Words & Music

by Mike Power

latest

  • Drugs In Jail

    This is a song of mine that goes back a couple of decades. I was living in Greenwich Village when I wrote it and recorded it with my band. That version is gathering dust in the archives. It’s hard to remember the impetus behind the lyrics but the idea of using drugs in jail struck Read more

  • Fictional Humans of New York – Alice

    Alice was terrified when Joey told her he was going to Iraq. He might just as well have told her he was going to try jumping off the Empire State Building to see if he could fly. When he was a little boy he was always saying things like that to her, trying to scare Read more

  • Brooklyn Sketchbook

    A long time ago, when the earth was green, I lived in Brooklyn, on Fifth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. It’s probably a nice place to live now, out of my price range, but it was neither back then. This was the view from my bedroom window. So was this. I’d be very surprised Read more

  • We’re Not The People

    The year was 1987. Or maybe it was 1989. Something like that. I had an acoustic guitar, a 4-track cassette recorder and, best of all, some astounding companions, compatriots, and co-conspirators. We wrote and recorded this song in the living room of one of these fine people. The ones going:ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah The lovely ladies in the Read more

  • The Ocean of Time

    No bridge can span the ocean of timeNo numbers can measure such distance I don’t trust memoryAnymore Perception is distorted throughThe prism of experience Through the blood we left behindThrough the sawdust and the seawaterThrough the storms that never endThrough the steady, lonely heartbeat ofThe dog who’s had his day And the cat who’s satisfied Read more

  • Review: The Phillips Collection

    My latest review, of The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, was just posted by Arte Fuse Magazine. One of my favorite artists is Edward Hopper and his “Approaching A City” is one of the highlights of the collection. On my Metro-North ride to Grand Central every morning I see this out the window and it Read more