Dreaming of a dream

Some say men have only their dreams
Innate animals of emotion we compete
Gnawing for our hopes, desires, wants
Burning, breaking, bleeding, for one feat

Calm as the ocean on the surface
Boiling, bubbling like a volcano underneath
Our dreams seem clear as glass
Clouded by the ash we forget to notice

Running out of time, waiting, wishing, hoping
Evaporating into thin air, once of substance now invisible
Dreams of the past, present, future
All in vain, all just a dream, not real... never real.
Impossible...WAKE UP

Sweating, shivering we awake relieved yet disappointed
In dreams are we truly alive? In reality are we not asleep?
Dream of gold, grandeur, fame, love, horror, sadness, hate, revenge
Heightening our sense to the extremes of want and fears

Building the world of your dreams
Fast as lightening, out from your hidden subconscious
Dreams give you the power to do anything, everything
Yet some lights can only be lit by the fires in one's heart
Without control, fire is but a hazard

Tread softly. For dreams are everything, yet nothing...
A door into heaven and hell. Balance fire and ice
Follow your dream like water ebbs and flows
Then you will see, your dreams taught you well
Upon awakening, you question, "Am i dreaming?"

Church Bell Rings

Hear the bells drum, a melody sharp as a knife

The hours once again change

Signal the time for sleep, love, food, life

Each unto ourselves writing our own page

Twelve past the break of a new day

Fireflies flickering in the murky sky

Watch as we squirm like ants in disarray

Hustle and bustle, walk just to get by

Our destination we presume is ink on a book

Yet it is easily torn apart, defaced, burned, cursed

On this weathered road, we desperately try to find our nook

No set are we in our ways than a ship off course

Who then will navigate, steer, guide us to a greater purpose

We liken the passengers watching the view outside

Where we go, never the more unknown

What we do, all the same to u and me

I reckon why oh why the bell doth ring?

A reminder of memories long gone, pushing us forth

Into the mysterious darkness, ring ring ring

We know where it is we have crawled,

A pulsating light guiding our way

Though not without a price

A penny for your thoughts, a dime for your heart

A quarter for your mind, a dollar for your soul

The sun at last doth shine upon the wearied soul

Wonder who came to take that toll.

Gray Emblem

We are set free, yet the weight of guilt holds us back
Pray we are not alone, yet alone we walk along the empty corridor
Hope is there when we are lost, yet hope is lost when we have found
What we seek we can never find, our eyes tend to look behind

Mistaken, mislead, misjudged our entire lives we ask why we fall apart
Intention and portrayal, one and the same or complete opposites
Both act in unison as a measure of our growth in life,
A tug of war marks our lives, pulled in different directions we move back and forth
On a treadmill we run looking for a place to go, only to find that we are standing still
Like gravity pulls us down, time pushes us forth
Without it, eventually the rope will break, our strength torn inside, frozen in time, stuck in mind

Change happens with time, changed we are not
Older we may be, wiser I'd doubt the least
Some say we travel in a merry-go-round, married to suffering we wrought
The devil hungry for souls, temptations all around
Born with good? Born with sin more like it...

Curious, rebellious, unmatched relentlessness characterize our species
Belief in all but oneself we have decided to defy even the likes of our maker
Trust, love, devotion those I admit we cannot deny.
Yet along with it comes the bitterness, anger, selfishness
Neutral we are, stuck between the heavens and that which I dare not say
We are gray with discomfort, gray with confusion, gray, gray, gray, all the same
Nearing our end, our hair matches the colors within us, still the same
The darkness or light consumes, time pushing us one direction or another
We, still sway back and forth as a pendulum until we lose momentum, and stop...

Back to Basics

Ever have that dream of being small?
The world around you in macro scale
About the size of an ant, pollen, dust
When you're that small, what is it that you see?

You admire such beauty, such mystery
Yet at the same time you look for more
A desire for something beyond what you know
You ask yourself what is the truth
Is it not inside you?

No matter your size, race, culture, age
Is that which you are destined to know already in you?
If you look beyond, in part you are looking past all that you should know
It does not mean learning more, striving for more is a sin
Rather wanting to know things beyond those basics you have yet to learn
Should not be in your best interest

So caught up in the complexities of this world
You start to lose the fundemntals
Of who you are and what you believe in
A spider spinning a web, randomly with no direction
Catches no bait, yet wonders why?
Spinning furiously, faster with all its might

Is it in our nature to want what we cant have?
To know what is forbidden?
To fight for what we should accept from the beginning
If we don't it's as if we've given up right?
But when in doubt, look back and start from the ground up
Not from the thin air

Worthless

Gather your hopes
Put it all in one basket
This is the last leap
The final hurdle

Five hours and ten minutes
Counting down to the last try
Feel it in your bones, the adrenaline
Everything perfect, except for you

Always fall short, never make it pass the final step
No matter how hard you try
No matter how many calories you burn
Sweat, pain, sighhh... another failure.

Caged Fate

Look up at the clouds
Magnificent is it not?
How light and airy it seems
You pray, you might just fly
Leaving materialistic dreams
Lift the weight that drags you down

As you open your arms
You pray that it might follow your heart
Turn into wings that carry you away
Above the dirt, above the ground where the dead lie

Into the open air, into the wind
You want to feel free, without strings
A carrier of your own destiny
You look around, where did everyone go?

Up in the sky they fly
You ask Him why can't I fly?
Why am I still here drowning?
Alone in this empty sea
Stuck here in the mud, a caterpillar
Lost and not able to grow its wings

Worst Enemy Within

Water flows through you gently, swiftly, with precision
Each reaction in your body magnified
From tiny potentials of energy to a full on lift of 100 lbs
Everything at your mind's whim

Suddenly you feel something
Pain, happiness, pride, guilt, loneliness
Good or bad, these emotions remind you you're alive
No longer in a video game where you have complete control

You start to feel the vibrations of your heart
Each thud stronger, faster...
A dramatic climax in the movie of your life
Your mind, spinning, in a swirl like pudding

How do you control that which is inside you?
A ticking bomb implanted deep inside
The trigger guided singlehandedly by your emotions
A cascade of events that play out as a result of one thought

Whether it is self-inflicted pity, anger, love, depression
The "self" is no longer the individual anymore
It's as if someone else is playing your game
You the puppet, the guinea pig, at least until time out's over

If the pain beats the pleasure,  you fight
In a final attempt you grab the controls
But where to steer? No idea where you are, or how you got there
Lost by yourself with only one guide with you
Helpless you hand over power
A prisoner, a weapon of your own self-destruction

Flow of Energy

Current flows in circles

Through the small koi pond you made

The wind pushing each side

Koi chasing each other's tail

Opposition in it's gentlest form

Ying and Yang balanced good and evil

Its beauty lies in the shape

A circle describes not only this world

But within and beyond our presence here

Each moment collapsing back upon itself

We all are connected in a circular fashion

As we describe society as a circular pool

The consistent and regular patterns of a circle

Provide us with sport, games that all require a ball

Ever present and all around us...

The shape known also to those without good vision

The rings of aging trees, the circle of life

And are we not the currents of the koi pond?

Each of us swimming along the same path

We fall, yet to fall once again

A cd that doesn't get past the first song

It is said that repetition is the key to learning

But at some point this repetitive circle must be broken

In the buddhist doctrine,

We live, we die, yet are reborn again

But to achieve peace, to achieve ultimate relief

Nirvana must be reached

To break your path along this circle

Is not to break the beauty of the shape

It is to view with a different perspective

Above the circle, the whole picture

Within it, a straight line.

Metronome of the Heart

Keep the beat
Little drummer boy
Each hit, a strategic rhythm
Must be kept in line

A metronome for each step of the march
Fail not, each gong must be striked with purpose
Weariness will not be accepted
Carelessness punished
One note out of line
A domino effect disrupting all those around you

Who's to blame?
You or the system
A burden you must bear your entire life
A system you must follow without question

But these are the rules you made
The system and each step you put in place
Your passion is the source of energy
To keep pushing, to keep drumming
Discipline is the tool to your self made prophecy

Distant Fantasies

Airy footsteps of a young child
Tip tap tippidy top too teet
The xylophone and harp in perfect harmony
Tiny prints upon the white crystals
Disappears as quickly as the child skips by

The epitome of serenity, beauty, bliss
Draws upon a familiar nostalgia
The flute so delicately blown portrays
Child carelessness, wishful hopefulness
Frolicking about in the game of life, reality or fantasy

Gradually the steps grow heavier and more pronounced
The sound of each step grows louder and faster
Skipping, jogging, running
Dum, doom, dum dideedum, doom dudum
As the drums follow in step

The adrenaline multiplied throughout the body
Adventure in the search for independence
But with freedom comes responsibility
Trumpets ablaze, pride and honor at stake
It boils down to the fight for your principles

Fantasies of youth seemed so long ago
With the burden of age, power,and wisdom
The cello touches your sacred core
The ability to do something becomes the pressure
Building up until it explodes from inside

All emotions smashed into one moment
One moment that determines your existence
Cymbals clash, drums gong, time to choose
The fallen hero or the victorious savior

Choose wisely for it IS your final fantasy.

Dreams of a Thousand Years

Some say the rivers run deep
The soil made of charcoal ash
Follow the transparent blue flow
There you will find what you're looking for

Hurry now before it disappears
Engulfed by the ground beneath
The clear blue will begin seeping
Navigating its way through the pores of black

By then it would have been too late
The path to redemption no longer visible
The lines of fate lost
Your hands are your most faithful map

The old lady creeps up from her ball
Tells this to the young girl who for years
Has been searching for her lost soul
The girl quickly gets up in a rush to find her soul

The old lady shakes her head
Little lady... what you're looking for
Is in the land where the colors cannot be seen
Look inside the crevices
Remember me?

The old lady wakes up
Lying alone in her bed
One single tear from her eyes
Lets her know within her
Her soul lies.

Dead or Alive

What defines our existence?

In strict, biological terms

Living is the ability to reproduce

But we all know that isn't living

Is it courage that keeps us alive?

Courage to march into battle

Though death is imminent and certain

Or is it the courage to stand up 10 stories high

And fall to your death

Is it love that keeps us chugging along?

Love for work, for those around us, for money

A theory bequeaths this idea of love

That maybe love is selfish, for we love so that we are happy

True love is sacrifice, but therein lies misery

Are we all truly living through misery?

What burns within you?

What spark of flame will carry you through the years

What you live for is an itch you cant help but scratch

It is compulsive, a disease that consumes you

Eventually marking your life and how you live it

Living is being here at this moment in time

Not wishing, not waiting, but imprinting

Content with yourself and your actions

An almost selfish endeavor,

Living is for yourself

Living is happiness in you

It is to follow your natural instincts

It makes you tick, makes you leap through time

You look back and wonder what happened...

Are you alive?

Ghost of Faith

A flicker of light
The breaking of dawn
A flower ready to bloom
Anticipation for the event
Analogous to that of inspiration

Beneath our subconsciousness
There lies a mystery
One that we cannot grasp
Until the right moment & mindset

Sitting in contemplation
As the cars drive by
The wind ever so slightly
Nudging against your face
Reveals a tingling shiver across your spine

Lying alone in silence
You wait for sensation
It could be for minutes
Hours, Days, Months, Years
Yet you still lay waiting

Like a ghost, dwelling within
Only to reveal itself
When you've forgotten its existence

A reminder for those lost
Food for those starving
Reason for those without

Inspired by the savior within

Beat the Clock

Time is a comedian
Spinning you round
Until you've riped to old age
Kidnapped and held against your will
Alas, you look around
The final show, the last act
You realize what time has done to you

Its audience bursting into laughter
In synchrony to your regretful chorus
A recap flashes before you
Not of memories, but of emotion

Anything significant is but an impression
Marked not by your heart, but of time
It made you forget, made you nothing
An empty traveler wandering into the endless abyss

At the end of it all
Time stares at you
Looking for your soul
Hoping to make a joke of such
But tis already gone
Split into pieces

The last laugh is yours
Timeless in those who love you.