Words & Music

by Mike Power

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  • The End of Racism

    One of the only nice things about Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling is that they’re old. In spite of the fact that our nation’s criminal justice system is still stacked against the descendants of our “peculiar institution” and there is still widespread support for state-sponsored execution, it feels like racism is working its way toward Read more

  • Simple Pleasures

    I wrote these lyrics on the train home from work last week. I thought it was going to be a faster song but I also wanted to write the music on piano and since I’m not a great piano player it came out slower than I expected. I think this tempo fits the lyrics better. Read more

  • The Further Adventures of Joe & Skirl

    Joe hated the name Peggy because it was his mother’s name. One of his more specific social malfunctions was the inability to hide his disgust when he was introduced to a Peggy. In the throes of drug-induced paranoia, Joe sometimes accused Skirl of seeking out Peggys, just to torment him. Skirl, to his credit, never Read more

  • Relativity

    Here’s an interesting observation by Bertrand Russell, talking about Albert Einstein: “He is more fortunate than the artist. When the public cannot understand a picture or a poem, they conclude that it is a bad picture or a bad poem. When they cannot understand the theory of relativity they conclude (rightly) that their education has Read more

  • Annabel Lee

    One night last week, at a poetry workshop, I wrote something that isn’t ready to post. Cowards get a bad rap but sometimes we spare others as well as ourselves. Instead, for this final day of National Poetry Month, I’ll post a posthumous poem. It’s the last one ever written by Edgar Allan Poe. Annabel Read more

  • Little Pink Shoes

    I played this song last night at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn. I wrote it last summer; it was the first song I wrote after quitting Late Model Humans. It’s called Little Pink Shoes. Any time she hears bad newsShe just puts on her little pink shoesAnd this world of decayTurns into one she can Read more