"Along the Shadows"

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This is a stream-of-consciousness rumination on Right and Wrong, or something like that, set in that place between consciousness and everything else. It's actually more like the Bob Dylan tunes I gorged on early in my career than anything else -- just words, words and more words reeling off images.

"Along the Shadows"
Copyright © 1996
(Published 2001 as part of "Long Way Home;" Suwimbo Music #535-01)

Listen to a song clip (CD order button).

As a child I awakened without any doubt
About what I would do with the day.
When I lay down to sleep for the last time
I hope I can say I had it my way.
In my boyhood I learned about anger and shame;
Of beatings and lying to cover my name;
Trying hard in the present to clean up my game;
And blaming nobody at all.

Yesterday was a struggle against all the problems
I set up to learn how to love.
And tomorrow has beautiful promise
Of ecstasy shimmering way up above.
In the meantime, I hang in the balance of doubt;
Of wondering whether it ever works out;
Admitting I might never figure it out;
And loving myself anyway.

Dancing freely in a crowd;
Flung out wide, spinning 'round;
Laughing gaily, flower-crowned;
Homeward bound along the shadows.

In the worst of my dreams I abandon the means
To achieve what I know I must do.
In the heat of the moment I toss off my hold
On the ties that have bound me to you.
Tumbling helplessly end over end into space;
Blinded, I cannot remember my face;
Clutching at straws at the end of the race;
And gracelessly dying alone…

Do you think you're somebody who gets what they want
Without question of righteous or wrong?
Do you think of the people who get in the way,
Don't you wonder why you don't belong?
In the darkness of passion integrity dies;
In the probing of daylight a curtain of lies;
In the deepest depression my soul realized
The glorious power of love!

Rip the chains, flip the mask,
Fly to freedom unsurpassed.
Future-bound without a past;
Cruising fast along the shadows

I went to bed last night thanking God for the music,
Good health, and my sweet Lorraine.
I woke up this morning praying, "Help me, please,
Make it through in one piece again!"
In between I was living one dream at a time;
Kaleidoscope visions of rhythm and rhyme;
Awake in a moment of being alive;
Without any fear of failure.

I was a saint who took no shit
From dilettantes and hypocrites.
A ballerina from misfits
Pirouettes along the shadows.

Buy the CD ($10) =>

If you prefer to pay by check or money order, mail your payment to:

   Stanislove
   % "Long Way Home" CD offer
   P.O. Box 31503
   Seattle, WA 98103-1503

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