Category: poetry

IF…(revisited 2023)

jamie

IF…You can keep your head when you’re surrounded by fucking idiots who blindly believe
If you can fall and get up, when motherfuckers who should know better repeatedly knock you down
If you dream of a future where no one goes hungry, or without the basic, important things that everyone needs
If your head spins from lies, corruption and greed, from sources empowered, trusted as news.
If you care about kindness and feel pain when others are hurt due to the ignorance and selfishness of those who are unkind.
If you respect life and are sickened when people and animals suffer cruelty at the hands of inhumane humans.
If you believe in equality and justice for everyone, and live in horror or fear at the hateful deeds of those who profit on racism and exploitation of the poor.
If everything going on seems an insane new normal, each new insanity making the last one seem comfortable.
If this world is not one you prefer, and the fuckheads in power seem doomed to make things worse
If making things better still seems important, even after all we’ve all been through

Then remember one thing,
my friend you must be
For so many have eyes
but refuse to be able to see
through the lies to the truth on the table
in Freedom’s last light
We squint into nothingness
Pretending it’s too fucking bright

Original poetry by Jamie Gray (with apologies to Rudyard Kipling)

Right as Rain – Original Song Lyrics

jamieLeave a comment

Right as Rain – Original Song Lyrics

music in my head, but i can't hear it
music in my head, but i can’t hear it

I wrote this song back in 2009 (the picture above is from 2009 too lol), and found this half-finished, draft blog post with the lyrics and some background about the song. So now, just 5 short years later (5 years? reallly?), here you go!

Right As Rain – 2009

The inspiration came from a school project my son had to do on The Water Cycle. The other day it hit me that many of the relationships that I’ve had follow the same cycles. They always start off making you feel like you can just float off into the atmosphere forever…but sooner or later you fall back to earth. You can sink deep into the roots of the earth, grow and nourish the lives around you, or go with the flow and let yourself be washed out into the sea, into the seas of humanity. Just another drop of water in the ocean of humankind.

Learn how to place music on itunes at ReverbNation.com

You can download the MP3 for free from the player above or here: http://reverbnation.com/jamiegray

Lyrics, Right as Rain

Like a dew drop in the sunshine
We float into the atmosphere
Heated by the passion of the day
Drifting higher and higher
Cooling on the winds of fear
Until there’s nothing left to say
Smiles now have turned to ice
Too heavy for the air to hold
Falling we go falling thru the dark
Melting on the way back down
Splashing as we hit the ground
Thunder crashing in a lightning spark
It’s always right as rain
The circle starts again
This time you and me
Next time wait and see
Round and round we spiral thru the pain
Round and round and round and round again
Which path shook we take this time
Should we flow down to the sea or should we
Try to reach the heavens while we can
Join with mighty river currents
Or sink into the earthen roots
Try to choose, try to understand.
But like a dew drop in the sunshine
We float into the atmosphere
Here we are again now anyway
Drifting higher and higher
Flying on the winds of change
Wishing we could both just float away

©2009 – Jamie Gray Music – All Rights Reserved

fan bonus track – FREE download!

jamieLeave a comment

it’s true!!! the EP is FINALLY done…but there’s a 5TH SONG that is NOT on it…and for a limited time you can download it FOR FREE!

it’s true!!! the EP is FINALLY done, and sent off to the disc cookers to bake at 420 for 5-10 days. so the hard copies won’t be available for a bit, but rumour has it that you’ll be able to pick up a copy on CDBaby THIS WEEKEND (yay!) and it should start hitting iTunes, Amazon, and all those other guys not too long after that.

i’m so excited i can hardly type…this is my first release and i’m really happy with how it came out. i know you guys are gonna love it, and i can’t wait for you to get your hands on a copy! it won’t be long now!

BUT—i’ve got an EXTRA SPECIAL SURPRISE for you guys. the EP has 4 songs ( i won’t spoil the secret on which ones for now) – but there is a secret double secret 5TH SONG that is NOT on it and…not only can you hear it, but for a limited time you can download it FOR FREE! You have to be signed up as a fan (which you most likely are if you are getting this email) but that’s it…no other catches.

Just follow this link, and as long as you have signed up as a fan, you should be able to download the MP3 file:

http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_11739270

 

Anywhere EP – Available Soon Everywhere!
Anywhere EP

Right as Rain

jamieLeave a comment

This is a new song…I wrote the lyrics over the past few days, and the music tonight. The inspiration came from a class project my son had to do on the Water Cycle. The other day it hit me that relationships that I’ve had follow the same cycles. They always start off making you feel like you can just float off into the atmosphere forever…but sooner or later you fall back to earth. You can sink deep into the roots of the earth and nourish the lives around you or go with the flow into the seas of humanity. You can download the MP3 for free from the player here:
http://www.reverbnation.com/jamiegray

Right as Rain

Like a dew drop in the sunshine
We float into the atmosphere
Heated by the passion of the day
Drifting higher and higher
Cooling on the winds of fear
Until there’s nothing left to say

Smiles now have turned to ice
Too heavy for the air to hold
Falling we go falling thru the dark
Melting on the way back down
Splashing as we hit the ground
Thunder crashing in a lightning spark

It’s always right as rain
The circle starts again
This time you and me
Next time wait and see
Round and round we spiral thru the pain
Round and round and round and round again

Which path should we take this time
Should we flow down to the sea or should we
Try to reach the heavens while we can
Join with mighty river currents
Or sink into the earthen roots
Try to choose, try to understand.

But like a dew drop in the sunshine
We float into the atmosphere
Here we are again now anyway
Drifting higher and higher
Flying on the winds of change
Wishing we could both just float away

©2009 – Jamie Gray Music – All Rights Reserved

Everything is Nowhere

jamieLeave a comment

Hey blog readers…

I just wrote a new song, and guess what? It is available to stream or download right here on the music page!

Feel free to download it and share it with everyone you want!

I hope you enjoy!

peace, jamie

Oh yeah…Here’s the lyrics…

Everything is Nowhere

Music in my head but I can’t hear it
Dreaming I awake but nothing’s clear
I only see what I want to see
I can only be what I want to be
Climb the nearest mountain just to get myself high
Disbelieve the truth just to hold on to the lie

I am not dreaming
I am awakening
I am not even trying
I am not where I find
the pieces I have left behind
the colors painted in my mind
Everything is nowhere all the time

Everything you told me now it haunts me
Seasons look behind them and they taunt me
I only dream what I want to dream
Sometimes it just makes me scream
Run into the darkness now full speed ahead
Running from the demons with my eyes all red

©2009 – Jamie Gray Music – All Rights Reserved

Frustration

jamieLeave a comment

Sometimes I can’t open my eyes, the day is not my friend
Some days it’s so much harder to try, than it is to just pretend
Everything comes around and always fades away in time
and all the secrets that you hide, haunt my broken rhyme

The path I see before my feet is twisting in my head
The sky may look serene and blue, but I can see it turning red
All around me there is nothing more than barren fallow ground
I’d break these chains of fear and run, but I know you’d track me down

Streams of consciousness, self inflicted medication
Scenes of bitterness, in empty meditation.
Only loneliness is true emancipation
Only everything, insanity…or maybe just frustration.

Set your focus on the prize you hope you’ll someday win
See the ending, from the point of no return where you begin
Only dreams will stand apart from where you once were young
All the anger that you keep inside until that day will come

They say the devil runs this place, and hell is what you make it
Blinding us with fear and bullshit, but we ain’t gonna take it
Give us back our nation, stop treating her like a whore
We’ll teach our children better ways, just like we did before.

freedom

jamieLeave a comment

Flying low, into the wind
Halfway through the mountains
Dreams abandoned and embraced
The time imagined behind.

Shadows creeping among
The red sun signposts
A hundred and sixty horses
Carry me through the fire.

The cool morning breeze
I stand naked on this rock
Darkness behind my back
The fire rises, blinding my eyes.

She called and I followed alone
Lost along The Highway of the Sun
I am too hungry to sleep.

©2008 – Jamie Gray – All Rights Reserved