Life and Existence

Fish bones walked the waves off Hatteras And there were other signs That Death wooed us, by water, wooed us By land:

And here I sit so patiently Waiting to find out what price You have to pay to get out of Going through all these things twice.

How does it feel To be on your own With no direction home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen They’d probably put my head in a guillotine But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life and life only

From the fool’s gold mouthpiece The hollow horn plays wasted words Proves to warn That he not busy being born Is busy dying.

From the fool’s gold mouthpiece The hollow horn plays wasted words Proves to warn That he not busy being born Is busy dying.

Yonder stands your orphan with his gun Crying like a fire in the sun Look out, the saints are comin’ through And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.

But I was so much older then I’m younger than that now.

But I was so much older then I’m younger than that now.

The order is Rapidly fadin’. And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin’.

The order is Rapidly fadin’. And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin’.

When your rooster crows at the break of dawn Look out your window and I’ll be gone You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on Don’t think twice, it’s all right

Of all the questions you might want to ask about angels, the only one you ever hear is how many can dance on the head of a pin. No curiosity about how they pass the eternal time besides circling the Throne chanting in Latin or delivering a crust of bread to a hermit on earth or guiding a boy and a girl across a rickety wooden bridge.

It all came back to me last night, stirred By the sootfall of your things at bedtime, Your head-down, tail-up hunt in a bottom drawer For the black plunge-line nightdress.

It all came back to me last night, stirred By the sootfall of your things at bedtime, Your head-down, tail-up hunt in a bottom drawer For the black plunge-line nightdress.

I shouldered a kind of manhood stepping in to lift the coffins of dead relations.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom taking the world into my arms.

how to love this world.

There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in.

It goes like this The fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah.

Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows.

And you want to travel with her And you want to travel blind And you know that she will trust you For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.

Saturday mornings we listened to Red Lantern & his undersea folk. At 11, Let’s Pretend / & we did / & I, the poet, still do, Thank God!