G S-H

we may all have to go home one day
can’t chase these demons forever
tell me your words of freedom and peace
message the messagers the truth bout their message
tell me of the slums and smack heads
live for your race and go fall like a seed
reinvent the rhyme for these days of chaos
or freedom in expression is what saves us
pound the drum and speak in a stream ancient and fresh
i don’t have to agree to see what makes it real
run and destroy your record and our life
but rise like a garden and bring us back the truth
the troops and junkies, rappers and radicals
bartenders and bouncers, users and reborn
if i hadn’t been a liberal i couldn’t have been so stern
gotta do more than only live on for existence
remember home is were the hatred is and how it saved me
kick it quit it kick it quit it
i have gratitude of yearning respect for you old man
you were old when i met you and old when you left us
coltrane and whitey on the moon are the truth
truth of some perspective we lost focus on
can’t be your outlook if you can’t make it out
the battle costs us a few valuable chances
of longer life for our little ones and mothers too
did i write this for real when i heard you died?
blues in america can’t ever die
the best thing we gave the word is one thing
the blues we made and concurred makes us strong
the strong can be dumb or dead if they don’t express
souls like Gil have the wicked velocity of multiple angles
like a vision or a sound to sliding and using
run from the law and bury eleven lawyers
write legions of books questions of your standards
from the afro to the gutter back to paris for a hideout
return with some final last words was a nice eulogy
we gotta work for peace and life is a few directions
how many wives does it take to find the one who forgives
the angels of the life after gotta groove on forever
guess we all get a great show in heaven or hell it seems
glimpses of peace, rumors even would feel pretty nice
like i said gratitude of brave respect for our loss today
peace in your rest pick up the secrets and send em back
be god damn sure i get em or even just a touch of the wisdom
but not the dark side i feel it coming and hold me back
could tear it up for good any day now holding on like a october leaf
but if that is the last line i write i will be fine


Gil Scott-heron RIP.


Scott Low