It was nothing but a word Some vibrations in the air And had it gone unheard You would not know it there But a word can make us laugh Or a word can bring a tear Could speak on our behalf Or make real our worst fear Could word then lift us up? Then a word may make us fall A word could bring us peace Or else, destroy us all Of all mankind has wrought Of this I feel assured The greatest tool we’ve got Is the power of the word –Wilson/05

Quiet lying, laid out there I wanted so to comb his hair And close his mouth still open wide To see him thus seemed so unfair A man of dignity and pride They laid his hands down by his side Eyes closed as not to stare in space And still the fear of night implied There was no peace upon his face He did not greet the dark with grace He did not leave on his own terms When angels chose to end his race To stand before him now affirms We all were born to feed the worms Wilson/06

here is something come between us Unseen and yet as solid as a stone A voice that screams While words remain unspoken Regrets and dreams Pass for thoughts unknown I pretend that I don’t see it But it’s there, and it does not let me rest It pinches me Like a pebble in my shoe Has come to be A hunger in my chest I have crafted it stone by stone This wall between us solidly I built With what I’ve done And what I have failed to do And then I run Away from all my guilt There is no place for me to go This prison has been all my own design It was, you see A moment without thinking If...

After all you’ve been given Ain’t it time to give some back This life you’re livin’ Is seriously off track You think you understand You may think you really know But when it comes to understanding God You got a long long way to go Standing on the corner Begging for a buck Stands a lonely beggar A little down upon his luck Not the kind of guy you or I might want to see What you do to the least of these You do to me Blessed are the poor in spirit They shall have their fill People do not understand I guess they never will Give us this day, our daily bread And shield...

I Am 55 Today I Am I have seen fifty-five times the promise of light I have seen the rise of the Titan rocket and the fall of the Challenger I have seen the rise of Camelot and the fall of a president I have seen the rise of Dylan and the fall of Cobain I have heard the voice of a prophet crying in darkness I saw them kill Martin, kill Malcolm, kill Bobby, kill Jack I saw the rise of our consciousness and the fall of our aspirations I saw burning banks, burning draft cards, burning bras, burning desires I saw Watts burning, Detroit burning, Saigon burning, burning, burning I saw burning Vietnamese...

I try to do the best I can, The same as any other man To bravely face this coming year, As last year, when it first began I face myself there in the mirror, A few more gray hairs growing here A few more errors understood, My vision just a bit more clear I’ll face the year as children would And hope the future is as good As all the years I’ve gathered in, Remembering to knock on wood. For I know mankind’s greatest sin Is looking back at what has been, And think him master of his soul When watching a new year begin For as the world goes speeding in its course I cannot change it’s...

I am held fast by chains of fear and yet The day will come when fear will let me go So many fears that I could not forget And many fears to come I do not know When my young days were long I was afraid Of losing love and being left alone I yearned the comfort of my mother’s words My father’s arms as strong as any stone They both held back the perils of the night That I might set my face to the unknown In these dim days I find my fears the same Of being old, and living on my own Without my heart’s true love to hold my hand And comfort me when night begins to fall I fear one day...

There’s a fence I need to mend And some bills I need to send But, hey, the world’s not going to end Tomorrow There’s a friend I need to write But there’s a movie on tonight So if I wait it will be all right Tomorrow There’s that book I’m working on And I have yet to mow the lawn The moments here and then it’s gone Tomorrow. And when my yesterdays have passed And this today becomes my last The world will still be spinning fast Tomorrow Wilson/05

A body at rest Will stay at rest Unless somebody moves it And that my life Is as it is Most definitely proves it. So many things There are to do And yet remain undone And here I am Still sitting here With none of them begun I could get up And take a walk Or even wash some dishes So much of what We want from life Lives only in our wishes So many hats I might have worn So many roles to play I might have even Changed the world But here I sit today A body moves The way it does And so will keep on going What will stop it Newton said, There is no way of knowing Wilson/06

Symphony I Half my life is past Without a memory Planting carrots in a garden Drawing pictures of houses Making holes in the dirt and my knees Swinging in swings and climbing on ladders Singing simple melodies under an ice cream sky Hour after hour watching the clock in classroom Make one step backward before striking the time Flying on my bike past the chain link fences Until that moment when sun went down and I awakened naked II And then went so slowly towards the unrelenting goal Reading steinbeck and stanlee, singing in anger Notes chained by convention and sent to perdition empty handed Half...