POEMS/SONGS/RHIZOMES

For Sharing

by Karl Blau 

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Please feel free to use these lyrics as you wish.  They are ready to be enjoyed as is, and maybe they could seed a song of your own.   Possibly you could use these words with a melody you're thinking of.   Let me know if anything comes out of it.

There is a tradition near as old as the human race that is sharing songs and using song to communicate.  Some schools of thought share the notion that when a song stops changing, it dies.  We live in a world where songs are caged up as if they were animals on display.   Even though it's probably one of my favorite things to do -- record music -- I want the creatures that I help to genetically engineer have their own lives, to explore new voices and new bodies.  

QQUUEESSTTIIOONNSS//CCOOMMEENNTTSS

here are other related rooms:

-- My subscription label known as  KLAPS where there are lots of things to listen to,

--  BLAUG - music blog showcasing recordings of bands I have shared shows with. 

-- here are the lyrics to a recent album "Zebra"

~karl blau

updated October the 8th, 2011

May we park here and walk it out

 Just a gentle glide that we might buy ourselves some time

 To come to and talk it out

 The way that only time can unwind tangled balls of twine

For you I am available, reachable, beseechable  - for you

Leave the car here let's leave this kind

 Juxtaposed inside you fear losing your life

 Let mend all mind let fruit and leaves drop

Tell me what you want, what you really, truly, need

For you I am repairable, wearable, comparable - for you

 This is just a gentle reminder

 ---------------------------------------

Back off the beaten path
 The last time that I hit the road
It turned the other cheek and left me no choice 

 
He who knocked up the pregnant sky
Gave the promise of rain to fall
Was he who found me without coat nor dry face

 Now I'm countin' all the ways that I've paid for my stay
Countin' all the crows baked in this pie
I'm changing all the leaves to colors unseen
I'm keepin' all the kids happy and dry

 
 I felt the blows of waves goodbye
Struck the chords that made them cry
All the hits unheard stacked high on the curb

 Now I'm countin' all the ways that I've paid for my stay
Countin' all the crows baked in this pie
 I'm changing all the leaves to colors unseen
 I'm keepin' all the kids happy and dry
 Finding all the ways to feed
 Two birds with one seed

 Yeah, I felt the blows of your waves goodbye
But not before I strike your heart(harp?)strings and make you cry

 I delt the punch of drums absurd
Kicked the habit -- flipped the bird
 Choked the gas and flooded streets with exhaust

----------------------------------------------------

Stray --
 wandering hill and dale to your

 Gate --
 begging for bread and bed for it's

 Late --
As surely as wolves may bite they'll turn around and sing under moonlight

 No slave --
to any one or place

 No way --
 to compromise this state

 No hate --
 Nothing to give away, not Wine of violence nor Devil's Bread

 Bathe
 in the milky way,
 Get you back on par
 with your new belt of star

Make a State --
 Meant for the kids, but who's to

 Say --
 Who is not a child in her own

 Way --
Pictures of olden days where nobody smiles coming back again

 Today --
 gold embers glow but they won't

 Stay --
 Howling child grows and goes

 Away --
Echoing wind strengthens - pivotal point at your face ...

Bathe in the Milky Way
Get you back on par
 With your new belt of star

-----------------------------------------

Not willing to give
 Away the things that weigh
So aweigh the anchor and stray

 
 One who stays among friends
May never know the means to ammend
And make wrong into rite of passage

The open door of darkness
 The eerie beckoning of light unseen
 Some individual beam, a thread and I with my need...  

 Sew,
Quilt of experience

 Slow 
and sometimes serious

Over time,  fumbling blind,  turning squares into seamless

-----------------------------------------------------

It never was your space
Then you changed your name
And changed your face

Your place has always been out of town
 Where who knows where and what goes down
 All around you
Wild flowers grew

 And I picked them and threw them at your feet
That’s when you gave me the eye – as if to say

That ain’t right
 While I was looking for your other cheek 

Now we sing together:
“It was never our space
 We never had the time
The furniture never found its place
 It just moved from side to side"

 
The width of the band
The breadth of this land
 Measured by a concrete tape
 Milestones placed teetering
 Upwards to the sky

 May crash and fall in the blink of an eye
The cat is blind
 The blind is drawn

 I drew an illustration to prove
 The dotted lines run across the lawn
 In a zig-zag like a drunk on the move
 If the iron would just heat up
 I’m sure this dress would smooth

 
And I sing
“It was never my space
I gave away my time
 Gave into money
 Got stuck in the sickening sweetness of honey
 Like a bear with its snout in the barrel
When I should be in the wilderness...

...feral"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

If we went to church it would be
 Right before we fall asleep
We awaken in the garden  - untouched, unkempt
Then we begin to remember – the screws turn
 Head back where we left off

Beggin, just beggin' our way back
Through the green gates
 Was it the cherry tree, George?

 Turn a blind third eye
Turn a blind third eye

 
 Before that sacred hour
Relinquishes its power
 Before our dreams come true
 Let’s make our vows
 This very moment
 In this very hue

How it’s colored here
 Like the wind that winds
 -- the mixing of our minds
 Let no thought eclipse
 The gentle sips
 Of sweet honey in our hive
 

As in the work of bees,
What this buzzing needs
 Is some action from our queen

I know a man who’s tired of fighting
Whose armor is weathered and poor
 Is it whom who wants to know
 The same who shows
 And lays down his shield and swor’d

 What was he fighting for?
If not this sacred hour
 The ring of the steeple
 Forget about all the people

 What am I fighting for?
If this mess is a war
See me lay down my sword
 And untangle the net
 So the fish come again
 And fill my very core

 With molten mass
A tank full of gas,
Let me cook you something sweet

----------------------------------------------

Slow Children,
 Slow Men

 Slow down the
 Time when  -- you

 Know your place like the
 Back of your hand from the
 Front of your mind to the
 Back of your head

 Peace out
 In heat

 All directions
 All greedy

 Tidal swing
 Hanging low
Heavy shoulders  - from
 Hammering hot crow
 From the cold earth

 
 Go slow for the cats come out at night and they’ll never understand about cars

 Empty shapes we fit into
Into sizes we can relate to

We're been watching from ditches - 'neath streetlights
Exposed demons springin' from the nightlife

 Go slow for the cats come out at night and they’ll never understand about cars

Sacred ways
 Celebrate
 Something lost as something gained

Sacred ways
 Celebrate
 Something lost as something gained

Sacred ways
 Celebrate
 Something lost as something gained

Go slow for the cats come out at night and they’ll never understand about cars

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 I still walk in fear's shadow 
Still so fresh to leave, you know

I just told her late last week that she had to go

Let me lessen all the guessin'
Let me know the score
Let me settle in the nettle
Let me hope for more

Make me holler
Make me call her
Make me feel my way
Make me tend her on a bender
Lady Liberty


At the roots we shared our boots
Now we choose our shoes
Now we make the bed we lie in
Now we lie in our sleep
 
Wake me, brother, from my senses
Help me come to terms
Across the desert of our dreams
We count our chickens and burns

Unconscious since 1996                         -
Just trippin' on 4-track tape cassettes
Six of one on mind, one half dozen million rhymes                          -
All tied to the tide's grasp of my hide                           -
Tap on the bruises it's the ego that cries                              -
Just don't look into my eyes                              -
Hey wait a minute that doesn't sound fun to hear                              -

I should probably sing  about my muscles instead of my tears, hmmm...
Well, there is one muscle...

My heart's still in fear's shadow
Still so fresh to leave, ya know
I just told her late last week
That I had to go...
I still walk in fear's shadow
Still so fresh to leave, ya know
I just told her late last week
That I had to go,

  I just left today

Get ready
Get ready
Get ready with confetti
Pick your Ro Sham Bo
Get your honey while its sunny
Golden rivers flow

Lose your crown and pass it round
Crowded losers frown
List your piss among the vinegar
Off the lost and found

Canceled my bars and canceled my reception                                    --                   
Extend my life by extending my perception                                       --                    
To include those around me -- even those in the cracks                                     --                   
Between worlds I let them slip, so I pass over some slack                                    --                    
Pass me the box with the ancient inscription,                                      --                    

Like in the pyramid's incryption                                     --                   
Will you take this long distance call?                                   --                    
The phones been ringing off the hook

Why erect structures that fall?    

And when we peer amid the questions we raise:

Why is war?  
Why is poor?                                                       

We find, lying, a sly paralyzer                                      --                 
With a sign anyone can see -- at least for a buck                                --                   
After "good riddance" is written "good luck"

Why is there this war today

 
Why is all this war today

 
Why is there this war today

 
Poor the war away

=======================

Courses keeping

Constant castles

Flowing to the sea

Propped up baby

Is that your family?

Someone is coming for you

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Surface hurts us, surface hurts us

If we stay on the crust

We will surely burst us 

From the festering thirst to share

 
What's way down in there? 

-- declare

"My Zipper's broken"
 

"My filter's shot!"

Let it all out -- Give what you've got

The dike is tired

The ocean swells are massive -- it's been on your mind

It's your time to cry

 
These molten memories that anger your core

Make you a monster if they don't go explore

Come a little closer to the person you know

The salt in your eyes will make them shine!

The sparkling ocean is waving to you

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

Mansion of bubbles

Did I mention my troubles?

Cause I meant to reach out to you 

Obstaintion of cuddles

Has left me sensative

Though skin is thickening

 And sand is quickening

Beneath a crab walk race

Can't see it, but we know

There's a line drawn for us

_____________________________________

Split personalities in me all agree

Together we fall for the theories that keep this country guilt free
 

Waxen casts of ancestors -- yellow puss-filled cavities

translate Stars and Bars in my mind and comes this dream:

Stars and Bars

And futuristic cars

The gas mileage hasn't changed

The flow of funds

Is to the ones

Who won't feel any shame

The reason I live

In this country

I want to know and feel

I want to drop

what I'm doing

And plunder and pillage

And steal

And F with the Man

His F'ed up plan

To send us all to Hell

I've read too much Ghandi

Though it was not much

And I believe the things I've learned

Though I'd ne'er hurt anyone

In fact, give them anything

I have this dream to tell...

______________________________________

Mama, wave your magic broom

And dust it away

Mama, show us the work the children may do

So the children may play

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You make me feel like a raincloud

No, I can't do you...

Powder Blue

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I know a cat named Max,

In fact, he's in the room with me

he's lookin' at me like "you are a crazy fool"

Maybe that's true

I know a lot of cats

sitting pretty and fat

My tire is changed,

And now it's hanging from my eyes

Maybe it's true, I am seeing things

I'm seeing through my disguise

And asking the mirror

For something clearer

Something dryer than

Watering I's wondering why's

Max asks why.

"What's with your hat of fur?"

"Why are you always moving things around?"

(His full name is Maximum Meower)

------------------------------------------------------------------

Have I not listened to the rain on the water enough?

Has the message not sunk into my skull yet?

I have slowed down this much and still - I have yet to read the sign...


The storm sets in:  as an old friend

The wind:  it blows my name

The sleet and snow drive the message hard -  I go

And I hold myself to blame

For losing what we had

Blame myself for losing

What we had was a deal

That I let go drive down in the ditch

The deal was for me to stop my driving

And I would be rich

With blessings, rich with deep and sleepy sleeps

Rich with family 

Rich with friends

-----------------------------------------------

I came to the conclusion

the world was getting flatter

So I sailed off the edge

Out where the whether you do or don't is all so true

And there's no matter

But I could hold myself there

Until you came along --the siren that sailed

off the edge, looking for me

You found me in distress

Toothless and doubly anxious for you to notice me

I saw you in this dress

The one you're wearing tonight at the edge of the universe

------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm going to fill this cup and bring it to you

It's only water, it's only water

I'm going to fill this cup and I want nothing from you

But if you should choose to...

Yes, I know where there is water

Yes, I know where distant spring flows

Yes, I know that I may be pouring this cupful into the sand, the sand, the sand

No, I won't ask you to take my hand, my hand, my hand

No, I won't ask anything of you

Know that I would do most anything, anything

Know that I would do most anything, anything

 
But I know to trust in nothing

I will be wrong again

I will write this song again and again

My will is strong again

And again it's for you that I do

Yes, I do have a wish that I let go softly

In stillness and darkness alone

------------------------------------------------------------------

If you feel as though you were blown

By winds unseen

Come home, sailor, come home

The storm will never cease

As long as you are sailing

 You with the flashlight

moving through the crowd

Trading your amp in

for something smaller

You may have something to say yet

Break into the chapel

Here its too dark to film

Stacked up by the hand of glory

Pieces of darkness placed one by one

-------------------------------

Dimebag didn't break the Band
It was the guitar tech some say -- but he was the first to break

If you boost the mids pre
You gotta cut them post

And I for one have been cutting
A lot out after the fact




What happened was someone had a dream

To manufacture dinosaurs

And, upon waking

“For cheap, for everyone,” finally the dino-dealers declared

Long ago I heard myself say:

That’s not my rock to roll

Go ahead and push it on down the road

That’s not my rock to roll

I don’t want it anywhere near my home



But somehow I ended up owning one,

renting one, and borrowing another still

Even at the cost of going against will

At least one dinosaur for every man, woman and child

 
At least One dinosaur for every creature in the wild

Now these beasts have taken over the earth

What with their paths, what with their girth

And these beasts -- they run hungry each way that they do

While I struggle to feed them

Haunted by echoes of:

That’s not my rock to roll

Go ahead and push it on down the road

That’s not my rock to roll

I don’t want it anywhere near my home

 -------------------------------------------------------------

Consume 8

At a time, think you can?

Consume 8

--All the legs of an octopus at one sitting

Consume 8