Category: Poetry

You and Me and Her or Him

This song was one of three songs written for the 3rd Annual Capital Region / Berkshires 24-Hour Theatre Project. For more information on that event and the process of writing the songs for it, see Songwriting for a 24-Hour Theatre…

Still Life

His child will soon come He fills vase with mum Brightly drawn Still life The child is dead born It won’t see the morn It is gone Still life He lets the child leave He lets himself grieve He moves…

Our Whole Lives

This song was written as a submission for American Idol’s first songwriter contest. Howard and Mark used Appreciative Inquiry to tailor the song for the program — the first time either of them had created a song fully through the…

Come Out

This song was written for a compilation album of songs inspired by the work of Daniel Quinn. Mark wanted to throw things for a loop with this song about being true to who you are. The appreciative approach he took…

Morality v. Tolerance, Round II

In his ancient marble tower an Archbishop’s Divine Power is impenetrable, unquestionable, his right He makes promises for an hour as the people below him cower then shed money from fists once tight For to reach the Immaterial State with…

A Vision for Johnny Cash

Cash sang a lot about jail the long term kind without bail Those paying for sins part theirs part ours men and women at extremes under the American dream fermented and left out to go sour But is not America…

Phoenix

This piece appeared in the first and only issue of Mosaic: A Magazine of Arts, Sciences & Everything in Between, which evolved into this website. I have conceded. I am defeated. I have been burned to the ground. Every last…