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A day or two
that's all it takes to break a man

A day or two
without someone to hold his hand

He worked so hard his whole life
not to lose a love
he thought was true

And after she left
he lost it all
in a day or two
True story.
on scheduless days of stifling heat
when orderless ranks of canines beat
up the backroad and down the street
into the wood and onto the steep

a glorious arbor among thankless trees
"forever" says the whispering breeze
never mind the never-stop bees
the nimble squirrel is playing freeze

if ever there were a guest-
a sitting stone
but never a guest in this place
my place alone

drenched inside the thicket
a thousand thorny dreams
closing in on me
clamping down on me
altogether surrounding me

as home begins its beckoning
I reason it's a reckoning
I reckon there's a reason
for everything

skyward a fleeting glimpse
of a foregone future forlorn
shatters like a shadow
that a light shines upon
As for looking forward to brighter days
Those happily hearkened solar rays
That's just not something my mind relays
Always the rain, the rain always

No ultraviolet sight ablaze
I'm blinded by the night's malaise
Deluged without light or shade
Always the rain, the rain always

Through the flood my tomb is razed
My face is mud, my eyes are crazed
Soaked in dread of a watery grave
Always the rain, the rain always

©Jason Cole
All the ways of right I keep
For troubles of the world I weep
But I can't break this waking sleep
Oh, how I fear I'm in too deep

O Righteous King of Kings
Won't you come and save me?
Too much is this I ask of thee
When I won't let you save me
What kind of man can I be
When I won't let you save me?

All the ways of man I trust
From jealous greed to evil lust
A humble man make me you must
Ash to ash and dust to dust

O Righteous King of Kings
Won't you come and save me?
Too much is this I ask of thee
When I won't let you save me
What kind of man can I be
When I won't let you save me?

For the ways of you I look
Beyond that of the Holy Book
Could it be the earth that shook?
Of that an early sign I took

O Righteous King of Kings
Won't you come and save me?
Too much is this I ask of thee
When I won't let you save me
What kind of man can I be
When I won't let you save me?
Many are the memories
but too few are the memories
that I can still feel.
All my life
Been fallin' into love I thought was true
I'm not wise
I'm easy to be played for a fool
Dreams don't die
Bitter hearts left lonely sometimes do
I can't lie
I've broke a heart a time or two
For that I'm sorry
I didn't have a clue
Spread the news

I'm back to blue
It's nothin' new
It's the same old story I've grown used to
Never knew
How it feels
To hold someone who's gonna hold on too
The only thing in this life that I can count on
Is back to blue

Starry eyes
Never could see past the good in you
Grand disguise
You seemed so different
From my point of view
Some surprise
To find you're not the girl
I thought I knew
It's not right
You can't get back the love you lose
Why start all over
Find somebody new
It's no use

I'm back to blue
It's nothin' new
It's the same old story I've grown used to
Never knew
How it feels
To hold someone who's gonna hold on too
The only thing in this life that I can count on
Is back to blue

I've lost the best of me
I've found my destiny

I'm back to blue
It's nothin' new
It's the same old story I've grown used to
Never knew
How it feels
To hold someone who's gonna hold on too
The only thing in this life that I can count on
Is back to blue
This is a song. Contemporary Country.
Believe me, when I tell you that I love you
Believe me, when I say that I was wrong
Believe me, I can't live my life wthout you
Believe me, I can't believe that you're gone

Cause you, you were my sunshine (comin' down)
And you, you stopped the rain
Oh, you- you'll find somebody new
But I'll never love again
No, I can't fake it- my heart belongs to you
Said I can't fake it- my heart belongs to you

Believe me, I'm forever thinking of you
Believe me, I'm still waitin' by the phone
Believe me, I will never rise above you
Believe me, I will forever be alone

Cause you, you were my sunshine (comin' down)
And you, you stopped the rain
Oh, you- you'll find somebody new
But I'll never love again
No, I can't fake it- my heart belongs to you
Said I can't fake it- my heart belongs to you
Another little Traditional Country ditty.
The bigger the heart
The harder they fall
And I can't bear to watch yours bleeding

The harder the luck
The tougher the call
Just tell me what it is you're needing

It's not too late to cry
I'm here by your side
If you're lonely tonight

I can love you - let me love you
Because if seeing is believing
I won't watch you walk out that door
Love is a concept
known to be red in hue;
an idea which fully maturated
when I bled for you.
I'm a penny on a train rail
I'm a balled up fist of rage
The number of my sorrows
Outnumber all my days
I've got lies in my veins
They rush faster when I smile
And for all the beds I've made
They're now coverin' up my eyes

I'm like dead people
I never got a second chance
And everything I've ever held
Was ripped right from my hands
Love she digs my grave
And hate he guards the hole
I've got five evil women's names
Tattooed 'cross my soul

I went down to the river
Where muddy water freely flows
Drowned my shallow mind
Felt my time-bomb heart explode
Above a storm-train appeared
On cloud-wheels it roared and rolled
I watched the colors spill
As it thrill-killed the last rainbow

Held a dying baby
There was somethin' about  his eyes
Made me feel some kind of feelin'
That cornered me inside
Sometimes I cry out at the moonlight
Just like a wolf out in the cold
Sometimes I pray for the daylight
Sometimes I pray the night unfolds
But for the night
Lights are not bright
Nothing can shine
While out of sight
Can't be divine
Or exude delight
But for the night
The night, the night

But for the night
Stars can't take flight
Nothing can soar
While out of sight
Can't well rip-roar
Or shoulder heights
But for the night
The night, the night

But for the night
The night, the night
Stars they can't soar
Can't shine their light
Heavenly horde
Of divine delights
Counted as void
But for the night

©Jason Cole
Chosen things from rows of things
Deciphering the prose of things
Weigh the highs and lows of things
Parse the why's and woes of things

The endgame shame of choosing things
You choose a thing you lose a thing
Just like you never knew the thing
And naturally you'll rue the thing

In time your mind may skew the thing
Season how you view the thing
The reasons why you choose a thing
Contrarily imbue the thing
I've got a head full of heartaches
and just about
half a mind to disassociate.
Time leaves you ragged
rotten and rusted
beleaguered and busted.
Goodbye my friend
I'll never gaze upon the light of your face again
Behind every man's eyes
The war within
I could never let you in
I would never let you in

Turn away - desert my heart
Leave me here inside the dark
Blind and strayed
Scared and scarred
Desert my heart
Desert my heart

Farewell my love
I'll never glimpse the grace of your face again
Behind every woman's eyes
The peace within
You could always let me in
You would always let me in

Turn away - desert my heart
Leave me here inside the dark
Blind and strayed
Scared and scarred
Desert my heart
Desert my heart

We've spent a lifetime dictating to stars
Making believe that heaven was ours
Living this make-believe love of ours

Please don't leave your love-light on
Come sunup I'll be gone
I'm so sorry I was wrong

I could never let you in
I would never let you in

Turn away - desert my heart
Leave me here inside the dark
Blind and strayed
Scared and scarred
Desert my heart
Desert my heart
This is a song.
Devil wind, stealin' away my grin
Devil wind, takin' away my friends
Blowin' trouble through my mind and makin' me afraid again

I'm just another sinner
sadly out of reach
My behavior is consistent
I practice what I preach

Never have I intentionally hurt anyone
But evil's underrated it can get to anyone
And that old devil wind that's carrying it has got me on the run

Devil wind, stirrin' up big sin
Devil wind, cuttin' through my skin
Blowin' trouble through my mind and makin' me afraid again

I'm just another stranger
Tryin' to weather the storm alone
Seeking shelter from the danger
While searchin' for a home

Never have I intentionally hurt anyone
But evil's underrated it can get to anyone
And that old devil wind that's carrying it has got me on the run

Devil wind, dark dark wind
Devil wind, ****** crimson wind
Blowin' trouble through my mind and makin' me afraid again
This is a song.
I've seen the future and now bear witness to what I've always known

Your love will be the death of me

And after they've buried my body, long and low, deep and dim
My spirit will rise to write verse again

I shall burst forth from this atmosphere
Far beyond this temporal sphere
To pen your name into eternity

©Jason Cole
What ever happened to the love we shared?
You know we always agreed
I know you wouldn't go so far as not to care
Don't leave me in my time of need

Once I was all that you were hoping for
And all you wanted me to be
Now all I have is what I'm dying for
Don't leave me in my time of need
Remember the Book - the age-old Book
that said strong drink was raging?
Well of that strong drink I took
and I know I must be aging

Aging prematurely-
my thoughts have gone asunder
Torrid dreams and primal screams-
who wrote that Book, I wonder?
Time
They say it comes
They say it goes
They say it takes but always gives

I've walked the weeping sands
of seven lonely seasons
My conscience seared in strands
by full-level demons

Time
They say it flies
They say it flows
They say it begins but never ends

Invariably I've dreamt
of the inevitable end of days
My threadbare thoughts adrift
inside the daymare haze

Time
It cries memories

Time
It fogs the mirror

Time
When wiped away
keeps getting ever-clearer...

This life is a vapor
This life is a vapor
This life is a vapor
This life is a vapor

This life is no bang
It's merely a whimper
Partially inspired (in style and content) by T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men".
The direction of the wind
And the shift of the sea
Makes no difference to me

I've been in the wind
And I've been to the sea
Neither one set me free
So, you don't want to see me no more
Guess I fell from your grace
Never said how I felt before
Now I'm feelin' all out of place
Oh, I could go down to the singles bar
Try and save some kind of face
But what's the reason in savin' for
When you can't be replaced

I lay awake in bed last night
Must have been past three
Thinkin' 'bout our first last fight
And how I set you free
But freedom don't have the same sweet ring
When you hold the key
Now I'm just lookin' to break these chains
Holdin', hauntin' me

I think I'll go down now to that singles bar
But only for a drink
Maybe then I'll just go too far
So I don't have to think
Cause thinkin's wonderin' where you are
And my heart always sinks
Cause you don't want to see me no more
And that means everything
This is a song.
The die is cast to die at last
Envision the vast everlasting
We live in the past too fast
Forward-fast future impasse
Intentions to pass and repass
Notwithstanding

Elusive are the ticks of tock
That take place in the mind
Marinating for meaning
And a design to define in art
Whether it be mind or it matter
At an epoch that unlocks where life starts

Present past, future tense
Beginnings and endings
Instantaneous events
The secret of the clock
Is that it can never count
The mystery of the sands
Remains on higher ground

Wait a second, forever and a day
Columns of sand pillars wasting away
With a time well spent in thought
Immortality and perpetuity
Illusion of continuity
Momentary lapses of universal ambiguity
A collaboration with Cné. Thanks so much, my friend!
For you, I would reach up and pick the stars, as flowers of the night

Gathering near, gathering far
Lost in the wonder of what you are

I would fetch the clouds and stitch them together
A coat for your fears
Amid inclement weather

No torrid rain
No howling wind
Nothing could harm or chill you again

I say now as a man-
All that I am, was, and ever will be
Is yours for the taking

For you, my heart, my spirit, my soul
My love, for the breaking
We're goin' down to Freetown
Gonna watch our freedom fly
We're goin' down to Freetown
Gonna live now till we die

My heart beats a little faster
Every mile closer to home
My mind don't need a master
I think just fine on my own
The ocean looks much different now
Such a hopeful sight to see
As freedom bells are ringin' now
'Round Sierra Leone

We're goin' down to Freetown
Gonna watch our freedom fly
We're goin' down to Freetown
Gonna live now till we die

Well, I left half my pride
In those cotton fields
But I found all my spirit
And strengthened my own will
I made it through the sufferage
Never once alone
I trusted in the Father
And he has led me home

We're goin' down to Freetown
Gonna watch our freedom fly
We're goin' down to Freetown
Gonna live now till we die
This is a song.
Set of black pearl knives
Parallel vagabond skies
Corresponding idea hives
Pair of strawberry lies

Radiant shivering fire
Exquisite heartstring mire
Resplendent silent choir
Magnificent desire pyre
Couple of astral doors
Duplicate diamond cores
Lovelore progenitors
Essence of evermore

Smoldering passion wraiths
Burgeoning ashen faith
Conveying eternity's weight
Resounding mystery slate
Paradise twice
Duel love-lights
Vain refrains
Twain soul-flames

Rapturous carnival ride
Beckoning dream divide
Mystical rainbow slide
Glorious hope untied
It's no secret that liars love the most
It's no secret that most lovers lie
It's no wonder that many lovers leave
You stole all my thunder, and I can't even breathe

Here I go again, drowning hopes and strangling dreams
Here I go again, doubting love and dreading time
Here I go again, feeling helpless and obscene
Here you come again, running through my mind

There's no shame in saying what you feel
There's no shame in feeling all you say
There's no real pleasure in my knowing what you lost
You have no concept of just how much I cost

Here I go again, drowning hopes and strangling dreams
Here I go again, doubting love and dreading time
Here I go again, feeling helpless and obscene
Here you come again, running through my mind

Take back your promises, and the memory of your face
Take back your false tears, and your false commitment too
Take back those three words that now ring so cold
You that bled my believing heart, and stirred my immortal soul

Here I go again, drowning hopes and strangling dreams
Here I go again, doubting love and dreading time
Here I go again, feeling helpless and obscene
Here you come again, running through my mind
This is a song. Traditional Country.
All these years have passed me by
And so it seems I've crossed the line
I'm puttin' all my weapons down
And I don't care if I die

The streetlights down in my hometown
Are burnin' up my better nights
The moonlight through my window now
Is lightin' up this wasted life

Don't try to console me
Cause all in all it's all the same
No one's got a hold on me
I ain't got nothin' to gain

There's a bad man down in the valley
And he's playin' my song
If I don't be there by mornin'
You'll know where I've gone

Old man in a rocking chair
Underneath a cloudless sky
I don't say nothin' - I just stare
Must be good to be alive

There little baby now don't you cry
You ain't seen the worst of it yet
You won't make it even if you try
Everyone has a very last breath

Don't try to console me
You ain't haunted by no midnight train
You only know the best of me
The worst is hidin' in my pain

There's a bad, bad man down in the valley
And he's playin' my song
If I don't be there by mornin'
You'll know where I've gone
This is a song.
Hey sweet lady, Queen of Pains
You who stole treasures from my veins
Scattered my soul, scorned my name

When you're down and out
And you're drowning in doubt

When you're stuck inside your fears
And all your hope has disappeared

When your heart has fallen out
And your spirit is crying out
On that day, I'll shed a tear for you
To cast a shadow, you gotta walk in the sun
but I sure ain't walkin' - I'm on the run
To get through tomorrow, you gotta live through today
But I sure ain't livin' - I'm fading away

But that's o.k.
That's o.k.
I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive

To find your happiness, you must first be free
But I sure ain't happy - 'cause I sure ain't free

I ain't free
I ain't free
But I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive

Too many miles separate me from my past
Too many years I've spent wandering
Too many days I sit and I look into my glass
And my past comes slowly thundering

I once loved one woman unconditionally
Planned to romance her endlessly

She left me
She left me
But I'm alive, I'm alive

Yeah, I'm still alive
I'm alive
I'm alive
This is a song. Outlaw Country.
The last time I saw you was the very last time that I ever saw you
I'll never forget that look you gave me
Like you were looking at some stranger

There was something about your eyes like a thousand thorny sighs
You didn't say a word
To you, our love was absurd

Still, I want you to know that I never meant for you to hurt me
Today my good friend told me I've been waitin' to die
He's halfway right- I've been waitin' to live
I will board my ship of delusion
and sail slowly, deliberately
toward the port of conclusion
where, I assume
there'll be a place to land
between the restless waves of regret
and my carefree castle in the sand

©Jason Cole
I reached the edge of town
on a hot winter day
in the year of the dog

Drove past the schoolyard
where we used to play
king of the hill there in the fog

Saw my old friend
down at the local shake
he was talkin' about my loss

Said he could tell
by the lines in my face
that I had paid a heavy cost

I said "I came here lookin' for a revolution"
He said "You're just in time"

They're building them up
in my hometown
with foundations and all

But what goes up
will burn down
all good things must fall

I'm someone else now
with someone else's dreams
my will has its own will

It's kinda like a driver without a wheel
It's kinda like a fabric without a seam

I sparked the fire
while time stood still
oh, how I'd pined to watch it blaze

Within those flames
my fears were killed
all amends were made

Rode out of town
later that night
together with the wind

I have not yet
begun to fight
I'm ready to begin

I said "I came here lookin' for a revolution"
He said "You're just in time"
Love is a light
A wondrous light
Bold and marvelously unrepentant

Love it is right
It fights the good fight
Championing hope and transcendence

Love is a light
A splenderous light
Unwavering in its resplendence

Love is a light
An irreproachable light
Gloriously devoid of repentance
They met one late summer
In one great summer year
He was all she needed
She was all he feared

They meshed together quickly
Like corresponding colors
Soon she danced in his head at night
He stopped thinking of others

But fearing she would leave him
He turned and he fled
Then thinking she might grieve him
He turned back instead

Too late Mr. Lonesome
She dances for some other
Her satin skin and sunshine grin
You'll nevermore discover

Like clever wind her love swirled in
And softly blew your cover
Too late Mr. Lonesome
You may never find another
Song poem. Maybe just spin that chorus a few more times to fade.
Everything I am
Is underneath your skin

I know you're out there somewhere
You and the howling wind

You're the Devil's inspiration
My most beautiful sin
Obsessive love doesn't
give an inch
it can shake you
break you
make you flinch
When I was like a prisoner
broke free in the desert
with no other savior around

You picked me up as I lay
starving and trembling
You pulled me right off
of the ground

And the sound of our footsteps
as you led me to water
was the sound of
one person walking
I imagine you reside in the shadows of the stars
If not there, then somewhere very rare, and far
Perhaps in the dunes, or the ruins of Mars
To be perfectly sure, you're  heaven carved
There's a spark about you that lights up the dark
Upon you, heaven's very kiss has made its mark
I long to leave this world and be with you
Wherever you are
Paint my heart as empty
all blue and black and grey

Around it perforate a circle
from beginning back to start

Paint it very gently
then quickly pull away

Tearing it out
without ripping it apart

Someday they'll surely place it
in the Gallery of Fools

Inside the Wailing Walls
out past the Hall of Shame

And when the people face it
they'll cherish their own hearts

As if anatomy has
anything to do with pain

©Jason Cole
The tiniest bit of love
will do
in a pinch.
Stayed home from work today
It's gonna come a flood they say
But I've seen worse than this o.k.
I should have went on in anyway

Cause it's barely raining outside
But it's pouring in my heart

I hate to be alone this way
In this bed where you once laid
Thinkin' about the love we made
Looks like I made a big mistake

See it's barely raining outside
But it's pouring in my heart

I've tried to keep my mind off you
Drive around sometimes til 2
Turn my radio down on songs sung blue
What's a lonely boy to do?

When it's barely raining outside
But it's pouring in my heart

God we used to laugh a lot
It's like we read each others thoughts
I still can hear the times we talked
Your memory is near- it's you I've lost

And it's barely raining outside
But it's pouring in my heart
Song poem.
In life there are very few promises
but there's a very sure promise in death
and that's a promise!
I know something of the rhythms and melodies of pain
First this way, then that
Soaring, falling, roaring, stalling

Planed out planes on a higher plane
Wraith trains shaking fate's chains in vain

Devilish desperados with desperate names
play desperation games
inside my veins

The eyes of their horses hidden by their manes
The thoughts of their voices pounding my brain
These are the sounds and the songs of rain

Rain is still rain by any other name
Waters will recede while floods will remain
Each separately singing equally stinging refrains
Nothing cuts deeper than these canyons of shame

Certainly, I know things concerning the rhythms and melodies of pain
And of four-legged creatures wholly untamed
Racing blood-soaked, unbridled, unreigned
Their clippety-clop clamorings running 'round my brain
These are the sounds and the songs of rain

©Jason Cole
What's in the meaning
of my reading of a red sky?

Certainly no soothsayer am I
neither do I prophesy

Clearly I'm merely a measurer of
who, what, when, where, how, or why

And so, I surmise
the skies dyes
a guise
We're the Saints of The Vapor
that's our God-given nature
the future's a formality
presenting providential fallacies

The past foreknew the present
followed it in its essence
surpassed it with its prescience
forestalled its current presence

See me now, catch me later
neither instance is less or greater
straight lines run instantaneously
altogether extemporaneously

Time is selfish
Time is fleeting
Time is all we're truly needing

We're the Saints of The Vapor
James 4:14
She
She
She says the things that make me
want to wake up to her face
shining in the morning light

One whispered word
just turns my head around

She makes each day so much
better than the last
I've never had times like these

One toss of her hair
And I'm alive again

She moves me
I drove over every road I know
I climbed so very many hills
Looking high and low

I crossed all the bridges
I combed every coast
I still get chills when I miss her most

Everything, everywhere is just thin air
And there's no wind to spare
She's not there

For 40 years the rains came
And the floods rage on
Heart's all adrift
Without helmsmanship
Or hope of getting home

I know where I belong...

In her *****
Within the fold
Behind her eyes
Outside the cold

But everything , everywhere is just thin air
And there's no wind to spare
She's not there

©Jason Cole
https://soundcloud.com/vaporsaint/shes-not-there
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