Music and I

I write music because my vocation
is to write music

I play music because my calling
is to play music

I teach music because I love
to see the "aha's" people experience
as the light comes on and their souls ignite

I publish music because
seeing it in black and white made it real—
the ephemeral now tangible

I record music because
that was originally a way to have people
take interest in what I'd made "real"

And then the process of recording
became more real than the black and the white

So now I offer myself
for rent, always for rent,
in hopes to get enough $ in the trade
that I can keep
composing music
learning music
playing music
loving music
to carry forward the music
of the generations.

©2005 Steve Eulberg

Still Alive

I'm turning fear
into fertilizer

Today's trash feeding
tomorrow's treasure

Grinding this grimace
into the pumice
that scrapes away the scabs

So that new skin can grow
to cover old wounds

knitting the scars that will show
I'm still alive

still alive.

©2005 Steve Eulberg

We Live in the Inner City...

We live in the inner city, you do not.
This we must beg of you:
Don't look at us and see only our pain
Don't look at us with pity in your heart
Don't look at us and count your blessings
Because you will see only that which you fear,
that which you project
the inside of you
You will miss the gift of us

You live in relative comfort, we do not
This you must beg of us;
We must not look at you and see only your wealth
We must not look at you with pity in our hearts
We must not look at you and count your blessings
Because we will only see that which we envy
that which we assume you have
which reveals the inside of us, and
we will miss the gift of you.

(originally written for the newsletter while pastor of a small inner city church, November 1994)
©2004 Steve Eulberg