Lyrics and Guitar Chords

## Hang
I used to have a story of a lost love
a love so real, so pure so inncocent
we were one together, we were so close

I lost her. I lost her.
One of the most important things in my life. I thought.

I was once in a place where life had no more meaning
It’s safe to say that I was lost
A night without sleep
seemed like an eternity to me

I expected the feeling to fade
the moment I awake
but it didn’t

When you hang in there
time flies by
and life throws you different
cool stuff
cool new people, old friends
fun new memories, in fact

I found out,
that that’s not all there is
and I’m not the only one in this room
that has experienced this

Does it really get better?
Only if you let it. Only if you’re willing.
Only if you let go. Only if you live.
Get out and live.
Get up and live.

Chords: Em Am B7

## Concept of You
Every great journey begins here
with the falling in love
the joy of being in your company
the laughs and the looking beyond any warnings

time passes, leaves fall
and now you see where their wounds once were

you see their defects
and the cracks in their soul
but you still forgive
because it’s the whole structure of it
the whole magnificence of it

and now, that we’ve gone our separate ways
I miss the concept of you
I miss having someone to connect with
I miss the electricity and the world we created (x4)

and now my love bucket is thirsty
and I don’t want to reach for you
we have different paths
different destinations

it hurts but it will make sense one day
you will be on your own way
your own learnings and facing your fears
and me, well I’ll be on another path
practically doing the same thing

I will always love you, though.
Always. Souls like you are meant for love
and nothing else.

Chords: G D // C Cm

 

## No one left to blame
All my life I tried to impress
To make my best and to show everyone that I am worthy
And then when I finally felt I had made it
I waited. I waited for the applause but there was nobody there

The people I was trying to impress were gone
Gone to their own lives to children their stories their wives and there was no one left to impress

And all this time
Wasted time on trying to belong to a non existent group
What group? Of what?
The idea that they put on tv?

Then I waddled through life
Having it all and having none
Passing through the really tough moments where I thought I was not going to make it
And in the middle of it, in the fiery hell, you turn around and think, ++Am D7
“Who do I blame?”
I turn but there’s nobody there. Nobody.

And then, I turned to the pieces of mirror on the floor and I saw him. The person responsible for everything.
There he was, in pieces.
All the blame, all the applause, all the happiness, all the sorrow was supposed to come from inside him. But he forgot.

He forgot about himself. Too busy to know that he was always there. Waiting to be loved. Waiting to be treasured, waiting to be appreciated. And I never even noticed him.

And now, I applaud.

Chords: Em B7 Am D7 G

 

## Not afraid to lose
I am one of those hopeless hearts
gives everything and accepts crumbs
I just want to loved

Why do I yearn for this level of love?
Is it too much to ask?
I have the attention of a girl I like
but in the waters of love
everything is murky

The connection is there
but no love affair
Just when it gets warm she turns cold
Keeps me at an arms length

You’re here but your heart is not
how the fuck do you think I feel?
I feel alone, I feel neglect,
I feel unloved

I gave my heart knowing it was unsafe
sometimes the biggest risks you have to take

I don’t want someone that lives in shells
protected from the illusion of being hurt again
disappointed again. broken heart and loss again.

I wish you could hand me your heart
but in this world there’s no one to trust
so loving no one is the safest bet

And on my journey I figured what I want
and it is actually a lot to ask
I don’t want a simple strong connection
I want a fucking love affair

A love affair where you are so in synchrony
so intertwined that you lost where you start or where you end
Where making love and having coffee has the same fucking end
Where everything feels better just because she’s there

That is a shit load to ask and I know it
Like dreaming of being a billionaire
Everything is in reach.
You just have to want it and I want that for you
even if not with me

Don’t wait forever,
It’s good to measure but at some point you have to try it on
and maybe one day you’ll be brave and step out
Don’t find the party has passed
left stranded, old and ragged
saying’, Why was I afraid? Why not sooner?

Chords:
Intro: C F G
Regular: C F C G

 

## Echame al Mar
Echame al mar.
Sepultame en la arena.
Deja que beba la espuma
del agua del polvo de tierra del norte coral del mezquite.

Echame al mar, mariposa de brisa, no equivoques tus aleteos
que riñe la luna en algun escondrijo.
Acaso enfadas
porque me cino tocando tus valles
filtrando en tu ropa…
echame al mar
voz de metal…

Echame al mar hija del sueno no te aprisiones golpeandome hereje
las ninfas desnudas

que empapan sus cuerpos
besando el nirvana de mi castalia
echame al mar
voz de metal…

Deja que alcance los rios
la flauta de pedernal; hundida en diamante
hiriendo las alas de los recuerdos.
Echame al mar petalo de fuego, mariposa de brisa
hija del sueno
voz de metal.

Written by: Rolando Tamayo Chavarria
Chords: E A Am

 

## Take a Stand (feat. Chacho Saldaña)
Waterfalls in my eyes
cannot lose those memories
back in the border
lost grip-on reality

I’m not where I come from
I’m not dying to belong
nothing can hold me
who’s to say that I’m wrong
I take a stand

Now that I am old
I have scars I need to heal
with a child of my own
he won’t inherit what I feel

My childhood hero
but none of it was real
I’m disappointed
the way i wanted to feel
I TAKE A STAND

No longer on this earth
and the world is on a string
Now that I know what I’m worth
Did it ever mean a thing?

I’m not where I come from
I’m not dying to belong
nothing can hold me
who’s to say that I’m wrong
I take a stand

Written by Chacho Saldaña and Ricky Mendoza
Chords: (Capo 2) Em Am // C D G D C

 

## Fortress
It’s been a while for something to happen
and nothing ever does
This is a ship with no clear path
but is there such thing as that?

What do you want, what are you expecting?
To break into a fall
the fall of falling in love
in the throws of your majesty

You walk so careful, watching your every move
You built a fort around you
secure in your lonely castle
of memories and regrets

Why is it so hard to live free
of the shackles of hurt,
shame and fear?
Why does life have to be so hard?

Gets harder and tougher
to stand being around you
the flow of negativity
and gloom

And yet here I am,
on your doorstep looking for hope
my loneliness projects on the road up ahead

I wish you could breathe so deep
until your pain doesn’t ache
and fall into my arms
and feel peace and love.

Chords: Am G

 

## Thinking Will Get You Nowhere
As I explore my feelings within
I feel the passion, I feel the burn
of my straight up love for you

but there’s something about you not being there
about you not being real
about you keeping me away

are you afraid?
or you just don’t care
Either way I wish I could just check out
but I’m still in
hoping for hope
because Dufresne said it best,
“hope is the last thing that dies”
or something like that

Wish I could let you go
but wish you’d take a risk
unlearn the harm
and open up your heart

This hope is immense but maybe it should be small
maybe roll it up into a ball
and throw it behind me
and keep on walking

My thoughts are serene
my heart is at peace

I don’t live as if my last day
I live as if I was just born and everything anew

a new beginning, a new sunshine,
new experiences, new songs,
the feeling of my hand going through your hair
as if it was the very first time

a new breath, my first burst of breath
so full, so alive and not pacified
no bad memories just my new life that is just beginning
and it continues on and on

Changed to
E C#m A B
Chorus A B E C#m

 

## Burn, Burn, Burn
Just when I thought I had the world under control
you whisked the rug under my feet
and I fell face first

Life shook me to my knees
and left me with cuts in my heart
I kissed your feet and worshipped you

and when the rose-colored glasses fell
when the perfection faded and
my high emotions dissipated

Not because I can find someone better
it’s not about that…

It’s about me, it’s about making myself the man of my dreams.
The person I always dreamed to be.
To be strong in heart and mind
That is the only way, even if it means burning the bridge.
Even if it means never seeing you.

I need to build a man that I would be proud of
someone worthy of my-self.

I am sure that one day, when all this winter ends
the sun will shine and I will breathe
and everything will bloom
And best of all, is that we have survived
and now it’s time to face a new day, a new beginning,
a time to thrive… buuuuuuuurn!

Chords: Capo 2 — C E Am F

 

## Explaining my Loneliness 
I like to do many things, things that seem important
things that seem brave, that seemed difficult at first
And I do these things because it brings me joy inside
the kind of selfish joy that I cannot explain.

But, it is a lonely joy. Only masturbation comes close.
I write and sing and come up with ideas
of a new way to do this and that.
And when the orgasmic crescendo comes and goes, and you are left with no one but yourself, then what is the point?

Now, this is not a desperate cry for “I’m lonely!”
I’m lonely because I want to be lonely.
Because of a deep respect for myself, for my tender heart.
I am a man, but I am the Mother of my heart.

And if you want to be the Mother-fucker of my heart
you are going to have to be a mother-loving person
And I can go on and on about the person I want, the person that will fill my kitchen, fill my table and fill my bed.
But I don’t have to, and frankly it is none of your business.

But, I tell you this
because I’ve been through a lot of pain
and you might be in the same lonely place
I still have hope,
and just because I won’t take shit from anyone
doesn’t mean that this is
the way it is always going to be.

And even though I can’t help but notice my emptiness,
this feels like a damn good time
to get my shit together and get better at being me.
The sun shines for everyone, for all, embrace it when

Capo 2 / D F#m G A7

 

POETRY

## Free
As I sat listening to the party
the beautiful reverberation of stories in the night
stories of romance and death

One about a woman whose husband died of a stroke
in the arms of a prostitute

All he wanted was to fulfill a desire
too embarrassed to tell his wife what he wanted
afraid of judgements so he paid someone to not judge
and hold him tight

He couldn’t have predicted that to be his last night
but it was and it brought shame to his name
Wife secluded herself for months on end
didn’t want to face the hypothetical questions swirling in her mind
of what people might judge.

In a parallel universe free from judges and criticisms
He would have told his wife, I have a deep desire for you
I want to explore you more sexually
I want to fuck you like we’ve never fucked
fucking exploring ourselves until every single molecule, every single cell and every single sensation has been felt.

She would agree because deep down she wanted to connect more fully, more enriched in her human experience.
She didn’t judge, she opened up and went with the flow of life.
The natural flowing life.

And the day he dies, he dies in her arms.
Both fulfilled, both happy that they lived and loved fully.
Played it all out.
The only fear was to have not loved at that height.

Free from fear of what her husband would judge immoral or wrong.
Free from guilt from “Did I really give my all?”
and free from the sadness and endless questions all because of fear.

 

## Ember
Not everything has to be so calculated and so well thought
sometimes the best things in life happen by chance
Your darkest moments, your darkest thoughts
what are they? If not a mere collection of vagabond connections

vagabonding in our own mind

We live in walls but we are not really protected
we live with fear but we are not really in danger
of anything, really.

For fear, we take the easy way outs,
it’s easy to leave, it’s easy to run away
from every opportunity your soul can be bruised
It’s easy to criticize and to close down and not let anything in
Why would you?
Everything is easy.
What is hard is to take a leap
to stay the rugged course of not knowing
the course of which many not go

Easy has no lasting rewards.
When have you seen a plentiful garden without a gardener?
We sow with hope and sometimes we sow without knowing
what kind of fruit will grow or how long will it take

Seems that everyone takes the easy way out.
We eat the cake
we drink the sugar water
we fuck the tarts
we quit reading literature long ago for the easy

Show me the easy way
That fast track which is a large corridor of bright lights
Yet on the other side,
the uphill course with no road is filled with thorns, barbwire and land mines throughout.

Why would you?

Because that’s where the rewards are.
The reward that at the end of your journey you made yourself
that you found yourself
you found the light in in the dark
a you so fucking pure, so free.

A you so unique, you bask in its glow.

I wonder why is it so hard to find ourselves
to find that raw soul inside of us
the one we were born with already unpolluted
before anything hurt us, before we became hard
before we closed.
Before someone made fun of me
before someone I loved disregarded me
before comparing myself to others
before I was not enough
before I was polluted.

All these layers polluted my soul
until I was no more
my own enemy, my own detractor.

But then going through this unforgiving path
this dark and unknowing path we reach something within ourselves
we made things that we never had thought were possible
we pass things we thought were un-passable
and with each obstacle we un-stain our soul
and clean it with fortitude,
clean it with the certainty that we can and will again
clean it and polish it until we reach the center
that everlasting center we always knew was there

Now it is touched, no longer pure
no longer virgin, no longer perfect
But it stands upright and strong
no longer a child
no longer a weakling

And you stand there truly humbled
no longer caring about how significant or important you are
because you are you, and that’s the most important
The bright ember that knows it’s been through a lot
it knows the struggle
it knows that every stupid thing you made
and every great thing you made are all one

and it’s been through a lot.
And when the callouses finally fade the bright ember shines.

 

## You’ve met Celebrities
On a Saturday afternoon
while writing a piece
A stork flew right next to me

it glided from the river to the banks
It wants nothing from me
apparently

It walks right up to me
right to my face

Startled I first felt frightened,
I froze
May I help you?
But of course, storks don’t speak English
so it stared right at me.

Poised and stoic
Staring we remained
Moments passed and she shook her head
walked backwards all the time shaking her head

She spun and spread her wings
made a chirp and flew away into the mighty air

What the fuck was the meaning of that?
Now I have to wrestle with that?
because neither me or my friends have the answers
not even the internet

Maybe it was just life passing next to me
nature in all its capacity
saying don’t be afraid to talk to me
You might have met celebrities
but I met a fucking stork

 

## Change and Love
Days turn into nights
Nights to morning
Everything changes slightly
We don’t even feel our home moving.

Change is so damn subtle
Your memories, the everlasting films in your head
Moments don’t stand still. Nothing does.

I was once a happy boy
Laughing and tumbling
Then change happens,
Your body grows, the world changes around you ever so slightly.

And then, when you least expect it, the winds of life shift and what was once before is no more.

Your hometown, your lovers, your friends, are all ghosts in your head.

Nights I’ve spent worrying in the ER. The nights I’ve agonized on the pain of a lost love.
All moments gone, just the films in my head and the feelings in my heart.

It hurts but it sometimes makes me smile to know that I am part of this, whatever this is.
This everlasting cycle of change and love. Infinitely shifting and shaping everything around and inside us.

The churning is in motion, there’s no need to hurt. The peace and everything we hold dear is inside and everywhere. Right now.

Just look.

 

## Beautiful
Wow, you’re beauty is impressive
you move like a snake
confidently slithering

you don’t have to look
because everyone is looking already
you have a unique power

the power of beauty
everyone immediately likes you
you get free passes and traffic tickets dismissed

children smile, women envy and men tend to backwardly bend
all because everything is in the right place

So, now what?
You’re crying because you’re lonely
nobody gets you?
Nobody knows that you’re just human?

Confidence equals beauty
Humbleness equals beauty
Kindness equals beauty

What happened to your distorted point of view?
I don’t think those rosy hues unprescribed glasses
are seeing what I’m seeing

We need beauty, but external beauty always fades
especially in the morning
like a new car in a wreck, a dead bird in her nest
unlike the heart in my chest.

 

## Ode to Myself
We’ve come a long way.
Through these eyes we’ve seen the world. This thing we call life.

The thousands of meals, and conversations we’ve consumed.
The smiles we’ve shared with people that we both love and hate.

The millions of colors we’ve tasted. The people we’ve touched and the places we’ve traveled.

We leave a part of ourselves. A piece of us dies and another is born with each embrace, with each step, with each tear.

There is no heaven without a hell, or so they say.
We’ve lived both, like the terrain enduring thundery nights, unbearable heats and sudden violent rains.

But the sun always finds a way to shine again.
We just have to hang in there with the cold of the night, no sign of the sun, but we trust that everything will be fine.

This trust is our blanket that keeps us warm.
Sun is soon to come.

 

## Jaffer
You were here one day
And last night you were gone
You were the champion of heart
Always kind and smiling

You shined bright while you were here
Now you’ll shine brighter in my sky
I will miss your stories, your food
Your hearty laugh, your kind smile

and more than anything I will miss how you looked at your wife.
With all your respect.
With all your love.

You felt ageless
You felt in your prime
Maybe you left things undone
But that’s why we’re all connected
Always starting and finishing
projects, stories, jokes & food for each other

It’s a never ending process of energy running through everyone you hugged.

Oraleeeee… my sweet friend.

 

## The Sun Sets Nowhere
You slip in once in a while
you move my boat and you shake your tail
you steer me in the direction you want
just like the north star shining bright

the days we spent
were magical in every sense
there’s the push and pull
but there’s nothing there

no one wants to jump in
no one wants to commit
so we hop from flower to flower
extracting the best to make honey

I know what I’m doing
and if I’m a grown man
why do I become enchanted with
slippery curves and beautiful mountains

I guess all I’m doing is looking to be loved.
I keep going north, bet end up in circles

 

## Guadalupe Wheeler
We drove thousands of miles together
Talked about life and everything in between
You gave me life lessons I never listened to
And today I still miss you
Miss seeing you laugh, miss seeing you smile.
I miss your food, your super salsa picante.
Your breakfasts and your soul.

I remember when they first told you it was cancer and I hugged you crying and you said thank you for loving me.

At the end of one of your treatments when it was finally over
Chemicals burned inside of you
yet how good you felt when you rang the victory bell.
You cried and we all were with you ending the chemical hell

I was there at most moments but I couldn’t stand to be there in your dying bed.
I could not see you gone, the woman that was so fortuitous and strong.
The one that wanted the best for me. The one that loved me.
I wanted to give you my time but I was too afraid. Afraid of death. Afraid of seeing you gasp your last breath.

And now that I know that we are all nothing but raw energy, moving through the universe and that every single comet, shining stars and the seas are composed of what we are.
Chemicals in motion to create life. To create a flowing everlasting life and live beyond our mortal bodies.
You are love, my love. And no one forgets love.

 

## First day of the year
I was a worm, now I’m a butterfly?!
I can fly and I’m suddenly all colorful and shit?

It’s the first day of being new.
First day of flight, first day of being up here.

Everything is different.
My worm friends are still worming around, doing the same thing they always had.
Funny seeing all this from up here.
A different perspective.

From this day on, I have a new job in this world.
I’m a worm with wings, now.
I suck from flowers for food, now.

All you worms will be on your own journey and with your own wings, one day.
Know that, as your days go by.
Know that, as your troubles go by.
Know that, as you think you can’t go on and suddenly you’re on top of the world and everything looks so little from here.
Everything looks insignificant and trivial. Your worm past, you worm problems and even your wormy fears seem pedestrian.

You’ll have flying butterfly problems one day, but they’ll be way better than the wormiest of your worm worries.

One day, soon.