
Instrumental

Guided by the Light

I see you standing there between the light and dark
Logic faded away as you went past its mark
and now you’re at the crossroads, pondering from above
either your life to waste or life itself to love

Shifting sands of truth turned you from grey to blue
and what you always hated became a part of you
Caught in a maze of reason that leaves the mind in tatters
wouldn’t it be cowardice in saying that nothing matters

Nothing is wrong and nothing is right
but I would like to know you’re guided by the light

As words disguise their meaning, you’re looking in the eyes
Just like searching through books, you read between the lines
Aren’t we all just fragments carried by the stream
heading towards an end and seeking to begin

Nothing is wrong and nothing is right
yet I would like to see you marching into the light

Inner Road

Feel the taste of birth and death in my throat
as I’m walking in the dust of the road
Ready for a humble flight, ready for a trade-in
remember reasons to hold on, the mystery that keeps me standing

Got to learn how to walk straight on a road that’s meant to bend
Though it may take a lifetime, it’s ok, for time’s a friend

I’m leaving an aging town way behind -
temples, drugstores, banks and bars, all behind
Funny how this winding path always seems to bring me back
to a home I never been but I always knew to lack

Peering through a cloud of dust, thought I saw a shadow move
I am thinking of a land where no one has a thing to prove

Lights

One light kills the shadow

another makes it grow

cruelty of the high

wonder of the low

One light in the beginning

another in the end

Beauty calls in sinning

deserts call the spent

One light from the sun

another from the moon

wild riders of fun

or lovers in a swoon

One light

One light in each new breath sees other dimmed and gone

This alchemy of death brings music to the swan

The night lit when the angel as lightening down he fell

The brightness of heaven comes from the flames of hell

You know it deep, beyond the mind, where the one forever shines

Opposites are mere disguise, in truth there’s only one light

One light

Land Ho

Holy gas-stations deep in the highway night

afterlife diners with unforgiving light

guideposts of the nowhere for silent passers-by

where tepid coffee sailors drift out of mind and sight

„Free rooms, tv, toliet” says the neon sign trail

Foreign beds with views on the parking annex

our transitory dreams of heartbreak, work and snacks

see most of life happening while waiting to set sail

Land ho! The road unravels under mad crazy stars

continents come fitting like pieces of a puzzle

Hear the fearless rythm pumping up your arms

and this scream so transcendent it’d shatter any muzzle.

Lost

Let this darkness be a flutter, to emptiness a friend

a bridge to the meaning of the unbearable night

I used to be

I used to flow

used to be used

I’m all used up

I lost my voice

down at the bottom of the sea of noise

I’m so alone here under icy stars

the beach is frozen and the world is far

there’s not even a crossing to be waiting for

just lying with the whales, washed by the shore

Burry me gently, lay me down soft

bones in my body send my spirit aloft!

All I ever wanted was to stand here straight

standing straight before you and you left me at the gate

oh, to forever await?!!!

How could you be so cruel?

Are you speaking in tongues now?

Won’t you pull just one last trick?

Please. Make it quick.

Lovers of the world

you and me baby, we’re lovers of the world

i’m yes and you’re maybe lonely and alone

make-up in our eyes, living by the phone

lovers of the world

me and you, my dear we’re martyrs of the naught

we complete each other with lust and hidden fears

each one thinks the other has what i have not

we’re guardians of our tears

small leap for arousal to turn into abuse

short fall for a halo to become a noose

the kind of love I hate you with can best hope for a truce

you know it Miriam, i’ll stay until we feel

all harming has been done and there’s nothing left to steal

then we’ll be moving on, go away and heal

our scars in the sun

lovers the world dread the autumn sprinkles

winter will lay you curled, hiding from your own wrinkles

me - wondering where’s the fun under our common roof

that truly shelters none

sharing the same room and yet a world apart

sharing the same doom and calling it our art

we’re lovers of the world

Lullaby

Hey, hey , hey
everything’s ok
Shadows of the day
breathing shades of k
Shadows of the night
whispering alright
Sleep, my purest child
in echoes of the wild

everything’s alright
Mother’s by the river
dressed in wood and silver
quiet in her flight
flying in delight
Listen to the sky
you’ve captured
in your eye

Hey, hey, hey
everything’s ok
The night has traveled down
on the last sun ray
Now all things become
almost what they are
Hookers on the street
got into a car
and they rolled away
and the stars are bright.

everything’s alright
You don’t have to pray
just hold on to your kite
for the new born truth
on the endless road
for the times to come
Dreams are to arise
from this blue ashtray

Magik

As a kid
I trimmed gardens of luxury in search of battlefields
followed trails in the sky -
these memories airplanes leave behind
Later, I held my heart in my hands
curious at what a funny little thing it was
yet so full of magic

I never been to those mountaintops shrouded in clouds
nor watched the ocean from an Ireland coast
The things surrounding me are always there like walls
I may be living on the edge of a joke

An open chest may recall

this evasive identity
a one-time wish to let greatness pass through
(or the childhood vision of an ice-cream stand
from behind a speeding car’s window)
a call unreturned

Agone, I used to scream
and the sound of it, they called it silence

I am the witness of each passing second
I look and don’t see
abandon and become strange
try for what I lost yet never had

Magnetic Storm
Instrumental

Meet the Boys
Instrumental

Morni

Traditional Pahari folk song, roughly translated

Mother asks: Listen O, my daughter,
why are you so restless?

Daughter says: The peacock is hooting in the next forest
O mother, his hooting has taken away my sleep

Mother says: Let’s call the hunter and gunner
O daughter we will take this peacock down

Daughter says: No, we will not shoot it
I will put it in a cage

Where does the moon and all the stars go?
O mother, where do all our dear ones go?

The moon hides and so do all the stars
but, my dear daughter

our dear ones don't disappear anywhere

but remain in our heart

Moving On

Such a sigh, such a sigh -
bringing the sun down
My heart lies on the ground
The feelings you’re leaving behind
feelings you will turn around
The light that’s shining upside down

What a dream, what a dream –
you looking out the window
at the world within
me dealing with the sin
my heavy old skin
All this loss so you can win

take this loss so you can win

Nai’s Tune

Remember that time when we stared at the trees
through our submarine’s eyeglass, wrecked on the shore
and just being there and hanging in the breeze
you saw them baobabs rise from the sea
and dance on their roots on top of the waves
of that Japanese coast in white cherry bloom

And under the limelight there’s a jellyfish choir
which sounds like music, but ain’t quite the same
and the spirit of party sets the spirits on fire
and explodes on the stage where there’s not enough room
so the cabaret girls throwin’ their legs in the air
watch’em go through the roof and straight to the sky

And there’s nothing to say that could wipe out the stare
of the egg-headed clerks scandalized in their chairs
They’ll try you by morals they used beyond repair
and it all lies before you with no reason why
And in a split second it’s coming to you
that there’s some way to use this, or something to do
well guess what – there ain’t

Along came Fifi, the traveling princess
said she knew how our planet got so upside down
and how all of our stories told from behind the glass
draw the very shape of this ever-changing dream
and how we could easily bring ourselves back
from the edge of boredom, where the strong-willed stand

But just as she put forth these fabulous views
she said This is the truth and I hope you can see
I said lately my eyes are not that good, dear princess Fifi
but if any of it turns out to be true
the truth will just have to go on without me

So we lie on the beach, my buddy and I
and we look at the stars, how they twinkle and fade
and we open a bier can and raise it to us
for there’s only a few hours until the break of day
and we could go on chatting without something to say
for a few more hours ‘til the break of day
but you know what? Not today

Peripheral Sky

You can rely on fate here -
everything’s bound to fail
in miserable compliance

Eyes glittering with greed
and sad lines in our palms
and children raised to envy

This ain’t the work of nature
our green fields turning brown
as winds blow from the West

No one to fight the plague
no one to ram it down
and no one to protest

Sometimes i get so tired
from goin’ against the tide
So if you hear this sigh
go pick your nickels up
the fountains have gone dry -
no mirror to reflect
this peripheral sky

Obscene people get rich
And live in castles that
tower above the slums

Our reason’s beauty-sleep
has long been breeding monsters
to whom we pretend blind

I dream of foreign shores
where people choose to care
about what’s right or worthy

and just can’t help this feeling
of living in exile
though knew no other home.

Possibly

World’s made of possibilities
this is because that is
When the light sets the mind free
the mind allows the light to be

This here now is that there then
the 0 meets the 1 to 10
Without the sight, the eye can’t be
without the eye, nothing to see

Only love can be-be-be
but you and me, the fish, the tree
and even the primordial sea
everything is – possibly

Was the big bang a big boom
for a later ear to hear
was reflection made to hold the mirror
space and time to graft a bloom

was the fire lit to consume
what allows the fire to be
can't you see that not to be
frames whatever comes to be

our little dear identity

just a wave inside the sea

here's a sip from Buddha’s tea
the maybeness of certainty

Red Hand Love

Backyard action
no the time to talk
Shovel in the mud
shovel hits the rock
Cold ground hungry
needs sweat and blood
Bite the bullet
chew on the SCUD

Lil muscles swelling
little heart’s a-pumping
lil teeth a-gnashing
gettin’ all excited
Baby takes no break
baby knows the score
all the way from Lipovei
and down to the core

No cheap thrills
no easy flirt
I’ll stick with you
dig out the dirt

Red hand love
nothing more
Sweet drug squad
breakin’ down my door
Bad old habits
all left behind
and all my crimes -
time out of mind

1 – 2 - 4!
never a bore
Pointy little tits
gonna hit the floor
Gonna dig all night
Diggin’ deep and low
fever raging higher
hear the final blow

No cheap thrills
no easy flirt
stick with my baby
dig out the dirt

Refugee

Born under a star that died before was seen
we lived inside a mirror, between focus and blur
ah, like we weren’t there, yet there we really were
Put on your backlit dress, my love, and dance for me

To comfort our silence, the hills have turned deep blue
Like the smoke of a match time was flowing away
In my heart I’ve been dragging an iron kite all day
Hoping for a wind that didn’t come through

A vacant wind was blowing through the holes in my soul
The sound it made stirred up these memories of you
My scream inwardly bleeding as they didn’t let you through
and raised a fence between us to rip one fate in two

Fly me to the roof that night in old Tangiers
Listening to the air scented with prayer and war
You bit your lip and thought of what our blood was for
and tore my shirt apart to kiss away your fears

From mists of the dark mountain a wave came rolling down
Lady on my arm and then the child of Autumn
Crows storming down like bombs, we kinda knew what brought them…
From the high grass we were picking the smell of rains to come

Hidden ‘neath the ground, my bones are funny things
The light outside was hurting the owls of my eyes
I was upfront and the background has cut me down to size
Now in my palms I’m holding this old wound, and it sings

Secret

I was living in exile, king of bygones and ghosts

taking desolation down the aisle, bitter winds along the coast

We walked together in the long night, Maria and I

no words to say, no fight to fight just silence to scrape by

There were rumors about art near the harbour at dawn

As the sailors of my heart had given up their vaunt

I did my time, ripened my truth, spirited off the pain

so here’s a letter to my youth inked it from my vein

The secret is to live in secret

light gardens undersea

Love mystery and keep it

let miracles flow free

Brighton falls and Ronda’s far, it’s hard to drink the cup

But without darkness there can be no stars, she marveled looking up

Just dare to let it guide you back to a child's view

wing to your muse out of the dark blue

And if it comes after the drought and peers into your soul

to clear the riddle of your heart ,your secret name to call

Embrace the splendid science, the silence of the islands

the mystery inside and its pilots through the highness

The secret is to live in secret

some things need not be said

love mystery and keep it

from others and yourself

Seeker

I am a seeker
searching high, searching low
in mystery and rock’n’roll

I look around me until it gets dark
And when it gets dark I look with my heart
and if my heart changes tides I look with my soul
and when my soul I cannot hear
I search with instinct and wild beasts
wild boars and wild whores

I turn to you for I am a seeker

I seek in beauty, I search in joy
down every road I go
I search in joy and torment
I search in rock’n’roll

I search in words
search the sky for what it’s worth
I search in light, I search the night
And I pray

I will not give up the fight
I’ll search for love in songs of birds
search in feelings, search in words

And when I cannot search no more
I’ll rest my head and I’ll adore
the mystery that was before,
now and forevermore

I’m a child, I am a dove
a seeker bound to rove

Seven Years Three Days

I’ve been waiting seven years
For these three days of happiness

Alive right here, new way to be
Being in all, and all being in me
it’s plain to see

Pride forgotten, things get even
No need to see, nothing to find
just believe in these days of happiness

Sun is up at now a clock
It glows over on the bridge and down at the docks
We’re going out in the city (out for a walk)
Stroll along church walls to a bench in the park
Oh! Oh what a day! What a time!
Yes, these three days of happiness

I know that look in your eyes
Dancing in your clear blue sky
Dance on cloud nine

Big wide smile to all mankind
No crappy thoughts in my mind
Take it all, baby, even sacrifice
No gain in view, all things suffice

The time is now, gentle ascent
I know you can where others can’t
For we’ve been paying seven years
For these three days of happiness

Shake Your Soul

The Earth is round, trees are green
well not quite, but still
The sky is blue, blue as you
Your lips are red, your arms are two

Steady boys
Now shake your soul

She needed no one telling
about the hurt, the good and the bad
She swore to just keep running down every road she’d see
The way the deal went down almost made me sad
as she stumbled and broke her ankle in a puddle
near Masloc City

Called my cardiologist all day
left a thousand messages on his machine
Some say I died, some say I’m sick
some saw me running across the field with a gun -
howling madman in the blazing sun

Hear the roar waving from Mumbai to Berlin
Thieves, beggars and saints running on thick fuel
So keep your mind somewhere else, some party on Noah’s Ark
Of course there’ll be no mercy, just a few survivors
and the ones who used to crawl

Silent Master

Put your ear on the ground, hear the bell of the Earth
Reverb of rebirth, sound of the primeval spell

This land holds many thorns you can kiss with your feet
And transient roles and lovely severed ribs

This land holds many thorns you can kiss with your feet

transient roles and lovely severed ribs

Where the road splits in two, there waits a one-eyed crow

which way to go when either way there's nothing left for you?

And sometimes it is sweet to just lose the mind

and float up from your seat through gardens of insight

Chimney sweep for the soul at the end of the trip

and who am I to know why do we like to skip the credits roll?

Silent Master of the Chair-o-Planes, Vertical line!
This blue sphere’s swinging on a chain of dragonflies
Breathe a wind to set the stars ablaze… riddle with time
Thin line walkers high above the maze look for your rhyme

Koans blow up for your sake: I’m the third half
White feet dancing on a morning lake - Your autograph
Haloed scorpions in the desert call your names, hanging on ropes
Everything with you is an inside job and it pays weeding out hopes.

Sitting in a Bar

Sitting in a bar

the piano plays softly
people are made of smoke
the biers are saying cheers
and someone in the dark
is looking for love

Strange voices all around
the lights in red and green
I light a cigarette
for feeling cool and free
and wonder what dream
will I chose to carry me away

It’s closing time outside
You’re feeling kind of blue
It’s hard to change your life
when life is changing you
But are you really sad
or just drifting too far
while sitting in a bar

Slide

Slide on your body of mirrors
wash your eyelids with clouds
ripples in your iris grow clearer
when boatmen row in the sun

The ghost of beautiful Iva

we dances ‘til morning drew nigh

Woke up and it was all over

For every morn dreams got to die

Everything rises together
and loss is a muse in disguise
these hardships heavy as feathers
and victories from giving up tries

We travel down roads tired and weary
we rest our heads in hotels
Life is a slow harakiri
before the sound of the bell

And what becomes of the mother
drafting her life in Excel
Her daughter befriended a star
so pure is no one’s to tell

Everything rises together
of winters and bones fires are born
Such stuff that weather is made on
we first have to freeze to get warm

Spiritual Fast Food

from Mike von Altrin & The Viking Funeral

What a glorious moment of spiritual delight:
henna on her hands set the Universe right
Green forefathers from a psychedelic moon
told her to tell me the new age’s coming soon
A ticket to Nirvana, for she travels in style
with her chakras open and her wide hippie smile
She’s smoking all my weed, sniffin all my stuff
she got a magic mantra if the trip gets rough
A little bit of God to balance out the mood
Welcome dear soul to the Spiritual Fast-Food.

She’s her own great guru, has a lot of faith
Her aura is so sexy, makes me wanna meditate
Puts away my Ego with patchouli scent
naked protest girl saves the environment
Spreads her love and legs, it can be such fun
Watch her doing yoga with just her panties on
She got a dim red lamp for mystic light
keeps on doing splits and it’ll be alright
Welcome as you are, preferably nude
Take a shot of love in the Spiritual Fast-Food

Everything’s illusion, nothing’s worth the bother
She got plenty of lovers and she’s calling them brothers
tells them `bout karma and mystical connections
sowing seeds of love and ripping out erections
Channeling my fluids, she got me in good sync
Her third eye opened wide and it was glowing pink
Angels and fairies guide her astral trips
She’s already enlightened, only needs a fix
Before we became one, some business to conclude
Leave your money here, in the Spiritual Fast Food

Anything at all, just go ahead and ask her
We’re going to the jungle to suck on ayahuasca,
We do the Kaballah, get to Shangri La
It beats a Thai massage in a five star Spa
She’s the reincarnation of two Egyptian queens
and she may look like you, but nothing’s what it seems
We ride the new moon power towards the Equinox
The Universe conspires to send us to detox
A dozen quotes of wisdom to make her feel good
Found’em all right here, in the Spiritual Fast-Food.

Swan Song

She’s a heart-breaker with a broken heart
speaks innocently but knows too much
She doesn’t walk, she flies
smiles like a sunrise
Make love to her
Wait, close your eyes
you’ll hear her moan -
it’s a swan song

She used to ride a Trojan horse
sneaked a halo in your brain
She was your best, by far
You sealed her with a scar
and got her since under your skin –
a ghost within
a swan song

A most inviting emptiness
to fill with all your perfect dreams
she’s dancing in her perfect dress -
a window for star beams

It’s a swansong
you catcher in the rye
a swan song
you got to let her die

Temptation
live from Mike von Altrin & The Viking Funeral

Sit by me
watch TV
hot in here.. is it you
or is it me

Your blond hair
little hair
truth or dare, down there
underwear

Sweet sixteen
sweet sixteen
not sixteen, what do you mean?
yes of course, seventeen

He ain't home
he ain't home
now we’re stoned and
we’re all alone

Your sweet sin
your sweet sin
your white skin, you set the scene
Marilyn

Take away
take away
take away, your love is
takeaway

Wasted years
wasted years
just one life, rules and fears
wasted years

The Flowering

Present everywhere

blind to the world you see it

in expanding glare

full circle ‘round the cockpit

light myrrh in midair

Risen from prison

spider walking on the lake

seems frail but isn’t

for its gentle walk did break

the sleep of reason

Behold the rainbow

in any oily puddle

the hush starry glow

in a cloudy night cuddle

stillness in its flow

Now we’re towering

above what never happened

we were just napping

in our own lap and awoke

for the flowering

The Tide

Know it there rising with the tide

a rough pulsed heart

a mind well wrought

it aches like morning light

piercing with the sword

night-black coffee to look inside

To laugh away the self

god also lost the capital

here’s an ox breathing warm like a nurse

after 48 hours straight in the hospital

Turn the other cheek

nullify the knife

Not ‘cause it was written

but turning nullifies the limits on life

The pawn stands still

the world bemused

slashed with forgiveness by the accused

Flying over Aleppo

bleaching out the red

tongues of fire to unchain

from dialogues of the dead

Time Lag

Waiting here again
waiting for the second time
waiting for a sign
waiting for some peace of mind
Waiting in the stations
fading in the waiting line
Laws of gravitation
pulling all our gambles down

Some people lost in shame, some others lost in fame
Looking in the mirror, the mirror looks the same

Waiting for salvation
wait for it ‘til kingdom come
Wait for some direction
fill the holes with witless fun
Waiting long for love
to save your very soul from you
Waiting for the dove
to find its way out of the Zoo

Houses made of glass, people throwing stones
Preach the word of God to a bag of bones

Waiting for elation
at the gates of Promised Land
Wait in immigration
with a nickel in your hand
Waiting for some lover
waiting for a distant call
Waiting to get over
waiting ‘til you learn to stall

Buy yourself a pair of shoes, go splash some blood around
Dance on prayers for rain ‘til your heels wear out

Waiting me to lead you
me and my one dying eye
Or waiting for the media
to supply what not and why
Waiting in the park
banging on a cracked drum
Waiting on the Ark
for a sprinkle to keep from

Sittin’ in the kitchen, trying to make some sense
Streets are filled with ghosts, time to make amends

Waiting here again
waiting for the second time
waiting for a sign
waiting for some peace of mind

Looking at the stars at night I feel devoid of aim
If it’s me you’re after, you gotta feel the same

Tiramisu

Rain falling down across the hill
She asked you to stay
you told her you will

Rain fallin’ down from Mary's eye
She always keeps her promise -
holds her head up high

Wind blowing cold on all your friends
You're the only one sleeping
while everybody stands

White wedding dress and the tolling bells
white wedding dress and the blooming trees
Set sail to your groom across the seven seas

Blessed are the pure, they go without a sigh
I'm lost for words and looking for rhymes
to passion on Earth and joy up in the skies

People on the street, they asked me about you
Had I any idea, I would've told them true
You came and went like love does
in and out of the blue

Too Bright To See
for I.H.

Lookin for you in thin air
and words on stone
You’re lookin at us from upstairs
ain’t we all too small to see

Here is the garden
isn’t it strange how everyone is here?
And here is my mind over its edge
and it’s just too bright to see

Painter of houses
I know your smile
your simpleness and will
the sins you’ve burned
to warm your hands
as life grew cold uphill

Dreams of the father
wing to the sun
like ripples on the sea
Go with that someone
holding your arm
as it gets too bright to see

Too Bright To See (live)
as performed at From Altringen To Lhasa

Looking for you in Tibet
in words on stone
You’ve taken refuge in the higher bet
of kings without a throne

Here is the garden, looking all strange
we came to meet you here
and here is my mind over its edge
as it gets too bright to see

Departed shepherd, I know your smile
your simpleness and will
the pain you burned to warm your hands
as life grew cold uphill

Eyes of the Buddha mirror the sun
reflections on the sea
I’ll always remember you grabbing my arm
as it was – too bright to see

Under the Sun

Some things are and then they’re not
In between things I stand caught
Day and night, night and day
only change seems here to stay

Long train, long road, lone feeling
Got salt on my lips
and gold beneath my eyelids
I’m falling asleep
while the wrecking ball swings on
and I’m thinking of it all

There’s dreams behind the wheel
and dancers on the roof
There’s laughter in the fields
where seagulls fly aloof

Now the sun rises in the night
I can close my eyes and see
When everything around grows dark
a light turns on inside of me

The wind blows through my window
and blows itself away
and all waves become the same
with the sea that has no name
it’s just free

I’m gonna get me a new eye
riding rays in the big sky
with no shelter there to find
but the silence in my mind

All in all, there’s all in one
our road leads where it began
here on Earth, under the Sun

Venice

In prayers up to their thighs

soldiers wade by jewelry stores

As more clouds come pressing down

carpe diem babies lift their purses high

across Saint Mark's square

Pale light dances on the arches

people wrapped in fragile tape

all now shoveling on Stone Island

orange boots and gold umbrellas

looking fine, like a Vermeer

Pinocchio watches from a window

his face buried in his hands

as the theater goes Titanic

slowly sinking with the sands

and the tags from fashion stores

Food was pretty bad in Venice

nobody will tell you that

Looking from the future’s bay

cities are but memories

and all mem’ries are Pompeii

Can you tell people from pigeons

when they're tiny little dots

floating on the endless turquoise

stretched above where Venice stood

and shone a day against the sky

Wailing Wall

Moses followed the Lord through a desert of stone

The heat whipped his eyes and he hurt to the bone

Looking up at the mount, he sunk to his knee
felt his beating heart and called it R&B

then trampling the feeling of the nostalgic being

he summoned up the power and as he stomped his feet

the sea parted in two & there came the beat

Set your spirit in motion

get in touch with your soul

One crack shall open the ocean

so dig a little hole in the wailing wall

Happy wedding day in dry old Palestine

somebody they say has turned the water to wine

and said Come ye of little faith, from your own pigeonhole

redemption for the fall shall be called rock n roll

You shall be free to dance like children when it rains

flying three chord planes across the great expanse

You were born for joy, why don t you take a chance

to set your spirit in motion

get in touch with your soul

One spark shall lead to explosion

so dig a little hole in the wailing wall

Get the heat, the vibe, the fire, the beat

the riff, the lick, the loving grit

Life is just too great a treat

your very soul you got to meet

Oh now baby get in touch with your soul

Pumping your blood with rock n roll

The light will come so bright and pure

little upside down in your camera obscura

To let it in your heart and soul

dig a little hole in your wailing wall

Weed

It’s a beautiful world
or so they say
or so I thought
‘til I forgot
the self I’ve left behind
a faraway morn
caught in a thorn
of a weed that has grown
by the side of my path

It’s a beautiful life
so much to do
if I just knew
one reason to
This silent afternoon
is it a hint
a promise in the wind
that not a life to soon
I’ll be extinct

What Are They Saying

Listen to the leaves
falling from trees
what are they saying

You Are

The difference between real and fiction
the distance between shore and ocean
you are

the time between night and sunrise
the truth between the harmless lies
the breath between untamed sighs
the light between crevices of abyss

the depth between grandiose heights
the length between the short end ties
the reality between the physical and abstract

the ultimate fable
the ultimate fact
you are

Young

Living at the corner of Illusion and Splendor
I often hurt but never surrender
Look me in the eye and you may see a fire -

it’s lit for a fool but never a liar

struggling through winters as the Great Bear bends lower
shadows of my thoughts grows tall, now taller
but I stay alive because I’m still a kid
keeping my fireflies in a jar with no lid

The sun is up, green is the hill
Young is the age living the dream

Bicycles rolling along streets of laughter
chasing the girl with dreams in her hair
laying in the hey when the hour is softer
everything tires but the power to dare

Why should I oppose or refute the pleasure
of letting my soul wave like a flag unfurled
I’ll take all the joy and pain beyond measure
and climb up the thread that’s suspending my world

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