"The Silver Lining" (#444, 210306)

 * Co-written with Mark Anderson / @mark-anderson-474835928 * 

Half the prayer on earth lives in hospitals and prisons
Guess that's what it takes to get soul to listen
A simple conversation can break your heart in two
Funny how we learn to love what we're just about to lose

Doesn't matter who or why it hurts to say goodbye
But even then it's sometimes been a blessing in disguise
Every season I been seein' more and more examples
Life's for livin' and we ain't given more than we can handle

Like hot and cold like salt and pepper
Oh God sure knows how to weave it all together
I can make a plan but I gotta' trust His timing
And find the silver lining

You know that moment when you wake up from a dream
Ain't awake ain't still sleepin' you're somewhere in between
Damn near twenty years I walked around like that
Couldn't see the forest through the trees the good inside the bad

Like hot and cold like salt and pepper
Oh God sure knows how to weave it all together
I can make a plan but I gotta' trust His timing
And find the silver lining

Movin' on when someone's gone is something you can't measure
Holdin' hands or golden bands nothing lasts forever
Wasn't always pretty but it made me who I am
I think I understand

Week 10a - The Silver Lining (210306)

My father bought my mother a beautiful ring in the early 1980's.
It is very much like a famous Royal engagement ring of the times.
My mothers ring was well loved in a long and happy marriage. I don't think the other ring was so lucky.

The Ring

"You Can Have Wichita" (#447, 210322)

 * co-written with David Easterling * 

Half a million people in this town
Why’s it feel so lonely when the lights go down
Hard as I’m tryin’ I’m no good at readin’ minds
But I can read between the lines

Just like every place before
Same old mistakes but this ain’t in Kansas anymore
A last decision in between these city limits
Just outside that door

You can have Wichita guess I’ll keep on lookin’
Gave it all I got to make it work until I couldn’t
Somehow the dirt here seems to hold your memory
You can have Wichita and it’s all Wichita to me

I won’t pretend to understand
The time I spent building castles in the sand
Everywhere it brought me everything it taught me
Well it made me who I am

You can have Wichita guess I’ll keep on lookin’
Gave it all I got to make it work until I couldn’t
Somehow the dirt here seems to hold your memory
You can have Wichita and it’s all Wichita to me

You can have the clovers that rise up when it rains
Tall grass in the back yard those long hot summer days
You can have the porch swing made for autumn evenings
Lonely as the willow tree season after season

Week 12 - You Can Have Wichita (210322)

It's My Time to Shine
                                                
I find the words , then the notes  and magic finds the strings
Catch it quick before it's gone,another one begins
It’s not too late, I’m not too old
I’m digging deep,I’m mining  gold
It’s my  time to shine

I see it in a headline, I read it in a book
I hear it in a movie  and I feel it in a look   
My feet can tap out rhythm, my head can burst with rhyme
And when a song is building , I’m lost inside that  time  

Some arrive in a flash, some take a while
Everyone’s a treasure and each is like my child
Some write for fame & money, some write to hear their voice
Some want to send a message, for me I  have no choice

It's My Time To Shine

Where the Buses don't Run

On every corner
On every street
It’s where they eat and pray and wait
And where they sleep

In rags in bunches 
Cardboard boxes
They lie in wait beneath the pain 
Of a life discarded

And we’re just people
We walk on by
Our children asking questions
With tears filling their eyes
 What going on here ma 
cant we try to make it change

change
please please
change

In every playground
In every school
The innocent unsuspecting one 
is called a fool

The weight of terror
The sting of lies
Each word that hits a broken shell
Who’s lost the will for life

And we’re just people
We walk on by
Our children asking questions
With tears in their eyes
 What going on here dad can we try to make it change

And in the darkness
Beneath the glow
Of neon skies and bad mens lies
Of pain she’d never knowm

Her dream a vapor
A faded hope
There’s nowhere here to run
There’s no safe place to go

And were the people
Won’t even try
To answer all the questions
That fall from our children’s eyes

What’s going on here
Can’t we make a change
Please can’t we can’t we try

change please - week 8 2021 SAW

Copyright Erin Wolf 2021
Instruments featured: guitar, mandolin

Week 8 SAW Prompt: Change please
*Note about the song: A bittersweet, yet hopeful song about break-ups and new horizons written whilst on a serious Adyn Townes kick.*

how long after you left
did you try to leave
were you trying to grow
or were you running away

was it all too close
all too soon
not enough space
was the air smothering you
with the smoke from 
a love still burning
a love still burning

you wanted change
needed change, please
then the world stopped
you were stuck 
bound in a haze

did your dreams shift then
or did you hold your peace
waiting for the light to shine
through the darkness
bringing release
bringing release

and change, did she 
come in the night
like a thief, taking your heart
in her flight
she's not what you expected
or what you came for
but will you give change a 
chance for something more

and change, did she
come in the night
like a thief taking your heart
in her flight
she's not what you expected
or what you came for
but will you give change a 
chance for something more
something more

how long after you left
did you try to leave
were you trying to grow
or were you running away

Change, Please

Photo from https://www.piqsels.com/en/public-domain-photo-jbapq/download under CC0 https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/.

You Could Turn Back, But Why Would You Want To - Song a Week 2021, Week 9

We woke at 3 am
Met at the top of Holyrood
Pulled the stars into our eyes with a telescope lens

God pulled a night sky curtain
We drew the constellations
Time reeled a night sky film
Shot with shooting stars until

We fell in love
You with someone else

You stopped waking at 3am

I hear he calls you a Cassandra
About the things you know are true
I count the ceiling tiles
In my sleepless bed at night

At 3:02 am
You had a baby girl
Anna Cassiopeia 
Welcome to the world



Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lovers_Key_Stargazing_(Unsplash).jpg under CC1.0 https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Cassiopeia - Song a Week 2021, Week 9

Copyright Erin Wolf 2021
Instruments featured: Concert Ukelele, Guitar, Mandolin
Video (from "The Songs We Write" showcase): https://youtu.be/8fEsTn8kFik

Week 9 Prompt: You could turn back, but why would you want to?

meet me at the willow tree
where i'll give my love to thee
true to you i'll always be
together 'neath the willow tree

oh my dear
can you hear
our time is near
step out together - no fear

down by the crackling fire
i lay myself down on the wire
no matter what will transpire
here beside the crackling fire

oh my dear
can you hear
our time is near
step out together - no fear

you could turn back but why would you want to
when you know this love is true
side-by-side we'll see it through
you could turn back but why would you want to

oh my dear
can you hear
our time is near
step out together - no fear

meet me at the willow tree
where i'll give my love to thee
true to you i'll always be
together 'neath the willow tree

The Willow Tree

"Fountains Foundations & Frontiers" (#443, 210305)

Concrete in the mixer spinning round and round
Two by fours in ditches dug into the ground
Sweat rolls down the faces squinting in the sun
At what they created in a cloud of dust

Sculpture in the center posing with a dove
Shaded by the shelter of cirrus clouds above 
Fishes in the water frozen as the sky
Waiting on the winter underneath the ice

Modern man must imitate the screen 
Even if we don't know what it means
On the edge we stare at the abyss
And wonder who made this

Somewhere in the desert where there they built no road
Is my buried treasure that's where I will go
Leave behind this palace let this place decay
Find myself a cabin dream the days away

Cassiopeia - Song a Week 2021, Week 9

Charlatan, PE