For my friend who recently lost his dear sweet girlfriend...

I remember all the things that you said

I leaf through the album nice and slow

I wish we were talking together instead

The past and its memories come and go

The past where you wanted only my best

The past where we'd eat before my game

The past where we'd laugh and play and rest

The past where we knew we were just the same

And while you're gone from this time and space

I will make all I can out of the night and day

And while you lift into that ethereal place

I will visit awhile; I will kneel and pray

I will speak, out loud, to you anyway

In dreams, I will hear your spirit simply say…

“Please just know, there is another world

Keep in mind, there is no end

Yes it’s true, I was your girl

But most of all, you were my friend

Most of all, you were my friend”

I will remember all the things that you said

I will leaf through the album nice and slow

I wish we were talking together instead

The past and its memories come and go

So I hold to this song that I can sing

I hold to a love I can defend

I hold to almost everything

But most of all, I hold you my friend

Yes, most of all, I hold you my friend

Dedicated to Scott Lange, who can debate almost any topic, like this one.

We offer our money and our dues
So much to gain, so much to lose
We only ask that you spend the offering right
To bring the collective's well-being into sight
For roads, signs and schools – a governor's plan
For helping society – every woman and every man
For taking care of civic finances, all in line
We want you to account for every nickel and dime
We give up taxes, dues and tithes, just to know
That we can truly – in our minds – let it go

We offer our boys and girls for your military troops
So much to gain ... so much to lose
Our great defense, standing at the front line
We want you to account for life, every single time
We want our young ones to be taken care of
These are our children ... our joy ... our true love
They shall not be strewn on fields of folly – dark and cold
They shall be honored as souls who defend the code
We give up our boys, and our girls, just to know
That we can truly – in our hearts – let them go

The offering – all we ask is that you honor what is there
The offering – all we ask is you consider what is fair
The offering – all we ask is that you receive this with care

We offer our hearts to the one sweet muse
So much to gain, so much to lose
Opening up to give from the one giving place
Trusting to release the mask for the one true face
Offering all we can so we can be free
So we can both sit beneath the giving, living tree
So we can share in the one honest surrender
To run in the fields of freedom forever
We give up the armor, the masks and defense, just to know
That we can truly – in our soul – let them go

The offering – all we ask is that you receive this with care
The offering – all we ask is you consider what is fair
The offering – all we ask is that you honor what is there

 I definitely have the Irish soul who holds that sacred longing. I wonder where the Irish get that quality? The green landscape? Years awaiting the sun? A bottle of whiskey? Van Morrison? In either case, Happy St. Patrick's Day folks!

Close your eyes and imagine a flight
On hawk feathers into day, out from this night
Over this nation, over sea and sand
To the lore of Eire, to this rich land

Over Dublin town, a cobblestone majesty
Where stone roads echo a distant memory
When horses carried carts down this narrow path
Before compact cars blared the industrial wrath
Now, factory smoke billows out the family pride
While children in the streets play to seek and hide
Street signs gather at downtown intersections
Pointing three or four, sometimes five, known directions
Calway, Killarney, Westport, Roundstone
County Cork, Waterford – all of them read “home”
Soaring out of this city, where families make their stand
In this lore of Eire, in this rich land

As the road opens up and points you inland way
You leave behind the traffic over a lonely highway
Stacked stones stand as boundary guiding guardrails
You glide over countryside as the flying hawk sails
Bed and breakfast signs, they’re below you at every turn
Green pastures, they greet you – the gardens and the fern
Full, round trees blossom up like small explosions
The glen amidst the trees – a home for leprechaun notions
Rolling hills tumble and rumble right down to the stream
The loch’s calm water is filled with swans so serene
Dotting the land like slow moving balls of cotton
The sheep graze in fields that time must have forgotten
Every now and then a small village town comes to view
A row of pubs, local shops – yellow, red and then blue
Steeple peaks, tombstones, cemetery gates black
Brothers and sisters playing football in the back
A hillside castle bears the cry of the brave knight
A flapping flag of pride – green, orange and white
The Ring of Kerry waterways wraps around mountains lush
The flora full forest, the ocean view thick brush
Here the gnomes make up their beguiling band
In the smiling eyes of the Irish, in this rich land

Finally, now on the West, your fancy takes you here
Where the end of the world arises and magically disappears
The clouds – once your rooftops – the horizon they now kiss
And sprinkle its fair showers with a mysterious mist
The road to the sea ends with magnificent flair
As you soar over Earth’s edge, over the Cliffs of Moher
The immense, deep embankment, the land plunges below
All you hear is the distant ocean, humming gently and low
The cascading sheer cliffs, their angelica hymns they sing
You simply glide there without effort, no flapping of wing
In this forever place of stillness, you feel embraced, not alone
In the silent skies of Ireland that can only be “home”

So now, with eyes closed, you imagine a flight
On hawk feathers out from day, back to this night
Back to this room, right here where we stand
But holding the memory of Eire’s rich, rich land

For the people who said, "hey, turn the other way"

For the people who told me what not to say

For the people who set up the game for me to play

I'm saying this so you can know

I'm saying this so I can grow

Simply ... I'm saying "no"

For the people who said just be quiet and mum

For the people who wanted me to simply play dumb

For the people whose leverage demanded I succumb

I'm saying this so you can know

I'm saying this so I can go

Simply ... I'm saying "no"

I'm saying "no"

Not to be mean, not to bring grief

I'm saying "no"

To bring the sweet joy of release

I'm saying "no"

So we can be more, not less

I'm saying "no"

So that I can someday say "yes"

For the people who said, "hey, turn the other way"

For the people who told me what not to say

For the people who set up the game for me to play

I stand as the riverbed whose waters wrap around in flow

I stand as gravity's grace that keeps everything in tow

I stand as papa deer warning of the arrow and the bow

I stand as brother whose protection arrives in one swift blow

I stand as the innocent who reaps what it sews

I stand as one who can simply say "no"

I'm saying this so you can know

I'm saying this so I can grow

Simply ... I'm saying "no"