How Sweet Life Is...

I know how sweet it can be....
the goodness of an almost
summer evening
light falling
outside the window
eyelids almost shut
almost dreaming
almost hearing
happy
shouts of children
in their innocence
like when you
were young
and you remember
being young
and sweet
but now you are
older and almost
sleeping
sweet
sleep
life
is sweet

This song is here to keep you warm, and strong

REM - Untitled (Track 11 from the album Green)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUs6x-v2A0k
 
This world is big and so-awake
I stayed up late to hear your voice
This light is here to keep you warm
This song is here to keep you strong

I made a list of things to say
But all I really want to say
All I really want to say is
Hold her and keep him strong
While I'm away from here
Hold her and keep her strong
While I'm away from here

I've seen the world and so-awake
And stay up late to hear me sing
Just hold her
I've seen the world and so-awake
And stay up late to hear me sing
Just hold him
Hold her and keep her strong
While I'm away from here
Hold him and keep him strong
While I'm away from here

Lyrics:
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3458764513820549333/

A Kind of Love Song

"Undressed"
by Lloyd Cole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drJAVl64Yd8

You look so good when you're depressed
Better even in your current state of undress
Tears caressing me like rain
And I'm not even thinking, I feel fine in your pain
The coolest thing I ever saw
You were sitting there smoking my cigarettes
You were naked on the bare stone floor
You looked at me to say don't guess
I was only watching, yes I love you more undressed
Is it really such a sin?
Should I feel some kind of shame?
Will I truly go to hell?
Oh you never lock the bathroom door
Should I be embarrassed when I've seen a hundred times before
How do married couples cope
Should I say excuse me darling, I don't know
We could disconnect the telephone
Just sit around and mess around
And tell your ma we went to rome, tennessee
And I'm not even drinking, I feel fine, it's scary
Is it really such a sin?
Should I feel some kind of shame?
Will I truly go to hell?
Oh well
The coolest thing I ever saw
You were sitting there smoking my cigarettes
You were naked on the bare stone floor
You looked at me to say don't guess
I was only watching, is it bad that I should love you best
Undressed
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/lloyd+cole/undressed_20084719.html

There's so much to do in the sunlight...As We Go Along

This song from an early mixed tape from  old boyfriend, recently ported from tape to CD by my wonderful sister, the archivist!

"As We Go Along"
by The Monkees

I can tell by your face
That you're looking to find a place
To settle your mind
And reveal who you are
And you shouldn't be shy
For I'm not gonna try
To hurt you or heal you or steal your star
Open your eyes
Get up off your chair
There's so much to do in the sunlight
Give up your secrets
Let down your hair
And sit with me here by the firelight
Why think all about
Who's gonna win out
We'll make up our story as we go along
There's so little time
For us to try to rhyme
And so many highways to travel upon
Open your eyes
Get up off your chair
There's so much to do in the sunlight
Give up your secrets and let down your hair
And sit with me here by the firelight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWLasUfJnWs

She Was An American Girl

American Girl ~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ccVWbteps

When I was about to graduate
from college, I had no idea
what was
happening.

I didn't plan for it to end,
I was always good at school
but outside, in "the real world"
any bravery I had was a total act.

When I was young
I always thought
I'd grow up
to be a dancer,
an actress,
a singer, or a writer.

It was all so easy in the abstract.

I climbed trees and hunted treasure in garbage dumpsters.
I wanted to be a horse so I could run forever.
I never wanted to be a princess.

I had a romance with my cat (he was my first boyfriend).
I made up stories and songs that I never wrote down.

And some I did, while discovering
a new language
better than this old
one I had inherited.

When I was young
my father used to say I was ten
going on twenty-one - I was never
young enough for him
I guess.

When I was young
(I was never young)
I never thought I'd grow up
to be this:  older
and sure of less.

I know you will, I know you will, I know that you will

Young and Beautiful
by Lana Del Rey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBJY3Extw1I

I've seen the world

Done it all

Had my cake now

Diamonds, brilliant and Bel-Air now.

Hot summer nights, mid July

When you and I were forever wild

The crazy days, city lights

The way you'd play with me like a child

Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?

Will you still love me when I've got nothing but my aching soul?

I know you will, I know you will

I know that you will

Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?

I've seen the world

Lit it up

As my stage now

Chanelling angels in

The new age now

Hot summer days, rock and roll

The way you'd play for me at your show

And all the ways I got to know

Your pretty face and electric soul

Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?

Will you still love me when I've got nothing but my aching soul?

I know you will, I know you will

I know that you will

Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?

Dear Lord, when I get to heaven

Please let me bring my man

When he comes tell me that you'll let him

Father tell me if you can

Oh that grace, oh that body

Oh that face makes me wanna party

He's my sun, he makes me shine like diamonds

Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?

Will you still love me when I got nothing but my aching soul?

I know you will, I know you will

I know that you will

Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful

Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful

Will you still love me when I'm not young and beautiful


Complete lyrics: http://www.directlyrics.com/lana-del-rey-will-you-still-love-me-lyrics.html

I'm Breaking Through

I think I really am...I could be wrong but I feel like
I'm bending spoons/I'm keeping flowers in full bloom...or something :)


"The Great Beyond"
by REM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKbMKgaPHCI
I've watched the stars fall silent from your eyes
All the sights that I have seen
I can't believe that I believed I wished
That you could see
There's a new planet in the solar system
There is nothing up my sleeve

I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs
I'm tossing up punch lines that were never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground

In all this talk of time
Talk is fine
But I don't want to stay around
Why can't we pantomime, just close our eyes
And sleep sweet dreams
Me and you with wings on our feet

I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs
I'm tossing up punch lines that were never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground

I'm breaking through
I'm bending spoons
I'm keeping flowers in full bloom
I'm looking for answers from the great beyond

I want the hummingbirds, the dancing bears
Sweetest dreams of you
I Look into the stars
I Look into the moon

I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs
I'm tossing up punch lines that were never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground

I'm breaking through
I'm bending spoons
I'm keeping flowers in full bloom
I'm looking for answers from the great beyond

I'm breaking through
I'm bending spoons
I'm keeping flowers in full bloom
I'm looking for answers from the great
Answers from the great, answers

I'm breaking through
I'm bending spoons
I'm keeping flowers in full bloom
I'm looking for answers from the great beyond

I'm breaking through
I'm bending spoons
I'm keeping flowers in full bloom
I'm looking for answers from the great
Answers from the great, answers

I'm breaking through
I'm bending spoons
I'm keeping flowers in full bloom
I'm looking for answers from the great beyond

Fearless

A 1993 movie by that name once meant a lot to me ~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_%281993_film%29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm5jBa4LzxQ

I watched it when it first came out and loved it...loved especially the music, discovering something new.  To a person practically foreign to all classical music or opera or anything truly cultured (yes, I blame my parents), it was AMAZING.

It captivated me, I was overwhelmed, and completely taken - emotionally - by the music of Gorecki ~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._3_%28G%C3%B3recki%29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDNfQ4ok8EY

I had this music in my head, sang or hummed it under my breath, and in my heart I was holding onto it while I was barely hanging on to myself - so deathly afraid of the future - but carried on as if I wasn't.  This was my wonderful & awful final college semester (Spring, 1994).   

Dramatic time that it was, this melody felt right to me.  Or perhaps I was just drunk a lot during that time, and over thinking everything. :)

Either way, I still remember that time with this music and the wonderful movie that embodied it for me.

But also, one of the major things this song/movie brings up for me is my father - how he died so young, and so suddenly (http://www.yousurecantalkbaby.blogspot.com/2009/07/day-music-died-part-one.html), how I showed this movie to David (boyfriend at the time, husband now), and cried and cried, and how he understood, didn't think there was anything strange about my behavior or wrong with me. 

That is probably when I *knew* (I knew like you know about a good melon ~ quote from another great movie - "When Harry Met Sally").  

So I could tell anyone if they should ask "how do you know when to trust someone with your heart?"  How do you know when to be "Fearless" in that way? 

I would say, when you can watch a movie about a guy who almost dies in a plane crash but he lives and you're crying about your dad who died, and it makes no sense but that person you're with holds you and doesn't talk or question but just witnesses your grief, smoothing hair off your face, while you maybe hiccup a bit and are a snotty mess.

Yes, true love does look something like that. :)

The Still Voice Inside Me, Sings This Song

The Stills - Of Montreal
The falling free on, it's turning me on
It drips on the street, the sun cries from the heat
I love feeling beat, I'll kiss the lipstick on your teeth

Friends getting old, we all dig for gold
The crumbs and pieces, the dead mess in the sink
Turning me on, Turning me on

The night's so happy, the base drum heavy
The photo glossy, the people pretty
Turning me on... [4x]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAA_yyeuPKM
Lyrics ~ http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/stills/ofmontreal.html

Pretty Feet

I have pretty feet.
It's not my fault
nor my achievement.
I may have been born
with them.

I have a husband
who likes my pretty feet
and various other
parts of my body.

It's my body
but it's not my fault
nor my achievement.
I was born with it.

I have a husband
who likes my mind
and various other
parts of my personality.

It's my mind, my choices
and it's my fault
and my achievement.
I made it what it is.

I have a husband
who has a son
and various other
kinds of baggage.

I have a bank account
it's my money
and my choices
and it's my fault.

I should never have
taken on a man
with a child.

I should have never
let it go this far.

I have a life
a body
pretty feet
and all these
choices.

Song that helped inspire the poem, at least in part ~
Put Your Pretty Dress On
by Rosie Thomas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XMxwyBBywc
Blog post with full lyrics: http://www.yousurecantalkbaby.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html