Heal Your Hell

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Love never lasts
The present.. the future... the past
Slamming into the wall
Giving with caution while wanting it all

Blind to your own ways
Living in a self induced haze
Take it, crave it, take it again
When does it stop...when?

On your knees seeking the rapture of peace
Asking for forgiveness so the pain of wanting will cease
Afraid to give to yourself, feels too damn good
You want to free yourself, you know you could

Instead, the endless cycle continues
As the thunder and the impending storm ensues
Washing away the hope that she gave
Digging deeper your self imposed grave

Get off your knees.... be the man you are to be
Quit traveling from fantasy to fantasy
Playing with the hearts of women can be dangerous
Lifting the weight of it all, so strenuous

Before you the future, behind you the past
Hoist the sail upon the mighty mast
Blow the past fully away
Give the love to yourself in this new light of day

Off the ground, released from your self forged chains
Hostage heart free, bargained for in the exchange
Gifted your heaven...now heal your hell
Shed the weight of the secrets and the lies you will quell

Owned the Windows.... for Bev Angel

Caught within the beautiful melody
and held in place by the wise words
We all thought the first time....."Sounds like me"
It was our life in this magic music we heard

He knew how to lay it out there for complete relation
This man who was to become the mentor of our souls
He expressed emotions... fear, heart ache and deep elation
He fed the fire of our hearts as we stared into the coals

Watching the deep reds and oranges meld and ungulate
Warming our life places that had become wet and cold
Guiding us on a life long journey.... as he did communicate
So eloquently with the deeply personal stories he told

Owned the windows to our very souls.... did he
He knew what lived deep inside
When we listen, our pain we shall shed gratefully
To the depths of our souls we love him with great pride

I did not know Dan, but he indeed knew me
I know it each time I am wrapped within his lyrics and melody
When he looks into the windows of my soul, I can see
That he assisted me in owning my true harmony

Rhythm Section

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Rhythm section
Laying down the progression
of the notes of my composed selection
Playing for the masses, hoping for connection

My rhythm section mighty
Keeping the beat living inside of me
My truth on the pages, the melody and lyrics
Sing the songs, romance the rhetoric

Faces and places, all seem the same
The roads I have traveled run through my brain
My rhythm section.. keeping me grounded
As the cadence of the beat is repeatedly pounded

The rhythm section of my existence
My brain and my heart know no resistance
They lift and guide the song I am living
If I miss a beat..they are always forgiving

I have a rhythm section inside my soul
We all do... in case you've not been told
Find the pace... set the dance alive in your feet
Become the rhythm of your own inner beat

Warm Ways

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

painted sky
baby blue breezes in the
perfect pastel places of my
mellow mojo mind

spring has suddenly sprung
presented in the perfect pastel sky
the sultry sun thaws the hardness of my
hearty and healthy heart

revived am I, by the pastel painted sky 
perfect pace, perfect place, perfect space
filled with the warm ways of  the westward whispers
of the baby blue breezes bestowed upon my brow

I nod down my humbled head, humming the sweet song
of the springtime that has swept in suddenly...saving my life
my heroine, the spring...she has rescued and revived me
and I know I am home, no more wondering

painted sky
baby blue breezes in the
perfect pastel places of my
mellow mind

Never say Never

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Happily never after

The end of a brilliant chapter

Pressed within the pages of our book

Penned of  peace and pain..the love we gave and took

I can never know if never is a word; viable

In a world where all is shape shifting and pliable

Friend...never say never

I can live with happily when ever

I see you smile at me

And  no chains around your heart do I see

I will know you to be seated in your soul

The peace you seek is there... full and whole

Never say never, my love

You forget what the Universe is made of

It is made of always

In all ways

Native

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

here I am
this is my home
my self
my truth
me
native to the soil of my brain
walking the paths of my dreams
building my house on my own foundation
in harmony with all around me
the soil, the stone, the windows and walls of my home
the sun and the moon and the wind and the snow
all of it is me
native to myself i am
native to my land

attempt to invade my land, my truth
i have choices
i defend what is mine with great force if need be
i may choose to share the truth of my native places with you
you have no rights here, in my native domain
i am native to myself
you, native to yourself
uninvited...then stay away
asked to cross my threshold, please honor me

we are out there walking
alone
together
we meander into each other
we meld
we compete
we love
we hate
we choose to leave
or we choose to stay
we do this from the native truth we know
and carry inside our hearts....
also native

native to myself i am
let me walk alone if i choose
walk with me if you can
when it's right, it is true, when it is true
it is native

A Strong Man.....

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

The strong man weeps

His promises he keeps

The strong man loves

He knows what he is made of

All those slugs and snails

and puppy dog tails

The wind in the sails

of their lives prevails

And sends them fully back around

Till they are standing firmly on the ground

They have tilled with truth, very real

They can fully and openly express what they feel

They honor the women walking in front of them

Because a real man has no position to defend

A strong man allows himself to own his weakness

He is not running a race like the Preakness

A race with tormented, tortured expectations and time

Leaving him dry and devoid of rhyme

He owns the rhythm and rhyme of his imperfect heart

And does not run away when the deepness starts

to overwhelm him and make him scared

He tells you he is fearful and he allows himself to care

He owns the fact that he owns certain vulnerabilities

And that with the eyes of his imperfect heart he sees

Himself as a creature imperfect in perfect ways

And in this place of awareness deep

He allows himself your secrets to keep

While trusting his, you too, shall keep

A strong man allows his fears to know slumber

As his dreams remove the pile of lies he is trapped under

A strong man is weak in the most perfectly imperfect ways

This is how he navigates his days

a beautiful thing

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

The  blues live inside us all

There are always times when we know our soul to crawl

When before it danced across the floor in united sway

Life can get hard, it 'a always gonna be dat way

You make it through the times so choppy and rough

And once more you see you are tough enough

to handle this thing called life that we are all tossed within

Sometimes you gonna lose, sometimes you gonna win

Just like Buddy always say....."when ya sing the blues.. ya lose 'em

and ain't that a beautiful thing"

When you wake up from the nightmare of life lost.... snoozin'

You can access and become your own Spring

So, if you say you don't like the blues.. you be mistaken

Rock and Roll knows them as their Mother

If you've ever been dismayed by the road you have taken

You already lived the blues as you dealt with life or lost lovers

So, thank the blues for showing up... laying down a great guitar lick

The soundtrack to your life of complex and deep, dark days

Cause without the blues guitar, played bare or with slide or pick

Jimi never would have shared his Purple Haze

"The blues had a baby and they named it Rock and Roll" said Muddy

Next time you feel you are rocked to the depths of your soul

Play yourself the blues...you know I suggest a Guy named Buddy 

Thank the blues masters.... they da ones done paid the true soul toll

High Bear Nation....for Amy

 

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

 

 

Awakening from my long, slumbered safe... soulful hibernation

I am freeborn once again to wander the wonder of my

High Bear Nation

 

Sun on my shoulders now slender and weak

I am off for the sprouts of the Spring my belly seeks

Nourish my body, feed my soul

I am in my High Bear Nation

Home on my mountain

High and majestic

Touching the clouds that I dreamed of

in my slumber deep

'Hello, brother clouds"

"Hello meadow, valley and peaks"

"Hello world"

 

Feeling, smelling the fertile funk of Gaia's wakening

as well

She and I are souls connected

She housed me inside her again this winter

"It feels good to be awake, Mama......

what's for breakfast?"

 

She answers...."All of this is your table, my daughter bear"

"Feast with your eyes, your soul, fill your belly"

 

"Yes, but I have a stop to make first, Mother"

 

As I saunter up the foot hill, still weak

I find the friend my soul does seek

My wise friend, the mighty pine tree with her fringed fingers

Waiting to touch me again

Wanting to run, but too weak, I take my time in witnessing her

Gentle tears of reunion rising in my eyes

As she patiently waits in the perfect stillness of the breeze now

She stands tall and proud

 

Meeting her touch, we sing that song we always do in the newness

of Spring

"Aho, my friend...no longer alone, we are together again"

We sit and talk as she shares her Winter stories

and I tell her of my dreams in my den deep

We are once again touching

Here in my

High Bear Nation

in the Springtime of our time...

two-gether

Back and Forth for the Fourth Time

Family feast by the river side
The place our hearts and our souls collide
In peaceful prayer within the pattern that we trace
together

A pattern of pride and comfort
One that renders a creation newly birthed
Each time we collide and join in Illinois
together

Convergence of epic proportion
Unequaled to anything else we have known
Ever... in lives already extraordinary, magically more so when we are
together

The compass that is my heart beat points due south
My true north....the place I planted my peace
along with you....by the river by the boulders... rolling at the rocks
together

I am there, in my mind always
Soon my feet will feel the freedom of standing there
Full and strong in our place of peace planted
together

Seen again...eyes open fully or closed in deep respect
As we sing and sway to and fro, back and forth
Back for the fourth time
together

The Center of My Circle

Labyrinth of love

Pattern for peace on a path

Winding and wrapping back on itself

Tracing and traveling my life

now and then...when....where?

Promise of a future....healing of a hole deep

in my heart

On this path to peace.....my path

My peace?

 

Manifesting this future that is my

menacing manipulated dream drenched

in the dogma and stigma of

others

My future is mine

unless I render it useless

by allowing others to live it

for me

Or by not allowing it to live

at all

 

Life support systems are go

I am hooked up to the machine

"beep, beep, beep"

the beat of my heart

But, who is listening to the bass line of my beat

Lifeless lady lost in a labyrinth

of  languished love

 

I pull the plug on the rusted respirator

that pumps lifeless love into my labored lungs

Checking my self out of the ICU

I see me......

And I am ALIVE!

"beep, beep, beep"  the cadence of the

alarm jolting me back to my life

 

New labyrinth, new path

New me

New day..everyday

Rapidly revived

Walking, winding and wrapping back and forth on my self

along the path to my inner peace

Fulfilling the promise

to live and love and breathe

On my own terms

Connected  and complete in the center of the circle of

MY LIFE

 

"beep, beep, beep"

Ge out da way.....

I am comin through!

 

 

 

She Cries Ice

Footprints in the snow on Pokegama Creek

Find my freedom in the frozen footprints
I must
Walk the path obstructed
I must
Gaia in her  deep, dark distress cries tears
frozen
Assist her...
I must

Her tears of torment fly in the blustery blizzard
her soul is locked within
She cries ice, longing loudly for fire
to melt these tortured tears
My fire and fuel I must share with her
She is our united, true mama
I hear your call, Mama

This is not about me and my crave of the
sun
It is about my mother and her malady
The malady of man's desire
to be served, to be warm, to be bathed in the sun

Forgive, me...Mama
For a selfish misaligned moment I forgot
that this is about you
Not me
I follow my footprints in the snow
Back to you
Back to your aching soul
I am coming, Mama
I will assist you
Please forgive me....
Let me help you, let me hold you
Let me love you
Let us sing our soul song slowly by our fire fierce
as you warm and
remember ....you are free

Seasonal Affective Re-order

Setting right the scales of my seasons
In the flow of the coming and the leaving
In the turning of the planet on her axis
365 days fade and follow....falling into this flow
Becoming the flow
Yet each day an individual
experience

The Fall's fire, trees ablaze
Leaves disconnect and fall, seeming to falter and fail
Yet....in reality, they provide shelter for new life
In their death, life springs forth in their
decay

The Winter....lingering in my heart
in my yard
White and gray, damp and dreary
I am painted into a drab corner
Until I paint my own Master Peace
from the sunshine residing in my restless soul

The Spring
Where and when are you?
Come, warm my body, my mind, my soul
Provide a respite from this long lonely linger of Winter
Come and save me, Spring, come to me
now

The Summer....seductress
Sultry sun singing the siren song in the sky
Thaw me fully
Take away the ice that formed around my throat
and my heart heavy
I seek the lightness of my dancing
Goddess in the sun
I seek the stars hanging so close in the humid night
Teasing me to touch them
Touch them, I do....for they know me
They remember my touch
they seek to be touched again

Come, stars strewn like sentries in your post above me
Watching
Let me touch you
Know me again, the girl child who spent hours 
gazing upon your glory
Come and be touched by the me I have become...
this woman in harmony
Singing in solo Siren song the scales of my seasons
Now

Ocean Omnipotent

Riding the continual swell
Held captive in the disappointment
or released in the pure, sweet anointment
of emotions rolling, cascading, surrounding
Deep and dark blue
or the tender baby blue of the holy horizon
I am caught in the swell
between your heaven and your hell

Taken high on the wicked wind that fills
your sails
and dropped back down again relentlessly repeated
Sick to my stomach..retching
Or swirled in the splendor of your sea song
The rise and the fall in the storm so somberly sobering
as I fret for my freedom
Will I ever be free of the swell
between your heaven and your hell?

Dry land  I crave when the seas try to take me down
I want to stand on the steady tundra of my mother land
On the perfect day at sea, all is steady and safe
My liquid ground......in the sweet song of the breezes
When they are tender breezes
Comfort the causes of my disdain
How soon till they increase and steal my peace
Rolling and rocking out of control
My nightmare lived out on a delicate day
I need to be free of the swell between your heaven
and your returning hell

Be you your own devil or your own archangel
I know not
The tempest or the temptation... my nagging nemesis
for neither is the wife ...neither the mistress
Neither my hero or my villain
The sad void in between is my constant cantankerous companion
In your race to live in heaven, you pull yourself  back to
hell..the allure there, I do not understand
I surrender....I release my station....
I no longer captain this vessel vexed and violated
No longer do I travel the swells
between your heaven and your hell

A sailor on dry land now....my heart grows heavy
at the thought
Yet the prodding process to own my perfect peace
again....so strong
I long for the friend I was to myself
Awaiting the anointment of your friendship fleeting
Always swept away in the seductive swell
between your heaven and your hell

Goodbye, my sea...farewell, my fair maiden vessel
Off I am to discover new directions
New paths along your shore on terra firma
My feet firmly and fully realizing their connection
to this orb I have endlessly encompassed
I will speak of you boldly in the taverns and on trails
To whoever will listen to my tales
of knowing you.....ocean omnipotent
The beauty of your bountiful vast nothingness
and the stars strewn across the cosmic canvas of the indigo sky
My soul will sing of you in the deepness of the day
This same soul will heal in the night.....in dizzy dreams
and dangerous nightmares
And one glorious day, I will surely be saved from the swells
between your heaven and your hell

Tall In Our Truth

Rising above the destruction
of the ways of love
again
Always, we will always rise
Collectively we care
so deeply
so completely
so innately...so true
Always, we will always rise

Rising out from the ashes of another
attack
An attack on love..on honor...on respect
on ourselves
If one is attacked, we are all attacked
We will again stand tall in our truth
Always, we will always rise

It is our way, to love
Love is the casualty when a bomb goes off
Or one child hurts another child
Someone took their love away....long ago
The chain that restricts the ankles
tightens
We possess the keys to these shackles
Love, respect, honor....peace
Always, we will always rise

Those of us who know...love
Must restore the seasons of love
of caring, of respecting
of true honor
In the restoration...
together.... reconstructing
We will teach love and learn it
again
Always, we will always rise

Until we are standing tall in our truth
always

The Art of Picking Yourself Up

Do or do not.....stop trying to live your life, friend
"I'll give it a go" she sad to me
In the try is a non commitment to success..nothing to defend
Go out and live your life, be wild and free

Yes, let's do this thing.. we call it living you know
Only trying is to be defeated before you even begin to fight
You'll be sauntering along your path....moving real slow
Cuz you forgot to grab the power and feel the delight

The delight of being connected fully in the doing
Loving fully, making beautiful mistakes
Feeling it all instead of living the practice of suing
your joy to pay off your relentless pain..as your hands shake

BE your life, live it...LOVE messy and true
If you take a wrong turn, you turn again
Until you are heading in the direction best for you
Trying instead of doing in this scenario... the only sin

Go out and be yourself in all of your messy glory
Live, love, screw up and correct it all
Rewrite the lonely end to your never ending story
Write about picking yourself up from countless falls

In the art of picking your self up off the ground
You will find the true joy in doing instead of trying
You, once lost in the try will find you will be found
The smile on your face will conquer and quell your soul's crying

Do or do not.....stop trying to live your life, friend
"I'll give it a go" she sad to me
In the try is a non commitment to success..nothing to defend
Go out and live your life, be wild and free

Plans....

So much for the plan
You planned it down to the tee
But somehow early, we met our finality

My heart was light and oh, so ready
There was no final in my plan
What happened to spook you, man?

you found the gift of  my heart to be too heavy

I never gave you permission to carry my honest heart
I meant it when I said it was open, safe and free
You made selfish decisions that dishonored our synergy

I just wanted to love you a bit
To walk a path unhindered with expectations
You thought I gave you my soul and we got rejected

By the staunch and rigorous boundaries you place on your soul
I know no such restrictions to the love  that I share
So, you had to run and hide when you saw how deeply you cared

It's cool
We're cool.....sad, but true
I used to be there to tame that monster living inside of you

Now he's growing bigger and bolder each day
In his reclaimed domain under your bed frame
We had killed him off in the huge spark that birthed our flame

Feed the monster if you must
I wish you could learn to own and trust
The you I got to know in sacred bit and pieces

The you that knows that you deserve to be at peace as well
Life can not be strategically and carefully planned
Sometimes love suddenly grows between a woman and a man

And changes your course in the most delicious ways
It wakes you up from eons of loneliness so dark and deep
I hope you find what you want as you run back to your restless sleep

Perhaps your lonely dreams will teach you how to allow
a life where you honor your needs somehow
Cuz when you're running fast asleep, I no longer can show you how....