Music Inspiration–When I Can’t Write at Least I Can Listen

Feature O’ The Day (click to listen!):  Hopeful by Josh Ritter

Supposedly it was a wise wise man
Who said it’s better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all, never to have loved
How many times does the truth that you take to be true
Is just truth falling apart at the same speed as you
Until it all comes away in a million degrees
And you’re just a few pieces of fallin’ debris
And she’s hopeful
Hopeful
For me
I’m coming out of the dark clouds

She went away and she packed all her lovin’
I could not believe it how little there was
I stood in the cold kitchen with nothin’ to say
Who’d keep the whole world spinning when she went away yeah?

She kept telling me about the good things I deserve
That I wanted somebody I’d mistaken for her
But one look in my eyes and she’d know she was wrong
So she wouldn’t look back at me until she was gone

How many times did you give all your love
And find out it was so far from far from enough?
I followed her out into the street in the rain
And the whole world stopped spinning and just went up in flames

And she’s hopeful
Hopeful
For me
I’m coming out of the dark clouds
She’s hopeful
Hopeful
For me
She says it to me often

The sunlight corroded and the days started to fail
The rocks in the road sharpened shadows to nails
The fencepost were empty and so were the trees
Had the bluebird of use on its last tune for me

I’ve seen her around now with someone new I don’t know
She likes greed-eyed boys who are haloed in hope
But I know the look in his eyes and I know all the old signs
Just a couple more curves before his own road unwinds

These days I’m feelin’ better about the man that I am
There’s some things I can change and there’s others I can’t
I met someone new now I know I deserve
I never met someone who loves the world more than her

She has been through her own share of hard times as well
And she has learned how to tear out the heaven from hell
Most nights I’m alright still all rocks roll down hill
But she says I’ll get better, she knows that I will

And she’s hopeful
Hopeful, for me
I’m coming out of the dark clouds
She’s hopeful
Hopeful
For me
Comin’ out of the dark clouds
Comin’ out of the dark clouds

The word is as the world is
Everybody’s gonna hurt like hells some times
The word is as the world is
Everybody’s gonna hurt like hells some times some times

Home

Prompt: Write about your home without mentioning your house, town, or street. –Natalie Goldberg

 

Home. Home is where doves dive and trees dance and creatures bump in the night underneath a full moon that I. Am. Looking. At. Home is where I turn into myself and hate myself and love myself. Home. It has been where I love and where I scold others. There is fire there, and ice. The stars say I should built it near water–that I am like the otter. I oblige. Home is larger than a bread box but modest yet. Home.
Home.
Home.
Happy.
Humble.
Home.

From Pain to Joy

Let it rain pain
Whether daybreak or night fall
let your feelings shatter upon themselves
Thunder your ugliest thoughts
Let the lightning illuminate your way
Take paths not taken before
Be creative
Discover your gold
in the rubble
Know sorrow now
to know Joy tomorrow

I Get It Now

It’s not me crying wolf this time
It’s me surrendering
Caving
Letting go
of the illusion
that True Love is
all shiny
and hot
and spicy
and perfect
Always love has been
just out of…
reach
Why?
Because it wasn’t real
Love is in the bed
I’ve made for myself
Love is in you
I get it now
This game of
musical chairs
is over
The spinning
bottle has
landed on you
And you look just
like me,
I’m free

Teetering

I’ll get to the root of this
Bear all my longings for laughter
Pick fruit after fruit
None yet ripe
Step on one-million tiny
things, oblivious
Crawl to the truth
Cry wolf
Struggle to hold
my head up
Climb a big hill
Walk the plank
a thousand times
But I’ll never step
over the edge,
I’ll get
to the
root
of
this.

Give & Ye Shall

In the moonlight
my most sacred wishes
tumble out like a star giving birth,
filling my world with a million grains
of newborn hope

On the river a
moonglade reflects
back to me my most
incomprehensible
sins and shortcomings
and also reveals my
strengths and gifts

At dawn I wake
knowing the Universe
has slaved on my behalf
and today,
if I give all that
I wish to receive–
Love, communication, security,
I will dance in my hearts
grandest creation yet

Like + Lust = List, Not Love

Does love not
teeter totter?
One day you
love him the
next you
do not
Let’s abolish
the word altogether
Reserve it for pets
and grandmothers
He and I decided
that lovers List
Like + Lust
We lovers do not
very well sustain
Love
We lust like hell
and we like enough
to stay together
We only love when
we are pathetic, which
isn’t often enough.
We only love when
you are looking.
Or that’s what
he did to me.
In school, I would
jump from my teeter
and watch the boy
totter down
I saw someone
else do it so
I did it too
I was the
meanest girl
on the playground
thinking boys were
play-things
Teeter
tottering
is such
a rush

and love
a fluke