Kisses

and then you brought me


a basket of warm kisses


through long years of snow

The Price You Pay

Rubies sapphire diamonds and gold

Had that money, all the money my hands could hold.

Had a nice place, such a fine life, flood stole it away.

Ain't nothing mine now, ain't nothing left, but hell to pay.

Baby cried, sweet mama screamed when the black water came.

"Oh Lord," I prayed, wash me clean, just don't wash them away.

It's hard to live, so hard to give, even harder to breathe,

When you've lost all you love, everything you need.

All dem riches that shine today

Sure ain't worth the price you pay.

Your brightest dream is sure to fade

The more you hold on the more it slip away.

Now she's gone, it's so hard to start over again.

I don't know why mean old blues claims to be my friend.

I got a song deep in my heart, I still need to sing.

It’s all that stops the flood of tears when memories come again.

It's all changed all brand new now I'm back to stay.

All I owned, it owned me, just wasted my day.

Them that got, they still got, they got everything.

Us without, all we got is what the morning bring.

All dem riches that shine today

Sure ain't worth the price you pay.

Your brightest dream is sure to fade

The more you hold on the more it slip away.

Rubies sapphire diamonds and gold

Take that money, it's just money, you'll never take my soul.

Next time I build, I'll build my house of heart and stone.

I'll make my home /atop the hill, rest my tired bones.

All dem riches that shine today

Sure ain't worth the price you pay.

Your brightest dream is sure to fade

The more you hold on the more it slip away.

I Miss You

(January 3, 2011)

It is the month of ravens, the season

of liquid light.  It has been a long year

for golden tigers, and I cannot bear

to be without you for another day.

My tracks freeze in their place, there is no more

getting away.  Even my shadow is

brittle.  In the great spruce behind our house,

three ravens squeak rusty nails out of iced

bark with their cawing, change positions as

they ladder up branch by branch, but the one,

I think female, is first to find the top.

Yesterday, after the snow came, the sun,

behind a wispy smudge of cloud, shimmered

dreamy and moonlike, and a lone eagle

wove its way across the steel wool sky like

the shuttle of a loom.  It is the month

of coal, of burning cold.  The charred raven

brings its gift of fire to all those who

freeze.  The crystal sunlight turns into ash.

I am left to ask, “What brings you to me

in the night?  Will the knit of need and knot

of time hold only when arms and legs are

woven tight?”  My fabric frays without you.

Here in the slant burn of the winter sun,

in the black and gray grit of frozen thaw,

I climb the stark tree of mind, limb by limb,

into the murky sky.  Each day away

from you, I ache in the hollow of my bones.

___________________________________

See the vidoe version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0odVZQSWwgM

My Will Is Gone

The stars are melting / I’m a going home (2x)
The wind is moaning / don’t wanna be alone


Come on baby / be my port in the storm (2x)
Won’t you love me / while my will is gone


I need your fire / to light up this hole (2x)
I need your loving / to fill up my soul


You love to tease me / but you sure can please (2x)
Come on baby / put my mind at ease


Say you love me / it won’t last too long (2x)
I’d say I’m sorry / but I've done no wrong


Come on baby / help me ride this storm (2x)
Won’t you love me / while my will is gone


My will is gone