Lost
It seems as though I've lost myself again Walking through the darkness of the day
It seems as though I've lost myself again Walking through the darkness of the day
Roaming this lonely planet for 23 years,
Days filled with anguish and nights filled with tears,
The sun may be shining but I just saw the rain,
Pouring in cycles, it pierces and stains.
I’m tired of darkness, Where does one find light?
Haven’t I given the devil a fight?
I’m tired of failure, and envy and hate
Time has arrived, I’m changing my fate.
So I cry out to heaven, O lord, raise me high!
Give me the strength that is needed to fly.
Cut all the chains, all the ropes and the weights,
Time has arrived, I’m breaking this cage.
I’m fighting for freedom from all that impose,
The powers that be, the powers that rose.
And those that defy me will soon understand,
Only the weak never lend out their hand.
So if you aren’t with me, don’t stand in my way
With all of your efforts you wont get me to stray.
This path is my own, I don’t need any of you
But a true friend will stay, and I’ll be true to you.
Even from mountains conquered in spring,
looking down, admiring the angels that sing
I will continue to fight, to rise and pursue,
Never settle for less than is granted to you
Through the time and the effort which one dares to spend
One figures out greatness before the story ends
And writes the greatest tale that ever was scribed
The tale of life lived, developed, derived.
So open your eyes, lend me your ears,
Watch the transformation through all of your tears
May the tale I tell you serve as a seed,
May all of your efforts to your greatness lead.
This is not at all what I expected
When I packed my bags on Friday night,
When I hit the road, the work day ended,
My Alma Mater, destination set in sight.
A weekend with old friends, the people I remember
Nights on the town with strangers I will soon forget
I expected to remind them I am clever
Make bad decisions I would soon regret
Instead dame fate in all her wisdom,
Brought you to glide inside my door
And so it came, a change of rhythm,
A new perceptive cutting through the core.
I refused to believe it, for the first hour at the least
But as the evening kept progressing by the moonless tide
I found my demons with my angels at the strangest peace
And somehow this odd thing, a smile, suddenly hard to hide.
We spent the day and then another,
We ended our foray afloat the sea
To our encounter we weighed anchor,
Thank you world for introducing you to me.
I do not know where our paths are cast,
I only know where I have already been.
I hope this first encounter wont be the last
And great adventures for us are waiting to be seen.
The world will judge you. That is a given. It’s a fact of life. It doesn’t matter what you say, or how you act. You cannot avoid it. Your silence will be judged as ignorance, your words as foolishness. Your actions shall be defined as selfish or self-serving. Thus, do not exist for the acceptance of others. Exists for the acceptance of yourself and let your own existence justify itself. Be bold in that existence such that your very existence is an act of defiance against all who grant themselves the right to judge you. Be brave in that existence, such that no barrier can stand between your true nature and the manifestation of that nature in your existence. Your existence shall then be louder than anyone’s opinion of this existence for the existence is pure, and everything else is but a byproduct of the existence, unable to exist without your existence existing first. Thus, speak your mind, act your heart, and live as only you can. Go Forth, Be awesome. No Zero Days.
The sun had hidden in the shadows
The stars were shining bright;
They were sitting in the darkness
By the television light.
Though life had its problems,
They simply didn’t care,
Nothing really mattered
While they were sitting there.
Chorus:
As the embers turn to ashes
And the flames begin to die
While the stars kept shining,
We have learned to fly; yes we have learned to fly
They were staring at the moonlight
Chasing shadows on the wind,
And if the colors faded,
they knew they’d understand.
But for now, they saw a rainbow,
Burning brightly in the dark,
Dancing by the moonlight,
Near the river in the park.
He holds her in the twilight,
She holds him tighter still,
They keep this dance from ending,
Until they’ve had their fill.
He sees that shining smile
She looks into his eyes
The world starts its spinning,
As they burn the skies.
Another year ebbs away,
And I realize that in this play
We are doomed to be alone,
To cry in darkness when at home.
The tunnel’s light has grown so dim,
It can’t be ignited, we can’t win
And so I resign myself to be
Alone for all eternity.
No money can rearrange my fate
Nor love nor fear nor thoughts of hate,
That’s whats written in the sand,
There is no one here to lend a hand,
And wipe the words right off the slate,
Change my life, alter my fate.
No ones here to hear my plea,
No one here to miss me when I flea
Flea from this land of barren plains,
To places where there are no chains,
No hatred nor neglect nor pain,
Or perhaps I’ll just go insane.
Insane is such a funny term,
the thought of it can make one squirm.
But insane is what I’ll soon find my self to be,
It is the purest way to set me free.
Crackled and speckled and colored in gold,
A gilded red rose at your hand was presented.
Seeing it brightly, your touch became cold
as though its delivery you resented.
Of Course I’m no fool, I notice it all
I’ve given up on expecting affection.
But a gift as gilded as this, surely
Doesn’t deserve such a frozen rejection.
Of love, I have long forgotten to speak
But even friendship some loving requires
If we do not care, then what do we have,
But lies, dust, debris and desires.
A friendship is built on the finest of parts,
It stands on loyalty, trust, and affection.
One must care for the ship if its to fare well,
Or else it takes on water in light of affliction.
So take for a moment, my dearest of friends,
Decide which direction your wind will call
For it only takes a single wrong move
Until the farce rapidly fails and falls.
There I stood before the monument erected,
A fortress wall over time and space perfected.
There must have been a door when you came in,
When you locked the world away from start to fin.
I stood before it day and night awaiting,
I dared to pray and hope, beseeching
You to let me in, for just a momentary glance,
To show me what is hidden, just one chance.
For months I stood before that frozen stone
Till the ice had pierced my own heart to the bone
Till the tarnished moon had cast its final light,
And threw my soul into infernal night.
At last I walked away from that sepulcher of dreams
Where you’ve hidden all that time, it seems,
And when you shall once again emerge to see the day,
I won’t be standing there, I’d have gone away.
Perhaps I’ll never know, if it mattered much to you
That I stood so long, and for so long remained true.
Perhaps it doesn’t matter, not even just one gram,
For in that time I realized that you never gave a damn.
And should the sands of time continue, as they had
I’ll find the sun and stars, I shan’t remain this sad.
But you will never know what I tried yelling at the wall
You still won’t hear it, even if one day, it shall fall.
They sit there on the couch, just the two of them. They ran out of small talk hours ago, yet they still sit. He glares at the steaming cup of tea that sits on the table before him. She puffs her cigarette, smoke billowing around her dark hair. He glances over at her, trying hard not to stare. She doesn’t know, he thinks to himself. No, she knows, she just doesn’t care. In the end, does it really matter? For months, she has been all he could think about. Every morning, he wished her a good day. And every night, Sweet dreams. There was nothing she could ask for that he wouldn’t do for her. Anything. For her.
He was doing just fine before her. Perfectly alright. Moved home after school. A fancy degree on the wall. A job lined up. Even the car was working. Every day was simple. Functional. Like a clock. His life operated like clockwork. Up at 6, work at 8, off at 6, two hours at the gym, sleep, rinse, repeat. No need for differentiation. Just fine. He was perfectly alright. Then, one day, which quite frankly began just like any other, she appeared. Out of no where. No one asked her to show up. No one requested her presence. Yet, there she was. Slender, dark, fair, with bright eyes which lit the world around her. He was struck. So the adventure began.
His days still operated like clockwork, if the clocks were assembled by a team of rabbits from wonderland under the supervision of Salvador Dali himself. The monotony was broken as his days became consumed with her. All time, effort, energy, were spent. If not with her, then for her. Whether it was planning the next outing, or sitting at the coffee-house talking, she engulfed his existence.
Days passed. Then weeks. Finally months came and went. He told her she was important, of course. One should be a fool not to have noticed that. He told her he cared. He showed her with every action, every word, every breath. All she said was thank you. A simple acknowledgement. She didn’t care for him. Not the way he cared for her. Although it is rather rare that anyone care quite the way he did. He knew that. Yet he hoped for more. More than a simple acknowledgement of the fact. She told him not now. Not today. And so he thought perhaps tomorrow. Perhaps another day. There is a chance. But the next day came, and went. And the next one after. And the months rolled on. Still he tried, to no avail.
So they sit there, on the couch. Just the two of them. They share a space. A solitary room in which they have spent the last few hours. She has told him of her troubles, without really saying anything at all. Trouble at home, difficulty in class, tough day at work. The usual tribulations of daily life. Many words exhausted, saying nothing of value at all. And he sat there, with his cup of tea in hand and listened, throwing tidbits of commentary here and there. He also said little of value. As she spoke, his head raced. It always raced, but this time it raced with sharp pangs of pain surging through his being as he ached to tell her the battles that go on inside of him. As he ached to ask her of her true battles. He cared little for the soap opera found at home and work. He wanted to know the battles of her soul. The scars that are hidden away from everyone. He wanted to break down the walls and see what is held sacred. That which is truly private. He wanted to be a part of her. Even more, he wanted her to want the same from him.
And yet they sit. In silence at last, having run out of the trivial long ago. She doesn’t want the walls to come down, he thinks to himself, after all this time, that much is clear. He glances at her again. Their eyes meet, and they both look down. He glares at the coffee. She examines the cigarette’s smoke. They are sitting on the same couch, yet they are eons apart. They are not together. He turns away. If only, he muses, if only I had a way to tell her that she would understand. If I could open my heart to her and have her see what I have been hiding inside. If she could feel the fire, things would be different. But they just sit. The two of them on the same couch. Together, and yet both alone.
There he stood, majestic creature of skin and bone,
A modern David built from ancient stone,
Stood upon the heaps dreams and sighs
But his frozen eyes could never lie.
And there she was, a beauty never seen,
Like Venus, loved, revered and freed
Her days and nights spent in disguise
But her blue eyes could never lie.
Gaze into the eyes by morning light
When the sun begins to beat with might
When last night’s dreams begin to fade
And all the mystery betrayed
For eyes do more than see.
Gaze into the eyes by the moonlit haze
Where secrets go to hide for days
Where all the hidden sins come out to play
And words unspoken start to slay.
For eyes do more than see
Gaze into the eyes by winter storm
In the icy depths of common norm,
In the snowy blizzard blowing fierce,
And the cold begins the heart to pierce,
For eyes do more than see.
Gaze into the eyes by summer’s play,
When forgotten lie the debts to pay,
When brightly all the birds will dance,
And lovers take the biggest chance,
For eyes do more than see.
Gaze into the eyes once more,
See what was always there before
The secrets kept but never shared
Are only found by those who care.
For Eyes Do More Than See.
Every morning the sun rises in the east
Lighting the world for every creature and beast
It asks nothing in return for the service it renders
Yet we waste its hours, we give up, we surrender.
There are only so many hours in a day
We find every method to squander them away
Each waking moment can be made into so much more
If we opened our eyes, if we walked out the door.
Take a chance when you wake up, Take a leap of faith
Challenge the titan, go on, battle the wraith
As you change your perception of the world you’re in
You’ll notice the world change, mold to your whim.
You have the strength inside you, the power lies within,
It sleeps dormant, waiting, breathing, patience wearing thin,
Take a determined step forward, draw upon that strength.
Take what lies within you, believe, go the length.
And like the sun, when you raise a grand show,
Do not seek accolades or praise from those below,
For the higher that one rises, in the west or in the east,
So much the fall is harder when you slip, or fight the beast.
At your table I had spent some time,
Hoping for a snack, nothing prime.
The four of you were seated all around,
Before each, a feedbag could be found.
An hour, I sat there patiently
watching the mules feed delightedly
While your guest sat idly with an empty space
Nary a concern found on your face.
No one was seeking five-star rights,
But we sat in darkness, turn on the light!
As I have been treated in your kind abode,
May the devil treat you on the open road.
If tomorrow I were to disappear
And nothing more from me you’ll hear,
Not for a day, nor for a year
Nor even if you call me dear,
Do not let yourself to cry.
Just remember all the times we shared,
All those moments when I showed I cared
The seconds of the truth or dare
When certain secrets we had shared
And do not let yourself to cry.
Recall the times upon the sand
When I tried to hold your hand
Or all the evenings we had planned
With our sanity left by a strand
And do not let yourself to cry.
And at last remember, when I asked you to be mine
You said not today, perhaps by morrow, Give me time
And i gave you till the morrow, and the morrow’s morrow’s time
and you walked away each moment, leaving nothing, not even a sign
So do not let yourself to cry.
I laid everything I had out plain
And you looked upon it with disdain
You only cared for what I had to give,
But never gave to keep me captive.
Do not let yourself to cry
Life is made up of small moments that happen one after the other. Each moment is an opportunity. Normally I talk about taking each opportunity to better yourself. Today I’m on a different tack. Today I want to talk about others. You see, we all know our own demons. However we often forget that everyone ride in our lives has their own to contend with. No matter how bad ours might be, we don’t know if the person next to us has it worse. External appearance tells only a fragment of the whole story. The good news is this: it takes very little effort to make someone’s day better. It’s just the little things that will put a smile on their faces and make them forget, if only for one moment, the darkness that haunts them. Little things. Asking them how their day is going. They’ll rarely tell you the truth, but they’ll know you care. An honest compliment. Paying for their drink at the coffeehouse. Remembering important events. Small gifts. They don’t need to be fancy or expensive. Small handwritten notes. A few kind words of encouragement. A good morning text. So many little things we can do everyday that take almost no effort but make a huge impact on someone’s day. So go forth. Be kind. And be awesome. No zero days.
Life doesn’t stop. It doesn’t care if you are lazy, active, intelligent, stupid. It goes on from birth to death. What you need to decide is how you spend that period between the endpoints. Every moment is a chance. An opportunity to do something great. Do not mourn the moments you’ve already missed. They are gone. You cannot recover them. Instead move forward and make the best of the moments coming at you every second of every day. Imagine what you could accomplish, if you stopped worrying, stopped being afraid, stopped rationalizing your inaction, but actually got up and acted. You only get one chance. Make the most of it. Get up, go forth and be awesome. No zero days.