Covid time and creativity

Subject: Covid time and creativity
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Nov 20 - 03:11 PM

I have managed to spend some time song writing, below,
Swift song.
Flying high but never landing
Flighted shaft of love entrancing
Through the clouds so lightly dancing
do si do and then farewell
do si do and then farewell
I watched you gliding higher
Calling follow me for ever
Touching souls we soar together
Chorus
Flying for the sun were seeking
Cross the waves so swiftly fleeting
Never grounding loves fond feelings
chorus.
From the cliff face now the leaving
chasing sunbeams all the evening
joined in love our fusion weaving
Chorus
Flying high you started soaring
to the ground i kept on falling
Helpless till she heard the calling
chorus
High unto the cliff face leaving
Quivering heart so sadly weeping
Gentle hands that kindly freed me
chorus
copyright. Dick Miles 2020
if anyone has written songs during the covid and would like to post to this thread , please do

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: leeneia
Date: 09 Nov 20 - 11:38 AM

I haven't done anything as splendid as that, but the Monday singaround has encouraged me to recall songs I know, to folk-process any burrs on them, and occasionally to write a new tune.

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Nov 20 - 12:17 PM

thankyou, Leenia, i have to learn the words now

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: leeneia
Date: 09 Nov 20 - 01:02 PM

Wait. I remembered that I have written a song. It's called "The Dog Days," the long, hot days of July and August, whose heat is relieved temporarily by fierce thunderstorms.

There's an icky song called the The Four Maries which details an atrocity which never happened. But it has a pretty tune. One day I wrote lyrics about the dog days, set them to that tune, and borrowed the structure of 'Four Maries' last verse to tie it all together. The images and the wildlife come from country places in the Midwest where we go bird-watching. The redtail is a redtailed-hawk.

The weatherman warns of a heat wave
with cirrus like feathers on high
and the tow'ring form
of a thunderstorm
looming up in the southeastern sky.

The grasshoppers buzz by roadside,
still lively despite the long drought.
and starlings wheel
over yellow fields
getting to head for the south.

So why do call them the dog days?
So hot, with never a breeze.
and a sane dog's goal
is a nice cool hole
in the shade of the thick, leafy trees.

The butterflies visit the zinnias [ZEEN=yus]
Bright yellow, soft orange and tan.
There's the ghostly blur
of a hummingbird
finding nectar wherever it can.

The songbirds have gone into hiding.
The distant coyote gives tongue,
and the redtail cries
in the pale blue skies
keeping watch on its wandering young.

Come up on the porch, and we'll visit.
We'll all have a glass of iced tea.
Here's Mary Lou
and Peggy Sue
and Mrs. Carmichael and me.
==============
I thought this song had been posted before, but I can't find it. After a while, I thought that the tune was getting a little monotonous, so I composed a second tune for alternate verses. But right now I'm not interested in writing it down.

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: Jos
Date: 09 Nov 20 - 01:24 PM

I think there are a few typos:
'The grasshoppers buzz by roadside' = 'The grasshoppers buzz by the roadside'
and
'getting to head for the south' = 'getting ready to head for the south'
and
'So why do call them the dog days?' = 'So why do we call them the dog days?'

But I hope that you won't take this as criticism, as I really like your song.

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: leeneia
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 11:18 AM

You're right, Jos. I was typing too fast. Funny how I can re-read it for accuracy and not see my mistakes. I'm glad you are interested enough to read it.

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: matthewdechant
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 12:18 PM

I've actually written an entire album during covid! 10 originals and one cover. It's not out yet, but it will be January 9th. Agh this sounds horribly like self promotion lol but basically I've been very productive during covid! Lots of time to connect with the outdoors, connect with the past, and connect with myself as a person.

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: Nick
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 01:00 PM

Now there is a coincidence :) Work in progress. May give it some harsh editing yet

SWIFT SONG

Spring arrives. Heart awaiting.
Returning swifts share joyful song.
Meeting again sharing lives together
Love again throughout the summer long

Thousand of miles flown over sea and water
Flown so far and flown so free
Paired for life since first they met
Come all that way to stay with you and me

(Chorus)
Wherever I may be whatever I may do
Like our swifts my home is always here with you
Whatever life may bring one thing's forever true
My heart will always be wherever you are too

Summer skies. Life is busier now.
New mouths to feed, new lives need care
Skies still ring with joy and laughter
Hours are full with everything to share

(Chorus)

Autumn now and days are getting shorter
Young have left on strengthening wings
Songs are fewer skies becoming empty
No certainty of what the future brings

(Bridge)
And as the seasons change and the swifts go on their way
Like them our kids have flown to find new lives somewhere
However free as birds you are to fly on separate paths
Freedom's a choice you make to choose the life you share

Winter here. In some other world
On tireless wings our swifts fly on
Perhaps next year to return once more
Return again to share their lives and song

(Chorus)

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: The Sandman
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 01:19 PM

nick, wth the greatest respect,
would you mind changing your title to possibly, song of the swift or swifts[s]. to avoid confusion.
strange that we should both be thinking along the same lines, but, well done

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 01:20 PM

If you can stand a segue from music to fabric arts, I have been sewing up a storm making various types of cloth face masks. As friends and family report back I modify the design and have now landed on a style that supports various types of ties to hold in place. Choosing fabric colors and prints, complementary t-shirt yarn ties, and including beads in some instances, I find spending the time cutting and assembling these has been a pleasant return to sewing, something I used to do a lot but forgot about over the last 20 years of full-time employment (I'm retired now). And I've tuned into the weekly Mudcat Zoom Singaround on Mondays to listen while I sew. Music and sewing in one place. :)

Back to your lyrics and stories.

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: Nick
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 01:33 PM

Depends what date you wrote it, I might need to ask you the same ... hahaha

I think there will never be a confusion and am sure that noone will ever know let alone care. There are already many songs with the same title.

As you don't mention the word 'swift' in your song you could easily change it to another graceful bird. Albatross? Penguin song perhaps?

Wouldn't scan in my song

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: The Sandman
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 01:50 PM

hi Nick, I dont mind changing mine TO "SONG OF THE SWIFTS", its a better title imo

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: matthewdechant
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 01:50 PM

Awesome job Nick! I love how you use alliteration more than syllable structures to make the flow of the lines, sometimes it almost feels like Old English Alliterative Verse (but not in a clunky way).

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: Jos
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 01:58 PM

The first line of Dick's song, "Flying high but never landing", has to be about swifts. Could one song be called 'Song of the swifts' or something?

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: Jos
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 02:06 PM

I was interrupted while typing and didn't know my thoughts had been provided in the interim. I'm glad it is settled amicably.

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: matthewdechant
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 02:15 PM

I'm relatively new to writing songs, but this is one of my favorite ones I wrote during quarantine. It's an attempt at an old British narrative ballad style, with hints of the supernatural. Criticism is welcome!

The Ballad of Arthur Robinson

His name was Arthur Robinson
Just seventeen years of age
When he went to fight the Kaiser
Britannia’s war to wage
Off on a grand adventure, he thought
Like the heroes he read about
They’d be back for Christmas dinner, they said
Coming home the Bristol route

But now he sits in trenches, dark and damp
Writing letters they’ll never see
Eating rats they catch on bayonets
And drinking beer gone green
The officers talk in hushéd tones
Of battles won and lost
Of how they gained 10 yards a push
But never of the cost

Now our Arthur was sent on patrol one day                     
When he saw nestled in a tree
A great black raven beck’ning to him
In between the branches three
Arthur cautiously approached the bird
As it swooped down on the ground
And it took the shape of the Alder-King
In a dark and misty crown

The Alder-king offered him a deal
He smelled the fear in Arthur’s breath
That Arthur would survive the war
If he pledged his soul ‘pon death
And our Arthur thought, of his hearth and home
Of his family, and of France
He accepted the Alder-king’s deal
And gave his middle finger as advance

On his way back from patrol that day
He passed the German camp
He saw a priest, giving mass
And the soldiers looked askance
He saw one out there, not with the rest
And he saw Arthur too
They locked their eyes, and raised their guns
Neither knew what to do

Arthur saw that the German boy
No older than himself
Was too missing his middle finger
And his face knew fear itself
They both trembled with hope and fear
Not knowing the path to take
And they both squeezed their iron triggers                              
And the Alder-King, with laughter, quaked.

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: Jos
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 02:31 PM

If Arthur was English, and he read about his heroes using an English accent, 'the Bristol route' would not rhyme with 'read about'. The word 'route' would sound like 'root'.
Perhaps you could do something like changing it round a bit to make 'the heroes of which he read' rhyme with 'for Christmas dinner they said'.

Subject: RE: Covid time and creativity
From: Nick
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 03:18 PM

Dick I forgot to mention the full title of mine is actually Swift Song (Wherever you are too). Hohoho. So you don’t have to change yours