Panopticon
...On the Subject of Mortality
1. Living In The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death
Grasping in the dark cold hands
The voiceless phantom mythed in torn pages of a decomposing tome
The pages wither like burned flowers in a summer drought
They fall into dust
While questions arise in perpetual wanderlust...
Of unanswered questions and empty gestures
Mandrake saviors and eyes sewn shut
This living in fear
Fear of freedom
Fear of letting go... of things
The novice angel's somber strings...
Golden gates and choirs of angels sing praises to a heavenly host who's overlooked in arrogance the true majesty of the world
There is no God in buildings
This divisive, cunning method of control
Ignorance. Oblivion. Ungratefulness and greed
Forever wanting more when the table buckles from building plates so over filled with the beauty of this world
Death is my final gift
The leaves that fall nourish the soil with their decomposition and the oak will feed from itself again...
And the world thrives
Relish the wilderness
There are no forests in your Heaven
There are no forests in your Heaven
There are no forests in your Heaven
There are no forests in your Heaven
Because Heaven is within
2. Living Eulogy
There's so much pressure to just keep breathing
I'm not sure my heart will keep beating
All the things I have labored for they may fall into nothing if I'm not here to see the end
What will become of me when I become the Autumn leaves?
When all that's left of me is a shell?
And the world moves on without me?
Will I die tonight?
Will I die tonight?
Will I forever sleep?
Will my mother weep?
Will you remember me?
Will you remember me?
I exist in fear
So in a way, I am not alive
This foe I cannot conquer: It is my own demise
I am terrified and I don't want to die
This world is so beautiful
I want to be alive...
3. To Make An Idol Of Our Fear And Call It God
[Instrumental]
4. A Message To The Missionary
The institution of your faith is not worth dying for, not worth living for,
worth crying for. You want us on our knees not only to pray, but to be
enslaved. We cannot fight when we can't stand.
You've locked us in a cage, taught us to be afraid to be free.
We are told of visions by those who cannot see. We are told to listen by those
who cannot hear. We are given salvation based on terror and fear, denied this
life for a day dream in red letters and gold trimmed pages.
One nations ethnocentric perception of god cannot be the only end. Your
internecine is supported by scripture, it's the only credibility your willing
to lend:
Lies to support lies.
5. ...Seeing...
We search so hard in vain
When the answers hold our hands.
They fill our bellies.
They drench the sand.
They pour from the sky.
Their thunders roar.
We still search for answers.
We must search no more!
Disregard dogma.
We've no need to kneel again
unless to feel the earth,
to drink from the streams again.
Divinity in the forest.
Drenching the night sky.
Present in all things that grow.
The gods as an archetype.
I saw the gods in the eyes of my father on the last day he waved good-bye.
I saw the gods starring at the night sky with a friend standing on lake ice.
I saw god in the eyes of my nephew just minutes after his birth.
I saw the gods at the end of symbol when an emptied horn made flames burst!
I see the gods!
I see god.
6. Watching You
[co written with Jack Hannert]
This loss of all innocence.
The hands that guard us often wither.
Leaving us so exposed.
Naked to the wolves.
Away from our fathers and mothers,
who once sheltered us from the terror of the world.
Who will hold us now that they have gone?
Left to be embraced by fear and loss,
whose gentle hands rock us to sleep,
singing vicious lullabies to us...
The grim reminder of all we have lost.
..of our fallen kin.
The innocence lost
so we turn within.
Grown into adults
Longing to be children again
Just to hear your voice once more...
[AL]
We saw the hands of the gods that day.
In quick wings held steady.
A gaze across time,
a last goodbye and hope took flight.
We may never see your face again
but I know you haven't left us.
Your work lives on in me.
Your heart live on in me.
[JH]
The current ran against our feet.
Another loss to nourish.
The river you became.
Rich earth contains memories of past days.
The soil who embraced you
and seeds for future hopes.
The air I breath again.
The cycle spins on.
Neither lost nor forgotten
with sun shining down.
We walk within you in the day.
We sleep beneath you in the night
and remember you all of our lives.
[AL/JH]
[..For Holly and Ed.
We Love and miss you so much.
-Jack and Austin.]
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