Forgiveness Lyrics

I find myself, every other night

In a subterranean labyrinth

Though I often forget by morning

There are many ways to get there

The hotel, with an elevator which always breaks

The backyard grill, on the wall near the living room

The cellar of the same Costa Rican home

Once I am in, I am in

And I cannot get out again

There is a beast which stalks the corridors there

I hear him howling and moaning, from afar

To this day I don't believe that we've ever met

Except perhaps, the first time I arrived

When the fear was strongest

And the alienation was most severe

I can vaguely remember being devoured

There is a light source in the corridors

Whose walls are starkly concrete

And I have grown to believe

That I am the one with the lantern

Holding it out in front of me

Though I cannot see it, nor my arms

I only see the thin line

Where illumination meets the edge

Of where the monster will surely appear

But he does not, except in my mind

There is a room, off a branch of a corridor

And it is that room which I seek

Though I do not know why

But an exit clearly does not exist

Perhaps there is a treasure there

Or a secret way out, but what I fear the most

Is that I too am drawn to the monster

As he is drawn to me

But somehow I realized

In speaking with you now

That I am the monster

Starving, after ages of desolation

I cannot die, and I never will

I do not seek to hurt anyone

But I am so hungry

Hunger is the pathway for all things

Truth, sustenance, evil acts

How we choose to fill the void

Determines our character, our make-up

I understand the dream of the monster now

And so it bothers me no more

I have learned how I became so deformed

And I use that knowledge to remain informed

Of the totality of my influence all around

I integrate cleanly to prevent further attacks

Of my emotions which can be quite unruly

Words are deceptively translucent

Invisible, yet able to cross

The thresholds between us

And enter and change the psyche

In turn changing everything

Like tools they have the power to construct

And like weapons they can irreversibly destroy

My words have covered the gamut, like anyone

Though I strive to never do harm

I am imperfect, and I have destroyed many a good thing

Though the love of others somehow prevailed

Not in all cases, but in many

What's been lost is a lesson I choose to carry

Beneath the ground a man made his way

Carving out silence from the noise in his mind

What might he find straying far from the day?

The town above was too busy to notice

In darkness was held a vision so bold

It traced the ages long since past

At last, the end had reached him

So old and nearly forgotten

Lanterns of youth, hidden from view

Had not extinguished, had not betrayed

Loyalty, with him still though invisible now

A solitary song sung not by one who belongs

Applause, the café: 'twas noise

Now all had become silent with finality

Respect, as he did choose to believe

Patrons are artifacts of another life

Such is the strife of a living poet

To kneel and pray to the monsters within

Glean that they are more than mere symbols

From the edge of the stacks of light

Always threatening to attack our sight

Our sight, it was all that we had

To discern the answer so mad

A man lived his life in that bleak underground

Because it was not of his town

The forests and hills smelled of the will

To keep everyone near the bay

Near the sound

Descending below was the only choice sane

To know is to choose to abstain

Between us all he found, a cavernous wall

A system of roots for the town

Upon which he laid, so neat and discrete

A message for anyone who may come

For years he riddled and spun around

All of the ancient words

Until his day was nearly done

And now there remains his monument to change

So true, for the age in which we live

The wall simply read, forgive