Song Lyrics And Poetry 2

Guns and Bibles
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

Guns and Bibles faith or fate
Separation of church and state
Peace and freedom, democracy
Politicians, hypocrisy
They confuse us and complicate facts
Fool us and use us and increase our tax

Guns and Bibles, land of prosperity
Fossil fuel oil, Christianity
Oil pipelines and war machines
Sons and daughters, U.S. Marines

Guns and Bibles, land of the free
A perfect union of enemies
Things ain’t like they used to be
There’s a blindfold on Lady Liberty

Guns and Bibles, evangelical right
Revelation, the Anti-Christ
Terrorism, a world in fear
Jerry Fallwell, the end is near
M-sixteen’s, Cellular phones
Aladdin’s Carpet in the no fly zone

Guns and Bibles, men in business suits
The sands of time beneath combat boots
House of Commons, common sense
Talking heads on our TV sets
They talk for hours and then they’re gone
Two hundred channels and nothing’s on

Guns and Bibles, gavels on wood
Compensation for the corporate good
Halliburton, Enron
Barbed wire around the White House lawn
Dirt and water turns into mud
The Potomac River flows red with our blood
Guns and Bibles, international law
Invisible Angels, shock and awe
Swallowed words, swallowed pride
Chemical weapons, somebody lied
Stars and stripes shattered and frayed
Red, white and blue, colors fade

Guns and Bibles, live and let die
Listen to the man from his pulpit in the sky
Remember North Korea, Viet Nam
Germany and Japan
Broken promises, broken bones
World War Four, sticks and stones
Guns and Bibles, lessons learned
Stand too close to the fire
And you’re gonna get burned
Finger on the trigger, finger on the Word
The bullet strikes harder, it’s all that is heard
Trapped by our morals, there’s no place to run
Guns and Bibles, Bibles and Guns

Guns and Bibles, land of the free
A perfect union of enemies
Things ain’t like they used to be
There’s a blindfold on Lady Liberty
Trapped by our morals, there’s no place to run
Guns and Bibles, Bibles and Guns

Guns and Bibles - It was Memorial Day 2005. The war in Iraq was already out of control. George Bush made a speech about how important it was for the US to be there and he honored the soldiers who had died there fighting for...... I became rather angry. Not only about the war, but about everything the Bush administration had fucked up. My anger manifested itself in the form of this song. Orange County is a big time right wing conservative area. To date I have never performed this song in public for that reason. 

Gold Digger
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

She’s a high maintenance lady
Who loves material things
Big homes, fast cars, money
And diamond rings

I am just a singer
Who loves his old guitar
I’ve written songs in laundry mats
And I sleep in the back seat my car

She wants everyone and everything
To be under her control
I am always happiest
When I’m playing rock and roll

Gold digger what do you dig in me
I ain’t rich and don’t want no bitch
Telling me who or what to be
Gold digger I just ain’t your man
So find an old, fat sugar daddy
Cause he’s the only one that can

I can’t keep from wondering
Why she came to see my show
I am not the kind of man
She would ever want to know

Yeah, I am just a singer
Who loves his old guitar
I’ve written songs in laundry mats
And I sleep in the back seat my car

Gold digger what do you dig in me
I ain’t rich and don’t want no bitch
Telling me who or what to be
Gold digger I just ain’t your man
So find an old, fat sugar daddy
Cause he’s the only one that can

Gold Digger- This is one of many songs and poems that I have written on my boat “Ellis Island.” The woman portrayed in the poem is loosely based on someone whom I know, or I should say used to know, very well. Written in the summer of 2002.

For Every Moment
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

Reality falls from hand to hand
And it gets too hard to hold
Sometimes it’s hard to be a man
It ain’t easy growing old

The days they come and the days they go
Time just slips away
The years go by and before you know
Tomorrow’s just another day

And I will forever
Know one thing is true
For every moment in my life
I’ll be in love with you

You wake up from a dream
With pleasure on your smile
It’s strange how real
A dream can seem
You want to go back and sleep awhile

You’re torn between the right and wrong
You struggle with the good and bad
Sometimes a moment can last so long
Sometimes it’s all you ever had

The days they come and the days they go
Time just slips away
The years go by and before you know
Tomorrow’s just another day

And I will forever
Know one thing is true
For every moment in my life
I’ll be in love with you

For Every Moment - If anyone asks me to describe love I can easily recite this. I wrote this a long time ago. Even though I looked at life through a strangers eyes and then wrote it with a hand not of my own, this time the stranger was a teacher.

Father Knows Best
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

Father relaxed down in the den
Reading the paper and numbing his head
Mother sat in the kitchen drinking her scotch
As she tried to ignore the itch in her crotch

A fantasy family who lit up our screens
During the days we dreamt black and white dreams
Never a mention of the cold war mess
We just did as instructed, because father knows best

We were all taken in by this television fable
While Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe on a table
Bud and Betty, they were still cool
When the air raid sirens went off at their school

They sat in their PJ‘s under terry cloth robes
As they all watched Sputnik orbit the globe
Eisenhower, Nixon and the state of the nation
But no one bothered to change the station

Betty was prom queen, she never looked better
As Bud masturbated in his letterman’s sweater
While looking at Fathers Playboys he would swelter
In the heat of the families fallout shelter

Each week we were all glued to our TV‘s
Escaping the real world of the late fifties
As nuclear missile’s sat in their nests
We just did as instructed, because father knows best

Father Knows Best - Written late 1990’s  Here are Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Ellenore Donahue, Bill Gray and…..  I was a few years younger than Betty, but I fantasized about what was under
those tight sweaters that she wore on TV. It was the fifties and early sixties. We were in a very intense cold war with the Russians. The nukes, the race for space and world domination, drilling at school for a nuclear attack by ducking and covering up under our desks. I guess we just took it as word that if we got into the fetal position under our desks we would survive a multi-megaton nuclear bomb attack. Father Knows Best was one of those TV shows that completely ignored and never even hinted at all of the shitty stuff that was going on in the world at the time. It was an escape though. Every week we could spend a half-hour with the Andersons in Springfield, Somewhere USA and escape the frightening real world of the day. I wish that there were modern television shows like that on the air today. I guess The Simpson’s are about as close as we are ever going to get to that. Nick At Night still plays the old re-runs of Father Knows Best every week and you know….. Betty still looks mighty tasty!

Deep, Dark Family Secrets
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

Some things might be better off
If they go unsaid
There are people we never talk about
Until after they are dead
People who have misused us
Gained our trust and then abused us
But deep, dark family secrets
Can never be left behind

Skeletons in the closet
Of those who’ve done us wrong
Deep, dark family secrets
Can’t stay secret for very long
Painful memories and visions
Are tattooed on our minds
Deep, dark family secrets
Can never be left behind

We might feel pain and anger
But we will never be alone
Bravery, pride and courage
Grow in gardens made of stone
Sometimes life can be unfair
People can be quite unkind
But Deep, dark family secrets
Can never be left behind

We try to hide the memories
In the farthest corners of our minds
When we take the journey through our lives
If we look hard we will find
That Deep, dark family secrets
Can never be left behind
Deep, dark family secrets
Can never be left behind

Deep, Dark Family Secrets - This is one of those kinds of poems that I write and then the next
day I will read it and hardly be able to remember writing it. That happens to me a lot. I have said
many times that I sometimes view life from a strangers eyes and write with a hand not of my
own. This poem reflects one of those times. I have never lived a life that is represented in or by
this poem. There are no deep, dark family secrets in my life, or in my family, that I am aware of.
We are a pretty typical American family and we are not without our fair share of issues and some
degree of dysfunction. However there are, to my knowledge, no skeletons in the closet, never any
abuse or anything like that. No Deep, Dark Family Secrets! When I read this poem the day after I
wrote it… I was scared! I hope that I never have to view life from that particular strangers eyes
again. I have shared this poem with a lot of people and I am still in awe about how many people
actually relate to this poem. They have lived it and some are still living it. I thank God that my
life, in that respect, has been very good. I woke up from a sound sleep to write this sometime in
mid-2003.

Cyberspace Cowboy
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

Well, you know it isn’t easy
Raising a boy all alone
And if he’s got an addiction
I’d rather he be addicted at home
Another day of detention
For being late to class
The boy needs some attention
And a good kick in the ass

He’s a cyberspace cowboy
Trying to find his way home
Through the screen of a laptop
And the line of a phone
He reaches out to strangers
People he don’t even know
He’s a cyberspace cowboy
Trying to find his way home

Cyberspace Cowboy - 2002 Inspired by my youngest son, Brian. He was then, as he is now,
always glued to his computer. One night I thought of him as being a “Cyberspace Cowboy” for
no particular reason. I thought it was kind of a catchy name. Like a lot of times when I write I
could not possible sleep or concentrate on anything else until I wrote this poem. Then I actually
started to think of Brian as being a Cyberspace Cowboy…. Whatever the hell that is! I just
thought it was kind of funny and it would be fun for Dad to tease his son. A Cyberspace Cowboy!
Why not? A person can be whatever, or whoever they want to be in cyberspace. Right? A week
after I wrote this poem Brian was in a very frightening automobile accident. He rolled his Ford
Explorer. We both strongly feel that it was divine intervention that allowed him to walk away
from it without a scratch. It was a real eye opener for him and there seemed to be a lot of better
things I could say to Brian than to tease him and call him a Cyberspace Cowboy. I guess that it
was a real eye opener for me as well. Cyberspace Cowboy…. Pretty catchy name though!

Carolyns Song
(Guitar Of A Thousand Strings)
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

I’m gonna make a guitar and put on a thousand strings
Then I’m gonna play you a pretty song
And the love in my heart will sing
Well I ain’t got much money, and workin just ain’t my way
All I have is love for you
And I’ll love you till my dyin day

Oh, I’m gonna play you a pretty song, just a simple little tune
I’ll sing to you bout all the love my heart has for you
I’ll sing to you beneath the evening sky
So the moon and stars can see
I’ll play my guitar of a thousand strings
No prettier song could there ever be

I love you, that’s all I know
Nothing else could mean a thing
Oh, I’m gonna play you a pretty song
On my guitar of a thousand strings

Oh, I’m gonna play you a pretty song, just a simple little tune
I’ll sing to you bout all the love my heart has for you
I’ll sing to you beneath the evening sky
So the moon and stars can see
I’ll play my guitar of a thousand strings
No prettier song could there ever be

Carolyn's Song - Carolyn and I were together for twenty-four years and married for twenty-two of them. Over the course of our relationship I wrote many songs and poems either for her, or I was inspired by her. This is  one of them. I wanted to convey the concept of the guitar representing love and the more in love you were, the more strings you would want to have on that guitar. This guitar had one-thousand strings… Building the guitar is building love. Then imagining what a guitar with a thousand strings might sound like…. “No prettier song could there ever be.” I wrote that song sometime around 1976 or 1977. Definitely a love song written for a wonderful woman by a man who was very much in love with her. As I have grown older and wiser and become a better and better guitarist I can look back now and think, My God, how in the hell would you ever tune that sucker?  

Cardboard Boxes
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

I felt compelled to write this song
And say some things I need to say
Baby, I waited so very long
Just for you to come my way

And I know that it ain‘t easy
Makin changes and movin round
You don’t know how much you please me
You have made a smile out of a frown

I see your life in cardboard boxes
Memories of long ago
I know that everything you got was
Not just pain and sorrow

Well, I spent my whole life building fences
Now our love has torn them down
You woke me up, brought me to my senses
You have made a smile our of a frown
And when I look into your eyes
As you let your blonde hair fall
Its times like this I realize
We got the greatest love of all

And I know that it ain‘t easy
Makin changes and movin round
You don’t know how much you please me
You have made a smile out of a frown

Cardboard Boxes - 1998. Suzanne was moving in with me. We both had some baggage in our
respective lives. It was not a wise thing for us to be doing…. Moving in together after only about three months of dating. Sometimes we do stupid things when we are in love. The inside of my house was cluttered with cardboard boxed containing Suzanne’s personal things. I thought then that it looked like her whole life was in those boxes. All of her memories seemed to be in those boxes. I saw her life in those cardboard boxes. When Suzanne came into my life I was going through a pretty bad time in my life. The line in the song “you can make a smile out of a frown” is directly related to her. She really could do that for me. Suzanne had some demons of her own to deal with, but even still, she made me very happy during a very difficult time in my life. I am sorry to say that I don’t think I ever really thanked her for that. So if you ever happen to be reading this…. Suzanne, thank you!

Bambi
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

Bambi Lived in the forest
And a pretty deer was she
But she lost her life last Sunday morn
In the name of humanity

We’ll have plenty of meat for the winter
Said the hunter to the other
While out there in the wildwood
A fawn had lost her mother

Well I like steak and chicken
But somehow it ain’t the same
When a doe is on a hillside
And the hunter takes his aim

Bambi’s head hangs from the fireplace
A trophy sits behind the window panes
Deerskin on the carpet
Cold blood in her veins

Food out on the table
A family mealtime treat
Venecin on the platter
And the kids don’t wanna eat                                     

Well I like steak and chicken
But somehow it ain’t the same
When a doe is on a hillside
And the hunter takes his aim

Bambi’s dead and gone now
Behind a freezer’s door
And Jesus don’t like killing
No matter what the reason for

Guests have come for dinner
Get another chair
Bless this food we are about to eat
The hunter says a prayer

Bambi - This is a really old song….. 1975. I used to play it for my older kids when I put them to bed for the night. I wrote it after Carloyn and I had been backpacking in Mineral King (Western
Sierra Mountains). We were packing out the day before hunting season opened in the state forest. Somehow dear knew this and, en-masse, they crossed over to state park property where they cannot be legally hunted. We found ourselves, literally, in the middle of a pack of around 200 or more deer. It was a special moment. Of course this is often misinterpreted as a anti-hunting song. It really isn’t.

A Perfect Storm
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

There’s a cold wind blowing down from Toronto
There’s a Hurricane coming up from the Keys
Out of the east another storm is growing
Look’s like we’re in for nasty Sea’s
There’s a perfect storm on the rise
There’s a perfect storm in your eyes

All the planes have been grounded
The airport has been closed
All the ships have found safe harbor
And the city has closed all the roads

Baby, please stay here with me
I’ll keep you safe and warm
Look in my eyes, not at angry skies
I’ll protect you from the storm

There’s a perfect storm on the rise
There’s a perfect storm in your eyes

Outside the cold wind is blowing
It’s pouring down rivers of rain
Baby I know there’s nothing I can do
To ease your heart from the pain

I don’t expect you to forgive me
I’ve hurt you I realize
Just give me forever and I’ll turn the weather
Into sunny, cloudless, blue skies

There’s a perfect storm on the rise
There’s a perfect storm in your eyes

A Perfect Storm - A very interesting, if not a little tricky analogy of the Perfect Storm as it
pertains to the weather and the Perfect Storm as it might pertain to Anger. The music to this song is awesome, but the lyrics, message and story holds up over the guitar work and the underlying dark mood to the song.

A Bad Week
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

I quit smoking cigarettes
Just the other day
That didn’t last too long
It’s a bad week for fresh air anyway

I got to thinking
That I should stop drinking
I was drunk by the end of the day
It’s a bad week to get sober anyway

I didn’t want any more needles in my arm
It does nothing but cause me harm
I couldn’t put the needle away
It’s a bad week to quit slamming anyway

I tried to quit smoking crack cocaine
All it does is bring me pain
But, the Devil still wants to play
It’s a bad week, a very bad week
It’s a bad week anyway

A Bad Week - Anyone who has ever tried to quit using anything addictive will relate to this poem that was written in 2005.

You Are An Angel
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

You are an angel sent from above
You are an Angel, an angel of love
You are an Angel, an angel to me
You are an angel, I believe

You’re in my mind
You’re in my soul
You’re in my heart
You make my spirit whole

You are an angel who dances on clouds
And soars through the sky on wings so proud
You are an angel, You’re my destiny
You are an angel, I believe

You’re in my thoughts,
You’re in my dreams
You’re in each breath
That I breathe

You are an angel sent from above
You are an Angel, an angel of love
You are an Angel, an angel to me
You are an angel, I believe

You Are An Angel - I was baptized, for the second time in my life, when I was forty-nine, in the
Pacific Ocean atCorona Del Mar, California. It was late afternoon in the middle of July 1998 and
the sun was low in the western sky. I was held by two men and submerged into the water. When I came up and took a breath I opened my eyes to look on the beach in the cove where members of my church had gathered. The sun was bathing them in an yellowish-orange glowing light and I thought, at first, that they were all angels. When I returned home that evening I wrote  the song “You are an angel” out of the inspiration that I received that summer afternoon.

Women Should Rule
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

Women should rule the country
Clean up The messes that men have made
They would clothe the poor, feed the hungry
All those best plans that men have laid

They would eliminate the funding
Of weapons of mass destruction
And put all of that money into health,
Welfare and educational instruction

All the way to the Oval Office
Women should rule the nation
They would give equal rights to all
And bitch slap over-legislation

Women should rule the world
And give their men a rest
Everyone knows that women
Could do the job the best

Yes, women should rule the world
If only for just a while
Then God could look down from heaven
And She would proudly smile

Women should rule - I wrote this long before Hillary Clinton ever decided to run for President. There is a lot of truth to this poem

Why Does Love have To Be So Sad
© 2007 by Rick Ellis

Can anybody mend a broken heart
And put it back together again
The woman I love tore it all apart
And scattered the pieces into the wind

Can anybody heal a wounded spirit
Can anybody make me smile
Say something nice, I’d like to hear it
Don’t ya know it’s been awhile

You came into my heart
And caused my life to change
You reached into my mind
And made it re-arrange
You made me love you, baby
Like I’ve never loved before

You looked into my eyes
And you kissed me
You told me that you
Would always miss me
Then you turned around
And walked right out the door

Now I’m living in my car
Just me and my old guitar
I don’t have no place to go
Oh baby I still love you so

I used to sing you
Pretty love songs
Songs I wrote just for you
Now I just sit and play
My old six string
And sing nothing but the blues

Twelve bars and one six pack
Three chords and one pint of Jack
Girl why did you have to go
You left me baby
But I still love you so

Can give me anything for my pain
Something to help me sleep at night
Can you give me shelter from the rai
Can you make me feel alright

Sometimes love cuts like a knife
Like a bullet burning hot
Like years and years falling off my life
Like a fleeting glimpse of a distant thought
It hurts me like you’ll never know
Oh Lord it hurts so bad
Now it’s time for me to go
Oh why does love have to be so sad

Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad -  This song was written by a broken hearted, down and out man with a bad case of the blues. The blues is western civilization music, just as jazz, country and gospel music is. I sometimes wonder what kind of music a Chinese man with the blues writes! Maybe Chinamen don’t get the blues. Maybe the blues is something that only afflicts people in the western civilization.

The Unwritten Song

© 2007 by Rick Ellis

This is a song that has never been sung

It has never been written, never even begun

It’s a blank sheet of paper and it will never be done

For this is a song that has never been sung

This is a song, a story never spoken

About a man and a woman and hearts never broken

There are no lyrics to roll off my tongue

For this is a song that has never been sung

Oh where is the music, where is the rhyme

The backbeat and rhythm in three quarter time

The strum of guitars and the beat of a drum

Number one with a bullet of a song never sung

This is a melody that’s never filled the air

It has never be whistled because it has never been there

It has never been danced to beneath a warm evening sky

Or touched two lovers hearts as tears filled their eyes

This is a song that might have been true

If one heart was shared between me and you

A parallel universe and unexplored minds

Where love lasts forever in a moment in time

This is a guitar that will never be played

Hung up on a wall, or ever displayed

This is a guitar that has never been strung

For this is a song that has never been sung

This is a song that would come from my heart

Even if it was broken and torn all apart

This is a song that I’d write for you

If you only existed and my dreams all came true

Oh where is the music where is the rhyme

The backbeat and rhythm in three quarter time

The strum of guitars and the beat of a drum

Number one with a bullet of a song never sung

To Measure My Love

© 2007 by Rick Ellis

To measure my love for you

Would require more than the metric system

More than the highest intelligence

It would transcend all conventional wisdom

To measure my love for you

Or to make any sense of

Would challenge the brain of God

And he collective minds of Mensa

To measure my love for you

Would make the universe seem small

And the unified theory of space and time

Would be easily understood by all

To measure my love for you

Would take a million light years

Traveling at the speed of light

While grinding all the gears

My love for you my darling

Forever will be treasured

For all the love I have for you

Could never, ever be measured

Valerie

© 2007 by Rick Ellis

Sometimes I wake up and I feel so depressed

Can’t seem to get up and get myself dressed

Look in the mirror and don’t like what I see

Oh, why do you have such a hold over me

Valerie

I touch your pillow and I notice you’re gone

You left sometime between midnight and dawn

We had some words when we both were asleep

I just don’t know how I can keep 

From Valerie

Woke up this morning with a pain in my head

I had a dream last night, I think I was dead

I reached for you, but you were nowhere

I Don’t even know if you ever were there

Valerie

You bring me down when I’m up in the sky

You take me up when I’m too scared to fly

You give me courage from my cowardly ways

You help me get through those gray sky days

Valerie

What A Guy

© 2007 by Rick Ellis

He is a dreamer, an over achiever

He drives his Beemer all over town

He tries to be cool, but he looks like a fool

Might as well dress him up to look like a clown

His dad owns a business along with his mother

They gave him a title of something or other

He’s got a house in the hills, dad pays all his bills

And he gets his thrills out of living alone

He has no friends, but he makes amends

By talking to a dead air on his cellular phone

He’s got suits in his closet and pretty print ties

Along with some skeletons that don’t want to hide

Well you can’t get anywhere without paying your dues

Holding on to coat tails, wearing other peoples shoes

You can’t be successful when you’re living a lie

But somehow you’re doing it, oh what a guy

He plays the role of a man with a soul

but he’s digging a hole and he’ll never get out

He has no ethics and to be specific

He just doesn’t know what he’s talking about

He’s got an office, this young urban softie

And a cute secretary who brings him coffee

Well you can’t get anywhere without paying your dues

holding on to coat tails, wearing other peoples shoes

You can’t be successful when you’re living a lie

But somehow you’re doing it, oh what a guy

What Happened To Me And You

© 2007 by Rick Ellis

I know you

But I don’t know who you are

The words you gave me

Made me go to far

Now the love that I am losin

Got lost in the confusion

And now I got the blues

Baby, what happened to me and you

You wore your hair

In a pony tail

You thrilled me so

I thought my heart would fail

Now soon you will be goin

With the wind as it is blowin

Girl, I don’t know what I’ll do                                 

Baby, what happened to me and you

You came into my heart

You caused my life to change

You reached into my mind

And made it rearrange

Too bad bout our relation,

It’s a useless situation

And now I got the Blues

Baby, what happened to me and you

And even though I did not choose you

Girl, I just don’t want to lose you

And now I got the blues                                         

Baby, what happened to me and you

I know you

But I don’t know who you are

A Year And Seven

© 2007 by Rick Ellis

I saw her through the window of the grocery store

Where I worked when I was young

And as I laid my eyes upon her

I knew that my life had just begun

We took long walks on moonlit nights, so much to explore

And as I gazed into her deep brown eyes, love opened up It`s door

We'd stay up all night at my place and cuddle in my chair

She'd kiss me softly on my face as I'd stroke her golden hair

I went with her to all her haunts and watched her work the crowd

And as she worked her magic my heart would cry out loud

I gave her shelter from the storm, a place to lay her head

Then I went to sleep one night and found her in my bed

I will always love you,

I will always care

I pray that you will you love me too

Oh, love is in the air

All the love that two can share is a very special thing

Like the lyrics to the music of a song I want to sing

But the love for my baby is special even more

When love came into my life and opened up its door

Now I have aged another year and she another seven

As time goes by I feel the fear of another year and seven

I never knew love before I saw her at the grocery store

No I never knew love before I saw her at the grocery store

We'd stay up all night at my place and cuddle in my chair

She'd kiss me softly on my face, as I'd stroke her golden hair

Now I have aged another year and she another seven

And as time goes by I feel the fear of another year and seven

I will always love you,

I will always care

I pray that you will you love me too

Oh, love is in the air