Neil Peart – “Vital Signs” (1981)

July 2, 2009 at 6:44 pm (Poetry & Literature)

Unstable condition,
A symptom of life,
In mental and environmental change

Atmospheric disturbance,
The feverish flux
Of human interface and interchange

The impulse is pure;
Sometimes our circuits get shorted
By external interference

Signals get crossed
And the balance distorted
By internal incoherence 

A tired mind become a shape-shifter,
Everybody need a mood lifter,
Everybody need reverse polarity
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form
Everybody got to deviate from the norm

An ounce of perception,
A pound of obscure
Process information at half speed
Pause, rewind, replay,
Warm memory chip,
Random sample, hold the one you need

Leave out the fiction,
The fact is, this friction
Will only be worn by persistence

Leave out conditions,
Courageous convictions
Will drag the dream into existence

A tired mind become a shape-shifter,
Everybody need a soft filter,
Everybody need reverse polarity
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form
Everybody got to elevate from the norm.

Neil Peart