Animals

There's no human being,
You could call animal,
Just like no animal's not worth respect,
Ever since man's great fall,

It's a wonder chains were e'er invented,
Who came up with that first?
What need to keep another living thing?
An event born with the notion of cursed,

And all the evil that comes with that view,
Blah, blah, yadda, yadda,
If you want to treat others with respect,
Then, well, you just oughta.

It's that easy,
It's called live and let live</>.
Then you can heal and accept your own fate,
As one with as much freedom as you give.

What You See

Take a look at yourself,
What you see's what you get,
What you get's what you accept in yourself,
What you accept's correct,

The paradox is what you see mayn't be,
What it is that you want,
But what you think others get when they see,
Which they then assume is you, but it's not,

If you'd see what you get, which you do not,
What kind of life is that?
The kind where your eyes see not what there is,
That's illusion, not fact.

That don't feel good,
You know what you're doing,
You're relenting on being your true self,
That's the last thing you should be eschewing.

Serenity Now

Things are e'er what they are,
Despite how you may hope,
Yes, they may change, but in a thousand ways,
The way which you want? Nope,

Or rather, it is not impossible,
That's life's magicalness,
But no alterations can ever pass,
'Less you practice radical acceptance,

Not talking 'bout the Serenity Prayer,
'Least, I hadn't planned to,
But, really, if God were alive today,
He'd probably slap you,

And say, "wake up!
"Do you think you're dreaming?
Stop dying, wishing things were different,
And live facing the way they are seeming."

Running

If this is putting off,
I don't want to be right,
The movement of ev'ry limb that I see,
'Skey to locks out of sight,

Existing in another dimension,
Just theoretical,
Putting into question your sensations,
Whether it is there need not be settled,

You must take that taste with a grain of salt,
Feelings, too, are suspect,
They'll only help you with the chimera,
Of all that you expect,

But it's not there,
It's on the horizon,
A backdrop, for sure, sunlight on your dreams,
But it is not in the world your eye's in.

Off The Freight Train

In the nineteen fifties,
Entered into New York,
A young man wishing just to play guitar,
That music they called folk,

Because it told stories and captured hearts,
So what, it didn't sell?
You sing your soul, get paid if you're lucky,
Happy if you play well,

E'er in front of people or not at all,
Else there was no feelin',
He'd meet his idols and they'd ask his name,
He'd reply, 'Bob Dylan',

The song was his,
They'd always ask to hear,
It was obvious to all he had it,
That's his reward for conquering his fear.

The Music

You are music to me,
Carrying me through time,
Your calm tempo replacing the seconds,
Mundane becomes sublime,

The sounds of the street organize themselves,
Like they were meant to be,
Oh, would that all the world just understood,
That in the cacophony's harmony,

But the melody comes from in not out,
The peace must be in you,
Only then you see the dance of others,
And so, too, their world view,

Is it the same?
But it don't mean a thing,
Once everyone's dancing to their own beat,
All your body will wish to do is sing.

A Heart's Test

The single stage pump drones,
'Til its work's met by flesh,
A membrane layered on a blood jet stream,
Packaged in the man, Pietch,

If the world were diff'rent, so'd the readings,
So, too, expectations,
Three hundred years, now, this force has been known,
The heart's not just the source of affections,

The machine stops now, the retreat's slow hiss,
The reading's what it is,
A moment in time, 'mongst infinite more,
Each a correlative,

But, yet, alone,
Is ev'rything function?
What 'bout those ev'nings side-by-side in bed,
When our blood feels like they're beating as one?

Blacksmith Hands

I don't know these people,
Eyes wide, skin clean and fresh,
Not constrained by their lack of cash in hand,
They face a diff'rent test,

Minds focus all day on unhuman things,
In that, we are the same,
Put them in a tower and knock it down,
It wouldn't alter the rules of the game,

Maybe it is just their colorful socks,
A whimsy I don't know,
That despite there is no point to it all,
We're still in one big show,

That's the secret,
You can't control outside,
But create your own world to exist in,
And what's out's in's what's there until you've died.

Advice

How else can you react,
Than how it is you've learned,
From those that came before and should have known,
The risks around the turns?

The disappointments and let-downs in life,
As if they didn't know,
They weren't taught to deal with them, too,
For that, d'you know how far back you must go?

The kicker is there is no point in time,
That knowledge don't exist,
Sure there are books with an answer of sorts,
Brandished by fanatics,

You don't need that,
The answer's inside you,
You're as fresh as the first daisy, ever,
And that one learned how to live as it grew.

Say Anything

Speaking implies notion,
Like you mean what you say,
But until you get out your dying words,
Your thoughts are not betrayed,

Even then, unless you are not alive,
There's e'er another side,
If you were able to call from the dead,
You'd have some new message from the inside,

Imagine you could have said everything,
Just paste it on your head,
Ne'er a syllable needed afterward,
Except please pass the bread,

P'haps I love you,
Just 'cause it's nice to hear,
Just be careful, for the more that you say,
The more you'll have to say to be made clear.

UP

I just did a chin-up,
It's something about health,
An elusive state of body and mind,
Nigh important as wealth,

With chin-ups it's all about quantity,
Just like money, in fact,
Could it be that if I get big enough,
I will gain what I ever felt I lacked?

If I pump to the size of a mammoth,
My woes could go away,
Forget working hard for good day's wage,
Muscles will forge the way,

Just need practice,
More than five at a time,
Then I will have ev'rything that I want,
All the comfort without spending a dime.