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Before using someone else's lyrics in your story, you need to understand the legalities.

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2015/03/how-to-use-lyrics-without-paying-a-fortune-or-a-lawyer/

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Everybody loves you
But it doesn't matter if you don't love yourself
Everybody wants you
But you can't give with your needs on the shelf
You don't have to stay there, stuck in the middle

You're the life of the party
But you go home and all you feel is doubt
They were singing your praises
But the voices in your head, they drown them out
There's so much beauty, but you can't see it
Just open up your eyes

Are you waiting for the next thing, for your big break?
Will you ever be satisfied?
You're not happy with your high hopes and your heartache
No one's perfect all the time
But honey, you're doing fine

- Hey Hey Honey by Secret Someones



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Half Mystic, an independent journal dedicated to the celebration of music, seeks submissions for its debut issue. Theme: Allegro – “the skipping pulse, the desperate escape, the dash of fastfastfaster.” All interpretations of the theme are welcome, but all pieces must pertain to music.

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Love doesn't discriminate
Between the sinners
And the saints
It takes and it takes and it takes
And we keep loving anyway
We laugh
And we cry
And we break
And we make our mistakes
And if there's a reason I'm by her side
When so many have tried
Then I'm willing to wait for it
I'm willing to wait for it...

Death doesn't discriminate
Between the sinners
And the saints
It takes and it takes and it takes
And we keep living anyway
We rise
And we fall
And we break
And we make our mistakes
And if there's a reason I'm still alive
When everyone who loves me has died
I'm willing to wait for it
I'm willing to wait for it...

I am the one thing in life I can control
I am inimitable
I am an original
I'm not falling behind or running late
I'm not standing still
I am lying in wait

Life doesn't discriminate
Between the sinners and the saints
It takes and it takes and it takes
And we keep living anyway
We rise
And we fall
And we break
And we make our mistakes
And if there's a reason I'm still alive
When so many have died
Then I'm willin' to-
Wait for it.

- selected lyrics from the song Wait For It from the musical Hamilton

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You wanna walk into the room like that other girl does
The one that's always making everybody fall in love
You see, girl, you're a lot like me
She rearranges all the light in the room
So you're always in the shadows
Well, that's what it feels like to you
Baby, I've been there too.
And I know how much it can sometimes hurt
You feel like the whole world has made you the ugly girl
Take it from me that you have to see it first

So before you trade in your summer skin
for those high-heeled shoes
to make him want to be with you
Let me remind you one more time
that just maybe
you're beautiful
but you just can't see
So why don't you trust me
They'll see it, too
You beautiful girl, you

You wanna lay the blame on somebody else
All these tiny little minds that leave you up on a shelf
But okay, I've seen it done that way
Just in case nobody ever comes through
Riding in to come to your rescue
You still have a chance
You don't have to be asked to dance
I know how much you've been dying to say,
"Look how much everybody loves me."
Guess who gets left when everyone else fades away

So before you trade in your summer skin
for those high-heeled shoes
to make him want to be with you
Let me remind you one more time
That just maybe
You're beautiful
But you just can't see
So why don't you trust me
They'll see it, too
You beautiful girl, you

- Beautiful Girl by Sara Bareilles

I strongly recommend Sara Bareilles, always, including her latest work, the book Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song (read my review) and the musical Waitress - Sara wrote the music and lyrics for the stage adaptation of Adrienne Shelly's film.



If you can't see the video player above, click here to listen to the song on YouTube, then get the song! (Note: I'm not making a cent off this - I'm just posting the link to encourage folks to buy it and download it legally, rather than otherwise.)

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In her book Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song, Sara Bareilles proves to be just as candid and charming on the page as she is on stage. Whether it's talking about her grade school years, her anxieties, or the true story behind her hit Love Song, Sara is frank, funny, and open about her life, her career, her struggles, and her triumphs. Her very naturalistic, conversational writing style makes her comes across like a friend talking to you at the dinner table or over the phone, equal parts self-deprecating, hopeful, grateful, and humble.

Sara relates her stories in nine chapters - or essays, if you prefer - each bearing the title of a song she's written. (The section also begins with that song's lyrics, handwritten, which is a very nice touch.) As one might assume with a biography, the book begins with her childhood and ends with her current work on the musical Waitress and is lightly peppered with photographs. In-between, we get a glimpse into her early songs and shows, the year she spent in Italy in college, and her first love and heartbreak. Fellow performers will enjoy the details of life on the road, the gigs when she was just starting out as well as the times she performed in large arenas or on television shows, and so forth, but moreover, they will find connection and comfort in knowing the difficulties Sara faced breaking into the business (and the continued difficulties staying there) as well as the doubt, worry, and vulnerability she feels when writing new songs, collaborating with others, or trying to express her truest feelings in music and words.

Mid-way through the book, in the chapter Beautiful Girl, Sara writes letters to her younger self. This is possibly my favorite section of the book, and it serves as a reminder to be our own best friends, to stop putting ourselves down and to keep our chins up, because time and experience can truly make things better and clearer.

This book will be treasured by Sara Bareilles's fans. I also hope it reaches people who perhaps haven't heard her music, who find her through this book first, because what an amazing experience that would be, to be moved enough by this book and these words to go pick up her CDs. I only wish this book contained all of her albums - but, wait, I already have those. :)

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Howdy, Campers!  Happy Poetry Friday...and Happy Internet Day on October 29th!

The Internet: it all began 46 years ago with Leonard Kleinrock

With this post, TeachingAuthors launches a short series celebrating the birth of the internet.  And we want to hear from you: has the internet changed you? In what ways? What comes to mind when you think of the internet?

According to TheInternetDay.com, on October 29, 1969, under the supervision of UCLA computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock, the first message was sent over an internet connection.(Click here for the sound of connecting to the internet via dial-up...)

When I think of the internet, I think of moving to a new town, into our new house and connecting to the internet, in 1994. Not long after, my friend Barney Saltzberg (whom we've featured several times on this blog) and I began to email each other. We could read each other's thoughts--instantly! We could complete each other's sentences!  We could talk deep into the night without speaking! We could collaborate on stories through the air! It was A-freakin'-MAZING.

My. Brain. Exploded.   Were our lives ever going to be the same again?

Mine was not. Not long after, I met Courtney Campbell, who regularly tours schools in Europe. She was incredibly generous, sharing the contact information of her host in Germany. If she had simply given me his snail mail address, I may have stuck that note in my desk and never done a thing about it. Instead, she gave me magic: his email address. I emailed him that evening: "Hello! Would you be interested in having an author visit your schools?"

In the morning, his reply arrived: "How soon can you come?"

And so began several years of my touring schools in Europe. Yup. My life had changed forever.

When I think of the internet, I also think of how each freshly-baked email, each amazing link, each post by every dear friend is a pretty shiny thing which grabs my attention...again and again and again...


...and I see how the very structure of my life has changed since that initial euphoria Barney and I tasted, splashing in the shallow end of the 'net.

When I think of the internet, I also feel weighted down.


These days the internet is an unending desire to send a friendly and intelligent reply to every message in my inbox.

It's perpetually polishing my shiny online portrait.

It's forever unfinished homework.

How did we go so quickly from "Oh, WOW--this internet thing is AMAZING!" to "I can't drive with you to the party tonight--I'll meet you there. I need to finish my blog post and I have too many emails to answer" which--and I swear this is true--I just said five minutes ago (paraphrased) to my husband.
Still, when I think of the internet, I also think of Paul Simon's stunning song (co-written by Forere Mothoeloa), The Boy in The Bubble, on Simon's Graceland album, 1986.

Here is the chorus:


So now,when I think of the internet--when I think of any technology--I may be overwhelmed (a dilemma which the next generation of users will undoubtedly solve) but I'm also singing about Miracles and Wonder.

Are you?

These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don’t cry baby don’t cry
Don’t cry

posted in waves of wonder by April Halprin Wayland

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We are made of our longest days
We are falling but not alone
We will take the best parts of ourselves
And make them gold

We are made of our smallest thoughts
We are breathing and letting go
We will take the best parts of ourselves
And make them gold

- from the song Make Them Gold by Chvrches



If you can't see the video player embedded above, click here to listen to the song on YouTube.

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You are the moon
And I am the sea
Wherever you are
You've got pull over me

The whole of the sky
Wants to keep us apart
The distance is wearing
A hole in my heart

Someday your moonlight
Will blanket my skin
Someday my waves
Will pull all of you in

Someday I promise
The moon and the sea
Will be together
Forever you and me.

- from The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough

This song is written by one of the main characters in the novel, and performed as a duet by the two protagonists.

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If you were a melody
I'd sing you all the time
And if your hands were poetry
I'd memorize every line
And if every look you gave me were
A different hue or shade of color
I'd learn how to paint you
You know I'd try

And if you were words in a story
You'd be in a book that's overdue
That's somewhere hidden in my closet
Looked a million times for you
And if you were just one day
You'd be the very first of May
And I'd be sunlight in your skies
Or at least I'd try

- selected lyrics from Try by Jillian Edwards



If you can't see the media player embedded above, click here to listen to the song.

Last week, I posted lyrics from Jillian's song Room.

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With all of my heart, I'm racing
Watch the page as it turns out
You would read all of me had you the chance
You'd never put me down
Please don't put me down

I get a little bit restless
You just gotta give me time
I get a little bit insecure, a little bit bent
I get a little bit everything every now and then

But there's room for you here
Oh, if you take it all
Got so much room for you here
Yes, I pray you lay your head down here

So take it all
Take it like you would your childhood
The street you lived
You ride your bike
The whole world there inside your eyes
I'll find the water's deep
The river's wide
I've got nothin' but time

This is steady and sure and clear as the wind
That I see the other side of me in you
That I've got nothing but room for you here

- selected lyrics from Room by Jillian Edwards

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Yearning, yearning for the past
It's like we're always burning
Through the hourglass
(Like we always do, like we always do)
Learning, learning as we go
It's like we're always searching
For the seeds we've sown

Stuck in the rhythm, same every day
Looking at pictures I know I should put away
Building towers to break 'em back down
We're framing the moment
Ties that keep us bound

Days and nights
And the best of times
We keep our memories like souvenirs
When we were kids,
Did you think that it would all come back to this?
Looking back
Oh, looking back
And you know, and they know,
That we just don't wanna be forgotten

- selected lyrics from Souvenirs by Orla Gartland

Watch the official lyric video:



If you can't see the video embedded above, click here.

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All shapes and colours
Rolled and stained in aging hands
Sculpted explosions
Histories unfold
Our Jackson Pollocked earth turns
A silent witness

Lonely as silent
Poets bequeath best attempts
Romanticising
The brutality
Of the ages and of us
Avarice and lust

Love and death, and death and love
Brutal romance
The silver thread, the sharpened knife
A spinning slow-dance
I can't remember before
Warmth in the veins, lead in the core
Brutal romance

You're dripping with gold
Mine is more interior
Yours is sinking you

Men at attention
Devouring a drowning fleet
Epaulettes of charm

Love and death, and death and love
Brutal romance
A silver thread, a sharpened knife
In a spinning slow-dance
I can't remember before
Breath in the lungs, blood on the door
Brutal romance

And I want to sing
Over them and into them
What can't be unsung
And I want to sing
Over you and into you
What can't be unsung

Love and death, and death and love
Brutal romance
A silver thread, a sharpened knife
A spinning slow-dance
I can't remember before
Washing of wounds, won inner wars
Brutal romance

- Brutal Romance by Brooke Fraser, from her beautiful brand-new album, Brutal Romantic

Listen to the song here, then get the album (which I've had on repeat all week) from the store of your choice.



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And the salt in my wounds isn't burning anymore than it used to
It's not that I don't feel the pain, it's just I'm not afraid of hurting anymore
And the blood in these veins isn't pumping any less than it ever has
And that's the hope I have, the only thing I know that's keeping me alive

It's just a spark
But it's enough to keep me going
(So if I let go of control now, I can be strong)
And when it's dark out, no one's around
It keeps glowing

It's just a spark
But it's enough to keep me going
(So if I keep my eyes closed, with the blind hope)
And when it's dark out, no one's around
It keeps glowing

- lyrics from the song Last Hope by Paramore



If you don't see the video player above, click here to watch it on YouTube.

Follow my HOPE tag.

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I have a problem.  I long for days with no to-dos in them - just puttering.  I like puttering.  BUT - but, I have so many things I want to do.

One of the things I want to do is write more song lyric-y poetry.  I even want to write more songs.
So I signed on to a FB group that challenges the members to write one song a month using a prompt suggested by members of the group.  And by write, the group doesn't expect a handwritten score that can be played by a quartet.  No, all the group wants is a YouTube, or an mp3, or an iTunes of the song.  Your phone can record the song, even.

Except my phone can't.  And after the first three or four months, I stopped trying.

Here are the prompts I missed:
one perfect day
an antique photo in a shop
tattoo
something to love about everyone
glimmer

I decided to cheat!  I decided to roll all those themes into one song.  Here are the lyrics I wrote:

 On a perfect day, one spent with you,
I chanced upon a scene
Of an old farm house in a dusty frame
So gray it was almost green.

And you smiled as if you had a thought
You had to keep from me
You bought me that dusty frame
Since that old house spoke to me.

There is something to love about everyone
You whispered that night in our bed.
That old farm looked like a promised land
to that farmer when he wed.

There is something to love about everyone
Was your mantra from then on.
That farmer’s work,  or my strange love
for a place that was long gone.

That frame is safely packed away
with the other things you left
When you knew that your time on earth was done
and I found myself bereft.

And your mantra I’ve etched into my skin
A glimmering tattoo
There is something to love about everyone
Because I once loved you.

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They say, "Come in, who do you wanna be?"
Ask, "What's your style, how can you impress me?"
Flips and turns, upside down
"I hope you brought your floor length gown. Nevermind, take it off and try this on."
Tear you down to build you back up again
And if you crack, you're in the dust my friend
I thought you knew this game was hard
You can't get points 'til you get scars
The secret is, they don't know what's good 'til it hits

It's always the quiet ones
You never see us coming
Always trying to define us
Then say we'll amount to nothing
See how far that we can bend
Before they break our souls
Just in time for the end
Say they're the reason that we're gold

Act like they simply adore you
Until you walk away, think that they're above you
Just because they've had their break and lots of money in the bank
It's all good, it's all fleeting anyway

It's always the quiet ones
You never see us coming
Always trying to define us
Then say we'll amount to nothing
See how far that we can bend
Before they break our souls
Just in time for the end
Say they're the reason that we're gold

It's okay, they don't know what they're doing
It's okay, they don't know what they're losing
It's okay, they don't know what they're doing
It's okay, we're gonna show 'em one day

It's always the quiet ones
You never see us coming
Always trying to define us
Then say we'll amount to nothing
See how far that we can bend
Before they break our souls
Just in time for the end
Say they're the reason that we're gold

- It's Always the Quiet Ones by Paris Carney



If you can't see the embedded music player above, click here to listen to the song at SoundCloud.

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Anything is possible, if you set your mind to it, work hard, and have your heart in the right place.

Little Mix, an awesome all-female vocal group and winner of The X Factor, reinforces these ideas in their new song "Little Me."  The next time you're feeling down on yourself, turn this song on and remind yourself that the possibilities are endless, and that you can be anything you want to be. 




If you can't see the video embedded above, click here to watch it on YouTube.

Wish I knew back then what I know now
Wish I could somehow go back in time
And maybe listen to my own advice

I'd tell her to speak up, tell her to shout out
Talk a bit louder, be a bit prouder
Tell her she's beautiful, wonderful,
Everything she doesn't see

You gotta speak up, you gotta shout out
And know that right here, right now
You can be beautiful, wonderful,
Anything you wanna be

Click here to read all of the lyrics.

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This shaking keeps me steady, I should know
What falls away is always, and is near
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow
I learn by going where I have to go

- lyrics from The Waking by Kurt Elling

Watch Kurt perform the song live.

I discovered this song recently, thanks to Norbert Leo Butz, who covered the song on his album Memory & Mayhem: Live at 54 Below. I highly recommend that album. I highly recommend anything and everything sung by Norbert Leo Butz.

Norbert's newest project is the Broadway musical Big Fish, based on the novel by Daniel Wallace. His credits include the role of Fiyero in the original cast of Wicked, which was based on the novel by Gregory Maguire. So, you see, this all leads back to books.

...but if you want me to, I can talk about Jason Robert Brown's musical The Last Five Years as performed by Norbert Leo Butz and Lauren Kennedy for a really, really long time. Just ask me about it. :)

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A soul looking outside itself for the source
To find what cannot be defined, delivered, or forced
Perception and projection make up every point of view

These days it seems like everyone is bidding on love
But it's not up for sale, a concept new to some
I like to share my soul with many, I don't save it just for one

Now what to do with all that freedom hitting at once?
You can exercise your will to call the actor's bluff
You're just playing a part until your time is up

- lyrics from Sail On by The Good Mad

This is one of my favorite songs by The Good Mad. I also really love In the Grey and Falling Asleep (Shine Don't Shadow) I hope you like them as much as I do.

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even tippex, in your riotous attention to detail.
Thousands of careful lines;
such small changes of pressure, shade, direction.
How much of your time
to draw all those buttons, coins, badges, tickets,
Obsessive? Compulsive?

I’m a voyeur reading your notebooks,

You rummage in the attic of my memory

A kind of give and take
Clothes in a washing machine,

It takes time and close attention

inspired by an exhibition of art work called “strictly ballpoint” by Andrea Joseph at  Buxton Museum and Art Gallery 2011

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Follow yourself
And hope that you know where you're going
And don't question your steps
That lead you into the morning
- lyrics from LadyLuck by Maria Taylor

Listen to the song.

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I Couldn’t Love You More by Jason Ingram & Matt Hammitt illustrated by Polona Lovsin 4 stars ……….. Back Cover:  I couldn’t love you more is the message of a parent to a child. While it depicts the immense love a parent has or a child, it highlights on an even deeper level the unconditional [...]

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This is a pretty rotten drawing. I wasn't feeling it from the moment I started it. I just saw this bike, at the Crich 1950s day, and thought it looked interesting. I wanted to do something interesting with it. But I didn't. Then when I got home and started cross hatching the hell out of it I was still not feeling it. So, I just got it finished and wrote some nonsense on the page. You can tell by my hand writing I wasn't even feeling that.

However, despite the fact that I've just slated it, there is one moment in this drawing that I like. You see when I've made a drawing that makes me cringe I feel that as long as I create a little magical moment within it - whether that be a line or a texture or a detail - I can forgive it. So, yes, there is one moment that makes me smile. Can you spot it?

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Why do I find a broken bench so moving? Yes, because I'm a bit odd. And, yes, I'm a hyper-sensitive fool. But, apart from that, why is it so moving?

And, one more thing; whatever happened to Gomez? They were amazing.

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