Favorites Club

Imagine that you have just joined a club.
It is a FAVORITES book/cd club.
When it is your time to make a suggestion you should suggest a book and cd that is your favorite –the one that you really connect with.
Your goal is not to please the group but to convey something about yourself with your selection.
Select the one book that you really connect with for whatever reason. Select the album/cd that you would keep if you were only allowed one for the rest of your life.
Along with your selection please explain why.

My book selection would be East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
I loved this book for many reasons. I think I connected initially because of my love of genealogy. I love the time period the book covers and I imagined some of my family members that were also living during that time.
I like that it is layered with factual and fictional stories. I adored the Hamilton family and wanted so much more about them. I love the timeless human struggle of good vs. evil, making choices and dealing with the affects of those choices. I like the spirituality of it. I also like that it is not very subtle with these aspects. I think this is a wonderful book for the everyman.
I love that I can feel, taste, and touch the landscapes in the Salinas Valley.
All this talk about it makes me want to pull out my copy and read it again.

My album (cd) selection is so much more difficult. I have thought about this for days. I narrowed it down to David Wilcox’s Big Horizon and Jackson Browne’s Late for the Sky.
If I had to only have one for the rest of my life I would have to choose Late for the Sky.
How much do I love the first side of this album?
I will print the lyrics here because they are poetry. Each of these songs holds such strong emotional memories and ties for me. My favorite of these depends on my mood and what I am going through. They have all been favorites at one time or another and I am sure that cycle will continue as life continues. Enjoy.

Late for the Sky
The words had all been spoken
And somehow the feeling still wasnt right
And still we continued on through the night
Tracing our steps from the beginning
Until they vanished into the air
Trying to understand how our lives has led us there

Looking hard into your eyes
There was nobody I'd ever known
Such an empty surprise to feel so alone

Now for me some words come easy
But I know that they don't mean that much
Compared with the things that are said when lovers touch
You never knew what I loved in you
I dont know what you loved in me
Maybe the picture of somebody you were hoping I might be

Awake again I cant pretend and I know I'm alone
And close to the end of the feeling weve known
How long have I been sleeping
How long have I been drifting alone through the night
How long have I been dreaming I could make it right
If I closed my eyes and tried with all my might
To be the one you need

Awake again I can't pretend and I know Im alone
And close to the end of the feeling weve known
How long have I been sleeping
How long have I been drifting alone through the night
How long have I been running for that morning flight
Through the whispered promises and the changing light
Of the bed where we both lie
Late for the sky


Fountain of Sorrow

Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer
I was taken by a photograph of you
There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more
But they didnt show your spirit quite as true
You were turning round to see who was behind you
And I took your childish laughter by surprise
And at the moment that my camera happened to find you
There was just a trace of sorrow in your eyes

Now the things that I remember seem so distant and so small
Though it hasn't really been that long a time
What I was seeing wasn't what was happening at all
Although for a while, our path did seem to climb
But when you see through loves illusions, there lies the danger
And your perfect lover just looks like a perfect fool
So you go running off in search of a perfect stranger
While the loneliness seems to spring from your life
Like a fountain from a pool

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You've had to hide sometimes, but now youre all right
And its good to see your smiling face tonight

Now for you and me it may not be that hard to reach our dreams
But that magic feeling never seems to last
And while the futures there for anyone to change, still you know its seems
It would be easier sometimes to change the past
I'm just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you
In my lessons at love's pain and heartache school
Where if you feel too free and you need something to remind you
Theres this loneliness springing up from your life
Like a fountain from a pool

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You've had to hide sometimes but now youre all right
And its good to see your smiling face tonight
Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
Youve had to struggle, you've had to fight
To keep understanding and compassion in sight
You could be laughing at me, youve got the right
But you go on smiling so clear and so bright

Farther On
In my early years I hid my tears
And passed my days alone
Adrift on an ocean of loneliness
My dreams like nets were thrown
To catch the love that Id heard of
In books and films and songs
Now theres a world of illusion and fantasy
In the place where the real world belongs
Still I look for the beauty in songs

To fill my head and lead me on
Though my dreams have come up torn and empty
As many times as love has come and gone
To those gentle ones my memory runs
To the laughter we shared at the meals
I filled their kitchens and living rooms
With my schemes and my broken wheels
It was never clear how far or near
The gates to my citadel lay
They were cutting from stone some dreams of their own
But they listened to mine anyway
Im not sure what Im trying to say

It could be Ive lost my way
Though I keep a watch over the distance
Heavens no closer than it was yesterday
And the angels are older
They know not to wait up for the sun
They look over my shoulder
At the maps and the drawings of the journey Ive begun

Now the distance leads me farther on
Though the reasons I once had are gone
I keep thinking Ill find what Im looking for
In the sand beneath the dawn
But the angels are older
They can see that the suns setting fast
They look over my shoulder
At the vision of paradise contained in the light of the past
And they lay down behind me
To sleep beside the road till the morning has come
Where they know they will find me
With my maps and my faith in the distanceMoving farther on

The Late Show
Everyone Ive ever known has wished me well
Anyway thats how it seems, its hard to tell
Maybe people only ask you how youre doing
cause thats easier than letting on how little they could care
But when you know that you've got a real friend somewhere
Suddenly all the others are so much easier to bear
Now to see things clear its hard enough I know
While youre waiting for reality to show
Without dreaming of the perfect love
And holding it so far above
That if you stumbled onto someone real, youd never know
(youd never know)
You could be with somebody who is lonely too
(sometimes it doesnt show)
He might be trying to get across to you
(words can be so slow)
When your own emptiness is all thats getting through
There comes a point when youre not sure why youre still talking
I passed that point long ago
(long ago)

Now Im so tired of all this circling
And all these glimpses of the end
(you know its useless to pretend)
Thats all the voices say:
You'll go right on circling
Until youve found some kind of friend

I saw you through the laughter and the noise
You were talking with the soldiers and the boys
While they scuffled for your weary smiles
I thought of all the empty miles
And the years that Ive spent looking for your eyes
(looking for your eyes)
And now Im sitting here wondering what to say
(that you might recognize)
Afraid that all these words might scare you away
(and break through the disguise)
No one ever talks about their feelings anyway
Without dressing them in dreams and laughter
I guess its just too painful otherwise
Look--Its like youre standing in the windowOf a house nobody lives in
And Im sitting in a car across the way
(lets just say)
Its an early model chevrolet
(lets just say)
Its a warm and windy day
You go and pack your sorrow
The trash man comes tomorrow
Leave it at the curb and well just roll away

Side 2 – For A Dancer
Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I don't remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must have thought you'd always be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now youre nowhere to be found

I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
Its like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I cant sing
I cant help listening
And I can't help feeling stupid standing round
Crying as they ease you down
cause I know that youd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
(right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play
(theres nothing you can do about it anyway)
Just do the steps that youve been shown
By everyone youve ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours
Anothers steps have grown
In the end there is one dance you'll do alone

Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
(the world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound

Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But youll never know



Poetry.
And it touches my soul.
It has brought me through transition, heartbreak, worry, uncertainty ….always looking for a light to find a way.