Permanent Waves

"The Spirit of Radio"

Begin the day

Wth a friendly voice,

A companion, unobtrusive

Plays the song that's so elusive

And the magic music makes your morning mood.

Off on your way

Hit the open road,

There is magic at your fingers

For the Spirit ever lingers,

Undemanding contact In your happy solitude.

Invisible airwaves

Crackle with life

Bright antennae bristle

With the energy

Emotional feedback

On timeless wavelength

Bearing a gift beyond price-

Almost free...

All this machinery

Making modern music

Can still be open-hearted

Not so coldly charted

It's really just a question

Of your honesty

One likes to believe

In the freedom of music,

But glittering prizes

And endless compromises

Shatter the illusion

Of integrity.

"For the words of the profits,

Are written on the studio wall,

Concert hall -

Echoes with the sounds...

Of salesmen."

"Freewill"

There are those who think that life

Has nothing left to chance,

A host of holy horrors

To direct our aimless dance

A planet of playthings

We dance on the strings

Of powers we cannot perceive

"The stars aren't aligned -

Or the gods are malign"

Blame is better to give than receive.

You can choose a ready guide

In some celestial voice.

If you choose not to decide

You still have made a choice

You can choose from phantom fears

And kindness that can kill;

I will choose a path that's clear-

I will choose free will

There are those who think that

They were dealt a losing hand,

The cards were stacked against them-

They weren't born in Lotus-Land

All pre-ordained

A prisoner in chains

A victim of venomous fate

Kicked in the face

You can pray for a place

In heaven's unearthly estate

Each of us

A cell of awareness

Imperfect and incomplete

Genetic blends

With uncertain ends

On a fortune hunt

That's far too fleet...

"Jacob's Ladder"

The clouds prepare for battle

In the dark and brooding silence

Bruised and sullen stormclouds

Have the light of day obscured

Looming low and ominous

In twilight premature

Thunderheads are rumbling

In a distant overture

All at once,

The clouds are parted

Light streams down

In bright unbroken beams

Follow men's eyes

As they look to the skies

The shifting shafts of shining

Weave the fabric of their dreams...

"Entre Nous"

We are secrets to each other

Each one's life a novel

No-one else has read

Even joined in bonds of love

We're linked to one another

By such slender threads

We are planets to each other

Drifting in our orbits

To a brief eclipse

Each of us a world apart

Alone and yet together

Like two passing ships

Just between us

I think it's time for us to recognize

The differences we sometimes feared to show

Just between us

I think it's time for us to realize

The spaces in between

Leave room

For you and I to grow

We are strangers to each other

Full of sliding panels

An illusion show

Acting well-rehearsed routines

Or playing from the heart?

It's hard for one to know

We are islands to each other

Building hopeful bridges

On a troubled sea

Some are burned or swept away

Some we would not choose

But we're not always free

"Different Strings"

Who's come to slay the dragon-

Come to watch him fall?

Making arrows out of pointed words

Giant killers at the call

Too much fuss and bother

Too much contradiction and confusion

Peel away the mystery

Here's a clue to some real motivation

All there really is

The two of us

And we both know why we've come along

Nothing to explain

It's a part of us

To be found within a song

What happened to our innocence-

Did it go out of style?

Along with our naivete'-

No longer a child

Different eyes see different things

Different hearts beat on different strings

But there are times

For you and me

When all such things agree.

"Natural Science"

I. Tide Pools

When the ebbing tide retreats

Along the rocky shoreline

It leaves a trail of tidal pools

In a short-lived galaxy

Each microcosmic planet

A complete society

A simple kind mirror

To reflect upon our own

All the busy little creatures

Chasing out their destinies

Living in their pools

They soon forget about the sea...

Wheels within wheels

In a spiral array

A pattern so grand

And complex

Time after time

We lose sight of the way

Our causes can't see

Their effects.

II. Hyerspace

A quantum leap forward

In time and in space

The universe learned to expand

The mess and the magic

Triumphant and tragic

A mechanized world out of hand

Computerized clinic

For superior cynics

Who dance to a synthetic band

In their own image

Their world is fashioned-

No wonder they don't understand

Wheels within wheels

In a spiral array

A pattern so grand

And complex

Time after time

We lose sight of the way

Our causes can't see

Their effects.

III. Permanent Waves

Science, like nature

Must also be tamed

With a view towards its preservation

Given the same

State of integrity

It will surely serve us well

Art as expression

Not as market campaigns

Will still capture our imaginations

Given the same

State of integrity

It will surely help us along

The most endangered species

The honest man

Will still survive annihilation

Forming a world-

State of integrity

Sensitive, open and strong

Wave after wave

Will flow with the tide

And bury the world as it does

Tide after tide

Will flow and recede

Leaving life to go on

As it was...