Week 39 #songaweek2020. I really did wake up with this poem ("What did it take . . . shine") in my head, and the other lyrics were stream-of-consciousness afterwards. 

I woke up
With a poem in my head
A deep contented sigh from my soul
Only music
Only thought
Only underlying everything 
Only ever while we sing

What did it take? 
What sun was it that breathed on your skin?
Shine.

Poem In My Head

Copyright Erin Wolf 2020

Guitar & Vocals: Erin Wolf
Lyrics: James Tristan Redding & Erin Wolf
Music: Erin Wolf

*This song uses a wide range of old unused prompts from Song-A-Week founder, James Tristan Redding (@jimtristan). Former prompts featured can be found following the song lyrics with the year the prompt is from. While I had hoped to use them as prompts in their own right, it seemed fitting to put them all together while also using Week 40's theme, "Ifs and Thens". Thank you for the wonderful inspiration, old friend!*

last call, but i'll keep nursing my
whiskey for one
i used to say i like myself better when I'm drunk
but that old me is gone
that old me is gone

i guess my best was pretty bad, hey
what i said is not what i wanted to say
but in the end, i pay for my mistakes
pay for my mistakes

all i ever wanted was to make you proud
but for all i know,
i've failed and let you down
if i could just make you smile
even for a moment
that would be just fine

it's 11:59 and here i am hoping
that you are my tomorrow morning
forget ifs and thens
how or whens
what do ya say

forget ifs and thens
how or whens
what do ya say

(vocalizations)
(because i'm too lazy to type them all out)

**********
old JTR prompts featured in this song (year)
1. make you proud (2018)
2. 11:59 (2018)
3. my best was pretty bad (2018)
4. you are my tomorrow (2017)
5. whiskey for one (2017) 
6. for all i know (2017)
7. pay for my mistakes (2016)
8. not what i wanted to say (2016)
9. i like myself better when i'm drunk (2010)
10. if i could just make you smile (2009)

It's 11:59 Somewhere

"Ooga Looga Wyma Ryma" (#401, 201005)

Aina' nuthin' like a girl makes you drop yer vowels
On the kitchen floor
She be cookin' up some dumplin's I be trippin' meatballs
Comin' back fer more

An' I'm tryin' to tell her sumthin' 'bout you look so nice
'Xcept I sound like a fool
Words 'er flippin' sidewers comin' out my mouf
In between the drool

Ooga looga wyma ryma baby what's your name
Chuga luga hunka lunka baby say it again
Youda cute-a meesa please-a winkie dinkie derpee doo
Banana fana fonanna fe fi fum teach me how to talk to you

Took sum clarses back in carlege wit' sum langejjes
A little French and some Mex
F'Ida' know'd then I'd a showed maybe I cudda' lerned
Mora' what to expex

Talkin' gibbrish ain't so purdy I regrets it now
Yeah I gotta' admit
I dang messed it up I never got my educacione
And I sound like ... not good!

Week 41a - Ooga Looga Wyma Ryma (201005)

"All Hat And No Cattle" (#402, 201006)

All hat and no cattle all bark and no bite
If you'd a told me I'd a stayed home tonight
Tried to be patient but I ran outta' luck
I don't seem to be able to give one single fumbling care right now

All bread and no butter all spark and no flame
House keeps on winnin' I'm losin' again
Time marches forward and the later it gits
I just keepin thinkin' how I'm sick of this charade

All mouth and no trousers all balls and no strikes
Guess you done fooled me once more than twice
Here I am lonesome and drunk in a ditch
Can't find my lighter ain't that a big let down

All sizzle no ribeye all work and no play
No steak for my Stetson no A-1 today
Sometimes you're the pigeon and sometimes the truck
But somehow you always seem to get fudge on your hands

Week 41b - All Hat And No Cattle (201006)

Ifs and Thens - Song a Week 2020, Week 41

Do you know that feeling when you like someone so badly you find yourself praying to every existing God they like you back? well...
*you might remember an old song by me called Skeleton, which actually sounds quite similar to this one. I realized about that while I was writing it, so I decided to include this little reference. In this context, "don't let me be a skeleton again" would mean "please don't let me be the idiot I was before when I thought I was entitled to do something wrong in the name of love" which is the main theme behind the song Skeleton.

Artwork by me, featuring my beautiful plants ❤️

Lyrics:

The blurry vision just before the curve,
the beat of my heart I just can't ignore
makes me stand right here, fading outside your door.
Because I bought my soul back from the devil,
blindly thinking this time will be better
but it won't disappear until my skin feels you near.

But I know I'm trying to kick this out of the field.
You don't need to remind me you're completely out of my league.

And they say hope is the last thing to lose,
so I will force mine to stay with you.
I'm praying to big Gods I don't believe in
cause I don't know how to make you listen to me.

Your ocean eyes making 10 feet tall waves,
makes me wanna die drowned by the sound of your name,
just please don't let me be a skeleton* again.
It's this uncertainty what kills me more,
not knowing which way you think I should go
or if I should even go there at all.

And I know I'm trying to kick this out of the field.
You don't need to remind me you're completely out of my league.

But they say hope is the last thing to lose,
so I will force mine to stay with you.
I'm praying to big Gods I don't believe in
cause I don't know how to make you listen to me.

And they say hope is the last thing to lose
so I will force mine to stay with you.
Because I bought my soul back from the devil
blindly thinking this time will be better
and it won't disappear until my skin feels you near.

Big Gods

Copyright Erin Wolf 2020

Prompt for SAW Week 41 - Ooga Looga Wyma Ryma
A little light teasing for the prompt creator, @jimtristan. ;)

i want an ooga looga
wyma ryma honey
an ooga looga 
wyma ryma dear
i know this is silly for
you to hear
but i need that ooga looga
in my ear

wyma ryma all the words
ooga looga just for the birds
a little bit of wyma ryma
for the nerds
they'll join in in their droves & herds

i want an ooga looga
wyma ryma honey
an ooga looga 
wyma ryma dear
i know this is silly for
you to hear
but i need that ooga looga
in my ear

i'm not sure what ooga looga means
it seems like James is full of beans
well i'm a ryma wyma this song
just for Eileen
who left him hanging
at the Dairy Queen

i want an ooga looga
wyma ryma honey
an ooga looga 
wyma ryma dear
i know this is silly for
you to hear
but i need that ooga looga
in my ear

i know this is silly for 
you to hear
but i need that ooga looga
in my ear

Oogla Looga Wyma Ryma

I remember when you said "let's not let this get complicated"
"Let's keep it sweet and simple," but I was uneducated

Weeks turned into months, a town into what we made it
A garden grows where it wants to

And you maintained that you were leaving, you didn't know the dance called separated
And I knew there was another life, on another coast, that waited

But you were too kind when I played the song called fascinated
A river runs where it flows through
Whether or not you want it to

And it was sweet, and I was simple, and I was captivated
And now it's gone, and I am bitter, and things are compli-doot-doot-cated
 
I remember when you said "let's not let this get complicated"
And I know now, what you meant then
But I'd still fall for it, if you said it again
The heart wants what it wants
Whether or not you want it to

And it was sweet, and I was simple, and I was captivated
And now it's gone, and I am bitter, and things are compli-doot-doot-cated

And it was sweet, and I was simple, and I was captivated
And now it's gone, and I am bitter, and things are compli-doot-doot-cated

Bitter And Complicated - Song a Week 2020, Week 42

The train this week is leaving for sapville. All aboard!

I started with the idea of someone realizing that the "I" in "I love you" had changed while repeating that phrase over time and it kinda went full mopey from there. I really gotta write an upbeat positive tune next week - you'd think "simple and sweet" woulda been the one, but whelp, here we are.

****

Don't like to think what I am leaving behind
It's easier that way
If I tell you that I'm sleeping fine
It's easier that way
I've been falling all to pieces
I've been thinking you've been doing the same
Don't like to think what I am leaving behind
But it's better than staying this same

It's all coming down

Cause I don't recognize me
I've been wondering who am I
In I love you

You've been talking about growing old
I feel smaller now every day
Chipping stone from a statue
I've been wondering what will remain

Cause I don't recognize me
I've been wondering who am I
In I love you
I don't know who loves you

We could keep things sweet and simple
But when we put it like that 
It's hard but what I'm leaving behind
Is getting hollower every day

It's not that I don't wanna stay
It's who'd be left in my place

It's all coming down

Cause I don't recognize me
I've been wondering who am I
In I love you
I don't know who loves you

I've been wondering why
I love you
I've been wondering when
I should be leaving soon, should be leaving soon
I've been wondering where
I'll be going to
I've been wondering what who I used to be would do

Sweet and Simple - Song a Week 2020, Week 42

“Edit That Part Out” (#405, 201021)

The stars were shining the moon was full
Your hair was silky in the twilight calm and cool
We traced the water step by step
Beside the harbor when the world had gone to bed

And it was epic like a movie
When a perfect ending turns it all around
Never mind all the ways you fooled me
In the memories I edit that part out

Our days were golden our nights were sweet
There was magic in the moments in between
We kissed the rain drops in the summer glow
And in winter we made angels in the snow

It was worth it the years of hoping
Picture perfect up until it all went down
Forget the fact that my heart was broken
When I think of you I edit that part out

Every autumn around November
I could let regret surround me even now
But I choose not to remember
When I think of you I edit that part out

Week 43a - Edit That Part Out (201021)

Raging Storms

Nashville songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Godin Guitars Official Artist and Founder of www.songaweek.org.

His catalog of 500+ titles includes collaborations with hit writers Mark Narmore, Elliott Park, Steve Dean, and Pete & Pat Luboff, among others internationally from England to Australia.

Redding's music has landed cuts by numerous recording artists including Dan Whitehouse, Emma Gale, and David Easterling.