I asked when is the revolution. -Brett Dennen

I am loving Brett Dennen. His music is unique and upbeat, fun to listen to. Originally it was just something peppy for me to listen to when I open at the coffee shop, but I got to listening to the lyrics and they are incredible. He has an interesting view and social commentary about the realities of today. I just find his lyrics fascinating and have been looking through them for a good half hour or more. I am a lyrics person, a quote person. I like to know the words, what people are saying, why they are saying it. Anyhoo, you should check out Brett Dennen!

                                         

 

I Asked When 

Well I dreamed I went out a wanderin’
I heard promises become fables forgotten
I saw bridges stretchin’ out across the water
And towers pushing tallerI knew my reality was clearly defined
By the fences put up around my mind
I watched them thickening the walls over time
Taller then any borderline I saw civilizations deemed insignificant
I saw people’s history tattooed on their skin
I saw families taken from their land
Dynasty shattered and stolen

And I asked when is the revolution
I asked when is the revolution

And all the burdens centuries accrue
They get passed to every generation’s youth
And all the allegories told in lewd truth
I watched them grow wild and spread like the flu

I saw the rise of an untamed industry
I watched machines print a paper economy
I saw my own self stand right in front of me
And I didn’t do a thing

I saw poisons pushed in the street
Prescription pills mingling in the mezzanine
With the whole wealth of doctors and pharmaceutical companies
Still poor people were dying from disease

And I asked when is the revolution
I asked when is the revolution
I asked when is the revolution
I asked when is the revolution

And I broke down at the break of dawn
And saw looming in the clouds above the Pentagon
As real as the Holocaust, as strong as the Parthenon
Visions of Sudan, Iraq, and Vietnam

And I stood silent upon a flooded levee
And stared at the ruins of a merchant city
And the president who came to dine with the noble
He didn’t do a thing

I saw three ships come sailing in
Through the passage of the Caribbean
I saw children coming home in coffins
Millions marching on Washington

And I asked when is the revolution
I asked when is the revolution
I asked when is the revolution
I asked when is the revolution 

There Is So Much More 

When I heard the news,
My heart fell on the floor
I was on a plane on my way to Baltimore
In these trouble times its hard enough as it is
My soul has a known a better life than this I wonder how so many can be in so much pain,
While others don’t seem to feel a thing
Then I curse my whiteness,
and I get so damn depressed,
In a world with suffering,
Why should I be so blessed?I heard about a women who lives in Colorado,
She built a monument of sorts behind the garage door
Where everyday she prays for all whom are born
And all whose souls have passed on
Sometimes my trouble gets so thick
I can’t see how I’m gonna get through it
but then I’d rather be stuck up in a tree
Then be tied to it

There is so much more.

I don’t feel comfortable with the way my clothes fit
I cant get used to my body’s limits
I got some fancy shoes to try and giggle away these blues
They cost a lot of money but they aren’t worth a thing
I wanna free my feet from the broken glass and concrete
I need to get out of this city
Lay upon the ground stare a hole in the sky
Wondering where I go when I die
When I die.

“i love you, auntie.”

I’ve been thinking about the kids in Malawi. I just miss ’em. I really hope I’ll get to see them and be with them this summer. That would make me deliriously happy, you have no idea.  I just woke up from a nap of which I dreamt of
Malawi and remembered how we used to say goodnight to the kids. They would always hold out their hand with their pointer finger, pinky and thumb pointed at our hands until they touched. I found this weird at first, until I asked one of the girls, Caroline, and she turned her hand up and said, “I love you, Auntie.”  She had been making the sign for “I love you” in sign language. That gets me at my core. I really love that. I find myself grabbing a hold of any memory of them just to have them in my mind, to remind me that they are real. It scares me that at times, I wonder if I was ever there. My time in
Malawi can seem like yesterday and at the same time only a distant memory. 

I’ve also been reflecting on our world in the past weeks and months and I’ve come to realize on a much deeper level how broken our world really is, and it’s so, so sad. There is not enough love in the world.  Someone once told me to love wastefully. What better advice, love wastefully. You can never love too much. Why is it that so many people do not receive the love they so desperately need from the people who should be giving it to them. I know way too many kids from broken homes, with parents who are never there or just don’t take the time to care and it’s so awful. They begin to search for their worth everywhere else.  It pains me to look around everywhere in our culture and see all the things, things that will make you desireable and loved, things that will make you beautiful or accepted, things that will numb the pain and the hurts to make everything that weighs on you just a little lighter, if only for a little while.

My heart has broken over and over again for the hurts in the world, and in the lives I have been privileged to know, in Malawi and here in
Seattle, and it’s hard not to be overwhelmed.  I’ve spent many a moments filled with deep sighs, tears and silence over the things I have seen and felt.  I wish I could fix it all…

I was reading Blue Like Jazz this summer and this quote struck me, “The human struggle bothered Rick, as if something was broken in the world and we were supposed to hold our palms against the wound, reaching a felt need.” Very well said…I love that. We can all be healers in the world holding our palms against the wound. To love where it’s needed and to help where it’s needed. “If I can keep one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain…”

 

i carry your heart

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)

i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear;

and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate,my sweet)

i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

dream catcher

I woke up in the middle of the night almost crying from this dream I had, reached for a pen and scribbled this on a piece of paper in the dark. I don’t remember much of it, but I always find dreams to be so fascinating. 

snow, tall trees driving into a snowy mistiness

On a boat-titanic-like.

With the one I love, about to lose him. Have a mentor person, a Dorothy or an Edna,

Teaching me life’s lessons while sitting on the top deck in the sunshine

picking up a book of magic tricks by copperfield with barnacles on it.

About moving on after love lost into a hopeful future.  

shell necklace, blue and cream.

Sobbing like I was watching my life like a movie..

May God bless you with discomfort, anger, tears and foolishness.

May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships
so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people
so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in the world
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done
to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

(A traditional Franciscan blessing.)

Yes, yes, yes! This is what it’s about.