Music

The land that lay directly behind me as I painted this distant view from a lonely rolling ridge on California’s central coast belongs to none other than Neil Young, and having learned this I couldn’t help but recall a recording I’d recently heard of him singing the old Woody Guthrie tune This Land is Your Land:   As I was walkin’, I saw a sign there And on the sign it said “no trespassing” But...

When the music ends The lights go on And everyone slowly leaves Yet the room is strangely dark Somehow darker than it was before When the house lights were dim And music filled the space Between the empty glasses That are now also slowly leaving White rings on the wood tables As we hum to ourselves And dissolve back into the cold night air   If we’d known then That the music would end We’d...

Let the new year begin And let the last one end As the keys punch the headlines Into your skin Burning hot like cattle brands Will you have a choice Or will it be out of your hands? Will you see what is written? Will you read your last rites? Will it be everything black Or everything white? Everything day Or everything night? Is it all or nothing? Just this or just that? The record...

There’s days when all I do is think About what I could have done What I could have said What I will do tomorrow What I want to say before I’m dead As if my life is some radio station And I am the DJ Lifting the needle Trying to choose the perfect album The perfect song With just the right words For the audience to sing along But instead   Indecision   A commercial...

Look out of any window… Dividing the morning And the evening And the day into thirds   What’s a window but a box for the sky? And what’s the sky but a box full of birds? And what’s a bird but a box for our dreams? And what’s a dream but a box full of words?   And what’s a word but a box full of meaning? And what does it mean to be a...