This is for all of those among us who knew the world was strangely out of synch
And despite that fact still tried to find a way to love, to live, to think
It’s for those who sought to see beyond and were dismissed and made unsure
Yet still identified the sickness and gifted us the cure
This is for those who tried to tell the world of the wonders that they found
And it’s for the wretched and the wasted who were beaten to the ground
It’s for the lovers and the lonely
And the dreamers and the damned
And for the children who in class
Refused to raise their tiny hands
It is for those who laughed with gusto
At the obscenity of the machine
And for those who struggled to find the words
To communicate their dreams
This is for the angry and confused
For the hopelessly abused
For the eyes that sparkle in the dark
Full of drugs and tears and booze
It’s for every single poet who tried to lift our souls
And for artists opening windows into strange confusing worlds
It’s for the voice that soared like angels
In the ears of the succumbed
And cut through mind-pollution
In the shanty towns and slums
It’s for those of you who flew above
Yet reached down to those of us who fell
For those who sent dispatches back
From the fiery pits of hell
For those who found nirvana
Then promptly lost the map
For victims crucified each day
For not submitting to the crap
It’s for those who challenged tyranny
In all its media-friendly guises
And fought the urge to be subsumed
By the glittery golden prizes
It’s for those who showed us Shangri-las
The joys of laughter, sharing, giving
Vast oceans of possibilities
Or simply better ways of living
They do not raise you up on pedestals or place you up on plaques
Coz your heroism doesn’t fit the script and undercuts official acts
Yet you are the gods who lit the flame
In the hearts of the downtrodden
I salute you now and always
So your gifts won’t be forgotten
