Asylum Avenue

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Asylum Avenue

I wake up drunk and angry
I stagger toward a realization
How’d I get to be so empty?
What brought on this situation?

And hey, would ya do me a favor?
Pick me a top-shelf flavor
No time to savor
Those 80-proof tears of sorrow

The bottle needs the drinker
The trowel needs the mason
I could-a been some kind of thinker
If I had the concentration

And hey, would ya do me a favor

I’m a danger to myself now
A danger to myself
I’m a stranger to myself now
A stranger all by himself

Come every Monday morning
I need some warm forgiveness
Maybe hope is finally dawning:
Will I be its faithful witness?

Today can’t wait till tomorrow
Today can’t wait no more
Today can’t lose to tomorrow
Unconscious on the floor

And hey, would ya do me a favor?
Pick me a top-shelf flavor
No time to savor
Those 80-proof tears of sorrow.

© 2011, 2013 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

80-Proof Tears of Sorrow

I got a job to build my character;
some weights to build my physique;
a girl to build up my ego
even if I hit an early peak.
Well, the meter’s fed and ticking;
the goblet wants to be filled.
Get ready for Thanksgiving
‘cause we all need,
we all need, we all need
something to build.

The Christians, they built churches.
The Muslims, they built their mosques.
The Chinese built small shoes for their women –
much cheaper than socks.
In every holy place and age,
wherever wine has spilled;
you’d hear it called down from the chapels
and into the cage:
We all need,
we all need, we all need
something to build.

Built for power
Built for feel
Big skyscraper towering
In the Age of Steel
Built for pleasure
Built for speed
To build an image of ourselves
Is something we need

You can build things from the ground up,
from the floorboards and the vents;
You can start with some Spartan architecture –
even go back to sand and tents.
Yes, we can build it all and then some,
have it all rise above the cities until
we’re looking at things from Heaven
where they don’t need,
they don’t need, they don’t need
something to build.

© 2008, 2013 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Something to Build

Used to have lofty ambitions
Used to have noble intentions
Used to have aspirations
Beyond the typical here-say
Then one morning, I slept in
The daylight rays they crept in
And the custodians of deflation swept in
And eased my righteous pain
They told me, we’ll get the mess
You just go about your day

Custer took to his mound
Helen Keller heard no sound
At the Somme, they dug in the ground
Black trenches of dismay
We’re all born at a loss
All shattered as we heave up the cross
God’s whimsical Scripture, a holy coin toss
His clever humor on display
He says, don’t mind the pestilence,
Just go about your day

Now here I am at the family pool
With the chlorine and recited rules
A lifeguard’s badge and the cap of a fool,
My predicament is plain;
You can try to overpower the tide
They call that “swimmer’s suicide”
Best to get on your flotation device
And watch the inflatable parade:
I say you make better waves
if you’ll learn to go about your day.


© 2013 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Go About Your Day (for James G.)


Latest Uploads

I wake up drunk and angry
I stagger toward a realization
How’d I get to be so empty?
What brought on this situation?

And hey, would ya do me a favor?
Pick me a top-shelf flavor
No time to savor
Those 80-proof tears of sorrow

The bottle needs the drinker
The trowel needs the mason
I could-a been some kind of thinker
If I had the concentration

And hey, would ya do me a favor

I’m a danger to myself now
A danger to myself
I’m a stranger to myself now
A stranger all by himself

Come every Monday morning
I need some warm forgiveness
Maybe hope is finally dawning:
Will I be its faithful witness?

Today can’t wait till tomorrow
Today can’t wait no more
Today can’t lose to tomorrow
Unconscious on the floor

And hey, would ya do me a favor?
Pick me a top-shelf flavor
No time to savor
Those 80-proof tears of sorrow.

© 2011, 2013 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

80-Proof Tears of Sorrow

I got a job to build my character;
some weights to build my physique;
a girl to build up my ego
even if I hit an early peak.
Well, the meter’s fed and ticking;
the goblet wants to be filled.
Get ready for Thanksgiving
‘cause we all need,
we all need, we all need
something to build.

The Christians, they built churches.
The Muslims, they built their mosques.
The Chinese built small shoes for their women –
much cheaper than socks.
In every holy place and age,
wherever wine has spilled;
you’d hear it called down from the chapels
and into the cage:
We all need,
we all need, we all need
something to build.

Built for power
Built for feel
Big skyscraper towering
In the Age of Steel
Built for pleasure
Built for speed
To build an image of ourselves
Is something we need

You can build things from the ground up,
from the floorboards and the vents;
You can start with some Spartan architecture –
even go back to sand and tents.
Yes, we can build it all and then some,
have it all rise above the cities until
we’re looking at things from Heaven
where they don’t need,
they don’t need, they don’t need
something to build.

© 2008, 2013 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Something to Build

Used to have lofty ambitions
Used to have noble intentions
Used to have aspirations
Beyond the typical here-say
Then one morning, I slept in
The daylight rays they crept in
And the custodians of deflation swept in
And eased my righteous pain
They told me, we’ll get the mess
You just go about your day

Custer took to his mound
Helen Keller heard no sound
At the Somme, they dug in the ground
Black trenches of dismay
We’re all born at a loss
All shattered as we heave up the cross
God’s whimsical Scripture, a holy coin toss
His clever humor on display
He says, don’t mind the pestilence,
Just go about your day

Now here I am at the family pool
With the chlorine and recited rules
A lifeguard’s badge and the cap of a fool,
My predicament is plain;
You can try to overpower the tide
They call that “swimmer’s suicide”
Best to get on your flotation device
And watch the inflatable parade:
I say you make better waves
if you’ll learn to go about your day.


© 2013 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Go About Your Day (for James G.)

There’s a whole lot I don’t know about
I ain’t too good around the house
Not what you’d call the handy type at all
Keep those power tools away from me
Might end up in tragedy
Don’t leave me alone with hammers, nails or walls

But I don’t let it get me down
And I ain’t too bad to have around
And sometimes, a little ignorance will do
And I seen some things and I know what they mean
The far and the few and the in-between
And I know I’m an expert at nothing ‘cept loving you

Some are bound for universities
They watch G-P-As and take S-A-Ts
But that academic life sure sent me adrift
I couldn’t program so much as a raft
They showed me the system, I just laughed
I guess I haven’t been cursed with too many gifts

But I don’t let it get me down
And I ain’t too bad to have around
And sometimes, a little ignorance will do
And I seen some things and I know what they mean
The far and the few and the in-between
And I know I’m an expert at nothing ‘cept loving you

I’d share what I know in a blog –
Write it down right here in my log –
Life’s a big ol’ factory and I’m just a cog –
A simple expert at loving you

So we know I’m not too good with tools
And never one for catching on to rules
Well even the slow ones find their place in the race

But I don’t let it get me down
And I ain’t too bad to have around
And sometimes, a little ignorance will do
And I seen some things and I know what they mean
The far and the few and the in-between
And I know I’m an expert at nothing ‘cept loving you
It’s true I’m an expert at nothing ‘cept loving you.

© 2014, 2015 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Expert at Nothing 'cept Loving You

Waking up on winter mornings – the birth spasm reenacted
Time to head out in a world of pain and cold
Have to harness up the troika, don my bashlyk hood and jacket
And see my shadowy comrades all now stark and old

A scumbag in a salt truck, all snow chains and attitude
Comes plowing through the fast lane in a blitz
As the man in his Corolla, a little bald patch of gratitude,
Moves over giving thanks he still exists

Must be winter
Must be wintertime again
Must be winter
Must be wintertime again

The shivering commuters on the avenues of frost –
On this great and cramped peninsula, no fear
And when those storms rage in from the west,
they trumpet, “All for the best”
while flailing like freaks in front of a funhouse mirror

My lover is at my bedside, kneeling in our warm cathedral
Maybe today we won’t have to go out of doors
But if I send her out in the snow,
should she come back hard and frozen,
May I long for her summery flesh forevermore

So I’m going home for Christmas,
to my little makeshift suite
by the pawnshop on the corner of 85th,
And I’m gonna be warm tonight with my hopeless appetite
And cozy thoughts of another season of bliss

Must be winter
Must be wintertime again
Must be winter
Must be wintertime again

© 2015, 2016 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Must Be Winter (Complaint)

On borrowed time in rented space
I wash my clothes and check my face
The mirror’s ugly now and then
Trails of shaving in the sink
The running water makes me think
It’s time to go, but who knows when?

Wasteland and utopia
Friends and enemies
In the circus of charades,
I’m halfway between
Monkey and trapeze

The screen is on, the day is late
The news too small to investigate
We’re in for one uncomfortable ride
Memory like a corruption charge
Reason once intact, now a thief at large –
The pressure comes in from all sides

Wasteland and utopia
Enemies and friends
It’s a startling transformation,
Going over the hill
And back again

Wasteland or utopia?
Enemies or friends?
It’s a startling transformation,
Going over the hill
And back again.

© 2001, 2012 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Over the Hill

Between the wheels of confidence
an axle’s givin’ out
We’re drivin’ on this road tonight
and we’re headed straight for doubt
But I don’t care which way we go
I don’t care all that much
‘cause I got a woman home tonight
who gave me the gift of touch

A crippled man with a crippled dog
and both too proud to beg
He’s standin’ on the porch at dawn
thinkin’ ‘bout his one good leg
But somewhere in the back of his mind
there’s no place for a crutch,
For he’s got a woman deep inside
who gave him the gift of touch

The gift of touch
It’s a mystic thing
It’s like you try to hear too much
And the bells won’t ring
The gift of touch
It can be yours
It’ll have the highest powers
Scrounging on all fours

In Washington, in Pakistan
In the places we all know
The shape of the Union
is the face of a man
and there’s not much room to grow
But someday our Democracy
will have wisdom in its clutch
And a woman will come out of the world
to give us the gift of touch.

© 2006, 2008 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Gift of Touch

Everyone is talking, all their voices are unchained
And their hands are on the cube to solve the riddle
The bloggers and the pundits and the tenders of the game –
They don’t leave room for ones like us in the middle

But Baby, you and I, we don’t need to speak
‘cause we’re clued in to a different conversation
Let’s go gentle into this good night; let’s not shatter its mystique
You’ll find it’s high time for some finer elevation –

Let’s let love do the talking from now on

Everyone is voting, it’s a democratic age
All choices pass through our imperious court
And we’ll push on every boulder and we’ll rattle every cage –
There’s no thought we’d not examine or distort

But Baby, you and I, we don’t need to speak
‘cause we’re clued in to a different conversation
Let’s go gentle into this good night; let’s not shatter its mystique
You’ll find it’s high-time for some finer elevation

And we’ll let love do the talking from now on
Now, I don’t love the mission and I don’t pretend to want
To keep flying over enemy terrain
Let’s stay home with our riches – the kind one cannot flaunt
That’s what the experts and the public brand “insane”

‘cause Baby you and I we don’t need to speak…

We’ll let our love do the talking from now on.

© 2011, 2015 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Love, Do the Talking

My Uploads

I wake up drunk and angry
I stagger toward a realization
How’d I get to be so empty?
What brought on this situation?

And hey, would ya do me a favor?
Pick me a top-shelf flavor
No time to savor
Those 80-proof tears of sorrow

The bottle needs the drinker
The trowel needs the mason
I could-a been some kind of thinker
If I had the concentration

And hey, would ya do me a favor

I’m a danger to myself now
A danger to myself
I’m a stranger to myself now
A stranger all by himself

Come every Monday morning
I need some warm forgiveness
Maybe hope is finally dawning:
Will I be its faithful witness?

Today can’t wait till tomorrow
Today can’t wait no more
Today can’t lose to tomorrow
Unconscious on the floor

And hey, would ya do me a favor?
Pick me a top-shelf flavor
No time to savor
Those 80-proof tears of sorrow.

© 2011, 2013 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

80-Proof Tears of Sorrow

I got a job to build my character;
some weights to build my physique;
a girl to build up my ego
even if I hit an early peak.
Well, the meter’s fed and ticking;
the goblet wants to be filled.
Get ready for Thanksgiving
‘cause we all need,
we all need, we all need
something to build.

The Christians, they built churches.
The Muslims, they built their mosques.
The Chinese built small shoes for their women –
much cheaper than socks.
In every holy place and age,
wherever wine has spilled;
you’d hear it called down from the chapels
and into the cage:
We all need,
we all need, we all need
something to build.

Built for power
Built for feel
Big skyscraper towering
In the Age of Steel
Built for pleasure
Built for speed
To build an image of ourselves
Is something we need

You can build things from the ground up,
from the floorboards and the vents;
You can start with some Spartan architecture –
even go back to sand and tents.
Yes, we can build it all and then some,
have it all rise above the cities until
we’re looking at things from Heaven
where they don’t need,
they don’t need, they don’t need
something to build.

© 2008, 2013 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Something to Build

Used to have lofty ambitions
Used to have noble intentions
Used to have aspirations
Beyond the typical here-say
Then one morning, I slept in
The daylight rays they crept in
And the custodians of deflation swept in
And eased my righteous pain
They told me, we’ll get the mess
You just go about your day

Custer took to his mound
Helen Keller heard no sound
At the Somme, they dug in the ground
Black trenches of dismay
We’re all born at a loss
All shattered as we heave up the cross
God’s whimsical Scripture, a holy coin toss
His clever humor on display
He says, don’t mind the pestilence,
Just go about your day

Now here I am at the family pool
With the chlorine and recited rules
A lifeguard’s badge and the cap of a fool,
My predicament is plain;
You can try to overpower the tide
They call that “swimmer’s suicide”
Best to get on your flotation device
And watch the inflatable parade:
I say you make better waves
if you’ll learn to go about your day.


© 2013 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Go About Your Day (for James G.)

There’s a whole lot I don’t know about
I ain’t too good around the house
Not what you’d call the handy type at all
Keep those power tools away from me
Might end up in tragedy
Don’t leave me alone with hammers, nails or walls

But I don’t let it get me down
And I ain’t too bad to have around
And sometimes, a little ignorance will do
And I seen some things and I know what they mean
The far and the few and the in-between
And I know I’m an expert at nothing ‘cept loving you

Some are bound for universities
They watch G-P-As and take S-A-Ts
But that academic life sure sent me adrift
I couldn’t program so much as a raft
They showed me the system, I just laughed
I guess I haven’t been cursed with too many gifts

But I don’t let it get me down
And I ain’t too bad to have around
And sometimes, a little ignorance will do
And I seen some things and I know what they mean
The far and the few and the in-between
And I know I’m an expert at nothing ‘cept loving you

I’d share what I know in a blog –
Write it down right here in my log –
Life’s a big ol’ factory and I’m just a cog –
A simple expert at loving you

So we know I’m not too good with tools
And never one for catching on to rules
Well even the slow ones find their place in the race

But I don’t let it get me down
And I ain’t too bad to have around
And sometimes, a little ignorance will do
And I seen some things and I know what they mean
The far and the few and the in-between
And I know I’m an expert at nothing ‘cept loving you
It’s true I’m an expert at nothing ‘cept loving you.

© 2014, 2015 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Expert at Nothing 'cept Loving You

Waking up on winter mornings – the birth spasm reenacted
Time to head out in a world of pain and cold
Have to harness up the troika, don my bashlyk hood and jacket
And see my shadowy comrades all now stark and old

A scumbag in a salt truck, all snow chains and attitude
Comes plowing through the fast lane in a blitz
As the man in his Corolla, a little bald patch of gratitude,
Moves over giving thanks he still exists

Must be winter
Must be wintertime again
Must be winter
Must be wintertime again

The shivering commuters on the avenues of frost –
On this great and cramped peninsula, no fear
And when those storms rage in from the west,
they trumpet, “All for the best”
while flailing like freaks in front of a funhouse mirror

My lover is at my bedside, kneeling in our warm cathedral
Maybe today we won’t have to go out of doors
But if I send her out in the snow,
should she come back hard and frozen,
May I long for her summery flesh forevermore

So I’m going home for Christmas,
to my little makeshift suite
by the pawnshop on the corner of 85th,
And I’m gonna be warm tonight with my hopeless appetite
And cozy thoughts of another season of bliss

Must be winter
Must be wintertime again
Must be winter
Must be wintertime again

© 2015, 2016 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Must Be Winter (Complaint)

On borrowed time in rented space
I wash my clothes and check my face
The mirror’s ugly now and then
Trails of shaving in the sink
The running water makes me think
It’s time to go, but who knows when?

Wasteland and utopia
Friends and enemies
In the circus of charades,
I’m halfway between
Monkey and trapeze

The screen is on, the day is late
The news too small to investigate
We’re in for one uncomfortable ride
Memory like a corruption charge
Reason once intact, now a thief at large –
The pressure comes in from all sides

Wasteland and utopia
Enemies and friends
It’s a startling transformation,
Going over the hill
And back again

Wasteland or utopia?
Enemies or friends?
It’s a startling transformation,
Going over the hill
And back again.

© 2001, 2012 by Keith Charles Dovoric / Broken Pilgrim Songs

Over the Hill


About Me

Bio

Hello! I am a NJ-based singer-songwriter with over twenty years' composing, recording, and performing experience. I have self-released five albums of original material with a sixth in the works. Print-wise, I have published three paperbacks and one e-book, several of my writings having appeared in lit-zines across the web. An English teacher by vocation, I place a premium on songcraft and, particularly, lyric-writing. My mentors are Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, John Lennon, Chuck Berry, Warren Zevon, Neil Young, Tom Waits, David Byrne, Richard Thompson, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen, Roger Waters, Neil Peart, Fish, Sting, Jim Morrison, and John Prine.

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