Burrill Strong Something to say? Send me a letter - or - Sign my guestbook

A - F Better Now Bright Morning Crumbling Discount Dying Divinely Fame G - M N - S T - Z Etc. Better Now 4/18/01 a photograph came in the mail it told me i lost my will to live if that was worth a thousand words i must have had so much will to give i managed to regain my will by making it think i'm someone else but now it seems i did too well i have two of me up on my shelf i thought you might help me out i thought you'd remember who i am you told me i was out of luck neither is me from way back when a good night's sleep might help me out or so i was thinking at the time it didn't help the way i'd hoped the both of me woke up feeling fine the clock struck twelve, and twelve struck me as time to go out and clear my head my head was cleared, i felt refreshed but i had forgotten what you said i thought you might help me out i thought you'd remember who i am you told me i was out of luck i'm better off now than way back when. Bright Morning 08/20/99 i'll stir up the sky with the tail of a comet and bake you a masterpiece, shimmering, swirling i'll glaze all the ocean with bright crowns of starlight and give it to you on a bright morning, early i'll laugh at the villains and plant you some heroes in rows that run straight as a milky-white moonbeam and till they all sprout i'll create you a portrait of sunlight and starlings, alive within our dream i'll give you the world on a marvelous platter and watch, quite content, as a smile lights your face ... Crumbling 7/14/02 you stood there and looked on through the peephole that you carved too small what was it you found appealing deep inside your brittle walls i saw you most every day building up that strong defense once or twice you hesitated but you weren't entirely spent you're farther than you think the walls are crumbling once i asked you why you worked so hard just to shut us out solitude may not be fatal but it only brings you down you told me it wasn't us rather, it was you instead keeping out is not the purpose but it's keeping in, you said it's harder than you think the walls are crumbling when the walls were almost done you saw where you had been wrong somewhere during the construction solitude came on too strong so you tossed the final brick and began to deconstruct we were standing just outside when your hammer finally struck you're closer than you think the walls are crumbling stand up there and look on past the scattered wreckage of your walls there was nothing so appealing to be worth that kind of fall life's better than you think the walls have fallen Discount 11/10/01 told the stories of redemption to a crowd the size of nothing and sure, i'm still believing but i know you think i'm bluffing saw a man outside the gateway said he has a dream on discount seems he's found himself these hard times-- and even that is running out i would say there's nothing sacred but i'm still down on my knees last i heard my life was leaving on a train sure bound for death but i see no call for crying this end isn't all that's left saw that man again this morning wearing gold with his success so complete, except a smile and a dream he thought excess Dying Divinely 9/7/99 it comes to the point of a long-lasting finish the thrill of the ending goes back to the start but after the dust has died down and i'm thinking i'm left here digressing between all my scars the living, the living, it's killing me blindly and opening wide all the doors i left shut and always, and always, i'm dying divinely but it's never easy to fill in a rut i wish i could say i believed what you told me it seemed so inviting to my half-closed mind the truth and the wishing were wrapped up so neatly i found my decision was hard to define in all of my dancing i lost all my bearings the joy and the peace, they ran off with the spoon and what i had left of my patience was folly i knew it would end, but why later than soon? the clock, it runs backwards, it's finding amusement in letting me down like a five-dollar bribe i'm losing control of my last great defensive but suddenly, i think i don't really mind the living, the living, it's killing me blindly and opening wide all the doors left untouched and always, and always, i'm dying divinely this transient living requires too much. Fame 7/19/99 fame, she's a phantom, a curse fame, she starts bad and turns worse glad she ain't there by my door glad she ain't keepin' my score love, she's a devil, a thorn love, she's what i can't ignore glad she ain't lookin' at me glad i ain't who she can see life, she's a diamond, a thread life, she's the ground that i tread hope she ain't done with me yet hope i ain't paid off my debt youth, she's a trickle, a thought youth, she's a bridge that i bought hope she ain't leaving me here hope it ain't death that she fears death, she's a mystic, a fling death, she's an affable thing think she ain't comin' quite yet think she ain't one to forget.