2nd Place | “Happy Birthday”

2nd Place

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY”
JOSEPH SEEHOLZER
LAKEWOOD, OHIO
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/WATERLILYMIND

Broken eyes and broken faces
Broken lies and broken traces
Broken promise – and injured lives

Broken leaves and broken branches
Broken trees and broken chances
Broken you and broken me

Have you ever seen
The broken sun through the branches
Through the leaves
Against the wall off which it dances
In your mind – from which it glances
Into your heart which needs no chances
Except for right now
Except for right now

The broken parts we tend to hide away
But Jesus said – brought to the light of day
They are our salvation

But hidden away they just decay
Covered over they rot inside
All the brokenness that we hide

But through the sunlight
They create a pattern
As beautiful as the rings of Saturn

And the Buddha said – the Lotus flower
Gets its beauty from the muddy water

Broken trees and broken chances
Broken leaves and broken romances
All is beauty under the sun

And we don’t know what life will bring us
But I know – it will sting us
And you know – the courage it must
Bring you – somehow

Broken dreams and broken purpose
Everything seems to come to the surface
Broken eyes and broken lines
All that was promised is in our minds

Broken outside and broken in
The sunlight remakes us all again
And broken up and broken down
The sunlight seems
To transform all around

The butterfly – today it dances
But yesterday it was wrapped in
Broken leaves and chances
Broken light it breaks right through
Transforming me – transforming you

And we don’t know what life will bring us
But I know – it will sting us
And you know – the courage it must
Bring you – somehow

And all we’re left with is only compassion
All our defenses just fall out of fashion
And the sunlight it just dances
Through all the leaves and branches

Broken lives and broken arrows
Now it all seems so very narrow
But broken you and broken me
That’s the only way we can see