It is one of my most sincere and deeply held beliefs is that the music & lyrics a person loves reveals something about the inner reaches of their heart, their character, and their soul. When I say ‘love’ – I don’t mean dance around and laugh to, or tap a toe to, or sing along with.

When I say ‘the music a person loves,’ I mean the music that sets every one of their nerve endings on fire with the most profound realization of living. The music that fills them with boundless joy or unfathomable despair or reckless hope. When you know which songs bring a person to that place where their aware of every cell in their body, then you know who they are.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging lyrics or style or genre. I’m not judging at all. I’m talking about what brings a person to life. I’m talking about watching notes explode in their eyes and words make them cry and have them say things like, “When I die, you have to play this at my funeral.” I’m talking about laugher so raucous their toes curl and their belly muscles are pulled. I’m talking about the kind of connection to songs that forces them to learn to sing them, and play them, and share them with everyone they know because it is so meaningful and uplifting to them.

So, the “C is for Cookie” is just as beautiful in this regard as Metallica’s “One”, and classic tunes like “Eine Nacht Muzik.” This isn’t some endorsement or judgment of any style of music or song, it’s really a call to search out that poetry of life that lifts you up and makes you feel too deeply to explain in just one lifetime. And it’s also a call to admire and respect that poem, that lyrics, that tune in every one you meet. Everyone. Every stranger. Every son. Every daughter, wife, mother, aunt, uncle, grandfather, friend of a friend, salesperson, and cashier. All of them live to some tune, some poem you need to read. Dont’ forget that. Just – don’t. You need that in your heart, whether it is happiness or ache, suffering or salvation. I’m not telling you what music to listen to, I’m telling you what music to look for.

One of my great joys as a father is to see my children revealed in their passions and loves – their music – because I see that I didn’t raise a boy and a girl, I raised a man and a woman who are unafraid to fail, who are courageous enough to love, and who are as kind as they are brilliant, as strong as they are tender, and as loyal as they are beautiful.

One of my great joys as a husband is to see my wife revealed in her passions and loves, because in her I see that I didn’t marry just a pretty face, I married a beautiful woman who is stronger than me, more fearless than me, more courageous than me, more brilliant than me, more kind and more decent. When I put on her music, and listen to the songs she loves most, that’s what I hear.

I wish every husband could see his wife the way I see mine. I wish every father could see his children the same way. People wonder how an artist sees the world so differently from them, and I suppose it depends on the artist, but for me, I see it through the music and the lyrics. I see life through the unfiltered lens of poetry.

So, yes, I believe music is even more than a reflection of the musician or the listener. The music each of us choose to play, to sing, listen to – the music we choose to love – also affects who we are. So, I suppose, that explains why I am always searching for new songs, and connecting with new people. I am on an endless search for those songs that make might make me who i want to be.

I keep saying songs, and of course, I do mean songs, but i also mean poems. I find it completely un-confusing, but others might disagree. I do not differentiate between the two in this sense.

I’m a very simple man.

I am a man. That has to be
enough.”

I watched the sun hang
in the v of an old pine
waiting to fall
behind the times or
the world.

Later, i thought, there will be
stars.

Steven didn’t say anything
else. It was as if he was
waiting. We’re all waiting
I guess. I watched him
looking for something
wild to change the world,
or just his head
away from this orange sun
for a moment.

i told him, “aren’t we all?”
he just laughed and twisted
his head then pointed at a heron
gliding through the air
sliding along the glass-smooth water

i shook my head, “i guess
you’re right.”