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levi the poet - keep forgiving lyrics

keep forgiving
when all is not what you thought it was
when the lynch mob pulls back the curtain to reveal all that is ferocious and majestical
well we are each of us small men to varying degrees
projecting the great and powerful oz with booming voices so much louder than we are confident

keep forgiving
if you grow to hate what you loved
well i don’t want to be a pendulum swinging from one ivory tower to another
not everyone is compet-tion
i pray for you on the days that i pray for my enemies
(the same days that i pray for myself)
life tends to beat the binaries out of you
it’s healthy when you and i become we, but we have got to keep forgiving

if you write for everybody, you write for no one, so i write for my friends
i’ve watched all of them grope for understanding like a pipe dream
heard every word that they haven’t said through eyes watering
wondering if god really hates them as much as they think that he does in the deafening, inarticulable silence
their lips are all sealed the same, not because they have nothing to say but because none of them know how to say it
and neither do i
maybe you can relate

keep forgiving
that goes for yourself as much as anyone

keep forgiving
when pledged allegiances poison the body
and civil war breaks out between limbs and you tuck your children into bed at night, remembering the way that you treated their mother as somehow less than
though you are the product of woman, without the power to multiply and you would not be here without her, and neither would they
perspective, perspective
and the last shall be first and she’ll deserve every trophy that god has for her after being your trophy for so long, i’m sorry

keep forgiving me
this goes both ways
with fingers for pistols firing indictments and blame at celebrities as machines i made, the bullets –
sometimes – stand to temporarily tame the bitterness
but it’s still self-medicated anger
and the gun shot residue only fans the flames
i heard you say that fostering the festering pain was a match struck in the forest
and the faintest whisper enough of a gust to set it ablaze

keep forgiving
did it set your skin to fire as a boy trying to reconcile how a father could possibly treat you like that?
i used the past like funeral pyre thinking i could burn it away (and tie you to the stake while i’m at it)
i wanted to be the broken link in the chain, but when i set the torch to timber
it was i who found myself burning from the inside out
and i see how h-ll is as here and now as it is anywhere else

keep forgiving
have pity
is there a drop of water for my tongue?
i used scissors to fork it and spoke blood
spoke blood and tinctured the saliva to serve on a sponge
called it comp-ssion, called it death by love
well, no wonder we’re so h-llbent on hanging someone

keep forgiving
when the disconnect seems to beat the poetry out of you
and the joy isn’t quite there but you can’t quite remember where or why it went
and the lenses protecting your vision continue to cloud
and spread reflecting eyes as opaque as the dimly lit mirror that they seem to be doubling up on just for the h-ll of it
well, it was never just for the h-ll of it
but who really believes that in the midst of the dispersion
or setting a broken bone?
the bloodletting felt like murder, but you had to get the poison out of me

keep forgiving
when we come brandishing swords for the ears of those who spoke to what they should have given over to silence
when i steal the right to vengeance
when i think that i am justified in my anger, like holding onto it is doing anything other than picking at wounds that i don’t have the scope to see as a cell block

keep forgiving
when the memories of what was threaten to shut your heart down
and the laughter that you can still hear from the mouths of friends who are no longer around make you wish that you could change the channel
if you write for everybody, you write for no one, so this will be for you

keep forgiving as forgiven
as every pointer finger bent backwards and broken like the moment all of my indictments returned to me
and the bullets ricochet straight back in on my gunsights
well this is a small, narrow lens from which to view the world

keep forgiving as forgiven
we don’t always get to wear the white hat
pardon is not always preceded by repentance
in fact, i think it’s exactly the opposite
if it were not for love, i would have never, ever come back

keep forgiving
you can’t unsee what you’ve seen, but the world is colorful
ferocious and majestic, without small men or straw men or me to blow smoke and mirrors from our machinery
that toggle switch is reductionistic
let the pin go
decrease

hate is a prison
i’ve told my stories, but they are yours
you may never get your apology, and on the day that you do, it may not mean a thing

keep forgiving

- levi the poet lyrics

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