This Is My House

This
is my house
This is my house
This is my house and I
and I
and I get to decide

This is my house and I get to decide

This is my house
and I get to decide
who comes inside
(who comes inside)

This is my house
and I get to decide
who comes inside.

Anger is mine
(anger is mine)

Anger is an arrow
Anger is an arrow that points
Anger is an arrow that points
Anger is an arrow that points me in the right
Anger is an arrow that points me in the right
Anger is an arrow that points me in the right direction
Anger is an arrow that points me in the direction that I should go
Anger is an arrow that points me in the right direction that I should go

Anger is an arrow that points me in the right direction that I should go
(in the direction that I should go)
NO
Anger is an arrow that points me in the right direction that you should go
Anger is an arrow that points me in the direction that you should go
in the direction that you should go

This is my house!
(this is my house)
And you are not
a guest in it

This is my house and you are not a guest in it.

This is my house and I get to decide
This is my house and I get to decide
This is my house and I get to decide who the fuck
This is my house and I get to decide who the fuck
(who to fuck)
This is my house and I get to decide who the fuck who to fuck
This is my house and I get to decide who the fuck comes inside.
This is my house and I get to decide who the fuck comes inside.
This is my house and I get to decide who the fuck comes inside of it.
This is my house and I get to decide who the fuck comes inside of it

from now on
from now on
from now on

This is my house and I get to decide who the fuck comes inside of it from now on.

- sk, dec 2013/jan 2014

we did not know exactly what those trees meant

just you and me
with two brooms going
and nothing much to say

the needles everywhere
dried up
sticking to our socks like
insults
unready to be dismissed

we did not know
exactly what
those trees meant

when mine
with glory blazing
and everyone
clustered around
blissfully nestled into false frames
one last time

we come back

tired
with two brooms going
and nothing else to say

-sk 1/13/14

(we should often reflect on this)

i will grow old
i will grow old and grow

apart from all that's dear to me

i will grow old

in the end
there will be no one
next to me

age will happen
even to me
i will gain illness
and, looking back,

will finally see what it is to be so well
and free

—here—
i have made huge mistakes

i have been ungrateful

i have been
aloof

i have given everything
i have
and everything
i am

to manipulate the truth

—so—
i fall heir to all of this
even to forgiveness

(we should often reflect on this)

in the end
i will lose
everyone and
i will lose
everything
especially my way
and
that dawn will break
fearless as the heart
—leveled—
after an earthquake


- SK, 2011-13

Live from Brooklyn! (See also: Clapping Methodists)

Because the music minister is a feminist peace activist and poet who is generally rad, I was invited to perform one of my new songs, "Yesterday I Do," at the Methodist Church this morning. Joining me were Leila (LEE-la) Whitley (voice) and Amy Holderness (guitar, voice). I wasn't able to scrounge up trombones, an upright bass, or a drummer for this but I think we held it down pretty nicely with just a guitar. Video caught by Alaska.

Also: clapping Methodists. And: sharing a microphone with a tall tall tree.

We Notice That It Is Small

Via James Madison University Professor of Tuba and Euphonium Kevin Stees.

 “When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as "rootless and stemless." We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed. When it first shoots up out of the earth, we don't condemn it as immature and underdeveloped; nor do we criticize the buds for not being open when they appear. We stand in wonder at the process taking place and give the plant the care it needs at each stage of its development. The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change; yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is.”

― W. Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance

The Album Has Been Written + MP3 Tour (10 Songs)

Give me four weeks and I'll finish an album.

I'd never had a dedicated writing break and, after passing through the pit of despair, I discovered how I work, hit a stride, and finished writing my first collection of ten songs. They are currently wobbly-legged and stumbling around with their eyes half closed but you can check them all out here. I'll even give you a tour.

Note: The purpose of these scratch recordings is for use in recruiting a band. The performance and recording quality are low. That's what rehearsal (with a band) is for.

Seeking: a guitar/mandolin/banjo doubler, an upright bassist, a fiddler, a clarinetist, and a drummer. Qualifications: Must dig my tunes, be down to rehearse, and be able to improvise/create a killer part from nothing but a set of chords and some artistic direction.

1. A Texas two-step with mariachi trombones (courtesy Victoria Langford and Brian Herrick).


 2. A ballad.


3. A rigorous bluegrass showdown. Everybody takes a solo.



 4. Rockabilly meets Malagueña, maybe with a hint of surfer rock. Needs trumpet!


5. My answer to Springsteen's "I'm On Fire."


6. Americana band, drum cadence, banjo, lots of harmony. Stick around for the waltz lullaby at the end.


7. Ukulele, cicadas, late summer at night.


8. For the full band, kind of a slow polka.


9. The Blues.


10. A bluegrass ballad/prayer. Engineering courtesy of Alex G. Knight. Mix courtesy of Mark Corbin of CorbinSound. Guitar/mandolin/fiddle courtesty of Matt Gelfer. Harmonies courtesy of Rachel Zylstra and Gretchen Poole.


Once the band is together, we'll work out a marching-band-meets-bluegrass arrangement of "Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy."

Then we'll record revised editions of each song with full band.

ET VOICI ALBUM.

The Pit of Despair

Songwriting. (Day 8). Self-portrait.