ROOM ENOUGH, TIME ENOUGH
Better To See The Face
There’s a full moon on the radio tonight
And a ghost dance on the plains that never sleeps
I’m twenty miles west of Spirit Lake
And I pray the hollow night my soul to keep
And I miss the way you walked in through a door
If you walked in now I’d grab a hold, and never let you go
Oh it’s better to haunt the dark woods
Than to stake a goldmine claim
It’s better to see the face than to hear the name
Well Superior shakes the greedy in her teeth
The fog and everything crawls on her chest
I’m broken in the just same place as you
And the holes in all my pockets never rest
It’s worse to leave the matter unresolved
A golden ticket to a funeral
You’re just a problem death can solve
There’s no heat inside a shadow, you better stick close to the flame
It’s better to see the face than to hear the name
Surely I have found my diamond mind
You just spend your love like it’s going out of style
I can think of nothing else to do with time
Thank to study at your jail cell with a file
From here on out let it be known the same
There’s a thousand ways to jump out from in front of a moving train
Oh it’s better to lose the wild card, than to get rich with the tame
It’s better to see the face than to hear the name
Bury Me Not
Oh bury me not on the lone prairie
These words came low and mournfully
From the pallid lips of a youth who lay
On his dying bed at the close of day
Bury me not on the lone prairie
Where the wild coyotes will howl over me
Where the buffalo roam on the prairie sea
Bury me not on the lone prairie
It makes no difference so i been told
Where the body lies when life grows gold
Just grant i pray one wish to me
Bury me not on the lone prairie
The cowboys gathered all around the bed
To hear the last words their comrade said
O partners all, take warning from me
Never leave your homes for the lone prairie
Don’t listen to the enticing words
Of the men who own large droves and herds
For if you do , you’ll rue the day
You left your homes for the lone prairie
Oh bury me not, but his voice failed there
And we paid no heed to his dying prayer
In a narrow grave just six by three
We buried him there on the lone prairie
In a narrow grave just six by three
We buried him there on the lone prairie
Gambler’s Dharma
Out on Convent Street, broken window at my feet
All the broken, homeless angels hold the night
Tell me where the hooks are at, to unhang all their hats
It’s the Gambler’s Dharma hiding in plain sight
The Gambler’s Dharma hiding in plain sight
Early in the morning, when your medicine is strong
And the four directions nail you to the dawn
Walk out of doors alone, your secret written on a stone
It’s short time here and a very long time gone
A short time here and a very long time gone
The swallows as they sing, they shake out homeward wings
All my relations come and kiss the dirt
The one thing you must do, the heart knows that it’s true
Learning all where to love & who
Learning all where to love & who
Concerning what may come, concerning what may go
Even when our shadows don’t fit us right
For now and for all time, I’ll trade you yours for mine
And I’ll play my Gambler’s Dharma hand with you
I’ll play my Gambler’s Dharma hand with you
Book of Life - written by Keith Secola
Where are you going?
Why are you leaving?
Why do we suffer?
What is the meaning?
How do we live by?
Who would you die for?
What do you cry for?
Is it all real?
Do we have free will?
What are the numbers?
What is your passion?
Why are you grateful?
What makes you happy?
What gives you courage?
What does your heart say?
Everything's a miracle
Answer's in the book of life
Answer's in the book of life
Who are your neighbors?
What will your friend say?
Who is the kindest?
What makes you proudest?
What makes us good friends?
Why am I different?
Why do I struggle?
Why do I hurt me?
Everybody worries
Why do we promise?
What is existence?
Why does it matter?
Who should I stand by?
Seeds of the future
Rise of humanity
Everything is sacred
Answer's in the book of life
Answer's in the book of life
Don't get excited
Be conscientious
Who do I run to?
What do I stand for?
Who should I play for?
What should I pay for?
What makes it all worthwhile?
How do I see?
How do I hear it?
How do I move it?
When I get near it
How do I get through it?
Everything's amazing
Everything is wonderful
Life's full of sadness
Love is the answer
Satisfied Mind - written by Red Hayes
How many times have you heard someone say
If I had his money, I’d do things my way
But little they know, that it’s so hard to find
A rich man in ten with a satisfied mind
Once I was wading in fortune and fame
Everything I needed to get a start in life’s game
Then suddenly it happened, i lost every dime
But I’m richer by far with a satisfied mind
Money can’t buy back your youth when your old
Or a friend when you’re lonesome, or a love that’s grown cold
The wealthiest man is a pauper at times
Compared to the man with the satisfied mind
When my life is ended, and my time has run out
My friends and my loved ones I’ll leave there’s no doubt
But one things for certain when it comes my time
I’ll leave this old world with a satisfied mind
Land of Room Enough, Time Enough
Nevermind the shadows it’s the light you never shake
Mercy can and will be used in a court of love
There’s a rustle in the bushes down on Bad Medicine Lake
Thieves and angels look the same in the moonlight up above
And it’s a blue norther, in my heart, I wouldn’t know the place to start
To look for all the precious time i’ve lost
Your a gambler running up the score, your back against the door
In the land of room enough, and time enough
The desert when she smells like rain the prison yard, you walk your pain
Let’s keep the lamp oil burning all through the night
Let me in on your secret in the dark, thin the veil hot the spark
I’d set my watch on fire to make it right
And it’s a short fuse on a long goodbye, i wouldn’t know just where to find
Safety in this village wet with frost
The horses breath, the restless hoof, to make or not the journey north
To the land of room enough, & time enough
Across the universe unknown, what child is this to our new home
What spirit traveler coming all through the night
All the harshness of this land of bones, all the madness that we can’t control
One beating heart at the still point of the world
Even so the breath the kiss even so the tremble, the swing the miss
Even so the wreckage on the high seas of the heart
Nothing matters less you know than guns and money oil and gold
The diamond mind just locks from the inside
The river freezes the sun it thaws it I’d know it anywhere i saw it
Your black dirt courage in times so rough
I’d meet you any given spot close or far away it matters not
In the land of room enough and time enough
Cole Younger (New Prairie) - with Billy Sedlmayr
I am a noted bandit, Cole Younger is my name
To many a death procession my friends are brought to shame
The robbing of a Northfield bank’s a thing I can’t deny
Now I’m a poor prisoner in a Stillwater jail I lie
The first of many a robberies I will relate to you
Was a poor California miner, the day I’ll surely rue
I took from his his money and I told him go his way
And the same will wreck my conscience lord, until my dying day
I came home and Brother Bob did say all on the new prairie we shall ride away
We started out for Texas, the good old Lone Star state
But on the new prairie, the James Boys we did meet
With knives and revolvers we all set out to play
A drinking good corn whiskey boys to pass the time away
The Union Pacific we first did surprise
The murder of your own hearts blood will bring tears to your eyes
Bob was shoot & wounded all in Northfield he did lie
And on the new prairie the bullets they did fly
When the James boys see their final sun from rise to set
I hope Jesse finds no solace for the myth he did protect
In this world I seen men who right and men who do wrong
But in the final measure the pine box dark and cold
Ain’t no difference in a six gun and a Wall Street fountain pen
The poor are rich and the rich are poor it don’t matter in the ene
Hidden Made Known
Just be brave, she said to me…. for the earth, is all that lasts….
As we walked the stars, Venus and Mars, like lures hung from a branch…
We hugged the shore, so impossibly poor
Our treasure was wave, & stone
And from Wounded Knee, to Sault Saint Marie oh the hidden shall be made known
It was a lightning strike in the dead of night that set the farm a-fire
With the children safe, they watched the blaze, the flames crept higher & higher
“With my barn burned down” he said aloud, “at least now I can see the moon”
While the corn fields glow, the the sirens moan oh the hidden shall be made known
I have something to tell you when I get the chance
We’re all just waiting to happen accidents
My shipwreck heart knows it’s not just happenstance
That i knew you… at that first glance….
With a careless shrug, on a day not far… the seas will rise and devour our maps
While the gods of all things great and small is screaming “one last chance”
The old monk said that the greatest sins were to pick to wildflowers and threaten a child
When we’ve picked them all, and the mighty fall what was hidden shall come to call
Now the Juniper tree gives its berries free for the ghost beads protecting power
The ones i brought you from San Xavier have kept you safe this far
Over field and farm, far away from harm
My heart upon your sleeve
Through emergencies, to slow fade dreams what was hidden shall be made plain
Imaginesse
Pardon me my dear, I’ve had a lot to dream
I woke up crying again, I can’t remember the scene
By morning I was a million miles away
A rain garden of tears, in the yearning spring
If I had it I swear I’d give you everything
But even what I have it gets taken away…
I’m having trouble as of late dear
Remembering how to get lost
You are my one, my east sails west
Oh my sweet Imaginesse
In spite of recent events, my trusted friend
Let’s keep our date to watch the new moon ascend
World without end amen, amen
A love in motion stays in motion
A love at rest it stays at rest
You have my heart not one breath less
Oh my sweet Imaginesse
Over hardship mountain, through poverty valley
On the sea of regret we set sail
From sweat lodge to sauna, flora to fauna
I loved you more than tongue can tell
In the down and out forest, dismal river chorus
Capsized by the wind and the whale
Ghost Dance - by Patti Smith
We shall live again we shall live
What is it children that falls from the sky
Tayi taya tayi aye aye
Manna from heaven from the most high
Food from the father tayi taya aye
We shall live again we shall live again
We shall live again shake out the ghost dance
Peace to your brother, give and take eat
Tayi taya dance little feet
One foot extended snake to the ground
Wave up the earth worm turn around
Stretch out your arms now dip and swing
Bird of thy birth tayi taya
The oe of the shoe the ou of the soul
Dust of the world that shakes from the tail
Here we are, Father, Lord, Holy Ghost
Bread of your bread host of your host
We are the tears that fall from your eyes
Word of your word cry of your cry
We shall live again we shall live again
What is it Father that turns to the right
What is it Father in your holy light
What is it Father that shakes from your hand
What is it Father that turns me around
What is it Father can you tell me when
Father, will we live again
Calling Thunderbird Blues
"Calling Thunderbird Blues"
Words by Keith Secola (Akina Music ASCAP)
"Calling Thunderbird Blues"
Words by Keith Secola (Akina Music ASCAP)
They made us many promises, they only kept oneThey promised to take our land and they took itWanted for grand theft, racism, genocide 500 years of tourismApply today for your certificate of forgivenessPrice may vary based upon your ancestral sinsYou cannot wake up somebody who is pretending to sleep
We did not inherit the Earth from our ancestorsbut we borrowed it from our childrenEarth is mother to all, an animal knows more than you
When the Earth is ravished and the animals are dyinga new tribe of people shall come forthTheir actions and deeds will make the Earth green againThey'll be known as the Ingitchie Ta Warriors, warriors of the Earth
You will remember that you belong to the EarthYou will remember the silence in music is for the sorrow of the Earththe children of the sunThere is a bridge you can cross only if you don't look downOnly by the hands of the greedy does the Earth require a fee
Trust those who can listen to the wind, can hear the silencefeel your heart, everything has a spirit, honor thatLove your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your lifeWhen you arise in the morning, give thanks to the morning sun
Give thanks to your life, your strengthIf you cannot see reason to give thanks, then the fault lies within
Live your life so that the fear of death will never enter your heartSo when the time comes for you to pass over the great divideYou will not cry for another day to live your life over in a different way, a right waybut you will sing your death song like a hero going home
We must lead people gently to the brutal truth of self discoveryTo the brutal truth of our own self discoveryWho are you? I am Annishinabe, Hopi, Diné, CherokeeManifest Destiny, the doctrines of hypocrisy
And in the beginning, there was darkness so they sent the warriors out to search for lightAfter a long time they returned with a light that could light up the night skyThey called it the moon but they needed moreThey sent the warriors out, but they returned with nothingBut two brothers they searched and searched and when they came homeThey came home with something that could light up the skyWhen they asked them what it was they said it was the sunWhen they asked them where they got it from, they said from inside the Earth
Everybody in here is alright... your ancestors were assholes
STRANGER ANGELS:
1. KING WHIRL (Least, Last, & Lost)
In this old world where whirl is king
Look away bound away from the feather to the wing
For the least, the last, and the lost we sing
Turning the wine back to water
I drone on the summit, when the moon is high
Unarmed Forces, by my side
A scout on the mesa, with the calvary behind
Turning the wine back to water
Tell me when the horses of war will be
On Flower Mountain, loose and free
And we’ll close the big banks of misery
Turning the wine back to water
There’s golden handcuffs, on your mind there kid
And a black snake crawling through the water-shed
And star spangled nails on your coffin lid
Turning the wine back to water
So tonight I smell the smoke, from an un-lit fire
Black Elk he listens to the lonely choir
St Francis and the wolf, in their funeral attire
Turning the wine back to water
2. STILL AND STILL MOVING
Oh my, snowblind winter’s here again
Is that so, torn coats, beggars in the wind
Dharma bums, wine and rum, north-bound underpass
Someone might, remind this night, that nothing’s built to last…
New moon up over King’s Hill…
Still and still moving, still
I’ve tried, to live kind, spend my love on you…
Worried spirit, worried mind, strum the worried blues
Didn’t know, couldn’t know, how deep to dig the well
Hearts learn, or do not learn, to ring out like a bell…
In the valley of the shadow’s chill…
Still and still moving, still….
So good bye… to high crimes, the race the game the lie
Don’t know, can’t know, what happens when we die
But when we live, what we give, like thunder in the sky
Linger’s long, never gone, an old-world lullaby…
The cup that’s never empty filled…
Still and still moving, still...
3. AS BELOW, SO ABOVE
Death did I say, well I meant uncoiled…
There is no death just a change of worlds…
I’m writing you this letter, cause the end is not the end…
All fragile where the season’s turn…
The captive mind just burns and burns…
I wanna be there when your ashes, find a new home in the sky…
Well you light my way, make straight my path
All the way to heaven is heaven at last
And the first and final word is love
As below, so above
When the frequencies are set to lies…
The apocalypse will be televised…
I’m whispering this love song, called be thou not afraid…
I’ll think of you when the wood-smoke curls…
On your long journey to the spirit world…
With this farewell poem in the heart… of sailor’s where they sleep…
Well you light my way, make straight my path
All the way to heaven to heaven is at last…
And the first and final word is love
As below it’s so above
4. HEART, WHEREVER
In the false dawn of the morning, in the moon of popping trees
I cut across the south field with the stalks cut to my knees
I’ll just use the rain for my rain coat in the mist
While i’m looking for the heart…. Wherever it exists…
looking for the heart, wherever it exists
A cardboard sign by the interstate, “hopeless” spelled in black
She dressed her dreams up for a train but failed to bring them back
Everyone wants heaven now but no one wants to die
When you’re looking for the heart…. wherever you can find
I was waiting on your message, I was waiting on your call
I was waiting on someone, who could be my all in all
We were waiting for the miracle of not asking for too much
And we were looking for the heart, something we could touch
I would have recognized your ghost shirt
But my eyes got in the way
It’s hard to teach this stone to talk dear
When it’s got so much to say
So time it grabs your throat and it throws you against the wall
In such slow motion you don’t notice at all
You wake up one sweet day thinking of everyone you miss
While you been looking for the heart… wherever it still is
5. EVERYWIND
Golden arrows in the sunlight… and the great lake a hungry ghost
And we wake if we wake at all to the rumors of violence coast to coast
I’m standing ‘neath the gallows… of 2017
And it occurs to the songbirds whose nests are in shambles to take heart in times like these…
Some call her earth mother, some call her my girl
The Night-Flying Woman who always knows
My sister my daughter, the lady of the water
Grandmother moon to the fox and the crow….
But her name was Everywind…. oh her name was Everywind…
Seek the woods, protect the water…. the chop and carry days are through
The hearts of the women have survived the manslaughter madness they’ve suffered through…
New songs to sing their praises… new shelters from old storms…
I believe in the strength of the softness that bears away burdens of new worlds being born…
Some call her earth mother, some call her my girl
The Night Flying Woman who always knows
My sister my daughter, the lady of the water
Grandmother Moon to the owl and the crow
But her name was Everywind… oh her name was Everywind…
Her name was Everywind, born on the trader’s road
In nineteen and seven in unknown snows
The islands of the Ojibwe, water wave and stone
Her story was carved in the birchbark scrolls..
6. THE LOST 40 (Some Dark Hollow)
In the Lost 40 where they mis-drew the maps
In the old growth forest that fell through the cracks
Between the rich man’s greed, and the white man’s axe
When it’s nine to the graveyard but eight coming back
And peace like a river jumps its tracks
And takes the last nickel from your nation’s sack
Mercy and grace…. the haunted air is unlaced….
In some dark hollow……… I escape….
It takes a lifetime to build, and one day to destroy
Your elections bought by poster boys
Right sleight of hand, left hand decoy
Where’s the thicket of dreams, to shield us from harm
From the emperor’s fist and the law’s long arm
In the Mother’s nest where the raven’s swarm
Mercy, and grace…… the haunted air is unlaced….
In some dark hollow………… I escape
Give me a moment of silence…… after a season of violence (2X)
Give me a moment of silence… after a season
7. STARRING THE NIGHT
Well the dharma she rolls, over reeds where deep waters flow
East to west like a heron in the dark where nobody sees
It’s November again, a blue norther is coming in
And I abandon my post in the moonlight, so I can go
Starring the night…. Starring my dream state…
Over barbed-wire fences that never tell the whole tale
Oh hear our prayer…. Mend up the broken glare
And deliver us from darkness as we go…. We go starring the night
And God only knows… which seed dies and which grows
And which planets pull the tides in the hearts of man
I met a seer…. And Ojibwa with eyes so clear
He said original mind is neither sacred or profane…
On that long drive alone…. False dawn and the undertones
I remember the rock wall in the garden by the meadow on my grandparents farm
And i thought of my friends…. To the ends of the earth, to the ends!
And how many moons have passed since we used to go…
We’d go starring the night…. starring our best laid plans
And we burned the horoscopes that sent us apart
Oh hear our prayer…. Deliver us here from there…
In the heart of the moment where love commands the day, we go starring the night
And it’s poison control…. The politics of division grow
And the greater good is tossed out on its ear
And the future looks grim… our flagship in a tailspin
And we look for a savior but the savior hides within
And you come to me scared… and we shoot off emergency flares
Can our love take the beating the winds of change must give
And i say that it can… and i say that we must stand
Like a snowflake in the fire and get ready for to go…
We go starring the night…. Starring our best selves
And the frost in the window is starring as itself
Oh hear our prayer… sage burned and laid low
And deliver us from darkness as we go…. We go starring the night
8. STRANGER ANGELS
I’m the next of kin to the wayward wind I’m goin…
I can’t sing this dance, or dance this song I’m gone…
Someplace where I won’t make the greedy richer…
On the rock and birchbark shores of Old Minong…
So gather everything you hold dear…. and practice giving it away…
There’s another world but it’s in this world…. Stranger Angels know the way
I’ve grown old in love, from seven til seven times seven
The scorched-earth campaign, you marched across my heart
Now i only live by silence, cunning, and exile
Cause you never know just where the fighting starts
Who built these playgrounds on our cemeteries?
Who stuffed these broken mirrors into our hands?
To whose voodoo economics are you in debt dear?
Who said it was the clothes that make the man?
So gather everything you hold dear… and practice giving it away
There’s another world but it’s in this world…. Stranger Angels know the way…
Wild mustangs starve in the hills outside Las Vegas
And the West is burning like a Lake of Fire
When the desert comes to swallow up our prairies
You’ll wish you had not dared called god a liar…
There’s another spirit on the water… there’s another hollow square they say
There’s another world but it’s in this world… Stranger Angels lead the way
9. The Field & The Pearl
Four-score nightingales hear them sing
Calling your name on the whistle-black plains
It’s late in the evening in the early spring
And I’m scared once again…. of every dream…
There’s no such thing as safe and sound
Most of what we lose, it can never be found
Like a migrant camp at the edge of town
We’re just one false step… from every edge
Out in the field where you found the pearl
At the stillest point, of the turning world
For the love of night, please tell no lies to me
Everybody’s talking but it’s still unknown,
I’m underground trying to make heaven my home
For the love of night, please stay so close to me….. so close to me…
There’s nothing you can sell me that I want more
Than to keep my vows to the old North Shore
What we’ve done to the Mother shakes me to the core
Where the clocks don’t sleep…. it’s later than you think..
As below it’s so above….
Spring brings everything back ‘cept the one’s we love
Still the cosmos fits you like a glove
You can have everything……………… but not tonight and it won’t be here….
You my love are a wonder behold
The shadow brokers can’t break your flow
I wouldn’t mistreat you for my weight in gold…
And the dark is just another… thing the light can do…
10. YOU GET GOT
I’ll be damned but that barn…. it needs a new coat of paint….
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’m not saying you aint…
The brush-pile needs burning… but i guess it can wait…
You’d better get if you’re goin, cause it’s already late…
go on if you’re going stead of making me wait
I coulda swore it would rain… think i’ll go check the mail
And Frank’s been drinking again… i think he thinks he’ll make bail…
Well I told him the last time, he gave flowers store bought….
Sometimes you get love, and sometimes you get got
Sometimes you get love, and sometimes you get got…
My country’s showing it’s ass…. It gets worse every day
Now the rich eat the poor… and for the privilege they pay
They trampled the wounded, and they hurdle the lame
They march up and down bullshit, mountain all day
Oh it’s best not believe, even one word they say
I feel crazy again…. This time it’s not going away…
I keep thinkin of John… i wonder what he would say….
A lifetime of near misses… one continuous mistake…
Then at just the right time, you watch everything change
Not a minute too soon, you see everything change
You spend your days and your night-times
Not being what you’re not
Sometimes you get love, sometimes you get got
Sometimes you get love, and sometimes you get got
Sometimes you get love…
11. FALSE TRUE LOVER BLUES
In the days of old in the days of gold, in the good old golden days
I left from old Clay County with my head a forest blaze
How to say and who could know just how much was to lose…
In the darkness before morning and the false true lover blues
I started out to mending all the holes from sky to sky
But it takes a plan to make God laugh, a promise to make her cry
You can dry your vale of tears with the scar tissue you choose
Like a singing dust bowl with the false true lover blues
Just what was it you’re missing that you’re so sure you were owed
It’s quickly separated like a fool and his gold
The better angels of our natures have some breaking news
I’m afraid it doesn’t look good for the false true lover blues
Now the mourning dove is practicing her songbook all the day
If you want to practice being born than start without delay
Everything we think we know comes up just shy of truth
And you’re mumbling underneath your breath, the false true lover blues
12. STAR NATION