Blind Side
© 2005 Barbara Buckland
He called her a stupid fool and said he was Cupid's tool
giving them a better life.
Sometimes they'd argue, "You don't know and I do,"
Push would come to shove
They had that kind of love
He held his edge with a high carbon knife.
She'd never stop to second guess why a whore might get a new
dress
But not a pulled punch
Her reason has gone out to lunch
Left her without a dime or a hunch
Still she stays pacified
She's seeing stars on the blind side.
Two sons spend a lot of time by the phone
Lift the receiver hear the dial tone
Pretend it's their father's voice.
They're growing up naïve
So eager to believe
"This time, this time we'll be together and rejoice."
Oh, but their father is locked in his low-rent room
It's furnished like a shrine in a tomb
With all the love and trust and hope
Those boys can't protect or hide
In a run-down neighborhood
Right next door to all things wise and good
Just about a ½ a block from the stopped clock
They wait on the blind side.
He was a real free form
He used to walk the storm
Soak in the mystery the thunder means
Then one by one all his friends
Went with the status trends
And his god turned tarnished, money-green
He crushed all his ideal beneath his new car's wheels
The went for one final ride
Sometimes he stops to wonder at his new life of plunder
And why thunder makes him terrified
His real life lives on his blind side.
|
I want to know.
Copyright 1994 Barbara Buckland
I want to know everything you do
So tell me all and take your time,
Don't tell me lies, no tell me true
I like the way your voice sounds,
And the way my heart pounds
I feel so good when you're around,
I want to know just what I've found
I want to make the un-
known,
I want to know, I want to know,
I want to know, I want to know
I want to know
How you got to old New Mexico
I want to know
Did you travel fast or slow
Did you like the route you took did you simply go to look?
Did you go to write a book or sit out by a brook?
Did you go there on a quest or just to get some rest?
Did you go there on a lark, maybe sleep out in the park?
Did you go to make your mark, maybe fan a tiny spark?
Did you think you'd always stay, but it didn't work that way…
Did you ride out on a horse to watch the Rio take its course?
Did you walk out in the rain so you could look out on a plain?
Or were you standing on a bluff when you'd finally had enough?
Or was it like that at all
And would you tell me so?
I want to know I want to know,
I want to know I want to know
Just keep on talking so I'm trying find you in the dark
Just keep on talking so I can you in the dark
Just keep on talking so I can find you in this big scary place
Just keep on talking until I recognize your face.
Your voice is a beacon guiding me to everything you do
And the mystery of you.
And when I look into your eyes --
I want to know who is living there
And when I see you smile --
I want to know
Which one means you hurt, which one means you care.
I want to hear it all from you not second-hand nor second-guess
I want to know it's really you, not someone more not someone
less
I'm going to meet you halfway so don't forget to show -
I want to know I want to know.
|
Desire
Copyright 1994 Barbara Buckland
You say that you know me and want to know me still
Better in the lamplight staving off the evening's chill
As we watch the passers by turning ghostly in the mist
What you tell me with your fingers
Is so hard to resist to resist
But I am so afraid of this ritualistic trance
And the outcome of our union in our cultural dance
Stilll I can't quite pull away
My need for flight growing numb
It's drummed out by your fingers, and your lips,
In your pulse I forget what I'm running from...
You want to play down on the dark side of the street
Trading secrets back and forth where the wild things
meet
Secrets bold and ancient, treacherous and sweet
Secrets strip away the fraud our tribal rules require
With desire, desire
Fog outlines our breathing a backlight to the door
That open on a universe with all things in its core
Where sacred rights were born and each world began
Energy and matter, woman and man
When I feel you move beneath my hands
I know the power has begun
Power burning at the heart of every soul and sun
It's a riddle and a trap
when our thoughts misuse our hands
Power's only ours to borrow to comand
You want to play but we shouldn't play with fire
Unless we're burning with the kind of love
That will never did
Burning through the night
Through what is wrong and right
Freedom becomes slavery
When consciousness conspire
With desire, desire
You want to play, I must play to keep
I cannot fight the instincts
Running through my life so deep
We might awaken dreams
that might be better left asleep
Dreams of lust and love and life and that they inspire
With desire.
|
| When the Nights are Bad
Where you lie
Depends on what you try
As the time goes by
Yes, it all depends
How you start determines
How it all will end
So you whisper that to yourself
Alone in the dark
To soften every edge
Of a landscape bleak and sharp
And the patterns of your paints
Echo your compaints
They were all you had
When the nights were bad.
Oh, my friend
You couldn't run
You couldn't hide
You could not pretend
All of your colors ran
And began to blend
To a nightmare swirl
You couldn't stop or comprehend
Watch the black descend.
But you call my name
I will come to you
I will take your shame
I will call off all the demons
You could never tame
I will rally all the powers
That you ever had
Before the nights got bad.
And the sound of the rain
Beckons at your roof
It's come to clean the world
For laughter and reproof
Don't let the silence
In your cold, white room
Drown out the sound of the rain
Don't lose the sound of who you are
In the echoing of your pain
And as the rain frees the streets of the city's grime
It says, "Don't wash away your time."
How you stand
Depends on how you land
And how you planned
And what you understand
You think that to yourself
Alone in the dark
And the world will answer back
And help you make your mark
And give back all the strength
You've always had
When the nights are bad
When the nights are bad
|
| Broken Promises, Broken Hearts
At the counter
The clerk is hurried and harried
He sees that woman he hates
Her routine never varies
She buys her little girl new shoes
Two months later brings them back
The clerk makea the return
With his scorn he’s always keeping track.
Little girl sure loves those shoes
They’re the kind all the kids wear
Mama loves the needle
Mr. Jones to nurse and care.
Wearing holey old shoes back to school
The other kids look and know
And through that school yard
The sound of broken hearts rings like an echo.
Chorus:
Broken promises, broken hearts,
Where the truth stops, where the lie starts.
Broken promises, broken hearts,
What can you do?
Mama says she’s going to change
But she gets worse everyday
Mr. Jones costs so much
A small girl is the price to pay.
Late at night so safe and warm
Was that a scream?
Choking ‘round, drowning out the sound
Of a child’s dream.
Running, finding mama with Mr. Jones
She can see that they just kissed,
She cries, “Mama you said you’d leave him,
oh you promised!”
Soon there are lies to mama
About the small thing
And then the bigger thing
A pair of mirrors in the hall
Endlessly reflecting.
Mamas after all
Only pass along what they know
Through generations
The sound of broken hearts rings like an echo.
Chorus
Bridge:
Long after your dirty words crumble into dust
Hhearts will be choking on the broken trust
I want to tell you this
You talk so smooth
But your talk is cheap
Don’t you make a child a promise
You don’t intend to keep.
Chorus:
Broken promises, broken hearts,
Where the truth stops, where the lie starts.
Broken promises, broken hearts, what can you do?
What can you ever do, what can you do?
Just do your part.
|
|
|
All For You
© 2005 Babara Buckland
Verse:
Climb a mountain, swim the sea
Build a guitar just for me
Sing a sweet song – you know the kind
Something easy on the mind
1st Chorus:
And let the days of sweet deception melt away like winter
snow
Life is born on springtime meadows where glories and wild
roses grow
Sing a song of jubilation giving thanks where it’s due
Springtime meadows, precious flowers – all for you.
Verse:
Now it’s springtime, new life is here
Laughter and music fills the air
It’s just the kind of day I’d like to share
And I look around and see that you are there.
2nd Chorus:
And let the days of sweet deception melt away like winter
Life is born on springtime meadows where stories and wild
suposes grow
Sing a song of jubilation giving thanks where it’s due
Springtime meadows, precious hours, all for you
Verse:
Our lives are always young, time takes us riding
You might never be back here at my side
Still there are paths to us so easy to find
It’s a feeling growing easy on the mind.
Repeat 1st Chorus
|
Marriage
Copyright 1974 Barbara Buckland
We met overseas
I was nursing
He was a civilian
We’d often talk of
Going home
Picking up after the war.
There were tragedies of one kind or another –
I took care of him
Once for 8 years.
And I never, ever thought of letting it fall aside
What for?
We’d only have to find it again
Somewhere.
And he would understand
When my tears would fall
For things I couldn’t stop or help
We never quarrel
We’ve been outsiders long enough
We’ve been around
We don’t want to lose
What we’ve found.
And though in my life
There still are troubled times and sorrow
And friends and leaves and the changing landscapes
And our dreams falling down
Like autumn leaves or dry-rotted trees
Have left their mark in lines
Along my face and above my brow
He loves me now.
|
In Your Eyes Tonight
Copyright 1997 Barbara Buckland
All the hope I find in your eyes
With the ways of the world
I wonder that I try
Chorus
In your eyes tonight
Oceans of night
Reflecting in your eyes
The love you have inside
How we going to fix it all
You’re asking me
Born to a world of disrepair
Far as the eye can see
Blind leading blind
Hate mongers hate
Love conquers all
And it’s never too late
Chorus 2
And it’s in your eyes tonight
Echos of night
Refracted starlight
The love you have inside
I look in your world
I look in yours eyes
I look in your world
I look in yours eyes
In your eyes tonight. . .
|
|
In the Rain
Copyright 1986 Barbara Buckland
The gray skies cast before our eyes
A contrast to the vital green
Fall sends out her red/gold call
But who know what the message means?
The silent purpose in the seasons
Motives and reasons no one can explain
They get washed away in the rain.
Things evolve
And then they dissolve
Tell me what remains?
The patina is born past the retina
For our choice: rejoice, scorn, or disdain.
Wind-blown storm clouds
Spot razor back mountains proud
Fountains merge where chain saws scream so loud
But the underbrush
Uundaunted
Grows back in a rush so lush
Although it’s haunted by the masters of the mighty plains
Skeletons become fodder in the rain.
And now, my dear,
You stand before me here
Your message not obscure, no it’s so clear.
Blue-black waves break
Over what you’ll take
And polish up for me that my life is ruled by fear.
Yes I do understand that stone turns to sand
Helped out by time and erosion’s hand
But will joy take a turn tossing us like toys
Or will it all refract through prisms of pain
My tears are washed away in the rain
All things are lost inside the rain.
All things dissolve inside the rain.
My tears are lost into the rain.
|
|
Everyday Life
Copyright 2005 Barbara Buckland
Written 1976
It's good to watch life as it goes by
You might think so - I might want to think so
Study what there is while it goes by
But while it's here
Don't stop to think so
It's time to catch all you can it's gone in an instant
Catch all you can your own call is insistent
Everyday life slides down from a hilltop
With or without you 'cause it never will stop
My friend and I covered some guy up in leaves last fall
Some streak in the three of us
Sought out by a wild call
Leaves hung from his suit
His head was a treetop
We were all laughing like we never would stop
It's everyday life and it's gone in an instant
Everyday life's own call is insistent
Everyday magic slides down from a hilltop
With or without you 'cause it never will stop
|
Wolves
©1975/2005 Barbara Buckland
My eyes have seen plenty
A world that fights
Bbetween greed and good
While grasses tickle a cow
My mind fills up with things to do
But it's time
For me
To get away now.
Sudden start from slow to quick
Like the way that the wind moves
Swirling leaves into delighted dancers
From shake-top, shingled roofs
And then footsteps pack down on the streets
Like panicked pounding hooves
They say,
"Let's go back to that part of me
That all of me knows
Just
Let me stretch out with the meadows
The wind whips into wolves."
Now breezes flutter leaves into countless voices
Alive and dead
And unborn souls
Facts of ages in the river sounds
Between the cities and the knolls
They whisper,
"You have been the offered lamb
You might be the slaughtered calf,
You are the child of wonder
And the man whose age will leave him
Bent down on his staff
So won't you join the wind as it bears in pleasure the Sound
of your own laugh."
Oh, I will be back, but come on you feet
Turn up the stones on rotting streets
Past the smoke arise from kitchen stoves
To the fields that run out past the groves
'Till the moon holds me silver
With the wolves.
|
|
