In the Beginning
In the beginning was the word
You say, Which word
And I start to speak in tongues
Words ignite me
Then escape me
If I’m honest
In the beginning was the explosion
And the universe gets bigger every day
I hope it’s progress
It feels like distance
If I’m honest
In the beginning was the word
You say, Which word?
I want it to be love
I’m still deciding
It’s still expanding
If I’m honest
In the beginning was the darkness
Was the emptiness,
the vacuum,
and the void
Sounds relaxing
and enticing
If I’m honest
In the beginning was the light
And as I write, it casts a shadow across the page
I am not hiding
I am not lying
If I’m honest
From the album, Scatter and Reform
Call a Quiet Friend
There are shouldered picket signs
There are settled picket fences
There’s a steeple with a painting of a window
The evangelist museum
is praising Billy Graham and Billy Sunday
There’s a tiger without teeth
There’s an alabaster Jesus
There’s a grandmother who wants to live forever
There’s a blue line
on a flag
on a cross
on a sticker
on a bumper
I’ll call a quiet friend
And sit until
they hear me listen
There’s a picture of my father
at the age his father was
when he was at the age his father was
In a clipping from the news
feeding compost
though the paper’s out of print
A midwestern middle manager
in the middle of her life
in the middle of a song that needs a bridge
And a well-dressed pamphleteer
Offering recalls on the poison he’s been peddling
I’ll call a quiet friend
And sit until
they hear me listen
From the album, Scatter and Reform
All in All
When the weekend comes and opens up door
For the voices that were crowded out before
Then I'm seething on my cushion in my car
Speeding and not getting very far
On the screen or out the windshield, all in all
I’ve been counting down from forty half my life
Forty hours like forty days like forty nights
Sending out a raven and a dove
Waiting for a payday and a judge
Can we dance inside the empty all in all?
Each wave has waved hello and then goodbye
A mirror and a magnet every tide
If I haven’t brought the harvest in by now
I'll be clawing at the pavement with a plough
Whether rooted or uprooted, all in all
There are mirrors that reflect you as you are
They return my light and don't ignore my dark
They reflect me even when I look away
The incarnate, avatar, and everyday
When a mirror sees a mirror, all in all
When a mirror sees a mirror
From the album, Scatter and Reform
Welcome
The mat said, Welcome
without discretion
to me, the rent man at the door
My note said, Notice
in bold italics
I halfway hid it 'neath the rug
Because I just worked there
Don’t shoot the messenger
Back at the office
I got her message
Her voice so quiet it was loud
She asked for two weeks
like it was mercy
but it was time not mine to give
Because I just worked there
Don’t kill the courier
Air conditioner
Water heater
Washer dryer
Rats in the cellar
Furnace rattle
Trash disposal
Spitting shower head
Leaky faucet
Crisis toilet
Flooded basement
I had the standard list
of things my boss would fix
And it would take
more than maintenance
to fix this.
From the album, Scatter and Reform
My Place
Last when we slept
with the window open
I could hear the blood
calling from the garden, Love
I could hear the blood
calling for its kin
calling for its killer
I don’t have a brother, Love
We wanted a house
safe from the wild
country
We wanted a house
safe from the wild
city
Someone's trying to teach me my place
From the album, Scatter and Reform
Break Faith
When the clouds are thick as concrete
I’m not sure the coffee helps
Running from a time bomb
Spirit like a bloody nose
Some force spins me out
Leaves me in shallows
Some force locks me out
Knocking on the windows
I will not break faith with my awakened heart
If I am a mansion
Why am I sleeping in a tent?
I keep diagraming purpose
Gotta get my meaning meant
Some force spins me out
Leaves me in shallows
Some force locks me out
Knocking on the windows
I will not break faith with my awakened heart
When I see my kids
in a moment when they’re really kids
I forget myself on purpose
Throw my coldness to the wind
From the album, Scatter and Reform
The Smallest Farm
Anyway, I’m headed for the smallest farm
I can’t relive the first half of my life
I swim a current I can’t turn off
All the pain that I have caused
All the teeth that I have fled
I cast out demons and more rush in
I dress their wounds and listen to them
Break bread
We have what we need
We break bread
We have what we need
I heard a priest quote a scientist
Said the big bang might be reversed
This might all return to one
I might be whole
I might snap back to the all in all
Anyway, I’m headed for the smallest farm
I’m going nowhere, like Wendell Berry
Linford Detweiler, and Joe Henry
My brand is my stupid name
I love my dad
I got it from him
Another odyssey ends at home
Bury my ego in Ohio
Underground, where the railroad ran
North to the country I was born to
I long to return
From the album, Scatter and Reform
Empty Cathedral
When I left the twelve steps
I thought I was a few a steps ahead of them
And when I left my sick religion
I thought that I could add through division
I always longed to sing loud in an empty cathedral
Where the walls just reverberate
Now that the bodies don’t block the sound
But who’ll tell my story, alone on the right side of history
When I cut ties with my family
It felt like I was free to live forever
And when I saw their worst, I smirked
And then I fled forward, staring backward
I always longed to sing loud in the empty cathedral
Where the walls just reverberate
Now that the bodies don’t block the sound
But who’ll tell my story, alone on the right side of history
I live my life in ever-widening circles
Around the spire
In a thousand years, I still won’t know
If I’m a falcon, storm, or song
From the album, Scatter and Reform
Starlings
See the smoke cloud of starlings
rising on the horizon
Feel the fever to join them
to find one word to attach
to each darting bird
Their joy and their grieving
Scatter and then reform
Returning in joy and in grieving
Scatter and then reform
See the flat grid of farmland
Cut again and again by their wings
Watch the fireworks in reverse
Sparks pulled back to their centers
Returning
In joy and in grieving
Scatter and them reform
Returning in joy and in grieving
Scatter and then reform
From the album, Scatter and Reform
Careful
Careful
You’re about to get an earful
Or even get a mouthful
And wouldn’t that suck?
You’re not
The only story at the bus stop
The only one who needs a day off
You’re the loud one on the phone
I know
I’m the one who’s got the headphones
With the monologue of my own
But it’s the one that I chose
I’m not
Trying to keep you within earshot
So I’m applying earblock
To hear myself think
Take me
Where I can think clearly
And maybe
I won’t mind my mind
This city
Where everybody sits near me
And I’m learning how to sit beside myself
Tell me
Who’s the tallest in your family
Who’s carrying a baby
Who’s carrying grief
Me, I was an ocean in my past life
I don’t know why I look away
When people wave