[Untitled, you should name it], October 2007

Who knows the way to the heart?
Who knows the way it starts?

I didn’t plan it when we met
Two silent strangers only friends of friends
And, since, I’ve tried to forget
How innocent means can lead to unhappy ends

I handed you my heart
Like I hand the pepper and salt across the table
You swore that you’d be mine
As long as you were able

You looked into my eyes the way the sunlight falls on flowering trees
And the way you’d touch my hand, as if you’d always understand my every need
And the way you’d smile to see me near
And the way you’d boast about everything I was, to anyone who’d hear

I handed you my heart
Like I hand the pepper and salt across the table
You swore that you’d be mine
As long as you were able

You look through me as though I am the ghost of true love past
I never know what to think—we were both so sure that it could last
But when the world falls apart and the children cry and the fabric comes undone
And everything’s outta place and there’s just not enough space, there’s only one thing to be done

Steal my heart back from your hands
Like you stole my kisses at midnight
Burn your promises to ash
Like I sometimes burn the dinner, except on purpose

Who knows the way to the heart?
Who knows the way it starts?

Tribute to George Orwell, October 2007

Hey George
I saw your name the other day
You know you made the editorial page
Of the NY Times

I guess the British government had been keeping tabs on you
They noticed your Bohemian manner of dress
And concluded you were probably a Communist

Which you were at the time

I saw you worked with Tom
I heard you liked his magazine
But you never quite had enough to pay the purchase fee

I guess you kinda liked Tom’s philosophies
But not all of his politics
That’s when you started writing books

After you fought the war

It was in the 1940’s that you gave the British government
A list of pinkos
You said you strongly felt Charlie Chaplin was red at heart

After the Spanish Civil War
Where you fought with the Trotskyites
I heard that was the turning point
I heard you were a Loyalist
And it was in the war you learned what you believed

Became an anti-Stalinist

Oh ho, thanks for Animal Farm
And for 1984
You made the kind of stir
Tom didn’t even ask for
Oh ho, we read your books today
And you know you made a change
Oh ho, hey George

Hey George
I saw your name the other day
You know you made the editorial page
Of the NY Times

You Know You Love Them, unfinished

It's amazing how things can change in a cell
Let's talk about mRNA and tRNA as well
Our friends who make it possible to transcribe and translate
I know you love them, they are so great

CHORUS!
The mRNA makes transcripts of genes
And takes the transcriptions to the site of our dreams
AKA the RER and cytoplasm--you know it's true
And tRNA makes translation possible for you

Every tRNA dreams of codon recognition
Brought together by ribosomes and peptide bond formation
Then for their honeymoon they went to cytoplasm
For some translocation

Start translation off with initiation
Binds at AUG the start codon
Attach ribosome units, then comes the P site
Once elongation starts it'll all be all right

I Love mRNA, October 2007

I was in a nucleus the other day, I saw mRNA
It was transcribing things, and it inspired me to sing, yeah
Ah, mRNA
Had it been another day, I might have looked the other way
And I'd have never been aware, but as it is, I'll dream of it tonight,
Ah, mRNA

Movin, yes it is movin, and it is groovin to the ribosome
Movin, yes it is movin, and it is groovin to the ribosome

Don't you know the RER is where the ribosomes are
That connect the messenger RNA to the tRNA
Ah, tRNA
I have never seen the likes of this, how miraculous
tRNA translating things, translating things, it makes me want to sing
Ah, tRNA

Movin, yes it is movin, and it is groovin as it translates
Movin, yes it is movin, and it is groovin as it translates

I was in a nucleus the other day, I saw mRNA
It was transcribing things, and it inspired me to sing, yeah
Ah, mRNA

Movin, yes it is movin, and it is groovin to keep you alive
Movin, yes it is movin, and it is groovin to keep you alive

Sherwood Hymn, October 2007

Written during the Sunday afternoon session Conference, for the four voice parts represented in Sherwood Up. Yes, a cappella.

For forty days and forty nights Christ fasted
For forty days and forty nights alone
For forty days and forty nights Christ fasted
And faced the adversary on His own

Oui, il etait fort

He faced temptations
And gave us every tool we need
To win salvation:
Christ has set us free.

The bonds of death are broken
We have no need for sorrow
For Jesus Christ, our Savior
Has promised us tomorrow.

And in the Garden of Gethsemane, He wept, He bled
And in the garden there with Mary, He rose up from the dead.

Jesus Christ is my Savior, I have no fear.
Jesus Christ is my Savior, I am of good cheer.

For me I know He gave His life,
For me He gave Himself, a sacrifice

The bonds of death are broken
We have no need for sorrow
For Jesus Christ, our Savior
Has promised us tomorrow.

Christ has set us free.

Please Stay, May 2007

Good story, ey?

You came into my room that night
Roses in hand for the girl in the spotlight
I was the one you wanted to meet
You swept me off my feet

Sitting backstage, preparing for the show
Warming up the voice and getting ready to go
The curtain's raised, you're not in your seat
I'm on stage, I can't repeat that

Somehow when you're near, I run out of things to fear
Unkind lights and stage fright run away
So maybe I don't know what's right
But I know I want you tonight
I know you're ready to go
But please stay

You've seen me at my worst
Unprepared and unrehearsed
I sing my song and the audience laughs
At my unintentional gaffes
I see you walking away
Won't you stay

Somehow when you're near, I run out of things to fear
Unkind lights and stage fright run away
So maybe I don't know what's right
But I know I want you tonight
I know you're ready to go
But please stay

I... can't play
You don't turn back as you walk away
Theatre doors close behind
I'm the last thing on your mind

Somehow when you're near, I run out of things to fear
Unkind lights and stage fright run away
So maybe I don't know what's right
But I know I want you tonight
I know you're gone, you're gone
But please stay

Meet Me At The Printing Press, October 2007

I read Heart of Darkness a few years back, didn't realize at the time that Marlowe had it right
Had it right when he said what makes a great man great is to have something to say, to have something to say
And say it

I got something to say
I got something to say, hey
I got something to say
I got something to say, hey

Meet me at the printing press
The place where thoughts can come to life
Meet me at the printing press
We'll change the world with black and white
And if we die before we're through
Just remember that the printer will remember you

Let others choose the question mark to be their mode of punctuation
Let you and I make our lives exclamations

Have you got something to say
Have you got something to say, hey
Have you got something to say
Have you got something to say, then say it

Meet me at the printing press
The place where thoughts can come to life
Meet me at the printing press
We'll change the world with black and white
And if we die before we're through
Just remember that the printer will remember you

Why don't you say what's on your mind
Why don't you say what's on your mind
Are you afraid of what they'll say
Are you afraid of what they'll say
Don't be afraid of what they'll say
Don't be afraid, don't be afraid

Get something to say
Get something to say, then say it
Get something to say
Get something to say, then say it

Meet me at the printing press
The place where thoughts can come to life
Meet me at the printing press
We'll change the world with black and white
And if we die before we're through
Just remember that the printer will remember you

Meet me at the printing press
Meet me at the printing press
Meet me at the printing press