Words © Copyright 1984, 2015 Peter Lloyd
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote the melody to this number, Divertimento in D KV 334

Bringing my son, David, home from the hospital a day or two after he was born, we heard Mozart's Divertimento in D on the radio—the first music David ever heard. I wrote this bit of advice to him soon after.

You were born with one, essential, fundamental thing that no one ever will explain
And if you use it with a bit of common sense, you will avoid unnecessary pain
It really pays to use
Yes, you were made to use
Don’t be afraid to use your brain

You can have the world and all its wonder as your plunder, but before you make your bed
Be sure to broaden your horizons just in case you want to take the universe instead
Don’t ever choose without
Never refuse without
You’re sure to lose without your head

Now it may seem kind of contradictory to you
From time to time when you are forced to listen to
Some old pedantic fool with nothing else to do
But prattle on and on and on
Then your challenge is to keep your balance
While you find the needle somewhere in the hay

Even though you lead and others follow, you will often feel alone because you’ll find
The very fact that you can keep your head in tact, means others are, in fact, the other kind
Don’t disapprove without
Never behoove without
Don’t make a move without your mind

Every now and then you’re bound to run into a few
Fanatics who will try to razzle-dazzle you
With happy hocus pocus hype and very
Unsophisticated points of view
You know better than to let them fetter
You with any rules that tell you not to use

The most precious and essential, fundamental thing that no one ever will explain
Be sure to use it with a bit of common sense. You will avoid unnecessary pain
It really pays to use
Yes, you were made to use
Don’t be afraid to use your brain

Your Brain

Something in the Orange

Boys Of Faith

Nine Ball

There’s a part of you that drifts somewhere else when the house gets still — and I see it.
This one’s for the quiet you, the deep-thinking, hope-holding version you don’t always let out loud.
I don’t just love the way you live…
I love the way you dream.

When She Dreams

🕯 I Leave Ashes Behind 🕯
A slow-burning soul elegy wrapped in velvet smoke.
No anger. No goodbye. Just the soft hush of someone choosing absence with grace.
Minimalist jazz-inflected instrumentation meets intimate, breath-warm vocals — a departure so quiet, it echoes.

This is not closure. This is sovereignty.
She doesn’t vanish — she simply leaves nothing behind but ash.

🎧 Mood: detached, graceful, unshaken
🖋 Line to remember: “I leave ashes — dry and clean / Like I was never in between.”

Let the silence speak.

I Leave Ashes Behind

---

Verse 1

I don’t need closure, I don’t need grace
I watched it burn and turned my face
No final words, no bitter cries
Just smoke curling through the sky

Pre-Chorus
You’ll search the air for what we were
But darling, I don't leave a blur


---

Chorus

I leave ashes behind
Not love, not hate, not the ties that bind
No trace for you to follow back
No scent of me on your collapse
I leave ashes — dry and clean
Like I was never in between


---

Verse 2

I left the dress, I kept the name
I walk in silence, not in shame
No bags to pack, no doors to close
Just lighter steps where nothing grows

I didn’t flinch, I didn’t stay
I simply turned and slipped away

Pre-Chorus
You’ll search the air for what we were
But darling, I don't leave a blur


---

Chorus

I leave ashes behind
Not love, not hate, not the ties that bind
No trace for you to follow back
No scent of me on your collapse
I leave ashes — dry and clean
Like I was never in between


---

Bridge (the ritual of disappearance)

No candle lit, no mourning song
No looking back to prove him wrong
No trace of me in what you find
Just breath… just dust… just disinclined


---

Final Chorus

I leave ashes behind
Not love, not hate, not the ties that bind
No myth for you to twist or keep
No echo waiting while you sleep
I leave ashes — soft and wide
Then I return to what’s inside

I Leave Ashes Behind

Lover Girl

Snow White

**Description after the lyrics**

Verse 1
You paused before you turned—
Long enough for me to yearn
I felt the words behind my teeth,
I waited long for you to speak.
But both of us, afraid to fall,
Let nothing rise, we said it all.

Chorus
We almost said it, both of us—
A word, a touch, a wait for trust.
But fear stood taller than the need,
And silence got the final lead.
We almost spoke. We almost stayed.
What stays is what we never said.

Verse 2
We never fought, we never lied—
Just watched the light begin to slide.
You waited for me, and I did too,
Hoping the other would break through.
Maybe we were two of a kind—
Good at silence, just a little blind.

Chorus
We almost said it, both of us—
A word, a touch, a wait for trust.
But fear stood taller than the need,
And silence got the final lead.
We almost spoke. We almost stayed.
What stays is what we never said.

Bridge
I don’t blame you. I don’t blame me.
We just played it safe too easily.
I hoped you'd reach, you thought I might—
It turns out we were both not right.

Final Chorus
We almost said it, both of us—
A word, a truth, a wait for trust.
But timing failed, and fear rang true,
And silence got the best of two.
We almost spoke. We almost stayed.
Is that what we were meant to say?

Still…
If you’re hearing this someday—
I wish I had somehow found a way.

***** Does this song like you? You can bring it home with you if you like. Click the green button.

We Almost Said is a quiet ache turned into song. It isn’t about what happened, but about what didn’t—the words that stayed locked behind teeth, the closeness that never bridged the small gap. It moves on hesitation, on pauses that became endings, on the way two people can hold the same yearning and still let it slip away.

It’s tender, not bitter. More sigh than shout. The refrain of “almost” is its heartbeat: love nearly spoken, closeness nearly claimed, a truth nearly shared. And in that space between, the song finds its power—not in explanation, but in what lingers unsaid.

We Almost Said

How many times have we laughed  
And how many times have we cried  

And entrusted our words to the wind  
Like a disenchanted melody  

But we have always found each other  
Almost as if it were a dream  
Almost as if it were a sign  

In our love nest  
A soft cloud above the world  
In our love nest  
Touching the heart deep within  
In our love nest  
Love nest  
Love nest  

And I always see happy your smile  
You are like a drop of rain that refreshes the face  
I feel your scent your scent that surrounds me like an embrace of love like a wave  

That lifts me up and then sinks me  
And my heart beats so so so so  

In our love nest  
A soft cloud above the world  
In our love nest  
Touching the heart deeply  
In our love nest  
Love nest  
Love nest  

I think of you constantly of you  
Even though sometimes you're far away yet incredibly close  
You're my first thought in the morning  
And during the day it's pleasant to think of your company  
And I always wait for our moment to fly fly away  

In our love nest  
A soft cloud above the world  
In our love nest  
Touching the heart deeply  
In our love nest  
Love nest  
Love nest

LOVE NEST   (reworked)

Our Vow

Mirror of Lies

Songwriter since 1966. Can't believe I still have to write protest songs. Prefer writing love songs and songs of praise for stand-up women and men, parodies, lyrical nonsense, blues and adaptations.