Category: Writing

Posted on

Sorrow and Birdsong

Sorrow and Birdsong is a weirdly upbeat but wistful song about living with the loss of someone you love. Originally, I was thinking of a sad song about how I would deal with the inevitable loss of my mother, but as I wrote the song it became about something else, or maybe it is about the same thing–the muse only knows. Musically, I was inspired by the sound of a group called the Weepies. Not sure how much that comes through. Every song is an experiment. I hope you like it.

Anne Page McClard · Sorrow And Birdsong

Lyrics

I am a  dreamer, lost in sleep’s  bliss
If only you were real and that feeling were a  kiss
But when I awaken you are still gone

I meet the  day with  sorrow and birdsong
I meet the  day with  sorrow and  birdsong

You were a realist, knew who you were
If  only you had lived in a dream you would still be  here
You left me alone but did nothing wrong

I meet the day with sorrow and birdsong
I meet the day with sorrow and birdsong

I wonder if you were here
Whether you would still be dear?
You once whispered  in my ear that you loved me in a way.
Not sure what  you would say, if you were here today
You might say life is short,  love is just a game we play…

I am the darkness, falling toward night
Forever you are real and filling me with light
How dark is the night, how bright the sun

I meet the day with sorrow and birdsong
I meet the day with sorrow and birdsong
I meet the day with sorrow and birdsong

Posted on

Looking for Jimmy B

Jimmy Buffett never asked me to marry him. I never met him, but he and his music evoke a South Florida beachy vibe, which is exactly what I thought of when I heard the random three words given to me as a prompt for this song–“crocodile,” “any time” (given as one word), and “shallow.” These words landed my imagination in Key West, a place I have never been, but now would love to go. I would relish a visit to the La Te Da! Who knows what might happen?

84a75ce4

Anne Page McClard · Looking For Jimmy B

Lyrics

I’ve been Askin’ friends I know
Lookin’ high and lookin’ low
For a man by the name of Jimmy B
We were friends, you see
Forty years ago, on a white sand beach,
He sang a little song, asked to marry me.

He sang…
La te-da, la-la-la, la te-da, la-la-la
La te-da, la-la-la, la te-da, la-la-la
La, la-la, la-la-la , La, la-la, la-la-la
Won’t you marry me?

I was thinkin’ t’was a joke
Comin’, from a shallow bloke
Wasted away in Margaritaville
With nothin’ but time to kill
Lost his mason jar, no shaker nor salt
Bet you money now, he’s lookin for it still

So I sang…
See you later alligator
After a while crocodile
Any place, any time,
Maybe I’ll see you down at the La Te Da

Long ago when I was young
Seemed like life was full of fun
For a man by the name of Jimmy B
He loved life, you see.
After all these years, I  missed the Florida sun
I missed that silly man that asked to marry me

He’d sung…
La te-da, la-la-la, la te-da, la-la-la
La te-da, la-la-la, la te-da, la-la-la
La, la-la, la-la-la , La, la-la, la-la-la
Won’t you marry me?

I was Wandrin’ on the strand
Fallin’ down into the sand
Checkin’ out old dives, went to the La Te Da
La Te Dah, da-da
Forty years gone by, hope it’s not too late
It’s been a long wait, at the La Te Da

And, he sang…
La te-da, la-la-la, la te-da, la-la-la
La te-da, la-la-la, la te-da, la-la-la
La, la-la, la-la-la , La, la-la, la-la-la
Won’t you marry me?

And I sang…
La te-da, la-la-la, la te-da, la-la-la
La te-da, la-la-la, la te-da, la-la-la
La, la-la, la-la-la , La, la-la, la-la-la
I will marry you
…Down at the La Te Da

Posted on

Warning Signs

This song emerged from a convergence of two events: Valentine’s Day was coming and we were assigned the task of writing a love-related song for our songwriting workshop, and my 94 year-old mother recounted a dream in which she was looking for her lost love. In her dream, after looking everywhere, someone says they have her love’s phone number. She stares at the number, and realizes that it spells “train wreck.” I hope you like it.

heartarrow.jpeg

Anne Page McClard · Warning Signs

Lyrics

The day we met, you wrote your number
In the palm of my hand with a Sharpie
You drew a heart with an arrow through
You said it was a permanent tattoo

That black bleeding heart and number
Are etched into the derma of my mind
The warning signs were written clear
Should have felt a little fear
Should have seen what was coming down the line

Ohhhhh…. I’ve got you under my skin,
I’ve got you under my skin,
but you won’t let me in
No you won’t let me in

The other day, I gave you my heart
I painted it by hand in water color
Red, pink, & sky a cerulean hue
It said “Don’t be blue, cause I love you.”

I dreamed I called you on the telephone
I saw your number on the palm of my hand
Eight-seven-two, four-six-nine, seven-three-two-five
It spelled “train wreck,” it was a train wreck

Posted on

Winter’s Love Calls

This song was inspired by a YouTube video that I saw  last year in which a raven seems to be making overatures to a snowy owl. They are thought to be enemies, although in Inuit mythology they were friends in the past. They definitely are something.

16FB56AF-CB4E-4739-B4A1-D8407638D9A2_1_201_a.jpeg

Anne Page McClard · Winter’s Love Calls

Lyrics

On cold winter nights
Snow gently falls
Lonesome breezes blow
And winter’s love calls
And winter’s love calls

The Owl and the Raven sit high in a tree
Raven says to owl, won’t you marry me?
Owl tells Raven, its never to be
For I love another, let’s wait and see

On cold winter nights
Snow gently falls
Lonesome breezes blow
And winter’s love calls
And winter’s love calls

Owl turns her head, pretends he’s not there
Raven whispers in her ear “You’re the fairest of fair!”
Owl spreads her wings, Posed to fly away
Raven coos and sings, “Won’t you please stay?”

On cold winter nights
Snow gently falls
Lonesome breezes blow
And winter’s love calls
And winter’s love calls

Owl says to Raven, playing it cool,
“We can be friends, tho’ I think you’re a fool”
Owl never married, or \ so they say,
but Raven and Owl were joined on that day

Posted on

The Schwa Was Here

Ten years ago, a small, mostly-black kitten, came into our family. He picked Søren to go home with, out of all possible humans. Søren named him “The Schwa,”  an unusual name for an unusual cat; it fit him perfectly.

61D6EB83-61F2-47D7-8C68-767C3EC99C45_1_105_c
Søren and The Schwa, shortly after the Schwa selected his human.

What is a Schwa? It is the most common sound in the English language–duh…a…the…mother…yup. In the dictionary it is a phonetic symbol represented as inverted e:

/ə/

The Schwa is a hidden sound; it blends into the unstressed syllables of words and unstressed words of sentences. The Schwa has superpowers; it is the unheard and unseen glue of every dialect in the English language.  The Schwa sits in plain sight, but nobody sees it. Søren didn’t know all of this, but he had read a book that year called The Schwa Was Here, by Neal Shusterman, and he recognized a schwa, The Schwa, when he saw him, and that is how this particular Schwa came to have his name.

They say his clothes blend into the background, no matter where he stands. They say a lot of things about the Schwa, but one thing’s for sure: no one ever noticed him. Except me. My name is Antsy Bonano-and I was the one who realized the Schwa was “functionally invisible” and used him to make some big bucks. But I was also the one who caused him more grief than a friend should. So if you all just shut up and listen, I’ll tell you everything there is to know about the Schwa, from how he got his name, to what really happened with his mom. I’ll spill everything. Unless, of course, “the Schwa Effect” wipes him out of my brain before I’m done . . .

The Schwa’s invisibility cloak was always a great mystery to us. Sometimes you could see him and sometimes you could not. He appeared to have full control over his visibility, even up to his last hours in the human world when I went searching frantically throughout the house for him, only to find his failing body curled in a corner beneath a potted plant table in plain sight, yet invisible. When we weren’t accidentally sitting on him because we couldn’t see him, we were looking for him.

You might think an invisible cat would be shy. Quite to the contrary. The Schwa was convivial with anybody who could, who would, see him. He was a creature of habit with an elaborate hierarchy of his humans. Søren was his chosen one. Megan was the one he related to the most; she had a comfy bed and nice Pendleton blankets to curl up with. She also had a very cool car that was fun to take for a spin. Ken was his coffee human–the guy who combed him every morning while brewing coffee. Anne was the mistress of his shadow–he often followed her around, unbeknownst to her.  Zoë was his unconditional love; she faithfully scooped his litter every day. Harriet and Jig were is furry friends–they made sure that his litter box was clean too, although he didn’t quite understand why they were so concerned.

He was unstressed, a cool cat, and his lack of stress brought calm to our house. Even though he spent a lot of time in an invisible state he was always present, and now he is not.

The Schwa Was Here.

On November 4, 2021 the Schwa passed into a permanent state of invisibility.  Wherever you are now, Schwa, I hope you know how much we all loved you. You gave us so much more that we gave you.  We will forever carry your memory as a blessing.

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Shop Girl

I wrote “Shop Girl” as part of song-writing workshop that I did with Matt Meighan. We were supposed to write about our first job. When I was 13, I worked in a small antique store, tucked away in a courtyard shopping area, off the beaten path from most of the tourist traffic in Georgetown, Colorado. It was a dark and dusty little store that smelled like old things. My job was mostly pretty boring, consisting of dusting furniture, and organizing shelves. As the store didn’t get a lot of foot traffic, my boss often left me in charge from opening to closing. She would drop in a couple of times during the day to check in on things. I entertained myself by looking through the card files to read about the provenance of the goods. When customers would come in, I would tell them all that I knew about the piece they were interested in, and sometimes I would embellish on the story a bit. Not sure that it ever helped to make a sale, but I found it amusing.

This song is a bit longer than most of my songs because it has a spoken word intro. I had been listening to some singer songwriters out of Texas who used this technique, and decided to give it a whirl. I hope you like it.

IMG_0897
The “Johnson House,” built in 1867, where I lived from the age of 12 to 15. It had stories to tell, and ghosts.

Anne Page McClard · Georgetown (Shop Girl)

Shop Girl Lyrics

When I was a young girl
I lived in a little town in Colorado
Nestled in a steep valley
Near the continental divide

Called Georgetown
500 living souls
Many more dead ones
Altitude,8,500 feet

Georgetown Was full of little Gingerbread houses
With white picket fences
Each with its own historic plaque—
And on each plaque was the name of a dead person

Few of the living
Could claim to be from there,
Kneissels, Anderssens, Buckleys
The rest of us were escapees from real life,
Lost souls (mostly with Ph.Ds), There were also,Trust Funders, Germans,
Swedes, Ski bums and shopkeepers…
Lots of shopkeepers.

In its day Georgetown was known as
the Silver Queen of the Rockies
But in my time
The only thing mined there
Were the pockets of tourists…
City Slickers
up from Denver,
or worse, in my mind,
Texans, rich Texans

And I? I was a 13 year-old Shop Girl.

She gets to work at half-past nine
Tidy’s the goods in the case
Wipes the glass to make it shine
Checks her reflection, hair and face

Opens the door at ten-o’clock sharp
Counts the money in the drawer
Sees her mark a-coming from afar
Now he’s walking through the door

Where columbines grow
And the air smells of pine
Shop girl is workin’ overtime
Sellin’ fools gold to whoever is buyin’
Shop girl is getting good at selling’ and lying

The man walks in at half-past ten
Wearing a Stetson,n’ boots to match
She dons a smile and welcomes him in
Texan she’d guess, a mighty fine catch

Antique collector up from Fort Worth
Shows him a chest, tells a tall tale
Telling stories is part of her work
Spinning yarns just to make a sale

[CHORUS]

Late in the day, the sun’s going down
Shop girl sorts and rolls the change
Boss comes in with her usual frown
She collects her money to take to the bank

She tells the girl “you did good honey”
Gives her a pat, heads out the door
Time to go home, made a little money
Shop Girl had hoped for something more

[CHORUS]

Posted on

Eclipse

My niece’s song “The Dark,” got me thinking about the fact that the sun is always shining at night on the other side of the earth. For some, this might seem like a rather sad thought, but for me, it is full of hope and the prospect of a better tomorrow when we can move beyond sorrows and losses in the past. I hope you like it.

Earth And Moon Color

Anne Page McClard · Eclipse by Anne McClard

Lyrics

Sounds of magic float in air
Fairy dust glints in your hair
Dancing lights shoot everywhere
Not sure you see me

Up and down and lows to highs
Golden light shines in your eyes
Spinning around your sighs and lies
Seems you don’t need me

The sun shines bright
In the dark of night
On the other side of the earth

The party’s coming to an end
Coming to an end

Disco ball comes crashing down
Hellish nights out on the town
Feeling like I’m gonna drown
Know you don’t love me

The sun shines bright
In the dark of night
On the other side of the earth

Taste of nectar kisses my lips
Cotton clouds and sailing ships
Gliding past our eclipse
Now I don’t miss you

The sun shines bright
In the dark of night
On the other side of the earth

The sun shines bright
In the dark of night
On the other side of the earth

Posted on

Kiss My Lips

If any of you listen to this be assured that it is not a portent of my marriage coming to an end. It resulted more from a reflection on past heartbreaks and all of the silly things that are considered common wisdom when it comes to life and love. I guess part of the message in this song is that true love endures, even when a relationship is done with. My mother thinks this is a sad song, but I see it is hopeful.

BrokenHeartColored.jpg

Anne Page McClard · Kiss My Lips–Anne McClard

Lyrics

They say all good things come to an end
I hope that isn’t true
Want this love of ours to last forever ‘cuz
I’ll  never stop loving you

If we ever have to part
kiss my lips
kiss my lips
Please, don’t  break my heart

They say if you love someone set ‘em free
I don’t hold with that view
Want this love of ours to last forever ‘cuz
I’ll  never stop loving you

If we ever have to part
kiss my lips
kiss my lips
Please, don’t  break my heart

People say a lot of crazy stuff
I don’t  pay much mind
The other day you said you loved another
I figured it was just a bluff

They say true love will last forever
I hope that it’s true
Want this love of ours to last forever ‘cuz
I’ll  never stop loving you

If we ever have to part
kiss my lips
kiss my lips
Please, don’t  break my heart

kiss my lips
kiss my lips
Please, don’t  break my heart

Posted on

You are My House

Three years ago when I started this site, I posted a few bits of my writing. One piece of prose that I posted was called “You are a House.”

mississippi-river

The song, “You are My House” is loosely based on that piece of prose, and also was a songwriting exercise that I gave myself–to write a song in a minor key, and to use a different song form. Most of the songs I wrote prior to this one followed a simple verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. This song, in contrast, does not have a chorus, but a short bridge. I hope you like it.

Anne Page McClard · You are My House

 

Lyrics

Rooted on a granite bluff
Above the great river
Windows of your soul look west
Watching flows of smooth waters
Water never rests
You stand witness to human toil
In fecund fields of fragrant soil                                           

Winter blankets you in snow
Below your walls shiver
Timbers of your bones stand tests
They lie above flood waters
Water never rests
You fear nothing but river snakes
In dormant dreams fear awakes

You are my house
Let me in.
Talk to me
Talk to me.

Silence is your favorite sound
Inside your echo chamber
The attic of your mind keeps pests
They feed on thoughts of tired tears
Water never rests
My love survives in constant quiet
Your inner life is far too private

Talk to me
Talk to me.
Talk to me
Talk to me.

Posted on

Heaven Can Wait

One day last February, I was driving home from my Saturday jam class, just before the pandemic broke loose, and I found myself humming and singing the phrase “Heaven can wait, heaven can wait, heaven can wait for me.” Not sure where it came from or why it popped into my head, but I thought, okay, I am just going to go with this idea. Maybe I should try to write a song. That same day I came up with the lyrics and the melody for this song. I was thinking about how every time one falls in love it feels like you have died and gone to heaven.

Inevitably, the initial elation of love fades away. I had never written a song in my life, but why not give it a try. So here it is. I hope you like it.

Anne Page McClard · Heaven Can Wait

Lyrics

When I was eighteen, and I fell for you,
You were pretty and sweet, and I thought you were true.
I thought It was heaven, but you proved me wrong,
You lied and you cheated, so I said so long.

Ain’t rolling over and ain’t playing dead
Heaven can wait, that’s what I said.
Heaven can wait
heaven can wait
Heaven can wait for me

When I was twenty-two, and I fell for you,
You were smart and good lookin’—I thought you’d be true.
I thought it was heaven, but it wasn’t to be,
You lied and you cheated, then you walked out on me.

Ain’t rolling over and ain’t playing dead
Heaven can wait, that’s what I said.
Heaven can wait
heaven can wait
Heaven can wait for me

Then I was twenty-six, and I fell for you
You were handsome and good, I knew you’d be true.
I thought this was heaven, it truly seemed so
You loved me well, more than you know

Ain’t rolling over and ain’t playing dead
Heaven can wait, that’s what I said.
Heaven can wait
heaven can wait
Heaven can wait for me

Now I am old, and I’m still with you.
It ain’t been perfect, but we have been true.
Not sure if this is heaven, it’s pretty darn near,
Give me kiss, I’ll be happy dear

Ain’t rolling over and ain’t playing dead
Heaven can wait, that’s what I said.
Heaven can wait
heaven can wait
Heaven can wait for me

Heaven can wait for me

Proudly powered by WordPress