Writing songs.

For awhile now, I've wanted to write my own music.  I've been inspired by my friends, and my love of music and poetry.  I've been trying to write more stories, but all my brain wants to do in prose are monologues and essays. So while I'm kicking my brain's butt into shape (I hope that's possible) I've been on a song writting kick.  First, here's another song I've been working on.  Again, it's a work in progress, but it's got a pretty melody and I like some of the phraseology, so here it is:

Arizona

I’m blinded by the city lights

No God no truth and oh no light

Ready to go

Somewhere the skyline’s bare

As the blankness I in your empty stare

When I tell you I’m leaving tonight

     For Arizona

     Where the sun’s always shining

     Till the sky’s lit by diamonds

     Arizona

     They say the grass is always greener

     But there I'll have none to compare.

Night and day I fight to dream

But waking up I find tears gleam

in my eyes

Please, tell me that there’s something here

I’m never gonna  find out there

Far away

     In Arizona

     Where the sun’s always shining

     Till the sky’s lit by diamonds

     Arizona

     They say the grass is always greener

     But there I'll have none to compare.

I’m not ready to leave you

Cause my heart still believes you

Love me

So give me one thing to believe in

To keep me from leavin'

tonight

     For Arizona

     Where the sun’s always shining

     Till the sky’s lit by diamonds

     Arizona

     They say the grass is always greener

     But there I'll have none to compare.

But some days when you see me

Looking far away

 you’ll know that I’ve gone

     To Arizona

     Where the sun’s always shining

     Till the sky’s lit by diamonds

     Arizona

     They say the grass is always greener

     But there I'll have none to compare.

I went to Arizona for a week, and whenever life overwhelms me I find myself missing it.  So I wrote this song.  

and in exchange for reading my experimentations without even a melody to make them better, here are some of my favorite lyrics written by my friends:

Rough Draft:

(Rome)

You're the capital of corrupt creativity and compromise

you're the Rome all the roads lead to just to die...

Kim Spears:

(Go Back)

We can go back he said
like a parenthesis
cups what’s supposed to be
uttered implicitly
We can go back
and spin
tales that we’ve never told
travel to place unknown
and fly on the wings you’ve flown
to unsow th seeds you’ve sown
Can we go back?

Blind Man Leading:

(Sir Lestat)

Down one more twilight road

somewhat crippled, but just in your soul...

There's just no sunlight left in your hair

To recollect.  It's been 500 years, 

yet you still stop for the breeze in the lilacs

that you just couldn't live without.

(Parachute Embrace)

I could recite the perfect opening to a timless romantic play

but that won't weave your love into a heart so frayed

I guess we weren't as brilliant as the public hope

with inspiration stuck in the back of our throats

Chris and Jenna:

(The Next Best Thing)

How can I hope to live with just one wife

To keep my heart with her and her alone

When so many things say reach for what you want

and Love will find you on it's own

But on its own, love never came

So I walked this road, and I've come aways 

but these girls with golden hair

just cry out love afair

and I will stare when sirens start to sing

so how can I say I"m with you all the way

If I"m always looking for the next best thing?

How can I hope to live for just one God

So many things are trying to replace

I see them shine reflections in my eyes

Blind me so I can not see his face

So I erase the God I've known 

melt down the gold and formed my own.

(Don't know this one's name, it's an old one!)

By this time my eyes have acquired 

their very first coat of glaze

and the colors in yours that I once admired 

have faded to mid-tones and grays

...and my wandering heart

it is sure to wander away

from the beautiful lie that it loved not another

...so how can you say that love is forever?

(I don't know about you)

Hey, you- slightly confused

Weary of falling too far

I'll be waiting around 

wanting to know who you are

...

Hey you cautious to move

taking one step at a time

right now, over and out

is pulling me further from fine

and I don't know about you-

But I do better when you are around me

Speaking the truth that confounds me

berates me and tells me to grow up

start looking for once at the whole cup

instead of the part that is not there

let's focus on the part that is there

So yes, Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope you found something you like! BML and Chris and Jenna are on itunes if you want to listen to snippets of their songs :)

Another story. And a poem, because I couldn't resist.

Going along with my dedication to write more stories, instead of just poems, here is an excerpt from a story I've been playing with:

I can’t even begin to tell you how many princes have been toasted, baked, and charbroiled in failed rescue attempts. But of course, that always gets left out of the wedding stories (though Rupunzel said it worked out pretty well for her – “I mean after a prince goes to all that the trouble of rescuing you, it isn’t quite polite to turn down his proposal and I couldn’t stand to marry a man who didn’t work out! So you see, that they had to climb my hair really, well, weeded out the weak if you get my drift” and gave her some nice read highlights in that thick blond hair of hers).

Okay, that’s a bit catty. But it does get tiresome. You have no idea how many times at royal feasts, holidays, and (of course) weddings a well meaning relative comes up to me and asks if it isn’t about time that I found a nice tower to stay in for awhile? Or tells me what a shame it is my parents didn’t make more enemies so one of them could have cursed me with something-or-other to attract a handsome young prince (nothing too nasty, mind you – like poor Princess Sharon. Not many princes want to rescue a princess from a plague of boils.). They sigh, looking at me pityingly and tell me it’s too bad really, they know a lovely young prince who’s looking for a quest, but unless I get my act together and get attacked by a dragon or a witch, he’s going to find someone else to rescue.

And therein lies the problem. Sure, meeting a nice guy sounds great, but I don’t really want to spend a couple years stuck in a tower planning my wedding while I’m waiting for him. Princess Aurora had it good, she got to fall asleep the whole time, woke up for her wedding very well rested, and didn’t make the princes life miserable asking why he didn’t come sooner like so many girls do.

Besides which, I don’t really want to have to deal with all those men risking their lives for me. It sounds romantic, but I’d feel awfully bad for the ones who died. I don’t quite understand how all these other girls stand it. Breaking hearts is one thing when it’s figurative, but literal stopping of hearts bothers me a bit.

and because I couldn't resist, here's a poem too-

Incomplete

I sit here staring at the blank spaces

You used to fill

Seeing you, now only from the corner of my eye

Your life a broken promise

The shooting star burnt out before dreamers made their wish

A rainstorm with no rainbow

Where once there was a story beginning to unfold

Remains three letters- R.I.P.

3

Here are a story, a song, and a poem. They were all just completed, so I'll probably tinker with them a little more before they're really done, but I'm really happy with them now so I thought I'd share :)

______

Reduction (a short story)

A piece of marble cold and grey, rested in a quarry in Carrara, Tuscany with Its’ brothers. It waited patiently in the lot as each portion was individually assessed for quality. After much waiting, It was selected for shipping and carefully carried to the city of Florence, where it was to be transformed into Art. The marble gloried in Its’ newfound destiny. Within a few ours though, it longed to return to the anonymity of the quarry, for Art-work had commenced. Chisels flashed in the sun, burning with light as they arced down into Its’ flesh, the sound of hammering reverberated through the air as chips flew off the supine stone. Agony was all It new, as pieces of Itself fell to the floor. Some were so large, it seemed as if the half of the stone’s weigh were leaving at once, other slivers were no larger than a grain of sand. But each piece was pain, each piece was a part of the rock being stripped away, laid bare before the world. Only thought that one day, It would take a proud place in this city of beauty kept the marble from madness. Day after day the torture continued until at last the artist stood back with a sigh:

“I am done. I have not been able to achieve the affect I wanted, take it away.”

The artist turned and walked away and only the rain remained to trace tears down the jagged rock’s face

______

Song

(still untitled, and not very song like as you can't here the melody but I'm still working on both of those - I've got ideas, but nothing concrete)

You wander the streets of this broken down town

Scared the cracked sidewalks will swallow your soul

Stop flinging your heart at these concrete walls

And turn away from this blood-stained ground

And

Every Day you say that you cry

Cause the days and your dreams

Are passing you by

And every night I wonder why

You don’t come home.

You ran to the desert to try to escape

The holes you could see in your soul

Did the emptiness you found there fill you up

Or did the silence make you weep?

Still

Every Day you say that you cry

Cause the days and your dreams

Are passing you by

And every night I wonder why

You don’t come home.

A chasm between us grows deep as death

But I pray you can still feel my love

No matter where you are or what you’ve done

You always have my love

Yet

Every Day you say that you cry

Cause the days and your dreams

Are passing you by

And every night I wonder why

You don’t come home.

But you won’t come home….

______

and finally a poem :)

Wishing on the Sun

Tonight I started wishing, on every star for you

And I’ll stay up till dawn brings the biggest and best

If it makes my wish come true.

______

And in closing:

The story is kind of a bummer, I know, but it can actually be read in more than one way, see Michelangelo's David's marble was from a quarry in Carrara, Tuscany and was brought to Florence and worked on by several other sculptors before he created the masterpiece. At one point, it was left for years gathering dust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michelangelo)). So maybe the marble got another shot, or maybe it just found peace being left alone. Who knows, I don't really.

The song, It's kind of about me missing both Danny and Steve, but you know, with artistic liberties throughout.

And the poem, kind of cutesy I know, but I love the stars in the little prince, so I've got a thing for them, and the idea of wishing on the sun seemed sweet to me :)