So you move ahead,
With every single moment.
Never turning your head,
Like the cat hunting the rodent.
When you’ve come a long way,
It’s your appetite that drives you,
Ever closer to the day,
When you finally find the dream you hunger for.
You’ve got to use your imagination,
Gotta stop and plant a seed,
With some serious determination,
In time you will succeed.

Chorus:
Keep on keeping on,
Never give up the fight,
Keep on keeping on,
Everything will be all right.
Keep on keeping on,
Each and every day,
Nothings gonna work out better,
Nothing ever comes for free.
Got to be a real go getter,
Got to know just what you want to be.
Keep on keeping on.

When the stakes are high,
There’s danger in the game.
And the only way to win.
Is to take a deadly aim.
Oh and when you lose a battle,
It doesn’t mean you lost the war.
Just get back in the saddle,
And remember what you’re fightin for.

Keep inside,
A fire slowly burning,
And you will not be denied,
The thing for which your yearning.
Don’t let anything impede,
Or anyone discourage,
You from doing what you need,
And you’ll finally find the dream you hunger for.
You’ve got to use your imagination,
Got to stop and plant a seed,
With some serious determination,
In time you will succeed.

Copyright, Mark E. Firehammer

Chorus:
Don’t forget your dreams,
Be true to who you are.
Reach out for each wish,
That you wish upon a star.
What you dare to reach for,
Is all that you can be.
The future’s up to you,
So don’t forget your dreams.

Looking back on all the years I’ve been out on my own.
The places that I’ve been the things I’ve learned.
Dues I’ve paid, mistakes I’ve made because of them I’ve learned,
To know success is more than income earned.
As children we would dream of what we’d grow to be.
But little did we know what we’d become.
When told our little dream is just a fantasy,
And taught to run a race that’s rarely won.

(chorus)

Bridge:
If nothing within nature is capricious,
Then we can’t imagine what could never be,
One good look at history should teach us,
Our dreams are within reach of you and me.

(chorus)

Copyright Mark E. Firehammer

But this world’s a troubled place,
Give me simpler times,
When the good Life,
Wasn’t bought with overtime.
We’d till a little fertile ground,
Build us a house of stone,
When come the harvest time,
We’d reap the love we’ve sown.

Give me a good life,
One fueled by passion,
For earth and nurture,
Not cash and fashion.
I need a good life,
To build a home with friends,
Livin in the web of life,
That’d make me whole again.

Each town I pass it seems,
Is moving way to fast,
Their cutting down the trees,
And tearing up the grass.
Their putting asphalt down,
This here’s a growing town,
To say it’s the will of God,
Just perpetuates the fraud.

There was a place in time,
When that did seem the case,
That all this was made for us,
That God blessed the human race,
But we’ve learned a lot since then,
Let’s make Cain & Able friends,
That’d stop the ground attack,
And we can get our garden back.

Chorus

Bridge:
Pesticidal poisons,
Dealing death we can’t avoid,
One leads to another,
Till the web of life’s destroyed.
Rachel’s calling “back this way”,
“That’s the path to silent spring.”
Come along join heart and hands,
Everybody sing.

Chorus:

Copyright, Mark E. Firehammer

Chorus:
Leave it all behind,
It will come back to you,
It’s the truth you’ll find,
Just wait and see.
Picture in your mind,
Just what you want to do,
You can master mind,
Your destiny.

Verse 2:
The boss says that I’m doing very well,
He gets himself a raise I get a pin for my lapel.
I’m just another spoke within the wheel,
I’m losing all control and I don’t like the way I feel.

(Chorus:)

Bridge:
We try so hard to keep up with the Joneses,
Getting more but losing precious time.
You’ve got to stop and listen what your heart says,
Before you find your life’s not worth a dime.

(Chorus:)

Copyright, Mark E. Firehammer

He said hey mister how about it,
You spare a nickel or dime,
Ain’t gonna use it for liquor,
I haven’t eaten in a long time.

I know there’s somebody in there,
I saw that look on his face,
That little song I was playing,
Was a time and a place,
When things weren’t quite so hopeless,
When he wasn’t alone,
When he had him a family,
When somewhere was home.

Chorus:
He used to have a name,
Once upon a time he was still in the game,
He used to have a family,
But happy ever after simply wasn’t the plan.
He used to have a friend,
He had a dollar to lend.
But he never ever should’ve had to start all over again.
Start all over again.

Verse 2:
He used to have an apartment.
A decent job paid the rent.
Two weeks vacation in April.
He earned as much as he spent.
He never saw what was coming.
This kind of thing is a shame.
He got to work as they were closing.
His pension went down the drain.

He said this can’t be true.
His eyes were filling with tears.
They just can’t do this to me.
I’ve been here twenty five years.
He tried to find a new job.
Ended up at the bar.
Lost his family his friends.
Don’t even know where they are.

(Chorus:)

He could be somebody’s father.
I know he somebody’s kin.
I know that somewhere sometime,
Somebody must have loved him.

Copyright, Mark E. Firehammer

There’s Betty with her world on wheels,
A cart that’s full a heart that’s hollow.
Searching through yesterdays trash for her meals,
Just outside my window.

Chorus:
Just outside my window,
I’m feeling so much pain.
Whichever way the wind blows,
It always seems to rain.

A man with a gun started shooting today,
They say that he came from the ghetto.
A man who was buying his drugs wouldn’t pay,
Just outside my window.

A pretty young girl is walking the streets,
Wearing stockings and lace and eye shadow.
Selling herself to the men that she meets,
Just outside my window.

(Chorus:)

A riot broke out at the clinic they say,
They want to make something illegal.
A baby was found in the dumpster today,
Just outside my window.

A policeman was killed when he happened upon,
Some dealers who lurked in the shadows.
He hadn’t a chance their machine guns were drawn,
Just outside my window.

(Chorus:)

Living in a hurried world,
We turn our backs on it’s sorrows.
Draw the shade and forget the cold,
Just outside my window.
Just outside my window.
Just outside my window.
Copyright Mark E. Firehammer

I don’t need no shelters,
To keep me from the sun,
To shield me from creation,
Or block the path to run,
Into the arms of god,
He is the shade of a willow tree.
I don’t need no shelters,
The willow weeps for me.

I don’t need no shelters,
To keep me from my source,
Life’s currents running through me,
The flow of natures course.
No hand upon the tiller,
Give no fight to reach the shore,
I don’t need no shelters,
The river shows me more.

Chorus 1
I’ll lay down on the river.
Wear me a blanket of pouring rain.
The cold don’t make me shiver,
Like the sting of cultures pain.
Cleanse me of the wanting.
Rinse my soul of all this greed.
I don’t need no shelters,
No shelter’s what I need.

I don’t need no shelters,
Defined in every way,
By one destructive culture,
For which I have to pay,
A price of soulful mourning,
As the web of life’s erased.
I don’t need no shelter.
What’s left I will embrace.

I don’t need no shelters,
I will not be it’s slave.
Won’t work to pay the ransom ,
To keep a fancy cave.
I’ll live within its bounty.
I’m covered by the earth.
I don’t need no shelters.
I’m conscious of it’s worth.

Chorus 2
I’ll swim upon the rivers
Wear me a blanket of pouring rain.
The earth’s a wholesome giver
She’ll  ease all inner pain.
Cleanse me of the wanting
Rinse my soul of all this greed.
I don’t need no shelter
No shelter’s what I need.

But the river’s been polluted
I stand in acid rain
Feed from poisoned topsoil
Feel this prisons pain again.
The pain is not from outside
The pain comes from within
Inflicted on our spirits
By the shelters we’ve been in.

These shelters won’t protect you,
These shelters are a cage.
You’re staring out within them,
But yet you’re not enraged!

Forced to work for dwelling,
Pay big bucks for sickly food
Compelled to wear your labels,
Cuz one might think you were crude.

You bitch about the workplace,
Then you moan about your mate.
Then sit and watch back-stabbings,
Several shootings and a rape.

Neatly tucked between commercials
Say, “you too can be fulfilled,”
Just buy this car, these pants, lose weight,
Have a NICE day, here’s the bill.

I don’t need no shelters,
I don’t need no shelters,
I don’t need no shelters,

Culture is a shelter,
Built upon a stone,
That man was born a builder,
He was never quite at home.

So he built shelters of his wisdom,
Paper wisdom buys you wealth,
Paper wealth then buys a shelter,
That can guarantee your health.

Shelters for our body,
Those few you love the most,
Build ‘em big enough for dozens,
We find shelter in that boast.

With the cost of shelters rising,
We must look beyond ourselves
Mother earth is dying
We’ve sacrificed her health.

Count the shelters you’ve been buying,
From the comfort of a bed,
This shelter’s built for dying,
We’re covered …………but we’re dead.

I don’t need no shelters,
I don’t need no shelters,
I don’t need no shelters,

We just need pure water,
We just need real food,
We just need clean air to breath,
On that you can’t improve.

I don’t need no shelters,
I don’t need no shelters,
I don’t need no shelters.

Copyright Mark E. Firehammer

How many times do we have to be able,
To kill every man woman child.
With nobody left to inherit the earth,
Not the strong the meek or the wild.
It’s hard to believe that we’ve come so near,
Ending all that we are in a day.
The voices we hear say there is nothing to fear,
But the end is a motion away.

Careless ways,
We keep tearing it down,
Careless ways,
Things are crumbling around us.
These are dangerous days,
There’s trouble in store,
Careless ways,
No one cares anymore.

How does a child get a hold of a gun,
Believing it’s only a game.
Shatters the life of an innocent friend,
It happens again and again.
It’s tragically simple,
The answer is clear,
These things a child will find.
Has it been so long since you were a child,
Out of sight was not out of mind.

Careless ways,
Guns are laying around,
Careless ways,
Children dead on the ground,
These are dangerous days,
There’s trouble in store,
Careless ways,
No one cares anymore.

Children alone for most of the day,
The parents to busy to raise them.
Neglecting their needs to be nurtured and loved,
Is the way of the me generation.
A fatherless child who is born not of love,
A mistake in the eyes of most others,
He takes to the streets where a dealer he meets,
Makes him feel like he just found a brother.

Careless ways,
We’re losing our youth,
Careless ways,
Start facing the truth.
These are dangerous days,
There’s trouble in store,
Careless ways,
No one cares anymore.

Copyright, Mark E. Firehammer

Everywhere I go
people help me along
livin on music
singing my songs

Stoking my hope
kind words and advice
making new friends
not thinkin twice

’bout being on the road
I been livin in a van
drivin, sleepin and readin
learnin’ bout man

Things use to be different,
do you remember forgetting?
remember it now,
stem a debt of regretting.

Chorus:
Where did we come from
how’d we get here
gather the pieces
listen and hear.

Where did we come from
how’d we get here
the future is certain,
because the past is so clear.

Verse:
To many people,
not enough hope
were comin to the end
of 10 millennium rope,

Forget about drugs
don’t dwell on the crime
they’re only a symptom
late in the time.

Spanning what used to be
the history of man
now we know better,
where a much older clan

We didn’t begin
with the growing of food
division of labor,
set the slavery mood.

Chorus:

We’ve been tilling the earth
to the exclusion of others
breaking the rules
killing the mothers

Of anything living
that wasn’t our food
population explodes
effective and crude

120K moons,
since the dawn of one culture,
leaving blood and the bones
at the beak of the vulture

Darkness & evil,
from then to the present
a crimson hued path,
to the womb at the crescent.

Chorus:

It was all about power
found in the crop
before very long
we needed a cop

A tool of the kings
and conquering fools
law became written.
imperative rules

For the building of wealth,
by the breaking of bone,
a spread of one culture
through the taking of home.

They wrested the power
of god from the land,
subjugate all
to the service of man

Chorus:

take a walk back
half a million years
a world full of balance
not wilderness fears

The law of the jungle?
it didn’t exist.
It was a delicate balance
where all could exist

The freedom to live
in the hands of the gods
where all was provided
a paradise lost.

The interesting lesson,
that history can give,
as long as we’re Cain,
we can’t be Able to live.

Copyright Mark E. Firehammer

another hot day,
another slick city.
a week in the woods,
and they’re somethin to pity.
there are no real trees here,
I need me some shade.
no one else is lookin,
but to just get paid.
I’m just lookin,
I’m just lookin.

they pile inside,
put the a/c on.
slave to the master,
for eight and beyond.
there are no real skills,
in this franchised culture.
everybody’s selling,
for the corporate vulture.

lunch time rush hour,
they’re hitting the streets.
jockey for position,
competing to eat.
mmmmm must be something real good,
watch em hurry and wait,
for a burger and fries,
and a world o’ waste.
I’m just lookin.

Chorus:
I’m lookin around,
this American town.
I’m lookin around,
and every face is a frown.
I’m hopin to find,
another person that minds.
I’m just lookin,
I’m just lookin.

Verse:
that woman in the Benz’,
got an arctic breeze,
blowin back brown hair,
yeah her face is gonna freeze.
spent the whole damn day,
in an air-conditioned office,
selling out the earth,
for the corporate profits.

now she’s drivin 10 miles,
to her spacious new home.
there’s room for a dozen,
she’s livin alone.
keeps the AC set,
72 degrees,
24/7
life is a breeze.
I’m just lookin.

Chorus:

yeah down in Taiwan and mexico,
you should see this.
there’s lots of poor people
who think they want to be us.
this horrid corporation’s
seeking cheap labor.
using up their bodies
say they’re doin them a favor

making things,
things you can’t even imagine.
things you’ll never need,
till they come into fashion.
hey you the consumer,
you don’t need no preference,
just buy one of each
get your love and acceptance.
I’m just lookin,
I’m just Lookin.

Chorus:
I’m lookin around,
this American town.
I’m lookin around,
and every face is a frown.
I’m hopin to find,
another person that minds.
I’m just lookin,
I’m just Lookin.
I’m lookin around,
this American town…….yeah.

Copyright Mark E. Firehammer