tomjensen

RAIN by Tom Jensen

Rain...it makes the flowers grow

Rain...doesn't hide what it doesn't know

Rain...leads to floods look out below

Rain...don't say I didn't tell ya so

Pain...it doesn't always show

Pain...fills up what's empty and hollow

Pain...remembers names from long ago

Pain...better when it's dull and shallow

Such a dark and depressing day

Only time will tell if it will fade

All I know is that I'm uncertain

Will it ever lift?

This endless cloud...

This heavy curtain?

A heart once prone to give

Can now no longer trust

I proved you don't need love to live

Yet things inside begin to rust

You can dull your senses to suffering

If you feel you must

If you're like me you've given up on love

Now you settle for lust

I cut my arm only to watch it bleed

Just to see if anyone would take me

I spent a month inside a cold dark room

Just to see if it would break me

I built a house in the middle of the woods

Just to see if I could make it

I spent a whole year inside that cold dark room

Just to see if I could take it

And when it rained...

Sometimes it was heavy

Sometimes it was slow

Rain...when it came

At least I had somewhere to go

When it comes to pain...

You can only take so much before all feeling disappears

You start to grow numb

Soon dreams, reality and your darkest fears

All become one

And when that day comes...

This cold dark room will be waiting here

RAINYDAY SUNSHINE

by Justin Justice & Tom Jensen

My life it would have been your shrine

If my ways had been refined

Before I looked into your big brown eyes

I never knew I was blind

‘Twas you who coulda seen me through

Over the only mountain that I’d yet to climb

I have only one path to take...

Try to walk a straight line this time

And it is you I'm still trying to find

My rainy day sunshine

Without you I may be just fine

But with you I'd be so much better

It’s you, my rainy day sunshine

Who’s my every day valentine

The only one who could ever have changed

Both the seasons and the weather

I hope I’ll be all right in time

I'm praying someday I'm gonna find

You again and you’ll fill all this emptiness inside

We’ll rebuild this broken mind of mine

So now…it’s you I am trying to find

My rainy day sunshine

Without you I may be just fine

But with you I'd be so much better

Yeah with you I'd be so much better

RAT PARK by Tom Jensen

Like the town witch on fire

I’ve become a social pariah

I have lost my desire

To climb up any higher

There’s an energy vampire

Now standing right beside ya

There’s lots to know that you can’t see

Until you crack the code or else find the key

I was in rough shape

Looking for an escape

Started feeling sick

Must be time to get fixed

Look inside to see what’s broken

Hoping it’s not a hopeless situation

And that I really am worth saving

Since copping is not coping

When stopping isn’t an option

Oh how can I regain my focus?

It seems we cling to our vices

In major times of crisis

And when we’re feeling isolated

Day by day we’re being sedated

In a state of constant bereavement

Because we’ve failed to have our needs met

Hence our only sense of achievement

Is when we depart this world and leave it

Often it is fleeting and lost after a moment

Though you’re taking a beating you try your best not to show it

It was when my world was dark

I made some friends at rat park

They said that I could stay there

That there were lots of fun games to play there

In lofts, down slides and on wheels we play

Oh no more boring lonely days

I’ve been growing stronger no longer do I crave

Of thinking, drinking or sleeping away the day

Yeah, some get lost and some get saved

Others find themselves getting thrown away

Some are still searching even after all these days

You either make your escape or become one with the maze

REHAB By Tom Jensen

Sometimes I need a good talking to

To set my mind at ease

It's not always good for you

Doing just what you please

When the door is locked

You just need the right keys

Stop peaking through the keyhole

Get up off your knees

Just a glimpse of the whole

Will never do

With the door barred and chained

It's so hard to get through

Like a deer in headlights

Your feet stick like glue

Denial is just another lie

That you believe is true

Yeah...

I've been sedated

My head played with

Medicated

Regulated

And every word they said dictated

I've been questioned and I stated

That everything good I had I've traded

With every step I've walked been baited

A life like mine you begin to hate it

Well, the doctor's in

And he'll take your money

Then when you're not looking

He'll call you funny...

Names behind your back

The nurses are in on it I got a hunch

See their crooked smiles

While they're serving lunch....

Their white gowns

Should be striped with black

You gotta pay the bills

That'll pay for all the pills

They say will cure your ills

While they're raking in the mils

They locked him in the closet

And then they lost the key

Twenty years later

When they finally found it

They finally set him free

Though he looked much older

He looked okay to me

Though he acted much colder

Like we all expected him to be

Rehab - you never come out

The way you came in

Rehab - Get drunk off words

When they take your gin

Rehab - You'll never be the same

Rehab - you'll never go there again

When he gets home he has a drink

Passes out at the kitchen sink

Though his liver's fine his mind is bloated

Just one drink and his head exploded

Rehab - you never come out

The way you came in

Rehab - Get drunk off words

When they take your gin

Rehab - You'll never be the same

Rehab - you'll never go there again

REST IN PEACE By Tom Jensen

When the flames rose up

I watched my house burn down

As everything I had

Lay smoldering on the ground

Yet I wasn't sad

For me and my cats got out

But I got this sinking feeling

That there was something else....

I walked over to the lawn

Began rummaging around

That's when I remembered

My ears didn't hear the sound

Of a piercing shriek

Yelling at me to wipe my feet

Saying wash your hands twice

Before you come touching me...

Oooooh.....

that's right.....

Oooops....

she must have been asleep...

So when someone asks me,

"How's my wife?"

I say, "May she rest in peace"

REST IN POWER by Tom Jensen

I love you to learn you

Just to hate you and burn you

You see I got these demons

Who don’t deal well with feelings

When betrayed by your senses

You learn to build up defenses

And to hide in dark places

Drawing lines no one traces

Blazing a trail no one follows

A space empty and hollow

Where the dreams of a child

Would guide you through to tomorrow

Yet now the future looks bleak

As you’ve found what you seek

But it’s alien and strange

Since your outlook has changed

You used to want to save the world

Now you just wanna fuck the girls

Letting your id eat you alive

The super ego closes his eyes

They’ve separated you from your mind

And your heart from your soul

It’s time to wrestle back control

Or become someone you don’t know…

As you passed a stranger out on the street

Thought to yourself, “He looked a lot like me…”

Well not who I am but who I used to be

Those are two different people entirely

To rest in power not peace

You gotta keep feeding the beast

And once you catch the disease

You no longer wanna break free

That’s when you know

Got a tiger by the toe

But stop lying to yourself

You want them to let go

RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES

by Justin Justice & Tom Jensen

I don't read the paper

Hell I don't even watch the news

Everyone's used to horror and everyone's got the blues

Always another plane crash

Or gunman on a rage

I never pick up the paper unless it's lining for a cage

I used one for my birdcage

And my bird spoke of death and hate

I wish I'd used the comics... But I realized this too late

The worst is on the cover seen by children of every age...

If I was editor of the paper, I'd put the good things on the front page!

Then maybe it'd rub off and people would treat each other kind

Have you heard the expression, 'out of sight and out of mind'?

When violence is on TV

Then children will play with guns

Yet when they're watching Sesame Street

That's when they're having fun

I'm moving to the mountains

So I can watch the trees

Where you don't have any doors and you don't have any keys

House of wood, Bed of straw

When I see a pig, it won't remind me of the LAW!

I won't use no roads -- I'll set off on my own course

Trading my ford for a six pack and a horse

I took that walk through the wilderness to escape a world of lies

I proposed to Mother Nature but I only heard her sigh...

Felt the swaying of the trees as I walked on fallen leaves

She reminded me of the death of everything that breathes

There are those who try to play God

Shoot everything that moves

The fact that men can make rifles

Is the only thing it proves

I traded my gun for a camera --

That should come as no surprise

A deer I watched drinking from a stream --

I shot him right between the... eyes

Now it lives on forever

Does not die today

Captured in a picture that will never fade away

RIPPLES by Klaus Bluetner & Tom Jensen

Safely guarded is the infinite wisdom

That I've been longing to understand

The single key that unlocks all reality

Was placed inside your delicate hands

Yet you dropped your sacred Rosetta stone

In the middle of the pond

Creating countless ripples

That keep travelling on

You said you'd rather let it become one with the river

So we could all wade in the warm waters

And drift along the gentle current

Floating freely in the stream

You're the sweetest sounding songbird

And to all those who have ears you sing

Yes, many of us have been taken under your wing

So safe and warm

Here is where I rest

Fall fast asleep and begin to dream

One single note

Repels all of our deepest fears

You let us forget the past

Help us to find a reason for why we’re here

The single key that unlocks all reality

Was placed inside your delicate hands

Yet you dropped your sacred Rosetta stone

In the middle of the pond

Creating countless ripples

That keep travelling on

The ripples keep travelling on...

RIVAL by Tom Jensen

Once the whole gets halved

There ain’t no going back

Yeah, it all went to hell real fast

Republicans and Democrats

As this nation is facing

The shattered aftermath

Our fate has been placed

In the hands of a psychopath

And asking a leader to lead

When no one agrees

Leads to blunders it’s a wonder

We’re all not deceased

The best way to start a fight

Part the middle between left and right

Just stir the pot to get some action

Then do what you want during the distraction

Yes the method is tried and true

Throughout history it’s been used

Safety’s in numbers not division

This fractured state will be our prison

So with this knowledge at our disposal

It’s time to act local while thinking global

We’re all allies in the struggle for survival

You’ll die for your brother…

While I’ll die for my rival

ROCKING THE WORLD by Lai Youttitham & Tom Jensen

Stadium full of screaming teens

Hot young things in cut-off jeans

You're on the front page of magazines

And you find yourself...

Driving the media machine

A hot shot on the social scene

This reality was once just a dream

Status whore…such a libertine

When you find yourself... in the back seat of limousines

Everywhere you go... it always seems as though...

Everybody knows your face and name...

They call you a rock n' roller

Because you're rocking the world

You're stopping traffic

Without crossing streets

Smiling face on everyone you meet

Full house with no empty seats

People pay you money

Just to hear you speak

Everywhere you go...

it always seems as though...

Everybody knows your face, your name

They call you a rock n' roller

Because you're rocking the world

SHADES By Tom Jensen

What color are your eyes?

To me that’s as important

As the color of your skin

About this I am quite certain

What color are you inside?

That’s what really matters

What we can see outside

Are just shades and spatters

Shades from mighty bright white

To midnight black or blacker

To me it’s a mitigated factor

Much like the clothes of a good actor

For it’s just a tiny fraction of the whole

Something that’s beyond all of our control

Gives no insight to the depths of the soul

Might show where we’re from -

But not where we’re gonna go…

SHADOW BOXING By Tom Jensen

Maids in the morning sweeping up broken glass

Long lost dreams of a shattered past

As a cup full of life is spilled to the floor

A man who once had riches now lives poor

Walking down the spiral staircase that is my mind

Passing all the memories that I've left behind

See the same things enough soon you'll grow blind

Be careful of what doors you open and what you will find

Some patterns are so hard to break they end up breaking you

Anyone who's ever worn these shoes knows this is true

See enough dope and you're bound to give it a try

See murders every day and pretty soon you won't cry

There's blood on the sidewalk

The scent of death in the air

Yet you stroll right past

While others stop and stare

Some men live long and some die young

Some carry heavy burdens, some carry none

When you're shadow boxing you sometimes bruise

When you fight yourself sometimes you lose

SHADOW OF SMOKE By Tom Jensen

Just a shadow of smoke

That's how I appear

Try to reach out and touch me

What you see disappears

No living soul can reach me

First you see my face

Vanish into thin air

And then gone without a trace

Just another mystery

A puzzle no one can solve

First I am there

And then I dissolve

Just a castle of sand

Before the tide comes to me

And after a warm embrace

Carries me out to the sea

So back into the fog I fade

My own little solitary parade

Back into the waters I wade

Unable to undo all I have made

I've lost my soul

Through the horrors I've seen

Along with my past desires

Of all I could have been

To the days of old

I can never return

Time passes slowly

When the memories still burn

As I see children laugh

And young mothers dance

I know I've lived my life

There is no second chance

Just a shadow of smoke

That's how I appear

Try to reach out and touch me

What you see disappears

SHE by Klaus Bluetner & Tom Jensen

She gently sighs

And then she softly cries

She still denies

That there's a void inside

An only child but not a lonely child

Her horses were chained so they never ran wild

An early life full of distractions

And they all offered her protection

But all of her paths were paved in stone

She could never ever find her way all alone

She...oh she...oh she...

She...oh she... could not break free

A child cloned from her environment

Told what not to do without trying it

Second thoughts... She never paid them any mind

Just blocked out her memory and kept walking her straight line

She was barefoot and pregnant

And now she regrets it

Once every man did want her

Never dreaming her past

Would ever come

back to haunt her

She...oh she...oh she...

She...oh she... could not break free

The man paid the bills and shattered her wills

And broke her down to her simplest form

Now she regrets it… Her life is pathetic

Never thought it herself… Though everybody said it

She bended and kneeled

Her fate forever sealed

A true-self never truly revealed

After he left her wounds never healed

Just another sheep left so defenseless

She...oh she...oh she...

She...oh she... could not break free

She gently sighs and then she softly cries

She still denies that there's a void inside

An only child but not a lonely child

Her horses were chained so they never ran wild

She was battling hard to defeat the day

Seems she wouldn't have it any other way

While trying hard to hide away all the lies

She begins to feel a tear in her eye

She...oh she...oh she...

She...oh she... could not break free

She...oh she...oh she...

She...oh she... could not break free

So she hides the pain away

Has forgotten any other way

Today's reflection still mirrors yesterday

Yet May is another month away

She…

SINGER SONGWRITER

by Klaus Bluetner & Tom Jensen

I'm a singer... a songwriter...

I'm a lover... and a fighter...

I'm a poet... a word dancer...

I love asking questions…Though I don't always like the answers

Still I do it…Try to see through it

Though I know that I don't have to

If you were me what would you do?

Is the question that I now ask you:

I'm a searcher... yes a seeker

I'm both a student... and a teacher

Yet I'm no prophet... nor a preacher

I sit here and I think - But that just leads to more confusion...

I live to question…Become a believer

Not in self-deception but in something deeper

That gives my life meaning…Even more than rhyming

And that's the reason that I keep on trying...

I try to open minds those that are closed

And uncover what needs to be exposed

By bringing myself up to the brink

Where my head feels like it will explode

Boy... I could use a drink

But that only adds cloudiness to this great grand illusion...

I'm a singer... a songwriter...

I'm a lover... and a fighter...

I'm a poet... a word dancer...

I love asking questions

Though I don't always find the answers

Still I do it…Try to see through it

Though I know that I don't have to

If you were me

What would you do?

Is the question that I now ask you:

I'm a singer… a songwriter

SLEEPWALKERS

by Klaus Bluetner & Tom Jensen

When they're playing chess with you...

The game never lasts very long

Still haven't got a clue... why do you...

Why do you smile when you take a pawn?

Then their bishop overtakes your knight

When he wasn't even dressed to fight

Soon their queen upends your rook

Before you could even look

Another smile...your knight just claimed a pawn

But now... now your little horsie's gone

He didn't run away... he just got sleighed

As the king of your castle he numbers his days

Yeah, you're wondering and pondering

As you're endlessly wandering on and on and on...

And you're scribbling and scrabbling

Along the chessboard of life feeling you're just a pawn

Sleepwalkers

You just made a list of things that you need to say

About yourself, about the world and all its ways

Sometimes you think that it's a lie that hard work pays

Now that everything has been numbered - yes even your days

Why is everyone... sleepwalking around this globe…

This giant wheel?

Seems as a whole we can no longer feel

While deep in this slumber

For the gift of the presence of love we no longer hunger

When our dreams are gone... yet we still walk on and on and on and on...

You just made a list of the things that you need to say

And it 'tis just one...

There's hardly no time left for anyone

As names and faces keep fading farther away

Still, you know you've got so much to give... so with this guilt you live

I'm sorry, but there's just too few hours in a day

You find your precious time becomes taken up

Oh look now how... You're so easily led astray...

How'd your life become this way?

(sleepwalkers)

Is this what you say?

(sleepwalkers)

While you're wondering and pondering

As you're wandering on and on and on and on...

As you're scribbling and scrabbling

Along the chessboard of life feeling you're just a pawn

sleepwalkers

SLIP STREAM By Tom Jensen

Enter this virtual world

Take an unguided tour

We'll find a cavern in your mind

That has yet to be explored

We'll cause a ripple in the water

Of intuition, space and time

Won't fear a tear in the fabric

Only scared of a flaw in the design

We can take a trip

Slip down stream

Feel free to follow me

Or I could follow you

Just take one of these

You know what to do

Become anyone you want

Let that become the truth

Free yourself from all distraction

For time ain't on anybody's side

I can see by your reaction

The sense of panic in your eyes

There's only shame in me asking

If you need your place to hide

Just take one of these

And you know what to do

Become anyone you want

Let that become the truth

I see a ripple in the water

Or it could be space and time

A small tear in the fabric

I see a flaw in the design

Just take one of these

And you know what to do...

Let everything you see

Become shiny and new

SMELL THE FLOWERS

by Rebekah Ann Curtis & Tom Jensen