"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."

PLATO

Lyrics

Heading into the final stretch of addressing the various lyrics-related issues at my site, I've made a few changes. Just determining which files should be considered lyrics at all has gone through further refinement.

• At least one piece that used to switch back-and-forth between poetry and lyrics, because I could never make up my mind, had ended up in both--but now I've relegated it to poetry alone. That would be 'If You See My Mind'.


• A few others, including 'I Got It All Wrong', 'You Need a Friend', 'Ain't It Peculiar', 'Walk-Off Home Run'--all moved from the 'starter' section to my Collection poetry section (which is only now being set up, poems to be moved from where they are now).


• 'Latin Love Song' came directly out of lyrics and went into Collection.


• 'In Charlottesville' and 'Portal to Hell' were moved to Sentence poems and the Mars collection respectively. What's interesting about both of these is that I actually 'pitched' each as a (potential) song to singer-songwriters I think highly of in Charlottesville, only now to determine myself that that's a real stretch.


• Several were trashed, essentially, taken from the 'starter' section and put into an 'extra' folder for further enlightened viewing at some later date.


• One came from this blog, 'She's Singing Patsy Cline Again', and went straight to lyrics.

The fate of a couple more is yet to be determined, but they seem destined to end up in the big show, too. The total number of lyrics now approaches sixty.

As to quality, so many of these 'lyrics' should still be considered just idea starters--but as a result of my being willing to write them and post them (imperfectly) some good songs might yet arise.

I should say, too, that part of what prompted me to start in on this much-belated project was an e-mail from Athens, Greece regarding my 'starter' lyric 'I Got No Use for You'. The e-mailer said she 'guessed she heard it somewhere' and asked if I knew the author. Within a couple of days I had moved it in with the main set of lyrics, wondering all the while where she thinks she'd heard MY song.

Submitting

I discovered a new aide when submitting poetry, duotrope's digest, which came to me as a double-submitted to Rattle (please don't tell them, as they don't seem to have noticed). It's unleashed (for now) a torrent of poetic submissions on my part. Happy Day!! Anna Evans' very helpful essay on the sonnet also came into view. I recommend them both heartily.

I did sort of let loose on one rather control freaky editor. Doing so in my cover letter might be considered somewhat self-destructive, like when I sent a screenplay to Sundance with a note about how Robert Redford's hair hadn't changed position since '63. But it was heartfelt, my comments, and I can't really know if it works best for her to tell everyone so explicitly how to be a proper poet.

'When Your Father Is the Devil'

When your Father is the Devil
. . And you turn to Demon Rum
When Hell flames rise up round you
. . To my place you can come.

We'll drink to future Heaven
. . We'll drink to future fun
We'll drink to all the women
. . Who one day sure will come.
June 13, 2009

'The Rack Twists With a Screw'

Nightmare and Horror Show
. Agreed to wed
To torture someone new
. At altar, though
The preacher said:
'The rack twists with a screw.'
May 30, 2009

'Thing to Behold'

Pure selfishness
. Vices untold
Pure selflessness
. Thing to behold.
May 25, 2009

'The Good Book'

The Good Book is books aplenty
. Each from a different source
To tell us what it really meant he
. Shouts at us until he's hoarse.

Though his words thunder from Above
. . He speaks no Hebrew, no Greek,
Still he hollers about God's love
. How the Earth goes to the Meek.

To read the Vulgate requires latin
. To make sense of it scholars
The kind of learning that you find in
. Jesuit priests in collars.

This Word drawn from many voices
. As hurled down from Babel's Tower
Leaves us with so many choices
. On interpreting this Power.
May 23, 2009