Fly While There's Light To Go

Nothin' but hard times here
The sun keeps sinkin' low
Darkness will soon appear
Fly while there's light to go

...to our new digs @ In Touch With The Mystery

Hope you enjoy and if you'd like to listen to a few of my songs just click on my new home page www.franktrainor.com to hear what's currently up in the media player including my acoustic guitar/vocal demo of my latest song Fly While There's Light To Go. There's 10 songs currently up on the player so you may enjoy the others as well.

Special thanks to those who've linked to this page since FRANKtalk. I've appreciated your kind recognition and support. It's been fun.

And it is my sincere hope you will continue in support of my efforts by replacing this old link at your page with our new one. Whatever you may choose to do for your current scroll, you will always have my gratitude and respect for the honor your links bring to my blog.

We’re kicking it up to another level at In Touch With The Mystery and I welcome you to continue moving forward with us at this time.

It's an historic and unprecedented period in our world today with so many challenges threatening the foundations of western civilization.

It's long past time for choosing sides beyond mere retail politics.
Like it or not we must stand strong in defense of first principles.

I hope and pray that the many may follow but truly the few will gain victory over this troubled hour though the many remain lost forever.

Well...it’ll be dark soon...the night will be pulling the clouds around the stars...stop…hey…what’s that sound…everybody look…moon goin' down baby...north star about to shine...fly while there's light to go...

Heaven's Remains

The abyss opens up in the centre of your soul. And this abyss of interior solitude is a hunger that will never be satisfied with any created thing. The only way to find solitude is by hunger and thirst and sorrow and poverty and desire, and the man who has found solitude is empty, as if he had been emptied by death. He has advanced beyond all horizons. There are no directions left in which he can travel. This is a country whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. You do not find it by travelling but by standing still. Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that is profound repose, vision in obscurity, and, beyond all desire, a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity.

Thomas Merton - New Seeds of Contemplation

"Heaven's Remains" - Copyright © 2009 Frank Trainor

I was ambitious
My blood was cold water
And my brow poured with sweat when it rained
But the heat that came down on my head never burned
Like my passion for Heaven's Remains

I lived in a mansion
Down south by the beaches
Where the money takes different names
A Porsche in the drive and a porch with a sign that said
Welcome to Heaven's Remains

Where there's nothin' to lose and nothin' to gain
There's nothin' at all but a mournful refrain
Paradise is a song pride aches to recall
Every dream of its own is a far cry from home
Here in Heaven's Remains

When I return
To the ashes and mud
When the dust comes to sleep in my veins
There should be a quote on my tombstone engraved
That says good-bye to Heaven's Remains

Where there's nothin' to lose and nothin' to gain
There's nothin’ at all but a mournful refrain
Paradise is a song pride aches to recall
Every dream of its own is a far cry from home
Here in Heaven's Remains

Desperados Waiting For A Train

Hey Guy...what's goin’ on man...?

You must be waiting for a train…

I know it takes a lot to laugh...

Naw…I'm just wonderin' why every well I've drilled has gone dry.
I'm always snappin' at the dog & cryin' at the Andy Griffith Show. Whoever said the hand is quicker than the eye has never tried to brush away a tear or ever had his hand burn for a Randall Knife.



Hmmm...I believe you…and trust it’s true

But in the meantime...

I'm gonna start my pickin' right now...

Just tell me where you'll be...

Desperado pointed down the road and said, Eternity!

Eternity…? said Frankie T with a voice as cold as ice.

That's right, said Sam ...Eternity!

Though you might call it Paradise.

I don't call it anything, said Frankie T with a smile.

All right, said Blake, I'll see you after awhile.

What kind of house is this, I said, where I have come to roam?

It's not a house, said Beckham. It's not a house, it's a home.


Chris Gantry, Tony Joe White, Billy Swan, Bob Beckham, Dolly Parton,
Kris Kristofferson - Combine Writers Reunion - photo credit CJ Flanagan

But what was really cool was our CMA week open house...hanging out and diggin' in to fresh New York deli trays flown in special for Sir Charles Koppelman and Marty Bandier...lot of silver limos on the row that week...anyway, we're all hangin' and who walks up to join us but Mickey Newbury and Billy Joe Shaver...and then Stewart Harris asked if I was from Canada and it turned out that he had actually spent an entire summer in the early 70's playing a steady gig in my home province. He worked every other week-end alternating with some other singer who - as it turns out - was me.
We never met because our paths had never crossed but I always wondered just who that other dude was who worked those other week-ends I was off. We met for the very first time 15 years later standing in that Combine/SBK parking lot talking with Guy Clark, Mickey Newbury and Billy Joe Shaver. How about that for mystical coincidence, eh...? Even Robert Earl Keen Jr. thought that story was crazier than Copenhagen. I even played a few of my songs for Billy Joe in the Combine studio. He said; "man...you're tough...!"
Yeah…well, there ain't nobody tougher than you brother Shaver.

What an amazing day...and wasn't that Craig Bickhardt of SKB arriving as I was heading out to my car...sure looked like him.
These days, I'm a fan of Craig's songwriter blog Ninety Mile Wind.

And how about Tony Joe White at the Cockeyed Camel out there in Belle Meade with Steve Cropper & Duck Dunn...those legendary Muscle Shoals / Memphis MG's chompin & stompin and settin' the hook in the swamp with TJW & his Lightnin' Hopkins soul...that's what I'm talkin' about...and later on tuckin' into a big crappie fry at Leanne & Tony Joe's home in Franklin...great folks...very cool.



I was the pilgrim wasted on the sidewalk...

I was also Billy Dee…17 when I turned 21…

It’s a long tough difficult story but I had to beat the devil...

So I jumped a greyhound in ’72 and set off to find Kristofferson.

15 years later, I set my suitcase down at Combine Music.

Music City Row. To keep the chilly wind off my guitar.

Did I sign my contract in Kris Kristofferson's office...?

Is that some kind of a trick question...?



Ain't you come a long way...

Born Toward Dying

Richard John Neuhaus 1936 - 2009 RIP

We are born to die. Not that death is the purpose of our being born, but we are born toward death, and in each of our lives the work of dying is already underway. The work of dying well is, in largest part, the work of living well. Most of us are at ease in discussing what makes for a good life, but we typically become tongue-tied and nervous when the discussion turns to a good death. As children of a culture radically, even religiously, devoted to youth and health, many find it incomprehensible, indeed offensive, that the word "good" should in any way be associated with death. Death, it is thought, is an unmitigated evil, the very antithesis of all that is good. Death is to be warded off by exercise, by healthy habits, by medical advances. What cannot be halted can be delayed, and what cannot forever be delayed can be denied. But all our progress and all our protest notwithstanding, the mortality rate holds steady at 100 percent.

Born Toward Dying...read the whole thing…

Richard John Neuhaus

National Catholic Reporter

The death of Father Richard John Neuhaus on Jan 8 was experienced here as if a family member had passed away. Such was Father Neuhaus's importance and impact on my own spiritual growth and development. Indeed, a family member did pass on Christmas Eve as there were also a few other deaths and near deaths this Christmas season for our family. My late father's only surviving brother died Dec 24 at the age of 84. His widow's brother then died of cancer the same week. My mother also was rushed to emergency and hospitalized just days before Christmas after collapsing in public. She was treated, placed on intravenous and stabilized to the point that she was able to return home with medication but she's 77 and suffers from other ailments so we were concerned but relieved that she’s alright for now. News was also delivered over Christmas that on old friend from the 1970's Island we once knew in the springtime of our lives had recently died from bone cancer. Her name was "Blue" [see previous post].

On top of all this living and dying in three quarter time came the news that my favorite uncle was scheduled to have his left leg amputated due to critical loss of circulation in the deteriorated limb. The major operation was necessary and according to doctors needed to be done right away but hospital staffing problems postponed surgery almost a week while he suffered in agony and uncertainty regarding his fate. It's all over now, surgery was successful and he's recovering, but a very dramatic time for my uncle John and his loving family. He's 79. Christmas itself was blessed, spirit filled, peaceful and serene this year.

As for me...

You may not like my appearance
May not like my song
May not like the way I talk
But you like the way I'm gone

I'm a Freeborn Man
My home is on my back
I drove every inch of highway
Every bit of backroad
Every mile of railroad track

Git it guys...Freeborn Man...
Tony Rice, Mark O'Connor, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas & Bela Fleck



Here's an intelligent take on quite another Tony that's mighty well worth considering... Father Barron reflects on The Sopranos http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=a5bzImAl5JQ&feature=related

Meanwhile life goes on outside all around you… https://www.watchobsession.org/

Alright...two more for the road...let's kick it with "Frankie Belle"
Rhonda Vincent & The Rage w/guest fiddler Molly Cherryholmes
Josh Williams [acoustic guitar]...man can this guy play...



And as a special dedication for the souls of our dearly departed...
Norman Blake will play us out with his brilliantly nimble, "Salty"



Lastly, from the songwriting pen of a son of a son of a sailor...

And it's dance with me, dance with me
Nautical Wheelers
Take me to stars that you know
Come on and dance with me
Nautical Wheelers
I want so badly to go

Well the sunrise'll bring on
The sleep that's escaped us
And everyone's off to their bed
There'll be huggin' and squeezin'
A little pleasin' and teasin'
And rubbin' of each others' head

So won't you dream on comrades
Seems nothing affects you
Nothing, no reason nor rhyme
Cause everyone here is just more than contented
To be living and dying in three quarter time. - Jimmy Buffet

Blue

Blue, songs are like tattoos
You know I've been to sea before
Crown and anchor me
Or let me sail away

Hey Blue, THERE is a song for you
Ink on a pin
Underneath the skin
An empty space to fill in



Well there're so many sinking now
You've got to keep thinking
You can make it through these waves
Acid, booze, and ass
Needles, guns, and grass
Lots of laughs, lots of laughs
Everybody's saying that hell's the hippest way to go
Well I don't think so
But I'm gonna take a look around it though
Blue, I love you

Blue, here is a shell for you
Inside you'll HEAR a sigh
A foggy lullaby
There is your song from me

R.I.P. my old friend - Debbie "Blue" Johnstone Wright
In Memorium - November 20, 1953 - November 11, 2008

Our Lady of Guadalupe

A great sign appeared in the sky
a woman clothed with the sun
with the moon under her feet
and on her head a crown of twelve stars

She was with child
and wailed aloud in pain
as she labored to give birth

Then another sign appeared in the sky
it was a huge red dragon
with seven heads and ten horns
and on its heads were seven diadems

Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky
and hurled them down to the earth
Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth
to devour her child when she gave birth

She gave birth to a son, a male child
destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod



Her child was caught up to God and his throne
the woman herself fled into the desert
where she had a place prepared by God
that there she might be taken care of
for twelve hundred and sixty days

Then war broke out in heaven
Michael and his angels battled against the dragon
The dragon and its angels fought back
but they did not prevail
and there was no longer any place for them in heaven

The huge dragon, the ancient serpent
who is called the Devil and Satan
who deceived the whole world
was thrown down to earth
and its angels were thrown down with it



Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

"Now have salvation and power come,
and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed.
For the accuser of our brothers is cast out,
who accuses them before our God day and night.
They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
love for life did not deter them from death.
Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them.
But woe to you, earth and sea,
for the Devil has come down to you in great fury,
for he knows he has but a short time."

When the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth
it pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child

But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle
so that she could fly to her place in the desert
where, far from the serpent, she was taken care of
for a year, two years, and a half-year

The serpent however spewed a torrent of water out of his mouth
after the woman to sweep her away with the current

But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth
and swallowed the flood that the dragon spewed out of its mouth

Then the dragon became angry with the woman
and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring
those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus

I took my position on the sand of the sea (Revelation: Chapter 12)

Death Wish Part 2 - Father Corapi - (Part 1 here)


Our Lady of Guadalupe @ Sancta (complete comprehensive site)

Beautiful - Schubert's Ave Maria - Andrea Bocelli