SERDAR ÖKTEM

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?

As you look around this room tonight

Settle in your seat and dim the lights

Do you want my blood, do you want my tears

What do you want

What do you want from me

Should I sing until I can't sing any more

Play these strings until my fingers are raw

You're so hard please

What do you want from me

 

Do you think that I konw something you don't know

What do you want from me

If I don't promise you the answers would you go

What do you want from me

Should I stand out in the rain

Do you want me to make a daisy chain for you

I'm not the one you need

What do you want from me

 

You can have anything you want

You can drift, you can dream, even walk on water

Anything you want

 

You can own everything you see

Sell your soul for complete control

Is that really what you need

You can lose yourself this night

See inside there is nothing to hide

Turn and face the light

What do you want from me

 

 

​

POLES APART

Did you konw. . . . it was all going to go so wrong for you

And did you see it was all going to be so right for me

Why did you see it was all going to be so right for me

Why did we tell you then

You were always the golden boy then

And that you'd never lose that light in your eyes

 

Hey you. . . . did you ever realise what you'd become

And did you see that it wasn't only me you were running from

Did you know all the time but it never bothered you anyway

Leading the blind while I stared out the steel in your eyes

 

The rain fell slow, down on all the roofs of uncertainty

I thought of you and the years and all the sadness fell away from me

And did you know. . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

I never thought that you'd lose that light in your eyes

 

 

​

 

 

 

 

A GREAT DAY FOR FREEDOM

On the day the wall come down

They threw the locks onto the ground

And with glasses high we raised a cry for freedom had arrived

 

On the day the wall come down

The ship of fools had finally run aground

Promises lit up the night like paper doves in flight

 

I dreamed you had left my side

No warmth, not even pride remained

And even though you needed me

It was clear that I could not do a thing for you

 

Now life devalues day by day

As friends and neighbours turn away

And there's a change that, even with regret, cannot be undone

 

Now frontiers shift like desert sands

While nations wash their bloodied hands

Of loyalty, of history, in shades of grey

 

I woke to the sound of drums

The music played, the morning sun streamed in

I turned and I looked at you

And all but the bitter residue slipped away. . . . . slipped away

 

 

​

 

 

WEARING THE INSIDE OUT

From morning to night I stayed out of sight

Didn't recognise I'd become

No more than alive I'd barely survive

In a word. . . . . . . . . . overrun

 

Won't hear a sound

From my mouth

I've spent too long

On the inside out

My skin is cold

To the human touch

This bleeding heart's

Not beating much

 

I murmured a vow of silence and now

I don't even hear when I think aloud

Extinguished by light I turn on the night

Wear its darkness with an empy smile

 

I'm creeping back to life

My nervous system all awry

I'm waring the insid out

 

Loot at him now

He's palr somhow

But he's coming round

He's starting to choke

It's been so long since he spoke

Well he can have the words right from my mouth

 

And with these words I can see

Clear through the clouds that covered me

Just give it time then speak my name

Now we can hear ourselves again

 

I'm holding out

For the day

When all the clouds

Have blown away

I'm with you now

Can speak your name

Now we can hear

Ourselves again

 

He's curled into the corner

But still the screen isflickering

With and endless stream of garbage to

. . . . curse the place

In a sea of randon images

The self destruction animal

Waiting for the waves to break

 

He's standing on the threshold

Caught in fiery anger

And hurled into the furnace he'll

. . . curse the place

He's torn in all directions

And the screen is flickering

Waiting for the flames to break

 

 

​

TAKE IT BACK

 

Her love rains down on me easy as the breeze

I listen to her breathing it sounds like the waves on the sea

I was thinking all about her. burning with rage and desire

We were spinning into darkness, the earth was on fire

 

She could take it back, she might take it back some day

 

So I spy on her, I lie to her, I make promises I cannot keep

Then I hear her laughter rising, rising from the deep

And I make her prove her love to me, I take all that I can take

And I push her to the limit to see if she will break

 

She could take it back, she might take it back some day

 

Now I have seen the warnings, screaming from all sides

It's easy to ignore them and God knows I've tried

All of this temptation, it turned my faith to lies

Until I couldn't see the danger or hear the rising tide

 

She could take it back, she will take it back some day

 

She could take it back, she will take it back some day

 

She will take it back, she will take it back some day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMING BACK TO LIFE

 

Where were you when I was burned and broken

While the days slipped by from my window watching

Where were you when I was hurt and I was helpless

Because the things you say and the things you do surround me

While you were hanging yourself on someone else's words

Dying to believe in what you heard

I was staring into the shining sun

 

Lost in thought and lost in time

While the seeds of life and the seeds of change were planted

Outside the rain fell dark and slow

While I pondered on this dangerous but irresistible pastime

I took a heavenly ride through our silence

I knew the moment had arrived

For killing the past and coming back to life

 

I took a heavenly ride through our silence

I knew the waiting had begun

And headed straight. . . . . . into the shining sun

 

 

 

KEEP TALKING

For millions of years mankind lived just like animals

Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination

We learned to talk

 

There's a silence surrounding me

I can't seem to think straight

I'll sit in the corner

No one can bother me

I think I should speak now                                

Why won't you talk to me

I can't seem to speak now                                              

You never talk to me

My words won't come out right                        

What are you thinking

I feel like I'm drowning                                      

What are you feeling

I'm feeling weak now                                         

Why won't you talk to me

But I can't show my weakness                          

You never talk to me

I sometimes wonder                                                   

What are you thinking

Where do we go from here                                            

What are you feeling

 

It doesn't have to be like this

All we need to do is make sure we keep talking

 

Why won't you talk to me                                             

I feel like I'm drowning

You never talk to me                                          

You know I can't breathe now

What are you thinking                                       

We're going nowhere

What are you feeling                                          

We're going nowhere

Why won't you talk to me                                             

You never talk to me

What are you thinking

Where do we go from here

 

It doesn't have to be like this

All we need to do is make sure we keep talking

 

 

​

 

LOST FOR WORDS

I was spending my time in the doldrums

I was caught in a cauldron of hate

I felt persecuated and paralysed

I thought that everything else would just wait

 

While you are wasting your time on your enemies

Engulfed in a fever of spite

Beyond your tunnel vision reality fades

Like shadows into the night

 

To martyr yourself to caution

Is not going to help at all

Because there'll be no safety in numbers

When the Right One walks out of the door

 

Can you see your days blighted by darkness?

Is it true you beat your fists on the floor?

Stuck in a world of isolation

While the ivy grows over the door

 

So I open my door to my enemies

And I ask could we wipe the slate clean

But they tell me to please go fuck myself

You know you just can't win

 

 

​

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HIGH HOPES

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young

In a world of magnets and miracles

Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary

The ringing of the division bell had begun

 

Along the Long Road and on down the Causeway

Do thel still meet there by the Cut

 

There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps

Running before time took our dreams away

Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground

To a life consumed by slow decay

 

The grass was greener

The light was brighter

With friends surrounded

The nights of wonder

 

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing

behind us

To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side

Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again

Dragged by the force of some inner tide

 

At a higher altitude with flag unfurled

We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition

There's a hunger still unsatisfied

Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon

Though down this road we've been so many times

 

The grass was greener

The light was brighter

The taste was sweeter

With friend surrounded

The dawn mist glowing

The water flowing

The endless river

Forever and ever