Coexistance Experience

COME OUT OF THE CLOSET – Rusty Rhoad

When she was four, my daughter loved dark places

Tucked with a blanket underneath her bed

Or curled in a tight little ball inside the cupboard

With a little mermaid pillow beneath her head

But her favorite place was far back in my closet

With a book and a flashlight, and a cookie or two

And she wouldn’t answer unless she felt like it

Until I opened the door, then she’d squeal and shout “Boo, Daddy.”

It made for more than a few anxious moments

Knowing she was safe, but not knowing for sure.

And so I made up this little song for her

And I’d sing it while I made the hiding-place tour.

CHORUS

Come out, come out, come out, out of the closet.

Come out, little one, I beg of you. 

Come out, come out, come out, out of the closet.

I have some chocolate, enough for two. 

I can’t swear there’s not a monster lurking out here somewhere

But there’s plenty of love out here, too.

She called me up the other day from college

To talk to me about her roommate who is gay.

She told me, “Dad, I’m trying to convince her, 

If she tells her parents, they’ll love her anyway

But she was brought up believing it was evil

Now she dates a boy so her parents won’t suspect

And she lives in constant fear of their rejection

She doesn’t sleep well, and frankly, Dad, she’s a wreck.

I hate it that there’s shit like that still out there

The way that people treat each other is just so wrong.

And then I remembered when my daughter was still four

And it called back to mind this little song.

(Chorus)

I WANT TO BELIEVE – from Say Yes, by Rusty Rhoad

   Based on the Poem “Say Yes” by Andrea Gibson

This is for the grandmother who walked on broken glass

A thousand miles in worn-out shoes to find that patch of grass

And take the seed she’d carried and plant it in the land

So her granddaughter could pluck the fruit, hold it in her hand.

This is for the man who worked all day to buy some food to eat

And then gave it to the shivering waif huddled in the street.

With all the cold and hungry, how much good did he do?

All the difference in the world to the child he gave it to.

PRE-CHORUS 

This is for the possibility that guides us

For the possibility still waiting to sing.

Whatever song we’ve been singing, we need to sing it even more

For the world needs us more than ever before.

CHORUS 

I want to believe that everything is possible

I don’t want to hang here at the end of my rope 

So even if your head, like mine is filled with doubt.

Come join your voice with mine in this simple song of hope.

This is for doubt becoming faith

For falling from grace and climbing back on

For keeping on despite all the shit we carry

And for that moment when we fin’ly let it go.

This is for no becoming yes.

This is for the flame that in you burns.

This is for all the times you’ll say I love you

To someone who will never say it in return.

This is for the possibility that guides us

For the possibility still waiting to sing.

Whatever song we’ve been singing, we need to sing it even more

For the world needs us more than ever before.

I want to believe that everything is possible

I don’t want to sit around, dither and mope 

So even if your head, like mine is filled with doubt.

Come join your voice with mine in this simple song of hope.

BRIDGE

We’ll look for sunlight while hiding in the shadows

We’ll wait for flowers while standing in the rain.

We’ll look for miracles, knowing as we do

That miracles are the impossible coming true.

Oh, I do believe that everything is possible

With this hopelessness I will no longer cope.

So even if your head, like mine is filled with doubt.

Come join your voice with mine in this simple song of hope.

We’ll look for miracles, knowing as we do

That miracles are the impossible coming true.

SAY YES – from Say Yes, by Rusty Rhoad

   Based on the Poem “Say Yes” by Andrea Gibson

I’ve been here too long, I’ve been asleep here in this no world. 

Got to Wake up! Got to get free, Find my way out of this No place.

Gotten way too easy just to go along with all who follow.

Wake up! Got to get free got to Wake up! Got to get out!

Stuck here in this No Place, got to get free such a cold place. 

Let me out this stinking prison trapped in-side these hopeless walls. Help me.

Help me Stand Up to my Fears, I can stand up to my doubts,

Help me Stand up take a stand. I can stand up to my fears

Help me Stand Up to my Fears, I can stand up to my doubts

Help me stand up take a stand. I can stand up to my fears, can you

Help me!

Just Say yes, Say yes. Just Say yes, Say yes. 

Just Say yes, Say yes. Just Say yes, Yes. 

When two violins are placed in a room

If a chord on one is struck, the other will play too.

If this is your definition of hope, this is for you.

The ones who know how powerful we are

Who know we can sound the music in the people around us

Simply by playing our own strings

Pull all your strings. Play every chord,

Never hush the percussion of your heart.

Play loud. Play like you know the clouds have left too many 

People cold and broken and you’re their last chance for sun.

Play like there’s no time for hoping brighter days will come

Play like the apocalypse is only 4…3…2

But you have a drum in your chest that could save us,

You have a song like a breath that could raise us.

Like the sunrise into a dark sky that cries to be blue

Play like you know we won’t survive if you don’t but we will if you do

Play like Saturn is on his knees

Proposing with all of his ten thousand rings that we give every single breath

This is for saying Yes.