I continue to be so impressed with all the wonderful writers on Song of the Week.
Although I contiune to write (just a bit slower at the recording) and  just so I stay in the loop I'm uploading something I loved singing for awhile back.
This one always makes me feel so good and I love the production of it.
Nikki Dean

ROOM TO BREATHE

DANCIN' IN THE LIGHT

006 and a ½
by Erin Wolf, Laurie and David Easterling, © 5/14/2021, Little Chute, WI and Oak Ridge, TN

Week 19 Prompt: 006

I got demoted
Halfway down a rank
It’s not my fault
In fact it kinda stank

But I caught the villain
Caught him in the act
Knocked him down, cashed him out back 
How ‘bout dat

I don’t think it’s funny
But they all got a laugh
And now they call me
Double Oh Six and a half
A Secret Agent bumbling through 
Solving crimes without a clue
Suave debonaire genius 
Playin’ a fool

Evil James thought
He had me good
Tied me to the train tracks
Sportin’ a black hood

Bragging ‘bout his b-a-d deeds
His dirty plans and all his greed
But then I sneezed 
and broke my bonds

I don’t think it’s funny
But they all got a laugh
And now they call me
Double Oh Six and a half
A Secret Agent bumbling through 
Solving crimes without a clue
Suave debonaire genius 
Playin’ a fool

So evil James sez it’s ‘cause of me
He’s quittin’ his ol’ pirate ways
And he’s gonna be a hit songwriter startin’ today
[International Man of Mystery]
[At the International House of Pancakes]

Well ya know it’s funny
How I got the last laugh
And now have they call me
Double Oh Six and a half … and a half
A Secret Agent bumbling through 
Solving crimes without a clue
Suave debonaire genius 
Playin’ a fool

006 and a 1/2 (with the David & Laurie Easterling)

capo 4 
cannot but love you

C             
What if I told you
D        em
I was wrong
C                                     d
I left every little thing undone
C                                             em       c
I crept into shadows and buried my eyes
C                                                            d
I failed to deliver  instead sought the lies

What if I told you
I was strong
Enough to be left in the cold winter long
Sufficient to carry the weight of my pain
And see it washed silently down a deep drain

What if I told you
Life is a song
In rythym and rhyme is where we belong
The ebb and the flowing
The depths and the heights
The waiting the knowing
The giving of life

What if I told you
I was wrong
I knew i was broken I knew all along
You offered forgiveness
You gave it away
You knew how to heal me
You buried my shame 


C          
I cannot but love you
Em                 c
I cannot but die
 C                  g
I break into pieces
  D                        g
For you are my life

cannot but love you

Many thanks to the mystery singer who helped make this ridiculous idea a reality. As I think you can tell, she learned classical singing from professional teachers and I learned from Mighty Mouse...

Lyrics:

This can be an tender subject for anybody, 
Cause everybody who has a body has moods and times and seasons
Of sleep and waking, giving and taking, waxing and waning...
Of famine and of feast, Of sweet release,
Of love and closeness, or dark moroseness
These longings that we hold they ask us to expose our inner frailty -
Our vulnerability 
I guess the thing I’m really trying to say is….

When will you come and give yourself to me, my love?

It's late, I'm not feeling great
What I really need is rest
To be at my best for that thing tomorrow
Oh, don't push me so
You're only a man, I know
But...can’t it wait another time?

When will you come and give yourself to me, my love?

Oh for fucks sake, go!
I don't fucking know when
When I'm gonna feel like it
Men! You're all the same - only about one thing
Just go and have a wank or something

But when will you come and....

Now I must choose between deception
Or true confession, that your rejection 
of my erection has left me all forlorn - 
don't get me wrong - I want you to be free too - I’m not trying to #metoo you….
But it's been so long - these days draw on
I want to live love - to have and give love
In closeness, joy and care - In this life we share
Is it too much, love - to feel your touch, love?

When will you come and give yourself to me, my love?

I wish you understood - I'd want to if I could
I wish I felt  the way you do
But still, I want to be real - this is the way I feel 
I don’t want to force myself for you

So when will you get that this is not about you, love?
When, when, when will you get that it's not COS of you?

Talk is cheap - old wounds run deep
know that it takes a leap  to trust that it’s OK 
and we can wait until a day that both of us feel that way
then I’ll fuck you like you want me to

Opera Sex

Call Me Baby

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

Back at the dawning of our days
We were a brightly burning blaze
Every star would shine upon us
And then the old world fell apart
Sometimes I wonder who we are
Without a fight to keep us honest 

Are we the spoilt brats of god?
the waste and damage rages on
Without the slightest sign of slowing
I stretch my tired eyes to see
a sign, a chance that we could be
More than just a mother's ruin

We could always break the pattern
It's always darkest before the dawning
When all the pieces come together
Though I every time forget it.
It's always darkest before the dawn but
It kind of seems it’s now or never 

.. You and me back at the start
We were so open in our hearts
We’d show it cause we couldn't hide it
Standing our own two feet
Now living independently
I miss the warmth of stars colliding

I miss the brightness and the fuss
I miss the gentleness of us
That strong and urgent sense of meaning
Despite the progress in these days
I long for old familiar ways
A closer more connected feeling 

Still time to make it better
It's always darkest before the dawning
when all pieces come together
It might take the stormy weather
To blow the dreams into the morning
Before they slip our minds forever
X2

And though they're 
Slipping from my mind
I never leave them quite behind
They seem to hover and they linger like the memory of a place
A certain place where I belonged, 
When I was bright and I was strong
And now the memory takes me back there
And the feeling calls me on

I once was a boy who’d met a girl
She was my bright and perfect pearl
And all the world for her an oyster
too green to even see the blow,
Await me as I let her go
then everywhere I'd hear her voice her ghost,

I felt the memory in the air
her absence found me everywhere
And everywhere a broken purpose
Without a compass or a road
Without the north where do you go?
What's an empty promise worth but

You can always break the pattern
It's just a trigger just a doorway
To the love that binds the child and mother
Seems like you can't recover
But it's always darkest before the dawn 
and gazing in another lover's eyes...

It seems to make it better
It's always darkest before the dawning
when all pieces come together
Might take the stormy weather
To blow our dreams into the morning
Before they slip our minds forever

Dawning

BREATHE IN

"Look 0ut World" (#426, 201220)

L o o k out world I'm gonna' try
See this new determination in my eyes
I know my steps have wandered far
But here and now I've gotta' make a brand new start

L o o k out world I'm gonna' jump
And find out all the things I can become
No giving up now no turning back
Just these two soles that make their way along the tracks

L o o k out world I'm fallin' down
I did my best but I can't handle it right now
The lights are blinding there's all this noise
Nobody's listenin' to this little tiny voice

L o o k out world I'm standin' up
I got these boot straps that I'm pullin' from the mud
There's no more weakness or things to prove
And there ain't nothin' in this world that I can't do

Week 52c - Look 0ut World (201220)

The eighth and last song from Deconstructed

Cute Puppies And Cute Babies (a.k.a. my descend into madness song)

I'm so tired of the world as it is now
it's like no one ever has better things to share
I don't wanna live where I have to know every detail
every crazy little thing someone famous said 

I don't care who got offended
by stupid tweets on the web
I'm here for some feel-good content
someone please share

cute puppies and cute babies on my feed
cute puppies and cute babies is what I need
cute puppies and cute babies show me please
cute puppies and cute babies is all I ever need

feel so cynical, so self-destructive
my anxiety has gone on a rocket to Mars
I just wanna know the date when we finally can hug again
I don't wanna stay inside, i swear I'm going mad 

I don't care who gets offended
everyone should get a grip
here for the heart-warming content
someone please share

fill up my brain with oxytocin, cuteness overdosis
puppies and babies will make my heart melt
I just wanna feel good, real good, stay there if I could
but I'd rather be outside than in my mind

I am not alone when I feel lonely
you are not alone when you feel lonely
we are not alone when we feel lonely
we are not alone when we feel lonely

we don't care who gets offended
we are together in this
we're here for heart warming content
we're here to share

Deconstructed

Cute Puppies And Cute Babies

Will the Trees Remember Our Names
by Tamora Wilson and Laurie Easterling © 12/20/2020 New York, NY and Oak Ridge, TN

Photo by Tamora Wilson, Appalachian Trail near NYC

I’ve been a part of this forest
As long as I can remember
I know every brook and tree
Hiked through her valleys and hills
January through December
She feels like a mother to me

I’ve learned how to read wildfires
Fighting flames far from my home
Now I teach all I’ve seen
As I lead a group up the ridge
I see the smoke and grab my phone
Not too late to call in the team

Chorus:
Will the trees remember our names
We fight to save them from the flames
Hold us in their memories
As the years become centuries
Will the trees remember our names

We all don our gear and grab shovels
The fire grows like it’s alive
My students tremble at the sight
Branches start to burn overhead
As the rest of the team arrives
We will battle through the night

Chorus

Bridge:
Though scarred the forest will survive
She nurtures saplings through the winter
Whispering stories of history
Rebuilding the network together

Chorus

Tamora Wilson and Laurie Easterling - Will The Trees Remember Our Names - 1:1:21, 4.15 PM

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.

Week 52c - Look 0ut World (201220)

James Tristan Redding