I’ll Keep Being Me

April 3, 2021

You don’t want to rock the boat
You always fall in line
It’s easy to fit in
When you never have a spine

I’ll keep being me
With my kooky company

The nerdy misfit freakshow
And our crazy crackpot crew
The weirdo wacko zany ones
Just doing what we do

Do what other people do
Affirming the consensus
Eliminate what makes you true
Until you lose your senses

I’ll keep being me
With my kooky company

The nerdy misfit freakshow
And our crazy crackpot crew
The weirdo wacko zany ones
Just doing what we do

By Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Poetry for Kids | Leave a Comment »

All the people you push down

March 19, 2021 

Madly here we go again
Making war to feel like men
All the suffering in the world
Inflicted on a little girl

Everyone you boss around
All the people you push down
The hateful hunger to control
Lord, it takes a mighty toll

Disparage everything they do
Cuz everyone should be like you
That’s how a tyrant runs his home
Cutting children to the bone

Everyone you boss around
All the people you push down
The hateful hunger to control
Lord, it takes a mighty toll

Squeezing every single dime
From their labor and their time
That’s what production’s all about
Plug 'em in and turn it out

Everyone you boss around
All the people you push down
The hateful hunger to control
Lord, it takes a mighty toll

By Richard W. Bray

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Posted in If it sounds country, Lyrics | Leave a Comment »

Reptile Love

March 1, 2021

Your skin changes color
What a marvelous tongue
You warm me all over
When we’re sitting in the sun

Your nictitating membrane
Really makes me wanna sin
When you slither all around me
You know I always shed my skin

We could raise a brood of geckos
On grasshoppers and kale
Dig a hole for your eggs, dear
I’ll even grow a new tail

If you’ll be my little mamba
I’ll be a happy crocodile
Fending off a thousand vipers
Just to see your scaly smile

By Richard W. Bray

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Posted in If it sounds country, Lyrics | Leave a Comment »

Reason’s Gift

February 26, 2021

From thought and love and rhyme
To frontiers of space and time

From a mosque in Timbuktu
To the Dome of Xanadu

From protecting son and daughter
To industrialized slaughter

From a monkey standing tall
To the beast that wants it all

By Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Poetry, W.H. Auden | Leave a Comment »

rumble dumble day

February 19, 2021

Rumble dumble day
Go outside and play
The sun is shining bright
Bask in your delight

Wimble wamble wee
Investigate a tree
Run around till dark
Explore your local park

Dimble damble door
Open up your pores
Listen to the world
It sings to boys and girls

By Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Poetry, Poetry for Kids | Leave a Comment »

don’t put your angry on me

February 13, 2021

Life isn’t fair
Everyone agrees
Don’t put your angry on me

Sorry bout your temper
And your bonnet full of bees
Don’t put your angry on me

Take a deep breath
And have a cup of tea
Don’t put your angry on me

Journey to the park
And climb the biggest tree
Don’t put your angry on me

Watch a funny movie
And laugh until you pee
Don’t put your angry on me

Rage is a prison
Set your spirit free
Don’t put your angry on me

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in If it sounds country | Leave a Comment »

Bullies

January 15, 2021

Bullies are angry
Bullies are mean
They gotta put you down
To empty their spleen

Bullies wanna conquer
Bullies divide
Spreading round the hurt
Cuz they’re broken inside

Bullies disarrange things
Bullies hurt your health
Every single bully feels
Sad for themself

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in If it sounds country, Lyrics | Leave a Comment »

Granite to Grass

December 17, 2020

‘Tis sweet to know that stocks will stand
When we with Daisies lie—
—Emily Dickinson, If I Should Die

Darker nights than ever
Hearts of shattered glass
Hefting laden caskets
Setting granite in the grass

They will come for all the bodies
   Then they’ll come and take our homes
The machine keeps right on turning
   And grinding up the bones

When disaster makes you richer
What could ever make you whole?
Is it just the love of Mammon?
Or the absence of a soul?

They will come for all the bodies
   Then they’ll come and take our homes
The machine keeps right on turning
   And grinding up the bones

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Emily Dickinson, If it sounds country, Lyrics, W.H. Auden | Leave a Comment »

with you

November 14, 2020


a movie in the afternoon
   with you
a walk, a talk, a Gershwin tune
   with you

in a cabin in the hills
   with you
in a field of daffodils
   with you

snuggle on the coldest night
   with you
feeling safe and holding tight
   with you

everything is warm and true
   with you
in a universe of two
   with you

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in If it sounds country, love songs, Lyrics | Leave a Comment »

How’d you know the song in my heart?

October 11, 2020

How’d you make the world
Collapse and disappear?
How’d you make your voice
The only thing I hear?

How’d you take my troubles
And tear them all apart?
How’d you know the song
In my heart?

How’d you know the song
In my heart?

How’d you patch me up
And nurse me back to health?
How’d you create a world
Where time was someplace else?

How’d you erase the past
And make a whole new start?
How’d you know the song
In my heart?

How’d you know the song
In my heart?

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in If it sounds country, love songs, Lyrics | Leave a Comment »

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