Lloyd

(written with generous assistance from Virginia)

Having broken through your fences
As a young man and decided then
To face the facts and build
Tall constructions representing
How the world behind your eyes
Was organized, supported,
Made to last and standing proud
And beautiful, you could say
You had a hand in that one,
Found materials and hired
Those thousand faces who in labor
Took the pains and paychecks home
Like you, to all your children,
Patti, Laurie, Ginny and Robert,
And their mother who you chose
To make the journey with
And held on to as long as you could.
Dining room table stacked with
Blueprints, yellow legal pads,
In your engineer's hand
Plans of To Do, to do and to do.
There were summers on the Cape
The calendar precision.
Who were you keeping safe
With the stones that came out of
The excavation, placed into a wall
No vacation this, but a sanctuary
For those whom you loved.
And up above, the garden
Was waiting for your journey to end.
Keeping things out, keeping things in,
Trying to contain the chaos,
Trying to protect the innocence,
Doing what you knew,
Working hard, the man I never knew.
But I have found your daughter fair
And folded into our lives your
Legacy, your primacy, your passing
Does not change your lasting
Contribution to the love we feel,
It's time to grow and heal,
Within these walls of stone.
Lloyd, you were never alone.

(the 12th and final lyrical poem in the RainingHorse song cycle; album to be released in June 2014)

Sad and weary tune

(this song was written in 1975. Not the first song I wrote but the first one that I wrote on guitar. It is number 11 in the 12-song RainingHorse song cycle.)

Two shadows stand before the sun and fill the earth below.
Come in light, come in life,
Oh come into our very souls.

Two summers come and go away like tides within the sea.
Come in waves, come in ships,
And bring us all the wind we see.

For tomorrow stands in silence of today,
And the one inside is like a child at play.
Will the song that left us
Please come back to stay,
Or are we alone without a proper way of living?

Two people sleeping in the dark between the stars and moon.
Shadows light, summer night,
Oh hear this sad and weary tune!

For tomorrow stands in silence of today,
And the one inside is like a child at play.
Will the song that left us
Please come back to stay,
Or are we alone without a proper way of living?

Oh wild and free

(Refrain by Sarah Zabel)

I'd rather be weathered
Than sit on a shelf,
Like a pretty horse painted
By an artist's brush.

I'd rather be leathered,
Oh wild and free,
Than wait for a hand
To gallop me.

Notions a feathered bed
Can provide some insurance from
Breaking my arm in
An act of endurance
Are useless and common,
So hollow and round.
My emptiness rings
Where I sleep on the ground.

I'd rather be weathered
Than sit on a shelf,
Like a pretty horse painted
By an artist's brush.

I'd rather be leathered,
Oh wild and free,
Than wait for a hand
To gallop me.

Push down into midnight
And punish my hide with your
Fingers of cold and your
Brutal sweet beauty.
We haven't those records of
Who can do who now, so
Dance with my skin, 
Tear me up in your movie.

It's all in the letter
The law is unshaken,
When hens eat the corn and
Get fat on the suet,
Our winter has burned like
An ice storm in August
Undo what is done
Until you must not do it.

I'd rather be weathered
Than sit on a shelf,
Like a pretty horse painted
By an artist's brush.

I'd rather be leathered,
Oh wild and free,
Than wait for a hand
To gallop me.

(10th in the 12-song RainingHorse cycle)