• I learned the truth at seventeen,
  That love was meant for beauty queens
• There's never much to say between
  The moments of our games and repartee
• Put your ear to the ground,
  there's a buzz
  about a new type of song
• And I'm leaving the light on the stairs
  No I'm not scared - I wait for you
  Hey Jesse, I'm lonely, come home
• Nothing's sadder than the man who thinks he's free
  when he is chained to the prison of his hatred,
  and a dream gone up in flames
• I would tell her how I've yearned
  to be worthy of the grail.
  All these years and all I've learned
  is just how brilliantly I fail
• There are voices on the wind.
  Stolen whispers, sacred moans.
  You can hear them through your skin,
  and the singing of the bones
• Here we all are, waiting for God,
  or someone who looks just like Him
• We live beyond our means
  on other peoples' dreams,
  and that's succeeding
• We were speaking of values and violence.
  Breaking silence
• And if I never reach Orion,
  and if I never fly that far -
  still there's no harm in trying
  to go walking on a star
• And if Jesus was a black man,
  or as white as Sambo's grin,
  it's his words that we'd remember,
  not the color of his skin
• Old lace and picture frames
  rattle their ancient chains.
  Midnight will surprise moonlight at the door
• I want to make you love me,
  and I want to make you smile,
  and I want to be your family,
  for just a little while
• I believe in tomorrow,
  but I remember yesterday
• How could I have loved you for so long?
  I know I enjoyed you,
  but how could I have liked you?
• Old cliches, they grow like vines,
  to clutch the heart of the one you leave behind
• It's the road that makes the rhythm.
  It's the chalk marks on her soul.
• She was younger than forever.
  She was older than goodbye.
• It's not who you love,
  but whether you can.
• Vocatus atque non vocatus, deus aderit.
  Sursum, Domini, sursum Domini.
  Ora pro nobis, in ora pro nobis pacem, Kyrie.
  In ora Kyrie eleison. Kyrie.
• She can taste it on your breath,
  cutting through the cigarette.
  She can smell it on your sweat
• The city casts no shadow now.
  At midnight,
  all the whores come out and dance with darkness,
  and the night rains pour.
• How does it feel to pull out the nails,
  and find you still can walk?
• Yesterday's preacher,
  today's bikini beacher
• Now all over this big wide world,
  I play like a girl -
  from the California lights to the Serengetti nights,
  I play like a girl
• Close the light. Still the flames.
  Candles light the empty frames.
  A photograph can never be
  the song you are to me.
• Some overdose, and some wrap like a rose
  'round the slick perfumed nose of high noon.
  Burning their lips as they stoop low
  to kiss some rich man's excuse for the moon.
• First time I saw Paris in your eyes,
  you told me how you loved me,
  under blue Picasso skies.
• No one sends roses to crazy old ladies
  who lie in dark dusty rooms,
  the size of a small foreign car.
  Sometimes I wonder
  where all the good people are.
• Some sell their bodies for dimes,
  while others marry for the houses,
  and the jewelry.
  It's a real thin line,
  what you charge for your time.
• Hide me in the wisdom of your thighs.
  Ride me like a wave.
• And is she beautiful?
  She must be pretty, or worse,
  to ride the high seas.
• The gates of the city are closed until dawn,
  when the ghosts of midnight have come and gone,
  and the hearts of the weary carry on
• Why can't my wings soar like yours?
  Why can't my span spread as wide?
  Maybe I've got too much left to hide
• I am waiting for my life to be
  one long unbroken symphony.
  Will it come too late to shelter me?
  I long to be eternity.
  Come on, come on, eternity!
• I lay the baby out each dawn,
  inbetween the tender corn,
  with sunrise for her bonnet,
  and flies her only blanket.
• Somewhere out there are millions just like me -
  homesick for Eden,
  heartsick at the memory.
• You mistake the moment for the song.
  The drama for the play.
  The actor for the role.
  The neon light for day.
• The old ones like to claw and clutch.
  Be careful not to offer much.
  They understand the fist and crutch.
• Here I am dancing at last.
  Holding my own,
  even when the band plays fast -
  tonight's the night!
• How we used to like the old-time movies.
  The silent picture show,
  where you make up your life
  at the end of the night,
  as your reel to reels unfold
• Her new name was tattooed to her wrist.
  It was longer than the old one... tattoo.
• God said I wish you'd known me,
  when I still believed you'd be true.
  Now for the rest of your days,
  when you call our my name,
  I'll be "Mr. God" to you.
• Every man's an island in the desert of his soul.
  Take to the sky,
  there's nowhere else to go.
• I went to drink some water,
  but the faucet heads were gone.
  They weren't sterling silver,
  but I loved to turn them on.
• Enough about me - let's talk about you.
  What do you think of me?

• Janis is now a Huffington Post contributor! 

  Please check "HuffPO" for two recent articles by Janis!
  Thank you for not uttering the word "Jew", Mr. President
  and
  Don't Tell Me To Get Over It

  A free download of "Tattoo" is available here.

  [more]

• Free Download of "Guess You Had To Be There"

  Free download, you're welcome to share it. Visit the "Free Downloads Page."

  Buddy Mondlock and I wrote this some years back, but it sure is applicable now. My first "big show" was in Chicago, with Barbara Dane and the SNCC Freedom Singers, among others. My parents ran a summer camp; Pete Seeger was one of our music counselors, along with Bernice Johnson Reagon. A group called The Minutemen planted bombs in the 6-year-old's section one year because they didn't like blacks and whites mixing. I grew up in a family of conscience, and I'm grateful for them every day.

  [more]

• Pearl Foundation 2016 Endowments

  As always this time of year, I am thrilled to post these Pearl Foundation checks and letters, totaling $74,000 in 2016 endowments and bringing our "lifetime total" to $983,000 in scholarships for returning students.

  Thank you, everyone who purchased merchandise from my website, held a living room concert, and donated some amount in return for all the free items we offer!! Couldn't have done it without you...

  [more]

more hot news

• Guess You Had To Be There
• The Great Divide
• Swannanoa
• Danger, Danger
• The Tiny Mouse
• His Hands
• Arms Around My Life
• Society's Child

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All tour dates updated on January 13, 2017

• Friday, June 2nd - New Brunswick, NJ

  Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater

  New Brunswick, NJ

  Visit the venue's website

  Tickets are on sale now.

  Any questions, call 848-932-7565.

• Saturday, June 3rd - New Brunswick, NJ

  Workshops at The Atrium, Rutgers University

  New Brunswick, NJ

  Visit the venue's website

  Tickets are on sale now.

  Any questions, call 848-932-7565

  "My Evil Twin: Dealing With Fear as an Artist"
  "Archetypes in Songwriting"
  "Storytelling - Living Your Artistic Life Out Loud"
  Group booksigning

  More information on the Conference.

• Sunday, June 4th - NA, New Jersey

  Private Show

  NA, New Jersey

  Visit the venue's website
• Sunday, July 30th through Saturday, August 5th - Asheville, NC

  Swannanoa Gathering

  Asheville, NC

  Phone: 828-298-3434

  Visit the venue's website

  More information coming soon.

more tour dates