1.
The Trees
2. The Doors of Perception
3. To Travel Is To Live (The Prophet
Bum: Part Two)
4. I Want To Be A Rock Star
5. Surrender To Hollywood
6.
So Long, New York
7. The Only Two Dreamers In Seattle
8. Women
9. The
Alley
10. The Place of the Poet
THE TREES Your
intelligence fades
But you fight it The shape is emblazoned brightly
On
the outside of the town There is no meaning in the tree
That sways above
us both That sways beneath the liquored moon,
Next to the violent sea 'Neath
the trees
'Neath the trees
Bend an ear and listen to the breeze And
there is still a vestige of the folklore
That Catholic school branded in your
soul But it is fading - and it is nothing more
Than a simple kind of
folklore I can curse it for cursing me
And for altering the force of
gravity For altering the meaning of the tree
And of the old friend who,
every so often, stops by to visit me 'Neath the trees
'Neath the trees
Bend
an ear and listen to the breeze I'm sorry that I couldn't walk through the
valley of darkness
And come out feeling better I'm sorry that I saw the
green
And couldn't make sense of what I'd seen You pull your locket out
and point to field
About a half a mile away And we hear the music box,
and it no longer makes sense to talk
And we stare at the twisting ballerina
as the sad song plays 'Neath the trees
'Neath the trees
Bend an ear
and listen to the breeze
THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION
Last night
as I sat on the bed
And kissed my lover on her forehead
And slid between
the clean white sheets
And made my way into retreat Maybe I was ready
to die
Or to return to dust
Or maybe I'd seen things as they really are I
was not scared
I wanted to return
To return to innocence I still felt
hung over from the bender the night before
But I thought I saw right through
the door
The words of Blake came through my soul!
I saw the object as a
whole Maybe I was ready to die
Or to return to dust
Or maybe I'd seen
things as they are I was not scared
I wanted to return
To love immortal
To
the eternal I wanted to return to innocence TO TRAVEL IS TO LIVE
(THE PROPHET BUM: PART TWO) He said, "I've traveled for years,
I've
traveled across this land,
I've got stories to tell, if you'd just let me in
And
get to the matter at hand" I sized up the man who was soaked and shiverin'
And
my expression was one of unabashed shock
And out of insanity and curiosity
and stupidity
I let the man, into my house, walk To travel is to live
To
travel is to live
You don't know what you've got till you give
Yourself
to the world He shook off the rainwater and took off his shoes
And plopped
himself down in a chair
And not long had he sat in my house that
I felt
the weight of his stare "Why did you come here?" I wondered aloud
He
chuckled at the question a bit
He said, "I've come to save you from yourself
And
teach you some wisdom I've lit" To travel is to live
To travel is
to live
You don't know what you got till you give
Yourself to the world He
said, "I've wandered the earth for a good many years
And I've seen all
there is to see
I've seen snowcapped mountains and dusty old deserts
And
I've sailed across Pacific Seas I've played piano and danced on the hills
And
flown in planes above the few trees in Arizona
I've had lager in beer halls
in Deutschland
And I've run with the bulls in Pamplona" To travel
is to live
To travel is to live
You don't know what you've go till you give
Yourself
to the world "I've been to the South where the trees are green
And
oaks are in yards and in homes
And I've fallen in love more than a few times
And
I've known there's more than one person to whom you belong" Intrigued
I certainly was but how could I be different?
But why do you tell this to me?
What
business is this for a fellow of class
And wealth, like myself, and a man of
luxury To travel is to live
To travel is to live
You don't know what
you've got till you give
Yourself to the world He said, "I know
about the remnants
Of forgotten ancient lands
About broken down highways
and roads
About prostitutes and man" "I know all about trembling
And
sickness and fear and death
Been to the Gulf of Mexico
And tasted spice
in the Southwest" I said, "Well you've got all the answers
I
most surely am impressed"
To travel is to live
To travel is to live "Must
I travel for this wisdom
To the far ends of the earth?
What travels these
are that
Teach me more than I read around my hearth? But I'm a learned
man
And I was learning here tonight
About the woes of 4 young brothers
And
their father's shameful plight" Don't patronize me father
Please
be kind next time you come
But tell me who you are
He said, "I am the
prophet bum" I said, "You're a suspicious old wanderer
I wouldn't
be surprised if you cast a spell
You've come to warn me about excess
And
the fiery flames of hell There's a mist out 'neath the streetlamp
And
the morning sun's comin' over the hill
I've not been changed by sermons
I'm
gonna keep on reading still What about you old man?
Have you had formal
schooling
It's hard to listen to someone
When you're talking, not doing I'd
really love to travel
I've oft pursued archeology
But there's much to be
digested
Between the two Great seas Look over at my bookshelf
You'll
be lookin' into me
I know all about Kierkegaard
And the mighty Nietzsche" He
said, "Well you must be quite pious, son
There's not much left to learn
You
know all there is to know
You know what makes the world turn My story
is a long one
But I've been educated well
With the textbooks of the road
map
And the teachers out in the dell" To travel is to live
To
travel is to live
You don't know what you've got till you give
Yourself
to the world I WANT TO BE A ROCK STAR I want to be a rock star
I
want to graduate from this circuit of bars
They give you a hand
You take
a bigger stand
I want to be a rock n' roll star I want to be a rock n'
roll star
I want to feel that I've put my heart into it and gotten as far
As
I could with a dream
As crazy as it seems
I want to be a rock n' roll star When
you find something cool
That you really like to do
You just do it and do
it till you can't
I've found my bliss
You can't accuse me of being remiss
Because
we all want to be rock n' roll stars SURRENDER TO HOLLYWOOD You
made me think of conversations
We had on Charlie Chaplin
How he wore the
bowler
And was the tramp You said you wanted
To make America rock
Like
he did, down in Hollywood
All you needed was to come alive on Mulholland Drive Surrender
to Hollywood
Surrender to Hollywood You saw a movie in the lobby
It
was about William Randolph Hearst
You were amazed at the empire he assembled
And
you wondered if without him, Seattle was the worse? But a hometown has a
personality
People are always the same
All those funky girls on Capitol
Hill
Make your soul feel alive Surrender to Hollywood
Surrender to
Hollywood It's OK for us to be apart Surrender to Hollywood
Surrender
to Hollywood SO LONG, NEW YORK I pulled into this depot
Even
though there are few in this town
It is difficult for a young man
To beat
his past down Under your parents thumb
Each career path you choose
People
die, they die quickly
And some people are so difficult to lose These
are the memories
These are the days
That we choose
And no matter how
hard we try
There is always more that is left to lose
Until you lose the
one thing
That means the most So long, New York The city has a
romance about it
I don't feel it in Seattle, it's not there yet
We hear
songs and stories, the echoes of history
And we cannot forget But we
all have a hometown
And mine is this green, fertile one
The hills are going
take you up and down
And the coast captures the sun These are the memories
These
are the days
That we choose
And no matter how hard we try
There is always
more that is left to lose
Until you lose the one thing
That means the most So
long, New York
THE ONLY TWO DREAMERS IN SEATTLE
You feel
dead to the world
But you're alive
And so am I Staring out into the
ocean
An ocean I seldom stop to look at these days
Feelin' like a pulled
up to this shore alone
And lost my paddle
I'm feelin' like the only dreamer
in Seattle Try to say something profound
Can't read the words I have
written
Can't identify with the sound
Can't tell if any of it is good or
bad
Maybe you hear the words of your dad
You don't see each other much anymore And
I remember the strains
Of all those songs
We'd listen to at your house
We
stayed up all night long
We spilled our beer, we'd smoke cigarettes
And
wondered how we would eventually get out of here You feel dead to the world
But
you're alive
And so am I Staring out into the ocean
An ocean that
I seldom stop to look at it these days
Feelin' like a pulled up to this shore
alone
And lost my paddle
I'm feelin' like we're the only two dreamers in
Seattle Well you moved away
Like you said you would
And I think I
could call what I've done a success
And that would feel good
And I'm sure
you're across the water
Thinkin' the same thing
It's the same wherever a
body goes Staring out into the ocean
An ocean that I seldom stop to look
at it these days
Feelin' like a pulled up to this shore alone
And lost my
paddle
We float among all the lonely dreamers in Seattle WOMEN Rules
are conducive to balance in the brain
In the office, the bed, or the golf course Women
need love
Women need protection Don't boast from the bottom of your heart
Or
from your groin The women make the world go round
Don't bite that feeds
you Women
Women You came from a woman, don't you remember?
So
the women need care And the women will surrender
What happens when you
don't respect them? They lose their meaning and their sign
They lilt
about a rainy season Until the sun agrees to shine
It's fitting to be
ashamed Women
Women If you saw the record of your memory tracks
And
if Jiminey Cricket stepped into your Disney dreams And offered you a quick
road back
You'd see the way the women walked You'd hear the echoes in
their talk
You'd feel their gaze from across the room You'd smell the
sex in their perfume
You'd smell the sex in their perfume Women
Women THE
ALLEY Pink lights on a brick wall
Black spots on the bathroom stall
An
alcoholic makes his 2 a.m. call
Roll up the box car and grab the inane The
suits implement the new tax law
We welcome them and their guffaws
Money
coming in, money going out
Not sure what the argument is about The alley,
where the light is dim
The alley, where the rain hits the tin
The alley,
dark on the brightest night
You can not stop what you could never fight
You
can not stop what is hidden from light
In the alley lies your only right Lascivious
intent, insidious argument
Lavender suit, underground loot
Autumn begins
and that was always the goal
These two-bit losers, these box car boozers You
need a place to slip away
Where you can still hear the music that the jazz
band plays
Open up the door, sneak by the kitchen staff
The pink light flashes
and you can't go back The alley, where the light is dim
The alley, where
the rain hits the tin
The alley, darkest on the brightest night
You can
not stop what you could never fight
You can not stop what is hidden from light
In
the alley lies your only right THE PLACE OF THE POET A poet
does not know his place
That's what makes him what he is
He does not wait
for critics
He does not wait for education
He does not wait for disease He
makes his own way, he makes his path
As the embroidered pattern starts to fray
He
inspires bohemians who've lost themselves
On college campuses, they sit around
and smoke pot
And think, "Man, isn't this guy onto something?" But
this is not what the poet wants Boy, I wish that I was a famous poet someday
My
effigy transfixed in some coffee shop
My words, absurd, and holy in their youthful
way
People will smoke pot and laugh and say,
"This man was a genius,
this man knew the truth" Thomas was a mad man, Whitman was, too
And
when the path is grown over, grown mute
A tale of those who inform, or maybe
those who pollute
Will allow us to grow
To think about the things we cannot
know That is the place of the poet
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