This was written with the help of first graders at Dan Emmett Elementary in my home town of Mount Vernon, Ohio. This was part of a song-writing project with the entire school whereby all the songs had to do with science, resulting in the CD called Songs of Science
CHORUS: What do we need, all living things? What do we need, all living things?
We need air with oxygen that comes from the trees on the wind
Can’t hold it in your hand, but feel it on your face; It’s everywhere…. but not in outer space
We need food to help us grow so we can run and play ready, set, go
If you’re a bear or a busy bee, whatever you eat...gives you energy
We need water clean and good to drink, the taste on your tongue keeps you in the pink
If you’re a plant, you get it from the ground from rivers and rain…water’s all around
We need shelter from too much sun; ice and snow will make you numb
Home where it’s safe, it might be in the sea, in a den or a cave, your house or in a tree
Written in a moment of seller's remorse after parting with my rocking chair at a garage sale...
In the rocking chair just a baby fair, I sat and sang and held you to my breast
Oh so close and warm tucked into my arm, the tuneful lullabies put you to rest
As a year went by, such a painful cry, because you fell and skinned a toe or knee
Once again we’d climb for our special time, we’d rock ourselves a soothing melody
You can hear the sounds of children, and mothers whispering into their ears
Back and forth the creaky rocker has so much more to say than you can hear
After hours of play or at school all day, it’s hard to know when you have had enough
And though you barely fit, on my lap you sit, we hum and let the rocker do its stuff
Someone else is blessed, with a little rest, rocking back and forth in that chair
May their memory of a lifetime be as happy as the moments we spent there
You can hear the sounds of children, and mothers whispering into their ears
Back and forth the creaky rocker has so much more to say than you can hear
This was a poem given to me by the daughter of the man who planted 7,000 trees at Ramser Arboretum in Jelloway, Ohio. Frank Goulde wrote the poem for Russ Ramser's birthday to celebrate the creation of the arboretum. I set it to music and Darell's banjo part and the harmony singers gave it a life of its own!
CHORUS:
We planted trees today over Shadley Valley way
We planted tress today hmmm
Those trees now firmly planted in the soil
Will someday shelter those who toil
And when the autumn hues are bright
Many view them with delight
CHORUS
In my heart I know God made them tall
For children to climb and adults to hold in awe
Splendors are many that’s His plan
All spread out across this land
CHORUS
No greater legacy a man can leave
Than his good name and that he planted a tree
CHORUS
Our table has been in the family for 40 years - it came from a little cottage in the woods with many pieces of hand made oak furniture. For years it was in my dad's home and now we are blessed to have it in our kitchen. The first time my husband and I sat down and had a meal at it here in our home, we both burst into tears, remembering family events that took place. I wish I knew more of its history....
CHORUS:
Gather at the table, pull up a chair
A little conversation happens there
Somethin’ ‘bout this table and its history
Some of it we know and some’s a mystery
Once it was an oak tree up north in Ohio
Standin’ tall and strong through years of sun and snow
Maybe hit by lightning, maybe felled by wind
Surely there was thunder as it cracked within
Two planks to reach across, about a forearm wide
Thicker than my hand, the center groove off to one side
Seven feet from end to end, a trestle underneath
Runs between two mighty legs that rest upon four feet
CHORUS
Dark brown and smooth, but for the knot where I sit
Shaped like a star, indented where my fingers fit
Children playing games while women mended what was torn
Fingers met across this table and plans were born
Handmade by a carpenter in another time and place
Passed down through families, Thanksgiving saying grace
Babies taking their first meals here have babies of their own
All hands that touched this surface join us in our home
CHORUS
BRIDGE:
We are blessed to have this in our kitchen
So many stories to listen…..to, as we gather at the table, pull up a chair (continue chorus)
A popular story circulating in many places about a Native American boy and his grandfather. The boy asks his wise grandfather how to manage his life with evil in so many places. He explains there are two wolves inside him and the outcome depends on which wolf he decides to feed.
Grandfather, I am afraid
There’s a choice to be made
When the time comes, how will I know
Which way to turn, which way to go?
Inside you are two wolves
One full of anger and fear
Dark are his eyes, mean is his heart
Be careful when he’s near
Feed the right wolf
Feed the right wolf
Feed the right wolf
Feed the right wolf
Grandfather, I am confused
You said there were two
Two wolves inside me, two in my heart
How can I tell … tell them apart?
The right wolf is the one
Who is open and kind
Bright are his eyes, clean is his heart
Make him welcome and find (how to)
Feed the right wolf
Feed the right wolf
Feed the right wolf
Feed the right wolf
There is so much to know about one another....it seems that sometimes we don't find out until a person's funeral (not to be morose) when the eulogy is given.
Eighty eight like the keys on a piano
That’s an age your heart will never know
All those years no one know what might have followed
And the change that would have come from knowing you
There’s one you never met and one you think you know
Familiar like the song you play on the piano
But it’s always this, you mention to a friend
I wish I’d known him better…
Take a look at the keys of a piano
Black and white, the only notes you play
But you know, when you put them all together
What you hear more than a hundred shades of gray
~chorus~
I can ask, you can’t say
Still I listen..anyway…
I need to know so much more than the piano
Many things from you I want to learn
Hear your song as only you can tell it
Teach me now, so I can take a turn
There’s one you never met and one you think you know
Familiar like the song you play on the piano
But it’s always this, you mention to a friend
I wish I’d known him better...
I wrote this song long ago after seeing this neon sign, but it never told the true story. Now it does, thanks to the inspiration from my writers group.
CHORUS:
Used guitars and violins
Play a song from long ago
Like a once familiar place
Where or when I don’t quite know
Road closed one mile ahead
Had to turn and venture on
Unknown treasure down the way
Made me glad the bridge was gone
Wandered in an old junk store
Captivated by a light
Cursive letters in an arc
Purple neon glowing bright
CHORUS
Far from home, no cash to spare
I browsed around the store and then
In my car with some regret
Following the road again
Forty years I still recall
The window lit up by that sign
Though I left it hanging there
I sing about it all the time
CHORUS
A comparison of my garden flowers to music...another old song that I re-worked - much better this time!
A hint of spring drifts through the air, a sign of things to come
Tho gazing from my window, the snow is not yet done
Sooner comes the light of morn, it lingers till it’s late
And greener things will then spring forth that now beneath do wait
Oh the roses and the peonies, petals on the floor
Lavender and yarrow are the ones that will endure
A misty rain, a thunderstorm, the warming of the sun
How can it be from such dead brown living things do come?
The flowers picked hang upside down to dry until the day
Becomes so short the smell of them will carry me away
CHORUS
Blossoms in my garden are like music in my ears
Bringing joy and moving me close to tears
A song is like a potpourri of petals in a jar
The melodies drift on the wind, they’re flowers from afar
CHORUS
Written for my daughter Meredith upon the occasion of her wedding to Travis Irwin on 9/18/2010
CHORUS:
As you join hands, we become family
The circle grows wide
Husband and wife, daughter and son
The circle of hands holds you close as you are one
From our four hands came your two
Hands that carry and work
Hands that harvest what we planted
And now it’s your turn...chorus
Now your hands hold another’s
Two hands become four
And we sing and bless you
As you walk through the door… and you join hands, and … chorus continues
May you be happy and well
May your hearts be strong
May you journey to far off places
May you always come home
To our circle of hands that’s become family
The circle grows wide
Husband and wife, daughter and son
The circle of hands holds you close as you are one
A portion of each CD sale goes to the Memorial Fund at Black River Middle School in Sullivan, Ohio in memory of Wesley Garrett, a wonderful young man who chose to leave us much too soon.
From the day he was born, he was held in their arms
The light of their life, they kept him safe and warm
With a smile as big as the sky, his hands blessed for good deeds
Such promise in that child, like a garden without weeds
He had family, he had love, he had God on his side
But it wasn’t enough, and he was able to hide
The hole in his heart deep inside
No one could explain, no one knew where to start
How could one with such joy, have a hole in his heart?
So what can we do? If we’ve a big empty space
Tell someone who’ll hold us close, in their hearts we’ll find a place
Where’s there’s family, where there’s love, where there’s God on our side
Maybe it will be enough to fill the dark space we hide
Fill the hole in our hearts deep inside
We’’ll have family, we’ll have love, we’ll have God on our side
And we’ll pray that it is enough to fill the dark space we hide
Fill the hole in our hearts deep inside
From a mission trip to Harts, WVa in the town of Big Ugly, by the creek of the same name, came this song. It was anything but ugly.
CHORUS:
We will plant
Plant our garden
Turn the ground
Into plenty
We will plant
Plant our garden
And from one
There will be twenty
Reach our hands up toward heaven
Touch the blue and blazing sky
Gently walk through the forest
Brush the branches of trees so high
CHORUS
Breathe the sweet air of the mountains
Feel the rain upon our face
Join our hands at the table
Share our harvest with love and grace
CHORUS ...
And from one we’ll all have plenty!
