This page started as I was reading the lyrics to the Pearl Jam song Wishlist. I liked the lyrics so much I decided to put them in a file and keep them. On a whim I created a file in my homepage directory by the name of wishlist.html, into which I pasted the lyrics and then pretty much forgot all about it. The next time I found a lyric, this time the words to Poem by Leonard Cohen, I decided to append them to the same document. As I kept doing this I realized I had created a collection of many, though far from all, of my favourite lyrics.

It's not like any of these are super deep or anything, I just happen to like them. As the file grew I realized that me liking these lyrics probably does a better job of defining me than any of my own attempts at autobiogryaphy ever will. So I thought - What the heck, I'll put it on my homepage for the world to see.

So, without further ado - my wishlist:

I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off
I wish I was a sacrifice but somehow still lived on
I wish I was a sentimental ornament you hung on
The Christmas tree, I wish I was the star that went on top
I wish I was the evidence, I wish I was the clouds
For 50 million hands upraised and open toward the sky

I wish I was a sailor with someone who waited for me
I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as me
I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good
I wish I was the full moon shining off a Camaro's hood

I wish I was an alien at home behind the sun
I wish I was the souvenir you kept your house key on
I wish I was the pedal brake that you depended on
I wish I was the verb 'to trust' and never let you down

I wish I was a radio song, the one that you turned up
I wish...
I wish...

I heard of a man
who says words so beautifully
that if he only speaks their name
women give themselves to him.

If I am dumb beside your body
while silence blossoms like tumors on our lips.
it is because I hear a man climb the stairs
and clear his throat outside our door.

Up those stone steps I climb
Hail this joyful day's return
Into its great shadowed vault I go
Hail the Pentecostal morn

The reading is from Luke 24
Where Christ returns to his loved ones
I look at the stone apostles
Think that it's alright for some

And I wish that I was made of stone
So that I would not have to see
A beauty impossible to define
A beauty impossible to believe

A beauty impossible to endure
The blood imparted in little sips
The smell of you still on my hands
As I bring the cup up to my lips

No God up in the sky
No devil beneath the sea
Could do the job that you did
Of bringing me to my knees

Outside I sit on the stone steps
With nothing much to do
Forlorn and exhausted
By the absence of you

If today was not a crooked highway,
If tonight I could finally stand tall,
If tomorrow wasn't such a long time,
Then lonesome would mean nothing to me at all.
Yes, and only if my own true love was waitin',
Yes, and if I could hear her heart a-softly poundin',
Only if she was lyin' by me,
Then I'd lie in my bed once again.

I can't see my reflection in the waters,
I can't speak the sounds that know no pain,
I can't hear the echo of my footsteps,
I can't remember the sound of my own name.
Yes, and only if my own true love was waitin',
Yes, if I could hear her heart a-softly poundin',
Only if she was lyin' by me,
Then I'd lie in my bed once again.

There's beauty in the silver, singin' river,
There's beauty in the sunrise in the sky,
But none of these and nothing else can match the beauty
That I remember in my true love's eyes.
Yes, and only if my own true love was waitin',
If I could only hear her heart a-softly poundin',
Only if she was lyin' by me,
Then I'd lie in my bed once again.

Yes, and only if my own true love was waitin',
If I could only hear her heart a-softly poundin',
Yes, and only if she was lyin' by me,
Then I'd lie in my bed once again.

God knows how I adore life
When the wind turns on the shores lies another day
I cannot ask for more
And when the time bell blows my heart and I have scored a better day
Well nobody made this war of mine

And the moments that I enjoy
A place of love and mystery
I'll be there anytime

Oh mysteries of love where war is no more
I'll be there anytime

And when the time bell blows my heart and I have scored a better day
Well nobody made this war of mine

And the moments that I enjoy
A place of love and mystery
I'll be there anytime

Mysteries of love where war is no more
I'll be there anytime

An aging young rebel
Called What's His Name
Wanted to be different
while he stayed the same

Then he couldn't
he just couldn't
no matter what he would try

Told by his mother
an aging old thing
You better go see clever
you give clever a ring

Which he did
called him up
just so Mommy wouldn't cry

Clever heard his story
About different and the same

He said, You crazy?
This some silly game?

No, no it ain't
Like Mommy said
You gotta straighten out my head

Clever you're so clever
Is cleverness enough
Can you help this ageing rebel
Do you really have the stuff?

Bet you don't have
Betcha bread that you'll pass the buck instead

Clever sends our hero
To a funny darkened room
Where a crowd of cunning listens
giggles in the gloom

That your problem aging rebel?
Don't you really know the score?

You crazy? You think your gonna to change this silly world?
Better see yourself a shrink

Cunningly they argue about our boy
Who's breaking down the door

Now he's running down the dark
Diabolical awaits
Grabs him by the ankle
Ain't it just like faith?

Diabolical laughs
In an alley full of soot

Forget the same
you'll be different now
Somewhat shorter on one side

Let go
Oh no
Would you? Diabolical inside?

Panic in his brain
pulls and gets away
loses him a foot
it's a dark and evil day

See him running limping with blood
Something soft is just ahead

Something soft is Gentle
He's fallen at her side

She comforts him with kisses
He dreams of suicide

Gentle is so gentle
Grabs the trouble by its root
bandages his stump
cuts off his other foot

So you see it seems to me
a gentle kind of cruelty

Aging Rebel's older
a little wiser maybe too

Gentleness has fixed him
Does he look like me and you?

Footless and fancy free
Think how happy Mom will be
Footless and fancy free
Think how happy Mom will be

oh, my heart can't carry much more
it's really really aching and sore
my heart don't care anymore
I really can't bear more

my hands don't work like before
I shiver and I scrape at your door
my heart can't carry much more
but you couldn't care less, could you?

your face don't look like before
it's really not like yours anymore
your eyes don't like me no more
they quiver and they shift to the floor

my heart don't beat like before
it's never been this slow, no,
my blood don't flow anymore
and you couldn't care less, could you?

could we stop and sleep for a spell
we can turn this ditch into a well
and send that old devil back to hell
but we really don't care, do we?

baby, let's stop and sleep for a spell
we can turn this ditch into a well
and send that old devil back to hell

your back's not straight like before
you really shouldn't carry me no more
I'm much too heavy for you
I'm really quite a mess, yes,

we just don't care anymore
we're crooked and we're cut to the core
we're just not there anymore
but we really don't care, do we?

no, we couldn't care less
we couldn't care less, could we?

Eg vil ikkje ha
din ros
dine kjærteikn
di medkjensle;
Hender som
stryk
trøystande
nedetter ryggen
Mjuke kyss om natta -
Eg vil ha
din stigande uro
dine rådville tankar
din ustyrlege villskap
ditt rastlause sinn -
Fyll meg med
di einsemd
di lengt
og din angest -
Så eg kan kjenne deg
heilt.

Woman driving, man sleeping.
With the suitcase on the rack.
White lines shooting by,
on the pavement like the sky.
Looking straight ahead, into the black.

Woman driving, man sleeping.
There's no radio to play.
Sitting with the map,
laying crumpled on her lap.
Looking for the toll money to pay.

Man sleeping is man dreaming,
in a large apartment house.
Walking in, knocking on doors.

Woman driving, man sleeping.
Passing all the other cars.
Searching in the black,
but never turning to look back.
A little metal box under the stars.

Man sleeping is man dreaming,
in a large apartment house.
Walking in, knocking on doors.

Woman driving, man sleeping.
Woman driving, man sleeping...

I could sink to the bottom of you
with a stone on a chain
without breathing in
I could tell you and tell you again
that there is only one
though many have been

Lie down
fall in
pass out
while I'm wide awake
with the lights out
you're in safe hands
of that one man
who can fix his petite machine

You're not lonely in seconds of doubt
and the doubt is in me
next to sheer certainty
back and forth as it always has been
and ever will be
as long as we're not in between

Lie down
fall in
pass out
while I'm wide awake
with the lights out
you're in safe hands
of that one man
who can fix his petite machine

In the sky the birds are pulling rain
In your life the curse has got a name
Makes you lie awake all through the night
That's why

She's intoxicated by herself
Everyday she's seen with someone else
And every night she kisses someone new
Never you

You're waiting in the shadows for a chance
Because you believe at heart that if you can
Show to her what love is all about
She'll change

She'll talk to you with no one else around
But only if you're able to entertain her
The moment conversation stops she's gone
Again

Belinda was mine 'til the time that I found her
Holdin' Jim
And lovin' him
Then Sue came along, loved me strong, that's what I thought
But me and Sue,
That died, too.

Don't know that I will but until I can find me
A girl who'll stay and won't play games behind me
I'll be what I am
A solitary man
A solitary man

I've had it here - being where love's a small word
A part time thing
A paper ring
I know it's been done havin' one girl who loves me
Right or wrong
Weak or strong

Don't know that I will but until I can find me
A girl who'll stay and won't play games behind me
I'll be what I am
A solitary man
A solitary man

Something tells me that I'm left without a chance
in my suspicious attempts to get her close
enough to close my lips around her smile
now I can't close my eyes when she's around
and she's around
passing like the wind that shapes the clouds
she is around, she is around

I don't know how but suddenly it's been a while
and we've been walking in through that same front door
undressing like there were no parts to hide
and calling each other names we never had
and you never heard
an unexpected turn
we hit the kerb
a stupid turn, a fatal word

Flutter girl
killing me with her sunshine
sunshine
she's so unaware
that she's my melpomene

you broke the code
just like i'm sure you always do
without intentions but I know
that's how I broke away from you
now that the clouds are obsolete
I hope you landed on your feet
without those evil demons
keeping you reminded of

the war they pulled us through
as fragile hearts ran short of glue
as we're both running out of time
and seek to drown the fact in wine
it should be honest and naive
like we should give, we should receive
I must be jaded
fading out of function into solitude

Flutter girl
killing me with her sunshine
sunshine
she's so unaware
that she's my melpomene

Flutter girl
killing me with her sunshine
sunshine
she's so unaware
that she's my melpomene

I am a lone wolf
I always was and will be
I feel fine, I am resigned to this
I am a lone wolf
I am a lone wolf

Got my cares
Wrapped up all nice and neat
In my suitcase
I'll take it down the street
To a place with plenty of space for me
I am a lone wolf

I am a lone wolf
It blows my mind
That people wanna try to get inside my tired head
I am a lone wolf
I am a lone wolf

I am a lone wolf
Nobody needs to get too close to me
You'll only see this truth
I am a lone wolf

Limb by limb, tooth by tooth
Tearing up inside of me
Every day, every hour
I wish that I was bullet proof

Wax me, mould me
Heat the pins and stab them in
You have turned me into this
Just wish that it was bullet proof,
was bullet proof

So pay the money and take a shot
Lead-fill the hole in me
I could burst a million bubbles
All surrogate and bullet proof
And bullet proof
And bullet proof
And bullet proof

You think your days are uneventful
And no one ever thinks about you
She goes her own way
She goes her own way
You say your days are ordinary
And no one ever thinks about you
But we're all the same
And she can hardly breathe without you

She says she has no time
For you now
She says she has no time

Think about the lonely people
Then think about the day she found you
Or lie to yourself
And see it all dissolve around you

She says she has no time
For you now
She says she has no time
For you now
She says she has no time

Lonely people tumble downwards
My heart opens to you
When she says

She says she has no time
For you now
She says she has no time
For you now
She says she has no time

In every heart there is a room
A sanctuary safe and strong
To heal the wounds from lovers past
Until a new one comes along

I spoke to you in cautious tones
You answered me with no pretense
And still I feel I said too much
My silence is my self defense

And every time I've held a rose
It seems I only felt the thorns
And so it goes, and so it goes
And so will you soon I suppose

But if my silence made you leave
Then that would be my worst mistake
So I will share this room with you
And you can have this heart to break

And this is why my eyes are closed
It's just as well for all I've seen
And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows

So I would choose to be with you
That's if the choice were mine to make
But you can make decisions too
And you can have this heart to break

And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows

Who knows how long I've loved you
You know I love you still
Will I wait a lonely life time
If you want me to I will

For if I ever saw you
I didn't catch your name
But it never really mattered
I will always feel the same

Love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we're together
Love you when we're apart

And when at last I find you
Your song will fill the air
Sing it loud so I can hear you
Make it easy to be near you
For the things you do endear you to me
And you know I will
I will