Who hasn’t
Wanted the other thing
The better kinder softer
Warmer keep em coming
A whole list of what have you
And have you not
Got, it’s all just stuff
Pain and then less pain
And if not for pain
The stuff that comes before it.
Tell me, how bad is it, friend?
That bad, huh. Ok. Here’s what we’re gonna do, we’re gonna wait this thing out
And then we’re gonna get up off our asses and go find our god
And buy him a round or two
We’ll get it out of him
Why us, god, why us, huh?
And if he don’t answer then we have our answer
It’s me and you, kid
And a thousand and one others who don’t have a clue what to do
I don’t want you to believe in the world
I just want you to remember that you have a right to be in it
Oh, you’re in it
Now we’re talking, you and I
About how bad it is
But then there’s everything we’re not saying
We’re coming to it, aren’t we
It’s good just to be able to be here
And know how bad it is
And tell someone who knows you
Hey, you know me, what I mean?
And I do
And look at that half a moon grinning down
And that old man leaning and laughing himself up on the wind
And this whole damn sorry ass shade of blue town
Parking lot saints awash in gas station light
Wow wow wow
It’s good to talk this stuff out, friend-
Pain is the prayer
Ain’t nothing the answer
And it just might be that’s ok
That’s enough. Just might be.
Now tell me…
When I Don’t Know the Word I’m Looking For
The miracle this morning
is how I won’t say everything
I’m thinkin when I’m thinkin it
I’ll think it through
wait it out
there’s a little bit more
of everything you never got
coming on down the line
it’s just this knot in time
and you can’t undo you
so easily
trust me, I know
it’s as hard as a mountain
to let any of these things
we cling to
go
if it’s useful
it’ll cause some pain
and because I’ve found that if all you do
is you bang your head against it
you won’t see the glory in your struggling
oh yeah, there is glory in your struggle
and because the moral of our story
is only ever revealed to us
in the scrap yards of our own undoing
we know the things that we know
because we earned a seat at the human table
So, if no one’s told you today
that it’s okay
to be a wreck
hey, it’s ok to be a wreck
to burn like that
just know it ends at the water
one foot in
and it all begins
again
to be alive is to be on fire
and somehow not burn it all down
look around
there’s this pain-in-the-ass blessing over here
this small bit of light over there
When you think you can’t find it
let it find you.
It finds you.
Let Go, Let Go
One day you’re standing so small in the light
And everyone’s parents in the trailer park fight
For hours and hours no one knows
Is it safe to go home
You’re four or five little friends at the river’s edge
Too small for the words you’ll need in the years ahead
Crossing hearts, shimmy the tree
It’s all the same sky we see
At six, you wonder why Dad doesn’t come home at night
And in the morning you wake to another fight
Climb underneath the table and hug your knees
It’s all the same sky we see
One day you’re so small
And the next you’re not at all
But you’re still prime for the pain
It’s always there, they say
That what you carry is but a cross
Let go, let go
But have you seen the boy
In his awful state
The clothes he wore
When they took him away
Gave him a number instead of a name
It’s all the same sky we see
Nothing you carry can be carried well or alone
Here the river, here the stone
Not alone not alone
Let go let go
I’ll show you how it’s almost done
But never quite
When you’re almost home
Right there in the light
You hear the wind through the fields
Carry the sound of some kid’s parents’ fight
And you hit the ground
And you look around
And you say
Let go let go
It’s all I know
Let go Let go
Let’s go-
Home now.
You took me there, James. Thank you?