KNEEL

Day to day there comes more pain
Wondering will justice really make it go away
Hear the sister calling as the brother is falling

Kneel to heal a loving heart
Kneel to remember where it all starts
Kneel not to separate but to be apart
Respect to the way we all should feel

We look to the leaders for something to say
All they can say is "Thoughts and prayers."
Those are words blasphemy today.

Kneel because you pray
Kneel because freedom demands it
Kneel because you will not give in to hate
Respect to all when you kneel

Thousands of voices call for justice to one def ear.
Got to take a stand make the move you the way is clear
Hate will grow in a vacuum when you don't make any noise.

Kneel in the churches
Kneel in the streets
Kneel not because it is easy but because it is hard
Respect comes from the heart

A symbol of peace has a historic legacy of death and hate.
A child's name spoken in a context of racial shame
Now a leader's deceit calls kneeling an insulting to his own humanity.

Kneel because it is right
Kneel because it brings hate out into the light
Kneel because it is the way Martin would fight
Respect is what you feel when you kneel

We raise our children to worry
We make excuses when our vision is blurry
Justice is just the blind leading the blind.

Kneel to remember George
Kneel to remember Breonna
Kneel to remember Ahmaud
As the list goes on
Respect should be given to the one that kneels.


©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017 - 2020

LIVING FOR THE SOUND

There is something in the sound
Not word to bring it down
So turn it up now

If it is something you want to do
If it is something in you need just see it through
There is nothing for you to prove
Know everything is from the heart

Living for the sound
A talented power that makes you say wow
Your living in the past if your living now

Girl, you stepped on my heart with your stiletto heels
I am a person and I still feel
And that is something you can't steel
I know the sound will help me to heal

Living for the sound
It will bring me up when I am down
Takes a lifetime to bring it back around

The purple omens of the sound
Keep me driving around town
The girls come for a ride it doesn't have to be loud
The love sign sticks to glass no need to ask


©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017

BORN IN JUNE

Found a place It takes no space
There it is never cold you never get old
Time is just a destination living without limitations
Many lifetimes pass you by you think you'll do it differently next time

The flowers bloomed in May but you came in June
In the fall the flowers are gone too soon in April so did you
Pass you again in another life, will be like a blind man seeing the light

Love is never changing even when someone thinks its an activity
Kindness is a state of mind away to live right
Peace can be achieved if you believe in these things
Freedom should not be negotiated it should be like the air that we breathe

The flowers bloomed in May but you came in June
I wish you would come and whisper in my ear a new tune
The music that comes from you is my muse

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017

CANVAS BAG

What have you seen is not for my eyes
Just an excuse for peace to turn out to be a lie
You were not alive but you hold the memories inside
Taken along for the change of lives

Canvas bag
Woven in you is the pain of history
Canvas bag
Mud or sand carried to many lands
Canvas bag
A companion no one understands

Learning to forget but desiring to remember
As the mind navigating the rapids of a river
Celebrated and degraded in the same breath
Memorialized the living death

Canvas bag
Woven threads now called home
Canvas bag
No hero's welcome only to be left alone
Canvas bag
Promises made to one day forget

Everything is forgotten in you
Filled with political promises never to come true
Carried on the back of an innocent man
Wondering what is the master plan

Canvas bag
Woven survivor faded green the nightmares you have seen
Canvas bag
Forgotten in a closet but your memories in the minds of lost lives
Canvas bag
Your journey is filled with unanswered questions why but defined as freedom




©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017

PURPLE SOUL

Little boy, I see the creativity in your eye
Sometimes you want to hide
One day you'll find it deep inside
Everyone will be inspired

Don't you know what you hold
It is worth so much more than gold
Step to the mike and show your a Purple Soul

Little man, you know what you have
When you touch those strings with your hand
The sounds you make will make the whole world dance
You got the plan you know your path

Don't know why you haven't grown old
If you held anything back it would just explode
Just to touch those strings you are a Purple Soul

How can I ever know what inspires you
How can I find that same kind of muse
The same one that danced for you
Don't want to be like you just want to be as cool as you

Don't know why you left your story untold
What you have never can be sold
Everything you are is Purple Soul

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017

TRAPPED

If you don't like the bitter taste of a lie then spit it out
But how can you when it is not coming from your mouth
The truth is uncomfortable at first it might even hurt
Claim it, don't let it run away push through it like a new birth

Trapped in the lie thinking your in the light
Trapped in reality you're living in the night
A lie is like a drug that will never free the mind

If you don't think you know wrong from right
Making excuses for another person's lie
Thinking your lead the game but those lies but you to shame
Walking with your daddy's name you got no one else to blame

Trapped in the lie the way you talk some think your high
Trapped in reality may be you just had a lobotomy
The mind is a terrible thing even when it is in your own brain

Just don't admit hope that everyone will forget 

CIAROSALIE

Can't be too shy when all you need is a ride
After this weekend no time to reminisce
You got those goals and you know there is more

Ciarosalie
No one can see what she can be
Inspired by premature love
She knows where she comes from

A Jersey girl fell from heaven to this world
Asked if it hurt
                  she says, no I am about to put a dent in this earth
She knows her own worth

Ciarosalie
With head full of dreams she got to be free
Inspired by premature love
Father, Mother, Sister Brother family is all about trust

Her dark femininity is where she gets her strength
Marten had a dream that he didn't see
She is evidence of that dream and everything she is about to be

Ciarosalie
Keeping that desire knowing success is more than a need
Inspired by premature love
No one can't deny she is blessed from above

Rebecca Lee forged a path
Now she knows she has to go beyond that
Life is more than just a dance

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017

HIDDEN DREAMER

No one wants me, standing alone in a crowd
Living life from the outside
But inside I am the life of the party

Thought I had found the light
But again comes the night
Always told how wrong but never how right

Hidden dreamer
Too old to be a friend, too different to be a lover
Thought I was the reincarnation of your passions
Just like a check you just cash me in

Changed from the inside out
But that is not enough to keep me around
I become the afterthought when there is no sound

Thought I was that one man you could love
But your always blinded by another guy just for the fun
A few months later he is on the run

Hidden dreamer
Too inexperience to a lover, too much of a man to hold your hand
Thought I was the friend one day to be that lover
To forget you is to forget to breath I wish I would suffocate

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017

STRIPED DOWN AND LOUD

Striped down and loud
Got to hear that sound
Hear that riff that rips the air

Striped down and loud
Never let anything bring you down
That falsetto voice will anoint

Striped down and loud
Got the words to encourage
Hear the truth hear the tune

Striped down and loud
Making sounds that come from the touch of two
The desire sometimes not what you feel but what you do

Striped down and loud
Don't understand what it's all about
Emotions put the words in your mouth

Striped down and loud
Symbols have no name if love is just a game
Can't say it any other way

Striped down and loud
Got to pray through the pain
Don't want to waste away the same way

Striped down and loud
Think the best times are now you just haven't been around
You have yet to hear the true funky sound

Striped down and loud
Talentless proclaim they are the best
They don't even know how to dress

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017

CELEBRATE HER

Cursed and loved
Everybody got one
God's gift to man
Creator of life is the master plan

Celebrate her
She got the curves that brings life to this world
Celebrate her
The only one who can be a mother to a boy or girl

She walks like no other
Back and fouth her hips are like thunder
You work to posse her with a slick line
She has to choose you so don't even lie

Celebrate her
She got the curves that brings life to this world
Celebrate her
The only one who can be a mother to a boy or girl

Creator of unconditional love
It is something you can't run away from
In life, there will always be pain

No reason to curse her name

Celebrate her
She got the curves that brings life to this world
Celebrate her
The only one who can be a mother to a boy or girl

Man tries to make laws
Say she got no choice at all
If all women knew all of what they got
Man would be gripping the only thing they got

Celebrate her
She got the curves that brings life to this world
Celebrate her
The only one who can be a mother to a boy or girl

A muse that inspires the one everyone desires
She is proof God is no liar she can start and cool a fire

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017

POSSESSION

Collection of knowledge can't just be put on the shelf
It is looking deep inside of one's self
Outside desires can't be obtained like this
They are just memories like when you had your first kiss

Possession is nine-tenths of the law
You have nothing when your back against the wall
Success in more than having it all

Having things make you feel like a success
A big house, a nice car, a designer dress
But what is the value of emptiness
Sitting in first class is not a sign of success

Possession is nine-tenths of the law
You have nothing when your back against the wall
Success in more than having it all

Claiming you have friends but no one is there when it all ends
Smartest guy in the room and it's not you
Held down by the weight of your own ego, some wonder do you even have a soul
You don't own the air even when it blows through your hair

Possession is nine-tenths of the law
You have nothing when your back against the wall
Success in more than having it all

How did you earn what you've have been given

Bullied your way through life calling it success

Talking like you know all the answer but you cheated on the test

Living in a borrowed house all your claimed friends are your mental prisoners

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017

MORNING OVER AHMEDABAD

The sun pokes it's face
Through the gray haze
From the rough top
I sit in my own peace

Morning over Ahmedabad
Above the sandalwood trees
The feeling that is only found in dreams

The baritone call of a waking bull
The buzz of motor cycle passing by
In the market debates of the price of dates
The clinking of the spoon stirring the mornings chi

Morning over Ahmedabad
It is much more than a place
It is feeling that is beyond meaning

Many smells masked by burning trash
A pail of soapy water smacks on the street bellow
The thin lines of smoke from burning incense
In this experience time does not exist

Morning over Ahmebad
No other place like this

 © Copyright Thomas Dooley 2017

NEVER TO BE

Drips of a dream found in these tears
No sadness love is all I can hear
The voice of the soul whispers in my ear

Falsetto sounds in the tune
Gave life to the muse
She has me thinking of you

Never to be a brother, Never to be a friend
In the cycle of life, I hope to pass you again

One-color in my pallet is all I need
For the pictures that you sing
Setting the sound free

If I chose to be anyone, it wouldn't be you
I would be the muse just to see what you do
To see the alchemy of a creative groove

Never to be brother, Never to be a friend
The story is not over when the light comes on at the end

Copyright ©2017 Thomas Dooley

Notes 2020: To sound strange, the times I write a poem, I some times hear PRINCE say a line not in a song but in my mind. Later I would find out I used a word he doesn't use or in referring to how he creates his art. I found this out while reading his book The Beautiful Ones, that it is the dark art of turning metal into gold. I know this will resonate in my mind in trying to understand this description of his artistic process.
In trying to come up with an alternate description, I see it as an opportunity to be more creative. What I see it as the use of profanity in any kind of art comedy, music, and movies, etc. Trying to find this elusive wording that best describes the process. What this will do is pull a crutch right out from under me and teach me to walk, it will open up more creative opportunities and bring more depth to my writing.
Outside the literal definition of the word, an alternate could be a recipe, but that would make it sound like anyone could do it. But PRINCE is not just anyone, and no one can do what he does.
   

JASMINE AND INCENSE

Sitting inside my silent mind to find what is inside
Close my eyes for deep visions to feel peace without permission
I am more than skin and bones I am a soul

Jasmine and incense fill the aura of the room
A sitar sets the mood as the sister plays the flute

Dreams of experiences in a land far from me
In a place, I have never known but when I go it feels like home
When there at me every one stair every one wants a photo with *gora vyakti

Jasmine and incense fill the aura of the room
A sitar sets the mood as the sister plays the flute

The words of wisdom filled with peace and love
From GOD is where it comes from
My mind wanders into drowsy thought

Jasmine and incense fill the aura of the room
A sitar sets the mood as the sister plays the flute

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2016

*In Hinglish, a gora is an informal word for a White or fair-skinned man

YOUR NUMBER

Your number is coming
It was set before your grandfather death
It will have you wondering
How did we turn down the path to the end
In the chaos, you will be running
Talking Heads saying "How did we get here?"

Your number is next
666 placed on your neck
He fooled you into it blinded by forgiveness
In your mind, there will be no rest

Like a masked clown in a dark alley
Signing his name to lies like it is reality
The dreams we had are now the nightmares we live
It is the punishment for our fears

Your number is planned
666 placed in your hand
Now how you going to live day to day
Don't worry the yellow smoke will lead the way

Every wrong for protesting a lie
Now the truth is easy to hide
Everyone jump on the waggon it is going to be a bumpy ride
When the driver is blind

Your number is dead
666 placed on your head
Living a zombie life
Not knowing day from night

Apocalypse of ignorance no one wanted it
But ever one clamouring for a front row seat
Smiling with nothing to eat and no doctor to see
Death and taxes are the only reality

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 1968 - 2017

BITTERNESS

This twisted conversation you turned my words on me
If I didn't have these feelings I could be free
Still dreaming of you and what more I could prove

You kicked me down when you shout
Don't remember what it was about

Bitterness
Now you still want to kiss
Bitterness
Still thinking I am your PRINCE
If that was true I would have removed you from my list

This twisted conversation thinking of words that would defend
Got too much to give never telling me what I did
Try to make up for it I feel appreciation is overrated

You give me no doubt got to kick you out of my mental house
Should I change the locks or just tear it down the house

Bitterness
Got to stop making friends like this
Bitterness
Got to stop call me for a flavor
I am not the flavor you savor

This twisted conversation has to stop
If this continues on I will never reach the top
Delete me from your phone I will be the same to mine
No more living in a lie
I am not your friend and your not mine
I have no more time

You defined the line between friends and relationship
We never had any of it

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 1968 - 2017