Looking for good poems or lyrics that you feel convey or capture your sense of disorientation, hurt, loss, re-communion, re-connecting, re-balancing after leaving the most effed up church it has been my misfortune and embarrassment to ever belong to.

The U2 song "One" really speaks to me in some of its lines:

Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same
Will it make it easier on you now
You got someone to blame
You say...

One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it

Did I disappoint you
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well it's...

Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One...
Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head

Did I ask too much
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got
We're one
But we're not the same
Well we
Hurt each other
Then we do it again
You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt
One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

One...life

One

(http://www.macphisto.net/u2lyrics/One.html)

Especially these lines knock on truth for an exmo:

"You say
Love is a temple
Love the higher law....
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl."

That's about as plain a sense of how my disaffection came about as any lyric I've found can convey.

Here's a little ditty for you -

There was an old bugger named god,
Who put a young virgin in pod;
This amazing behaviour
Produced Christ our Saviour,
Who died on a cross
The poor sod!

Mmm, well OK. Try this:

How 'bout those missionaries, ain't they cute?
Spreadin' that Gospel, in a crappy suit.
How to be a missionary?
No way to stop it -
Grab yourself some Gospel, rare back and hawk it!

The voice lends a lot of gravitas to an already great song. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQIrxhNkiAs

Thanks Elee. I'll definitely check it out.

doing back up vocals and guitar.

Too serious. More limerick.

A lad was on trial at St. Ives,
For sleeping with other men's wives.
To avoid life in Hell,
He swore just the truth he would tell,
With his hand on a book full of lies.

This might not be what you had in mind, but I just found this. Sounds like a perfect antidote to mormonism.

Worship
by Kurt Vonnegut

I don't know about you,
but I practice a disorganized religion.
I belong to an unholy disorder.
We call ourselves,
"Our Lady Of Perpetual Astonishment."
You may have seen us praying
for love
on sidewalks outside the better
eating establishments
in all kinds of weather.
Blow us a kiss
upon arriving or departing,
and we will climax
simultaneously.
It can be quite a scene,
especially if it is raining
cats and dogs.


(There's a facebook group for it, lol!)

East Jesus Nowhere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6ocb4VoIjo


Raise your hands now to testify
Your confession will be crucified
You're a sacrificial suicide
Like a dog that's been sodomized

(Stand up!)
All the white boys
(Sit down!)
And the black girls
(Stand up!)
You're the soldiers
(Sit down!)
Of the new world

Put your faith in a miracle
And it's non-denominational
Join the choir, we'll be singing
In the Church of Wishful Thinking

A fire burns today
Of blasphemy and genocide
The sirens of decay
Will infiltrate the faith fanatics

Oh bless me Lord for I have sinned
It's been a lifetime since I last confessed
I threw my crutches in "the river of a shadow of doubt"
And I'll be dressed up in my Sunday best

Say a prayer for the family
Drop a coin for humanity
Ain't this uniform so flattering?
I never asked you a god damned thing!

A fire burns today
Of blasphemy and genocide
The sirens of decay
Will infiltrate the faith fanatics

Don't test me
Second guess me
Protest me
You will disappear

I want to know who's allowed to breed
All the dogs who never learned to read
Missionary politicians
And the cops of the new religion!

A fire burns today
Of blasphemy and genocide
The sirens of decay
Will infiltrate the inside
Yeah!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2011 06:37PM by elee.

I know I've posted both of these, but you can all just deal with it. ;)
Survival, Madonna
I'll never be an angel
I'll never be a saint it's true
I'm too busy surviving
Whether it's heaven or hell
I'm gonna be living to tell, so
Here's my story
No risk no glory A little
Up and down and all around
It's all about survival
Here's my question
Does your criticism
Have you caught up in what you cannot see
Well if you give me respect
Then you'll know what to expect, a little
Up and down and all around
I'll never be an angel
Up and down and all around, survival
Up and down and all around
I'll never be a saint it's true
Up and down and all around, survival

Like It or Not, Madonna
You can call me a sinner
and you can call me a saint
Celebrate me for who I am
Dislike me for what I ain’t
Put me up on a pedestal
Or drag me down in the dirt
Sticks and stones will break my bones
But your names will never hurt

I’ll be the garden, you’ll be the snake
All of my fruit is yours to take
Better the devil that you know
Your love for me will grow
Because

This is who I am
You can like it or not
You can love me or leave me
Cause I’m never gonna stop, no no

Cleopatra had her way
Mata Hari too
Whether they were good or bad
Is strictly up to you

Life is a paradox
And it doesn’t make much sense
You can't have the femme without the fatale
Please don’t take offense

Don’t let the fruit rot under the vine
Fill up your cup and let’s drink the wine
Better the devil that you know
Your love for me will grow
Because

This is who I am
You can like it or not
You can love me or leave me
Cause I’m never gonna stop,

no no, you know

This is who I am
You can like it or not
You can love me or leave me
Cause I’m never gonna stop,

no no, you know



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2011 11:22PM by itzpapalotl.

This one speaks to me tremendously, as a nevermo in a fairly serious relationship with a TBM.

Cooling by Tori Amos

Maybe I didn't like to hear
But I still can't believe
Speed Racer is dead
So then I thought I'd make some plans
But fire thought
She'd really rather be water instead

And Peggy got a message for me
From Jesus
And I've heard every word
That you have said

And I know I have been
Driven like the snow

But
This is cooling
Faster than I can
This is cooling
Faster than I...

But do I hate what she is
Or do I want to be her?
And don't we love something fresh
Anything new; virgin

Woman, you got too many brambles
Hiding under these bushes
Woman, you got too many brambles
But I always liked a good storm and
Always good for a storm

So then love walked up to like
And said I know that you don't like me much
Let's go for a ride
This ocean is wrapped around that pineapple tree
And is your place in heaven worth giving up
These kisses
These, yes
These kisses

And Peggy got a message for me
From Jesus
And I've heard every word
That you have said
And I know I have been
Driven like the snow
But
This is cooling
Faster than I can


The line that I find running through my head mostly is:
"... And is your place in Heaven worth giving up these kisses?"

"The Harder They Come" by Jimmy Cliff

Well they tell me of a pie up in the sky
Waiting for me when I die
But between the day you're born and when you die
They never seem to hear even your cry

CHORUS:
So as sure as the sun will shine
I'm gonna get my share now of what's mine
And then the harder they come the harder they'll fall, one and all
Ooh the harder they come the harder they'll fall, one and all

Well the officers are trying to keep me down
Trying to drive me underground
And they think that they have got the battle won
I say forgive them Lord, they know not what they've done

CHORUS

ooh yeah oh yeah woh yeah ooooh

And I keep on fighting for the things I want
Though I know that when you're dead you can't
But I'd rather be a free man in my grave
Than living as a puppet or a slave

CHORUS

Yeah, the harder they come, the harder they'll fall one and all
What I say now, what I say now, awww
What I say now, what I say one time
The harder they come the harder they'll fall one and all
Ooh the harder they come the harder they'll fall one and all

(This is a love song of sorts but I feel like it's well suited to a recovery environment where we share and hear each other's stories)

"The Story" by Brandi Carlile

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am

But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true, I was made for you

I climbed across the mountaintops
Travel across the ocean blue
I cross over lines and I broke all the rules
And baby I broke them all for you

Oh because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do, I was made for you

You see the smile that's on my mouth
It's hiding the words that don't come out
All of the friends who think that I'm blessed
They don't know I'm in this mess

No they don't know who I really am
And they don't know what I've been through
Like you do, and I was made for you

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am

Oh but these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true, I was made for you
Oh yeah, and it's true that I was made for you

A mormon lady came to my apartment
She said we could do it,,but darn it
She thought it crude
to fuck in the nude
So she went home in wet garments