Preaching to the Choir

PREACHING TO THE CHOIR

I'm Walking on a Wire

Up above a Raging Fire

The Ultimate Insider

When I'm Preaching To The Choir

My Father was a Writer

The Best there ever was

From the Land of In Between

To the Land of Just Because

Ceramic Glaze of certainty

Titanic of the Century

Captain of his Industry

Plain old Dad to you and me

I caught a ride out of LA

Up to San Francisco Bay

I was just 15 years old

Starting Lifetimes on the Road

I caught a Ride with a Colored Girl

A Virgin Bride with Jheri Curl

She was Black as past Midnight

I was feeling quite all right

Late that Night, we found a Perch

Outside a Pentecostal Church

She's a Woman, I'm a Man

Glory Be, Baruch Bashan

There, before the rising Sun

We gave ourself into the one

We were plunged into the water

Mother father, son and daughter

A journey to where it began

Ancient times, cradle of man

Up above, the Pastor's voice

Urging me to make a choice

Blowing bubbles underwater

Is the punch line to a joke

A very famous writer

Himself, totally broke

It seems like all the authors

Artists and criminals 2

Are maybe just like Dorothy

In the Summer of ‘42

Here's a little piece of me

And here's a look at you

Will march on to Victory

Before this day is through

Crying the crying of the Wind

Seek forgiveness for your Sins

Your lover's life, on you depends

Eternal life that never ends

Classic structure narrative

Page turner, by the Book

Violent invective

That is worth a second look

I start a second lifetime

Of fear and doubt and want

Inside the Church of the One

I began to Pray in Tongues

If there's a thing called Innocence

Let your Words become a Sentence

Release the Birds inside your House

Open your Eyes and Shut your Mouth

You will Find the Holy Word

In your Mind, just like a Bird

That Flies beyond the 7 Seas

That lie beyond the Galaxies

Her name was Alma, from the Soul

Like the Sunrise from the Cold

Her young Life was bought and sold

Before she was 10 years old

I was up on 101

California Rising Sun

Devil's Empire in the Sand

A Traveler to the Promised Land

Alma was a Singer trained

On the Golden Central Valley Plain

Her Daddy died when she was 5

Her Sunshine turned to Rain

She became a Traveler

Much like You and I

A true Shamanic Master

From on the Other Side

Alma stayed with me that Night

No Fireflies or Candlelight

Nothing there to keep us Warm

No more Shelter From The Storm

Come the Bright, new Early Morn

I must say that I was torn

Between the Wickedness I See

And the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Alma found a part of me

Somewhere out there beyond the pale

We spent some time across the line

Before we found a way of Mind

That let us penetrate Space-time

And Experience the Divine

Golden Gate, Strawberry Wine

Côtes du Rhone, Banks of the Rhine

There is no Mythology

No History or Culture

That separates the You from Me

On a tree limb like a Vulture

If you know your Lifetime

Is in the Hands of Fate

The Cruelties of your Bottom Line

Keep you waiting at The Gate

Alma’s Sister, Maya

Lived out on the Beach

Among the giant redwoods

So far Out Of reach

The Indians would come around

Lord, how Blessings would Abound

Maya and my Alma

Would Turn the Beat Around

Up in Redwood City

On the edges of the Park

The Morning Mist comes creeping in

To the Song of the Meadowlark

And what was once In Shining Light

Is now lost in the Dark

It is said that from a single spark

We might ignite a quark

A Quasar or a Lumina

I'll always be True to you

No matter what they do to you

The Light comes shining through to you

What we put each other through

Has been Pain mixed with Pleasure

Floating down the Blue Bayou

Through The Gardens of Forever

I'd rather Seek for Treasure

Then walk the road alone

I've taken every measure

In lockstep, bone on bone

But unto all the naysayers

I now commit my fight

With my Alma by my side

We will make it through the night

We drifted up to Oregon

The Cascade Siskiyou

Much alike the range of light

That Ansel Adams knew

Alma's sister Maya

Became our family

With life growing inside them

One and one makes 3

We made it into Ashland

The Shakespeare festival

She got a job as a bawdy maid

Planters Punch and Lemonade

Good dark Mead and demon seed

As we all turned out the light

Time to let the devil feed

Before we say goodnight

We lived our lives behind a mask

A faded tintype Photograph

She made me Cry, she made me Laugh

Glacier Ice, Fire to Ash

Maya had to go away

Said, she'd be back another day

That's the last we saw of her

Beaver dams and trapping fur

We hunted with Grizzly Bears

We ascended Golden Stairs

As if we were never there

Disappeared into Thin Air

We kiss eand flirted shamelessly

The most public display

Of affection and panamory

Carved into our family tree

Extended to Infinity

We never heard from Maya

After that very day

We don't know what happened

Or why she went away

Thunderbolts and lightning

The Northern Lights beyond

We found our way to Redding

And a baptismal font

Nothing we could ever need

Nothing we could want

Aholy water sacrament, a solitary incident

Recorded down the halls of Time

Carved in Marble and in Lime

I could feel the Thunder

From Down Under the Earth

I Stopped and Stared in Wonder

At the Virgin Childbirth

And all along the North Wall

The Shadows come out to play

Footsteps echo down the hall

And they slowly fade away

Alma made a wedding dress

From Calico and Lace

Wedding night, her hair a mess

With so much out of place

We crept into the rectory

The holiest of holies

And there we did surrender

To some old time Holy rollers

We were both all dressed in white

Beyond the gates of paradise

It has only happened once or twice

In both of our lifetimes

We've joined the spirit army

Marching as to War

What was then shall forever be

Till it's not there anymore

We went along the creek bed

A morning song was in my head

Bring us back to where she bled

We learned our Sister, Maya, was dead

She’d contracted Cholera

A shimmering mirage

A disease we found in bottles

In the back of her garage

She was a noble scientist

An empiricist, for sure

Another astrophysicist

Behind the golden door

We travel East through Mountain Pass

Belly of the Beast and Classical Gas

Altitude just kicks my ass

California Looking Glass

Just like Jessie Liberty

On her Victory 101

I became the Pastor

Of the New Church of the One

Pastor of Disaster

Is the name they hung on me

You could find me Hanging

From a Sentinel Oak Tree

And all across the Mountains

The Guns of Navarone

The rainbow colored fountains

We are finally going home

Across the Continental Great Divide

The ending of a long, dark ride

Anasazi, Native Pride

See you on the Other Side

You will eat and drink your fill

As they Circle for the kill

You're Forever satisfied

Until the Night that Maya Died

I can't talk about it

It still hurts really bad

Can't think or dream about it

The best love I ever had

Echoes through the halls of pain

Windows, clinically insane

Circle turns around again

When our Sunshine turns to Rain

I saddle tramped I forgotten path

Down by the Riverside

I couldn't see most anything

For the teardrops in my eyes

I couldn't even think of her

My Revolucionaria

They called in military men

To stabilize the area

Up on Highway 666

Roswell, New Mexico

Site of strange discoveries

Since 1954

I wasn't even born yet

Not yet a good idea

The queen of hearts, the darker arts

Committed me to mania

I was clinically insane

No one cared at all

I was absent from the building

My epitaph on the wall

I waited for the moment

When I could answer the call

And be with my sweet Maya

For good, once and for all

I simply cannot count the times

That I committed suicide

Crying Game, the worst of times

Suicide will get you dead

Homicide will get you read

My book sold everywhere worldwide

God knows, after Maya died

I had no reason to exist

To the Liars, I raised my Fist

I made it high up on the ridge

I ran into a little kid

He was traveling alone

Nowhere that he could call home

Cold and shaken to the Bone

Heartbroken, forsaken

Postcards sent to no one Home

Deep in the catacombs of Rome

Designed by the Egyptians

Smash and stashed and crushed to dust

A deadly Secret Mission

Written on the Dead Sea scrolls

Missing for all time

A Socrates prescription

For a cup of Hemlock Wine

I've always been a thinker

Like the sculpture by Rodin

A solitary drinker

For I am only a man

I bought hook line and sinker

The devil's master plan

And I poured out my liquor

Into the desert sand

I guess I have to tell you now

I made it home at last

No way I could surrender

To my evil Shadow past

Now I am with Alma

Inside the Looking Glass

Whether there or here, we’re very near

Where Dust turns to Dust and Fire turns to Ash

I guess that's all I have to say

And so goodbye for now

I think I must be on my way

As the Sun is going down

Alma says to say Farewell

An Echo down the Wishing Well

And after all our Living Hell

We can hear our Wedding Bell

Maya rides on a White Horse

Forever on the Beach

On golden sand, to make a stand

And to practice what you preach

Still my understanding

Is a little out of rage

When I come in for a landing

I come to learn, you come to teach

The Starshine and the Sunrise

Are Lighting up again

I see the Moon inside your eyes

My sweet Forever Friends

Goodbye for now, sweetheart darlings

I will see you at the end

Who knows where the river goes

When it sweeps around the bend

Goodnight my Sweet, Goodbye, Goodbye

I'll sing for you a Lullaby

When it's time to say good night

And softly, we turn out the light

We pray now as we lay our heads

Lace and leather, featherbeds

Fields of Heather, states of Grace

The loving smile on your face

My girls are funny and intense

This is not an accident

The Life and Times of Nights misspent

No mortal means to pay the rent

Now, at last it comes the time

To drop down to the bottom line

Knock knock knock on Heaven's Door

To the Golden Shores of Evermore

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