Inside 537

Slip Away

I once built castles
Towers and keeps
Entertained Princes
All through my sleep
We’d ride our
Swift coursers
Through the forest glades
With morning all would slip away.

I had no fences to
Define my reign
Only horizons
Rising again
Sailing on
Tall galleons
Cresting open waves
But sand through small fingers, slips away.

I will not fear the fire
Into the rising flames I run
In you my one desire
A never-ending has begun
A hundred thousand miracles
Could not avert my fallen eyes
Then in my silent reverie
Explodes the sun of your surprise

Awaking from a boyhood dream
A panoply of fantasy
A prince adorned in gallantry
Arising from a bended knee
Who can’t begin to understand
The hope he holds within the hand
That reaches out to touch your face
In sighs of once-remembered grace

I once held twilight
In my embrace
Waiting for darkness
To hide my face
Then I heard you
Say that you would
Love me anyway
I could not let that slip away

I heard you
Say that you would
Love me anyway
And I can’t let you slip away...
No I’ll never let you slip away.

Words & Music, Les Brown
© 2008 Les Brown

Bring You Into Me

Castles of sand between the waves upon the shoreline;
The feet of children chasing birds into the sea;
Beyond the reef a dolphin spinning into blue sky;
These are the things that always bring you into me

The nightbird's cry as she skims the liquid mirror
The breath of horses gathering spirit for the ride.
The storm that gathers into rivers down my windows;
These are the things that always call me to your side.

And we laughed at the moon
Threw our hearts to the starlight
We laughed up at the moon
And then we fell into the sea.
And we laughed at the moon
Threw our hearts into the starlight
I felt the waters deepen
And then you came unto me...

A waking forest in the first snow of the winter
Exploding mountains casting fire into the sky
A nest of starlings on a beam beneath the freeway
These are the things that keep you resting on my mind.

Pelican diving into foaming crests of ocean
The voice of Jesus in the laughter of a child
A hidden waterfall along the winding highway
These are the things in you that keep my spirit wild...

The Silence

Faces drifting,
Pass across this umbral heart.
Endearing faces I have loved;
They can’t see me.

From deep inside my silence I reach out.
They do not speak, they don't respond.
How can they when they do not know?
Cannot perceive what I do not reveal?

But everybody waits.
For someone else.
To break the silence.
And so the silence grows.

It fills the dark, too deep for words.
And all beloved faces
That fill this deep in me,
Will rise to pass again
Another day.

And in that time I’ll
Open wide
My breath will catch
At  words that fail.
And I, alone again,
Will taste
The silence...

Roll That Stone Away

I’ve been walking all my life, wishing I could run
I knew that You loved me ‘cause You said so
But still the deepest part of me was empty and alone
And feeling You like chasing after rainbows
In my mind I knew You must be there
I could hear Your voice in the distance somewhere

Roll that stone away
I’m steppin’ on up, straight outta this broken tomb today
I’m takin’ up my cross, I’m gonna raise it up high
Sayin’ this is what I’ve been redeemed from
So roll that stone away.

You said that I would find you when I looked with all my heart
And all the time I’m standing right beside You
Then when I finally found You in the heartbeat of a friend
It took a lifetime before I recognized You
But You refused to let me go
And now I just can’t get enough, the more I know You

Roll that stone away
I’m steppin’ on up, straight outta this broken tomb today
I’m takin’ up my cross, I’m gonna raise it up high
Sayin’ this is what I’ve been redeemed from
So roll that stone away.

Bridge:
Roll, like a zephyr in the morning You would
Blow my clouded fears away and I would
Know that You would be my hope; that You were Everything
My Everything, I cry out to You!

                            ©2006 Words & Music by Les Brown

Astronomy

And then I saw a shooting star
That rush of wonder
Sharp-drawn breath; that stuttered pulse,
And gone...
An empty sky;
Only the ache remains.
But from behind, your breath
Against my neck
Your words
Into my ear
And as I turn
You fill my arms, and then my heart.
The sky now full;
The ache a distant memory.

What I See

Nobody here but me and you
And I just want you to know what it means to me
To be held in the arms of you
At the center of space and eternity
As time just keeps on dancing
And all the roses fade into broken dreams
My heart still lights this candle
As high as I can reach in the hopes you’ll see
What I see
See what I see
That you will see what I see...

Way up here in the stratosphere
There are no angels to catch me as I fall
Out of grace, so I’m tumbling
Thrashing out as I grab onto nothing at all
And I will call out your name
And I will close my eyes 'til I dream your face
And then there’ll be two hearts laughing
Just because no other eyes can see
What they see
See what they see
No one can see what they see...

And I fall down and I stand up
I try to feel and I feel too much
I pray for love in the silent rain
I slip and fall and I start again...

I know one day I will live again
I know because I believe what I believe
No one can take that away from me
And no one else can erase what I’ve received
As time just keeps on dancing
If I can hold your hand I will dance with you
And then I don’t mind falling
As long as you are falling with me too
Me and you
Two, Me and You
If you will fall with me too

Me and You

                                  Words and Music © 2007 by Les Brown

Dreamer

I wish I could fly
I guess someday I will
But I would never touch the ground again
I would never come back down again

And I would not say good-bye
I know there isn’t time
I’d pack my heart with everyone I love
I’d set my sight a million miles above

And you’d be at my side...

I used to be a dreamer
And I guess that’s who I am
But can you love me anyway
This lost and broken man?

Even though I cannot fly
All I need to see is you
Then I hear this sweet, angelic sound
I can feel my feet come off the ground

And I’m rising into blue
All the pain is far behind
Eternity and time is just the start
Deep within the quiet of my heart

Where I stand alone with you

‘Cause I was born a dreamer
And I’m not a simple man
Can you love me anyway
As wounded as I am?

I wish that I could fly...
Yes, I wish that I could fly
How I wish that I could fly
I guess someday I will...

Words and Music ©2006 by Les Brown

Kingdom Heart

(Well, the melody is coming now...)

I look in my heart and all I can see
Is how much I need Your Love in me
And when I look out my eyes
At all the people You love
I wonder how it is You could love me

There’s this hole here inside where You belong
And I want to fill it up but I’m just not that strong.

Lord give me Your Kingdom heart,
Your Kingdom eyes
Lord give me Your Kingdom heart,
Your Kingdom eyes
Let me feel what You feel.
Let me see what You see.
Your Kingdom heart
Your Kingdom eyes.

In the morning I come, I want to seek Your face
But sometimes Your peace just eludes me
And though You knew who I’d be
Before I took my first breath
My trust and my faith are found wanting

There’s this hole inside of me where You belong
And I’ve got to fill it up but I’m just not that strong.

Lord give me Your Kingdom heart,
Your Kingdom eyes
Lord give me Your Kingdom heart,
Your Kingdom eyes
Let me feel what You feel.
Let me see what You see.
Your Kingdom heart
Your Kingdom eyes.

Through Your Kingdom Heart.
Through Your Kingdom Eyes.

Angels' Wings (redux)

As I become the darkest night
Containing but a single star
You burn, you glow so deep inside
One faintly flickering harbinger.
I dream I am a silhouette
Set against a blackened sky
I cannot breathe, I have no heart
I cannot live, I cannot die
Caught between the arrow and the rings
I thought I felt the beat of angels’ wings

The winter, like a stone descends
To fill the vacuum in my chest
A single spark, an ode to life
Rages at the heaviness
It rises up and I awaken
To the void between the stars.
I gasp, I reach, my fingers close
On bitter cold and hardened scars.
I close my eyes to shut away the sting,
And then I feel the beat of angels’ wings.

So I have heard, redemption lies
Beyond my rigor mortised fists
But when I raise my voice to cry
A breathless whisper binds my lips
Despair defeats, I yield my soul
Then, from the black, a warmth descends
The icy crystals coalesce
A shape...  A form... A ghost?
A friend.
Newly reborn, the child begins to sing
And thunderous is the beat of angels’ wings.

Africa

(These lyrics are still looking for music, if anything comes to mind...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the warm heart of Africa
Her tears wash over me.
There are children down in Africa
Whose cries go unperceived.
And the mothers down in Africa
Can’t live to see their children grow.
But they wait at heaven’s portal
They won’t rest until they know
Way down in Africa

And if you’re wondering
As we all sometimes do
How can there be a God?
How can there be a God?

You can find Him down in Africa
In the heart of a hungry child.
He’s alive in deepest Africa
In the orphan’s hollow eyes.
‘Cause the least of these in Africa
Are the first in His domain
All across the Serengeti
Through the forest and the plains
Way down in Africa

And if you’re wondering
As we all sometimes do
How can there be a God?
How can there be a God?

You can find Him down in Africa
In the heart that comes to heal
In the light that splits the darkness
In the hope of love revealed
In the hands that hold compassion
In tiny feet on dusty roads
In the arms that reach toward heaven
For a dream that they can hold

Way down in Africa