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In August 2008, I moved away from the hustle and bustle of Seattle to go to college at Washington State University, in rural Pullman in eastern Washington. The change was drastic, but welcome. On my first visit home for Thanksgiving week, I made the rounds visiting everyone I hadn't seen in several months. I was floored that, as I went around town, it felt almost as though I had never left. Everything I saw felt as though I had seen it just the day before. Later, I decided I wanted to write about the sensation, and the song was written within an hour. There are some occasions where a song just writes itself, and this is one of them.
(Written April 8, 2009)

It's been a long ride.
I thought I'd never make it,
Never see the place
I once called home again.

It's been a long time.
I haven't seen familiar faces,
All the ones I've loved,
since I don't know when.

When I'm home again,
I see my friends and family.
I give them all a hug and kiss,
And then a couple more.

Walking round town,
My childhood comes flying back,
Unfolding like a play I've seen
a thousand times before.

Every sight and every sound
of every step I take
Takes me back to yesterday.
Feels like yesterday.
Yet it's been so long.

What'll happen to these memories
Ten or twenty years into the future?
Will they live on?
Or will they be gone?

I see a blue sky.
I thank the Lord for this moment,
Cause I know that pretty soon,
It's gonna rain.

I know it too well.
And even when it's raining,
I know that soon,
the sun will break again.

It's so wonderful,
No matter what we're feeling,
There's a time, a place, a song, a hope,
For all of us to share.

Wherever we go,
Wherever life will take us to,
There'll always be a home for us,
and loved ones waiting there.

Every sight and every sound
of every step I take
Reminds me of yesterday,
The love of yesterday,
And from now on.

What'll happen to these memories
About a hundred years into the future?
They will live on.
Even when we're gone.

Concert Hall of Madness

Reading my song book and looking back on the songs I had written, I began to detect a theme. All the songs seemed to involve love. Either being in love, longing for love or losing a love, but they were all love. I decided I wanted to write a non-sequitur. It took me a few days to find the inspiration, but finally, I found just the thing. I was sitting in the music room at my school on a free day. We weren’t playing, so we were free to do whatever. Most everyone in the room took it upon themselves to make as much noise as they could. There seemed to be a line of people waiting to play the drum set, people were flocking to every other percussion instrument they could find, and once I saw one boy emerge with a bass guitar, I knew homework would soon not be an option. This, however, gave me the inspiration for a song, which I appropriately titled "A Concert Hall of Madness." In this song, I employ a number of metaphors and personifications to depict the scene, and it fit well with the poetry unit I was doing in my language arts class. I’m quite proud of this song.

(Written in May 2006)

Spinning world.
Spinning like a dreidel,
Watch it spin and twirl.

A human race.
Jumbled all together
in a tiny place.

People all around me
try to have a ball.
Sometimes it’s enough to
drive me up a wall.

I don’t mind that people
like to go to town.
But for just five minutes,
can’t they quiet down?

All I want is
a little peace instead
of a concert hall of madness in my head.

The day is new.
People shout their cases
‘til their faces turn blue.

Such an angry age.
People fill the roads
with their odes of endless rage.

The tones of angry trumpets
play an angry song.
The gentle flutes beg us
all to get along.

The clarinets play a
silent liturgy,
While the saxophones sit by,
Idly.

Through all the discord, all that I can find
is a concert hall of madness in my mind.

Is it such a task?
So much to ask
for a quiet night beneath the moon?
What I wouldn’t give
if people could live
in harmony, or at least in tune.

(Music phrase)

I hope I live to see the concert hall
when it celebrates its final curtain call.

I Guess I'll Never Know

"I Guess I’ll Never Know" is a song that hits especially close to home with me. I wrote this song in the 8th grade when I was completely smitten over a girl, but I knew that because we were going to different high schools, we would never be a couple. I felt like I had blown my big chance, and I wrote about it. The words came more naturally than any song I had ever written. The words aren’t outstandingly poetic, but they are honest. I’m glad I wrote them.

(Written in June 2004)

Love is a funny thing.
It has to work both ways.
There's a chance she'll never love you,
But there’s a chance she may.

But the fear of rejection
is branded in your mind.
If you get to close,
You don’t know what you’ll find.

I let her get away,
and I've no one else to blame.
I could never say a word to her,
Couldn’t even say her name.

And now she’s gone,
And I don’t know what might have happened.
I guess I’ll never know.

Did she ever love me?
Might it have worked out?
Should all this speculation
Be what love is all about?

These are the questions
that I ask every day.
If I took the time to try,
Would she have seen it my way?

Have I reached an end
that could have been a start?
All this crazy wondering
had nearly broke my heart.'

But for all I know,
The truth might have been more painful.
I guess I’ll never know.

I guess I have to move on,
And stop living in the past.
If it never even started,
It probably wouldn’t last.

That doesn’t make it easier
to let go of a love.
I question my sensibility,
Don't know what I'm thinking of.

They say “Just give it time.”
If only I knew how.
'Cause all the time in the world
will never help me now.

What did I do?
Where did I go wrong?
I guess I’ll never know.

I guess I’ll never know.

I’ll just never know.

One More Day

On the last day before Winter Break 2005, the excitement in the air at school was absolutely electric. The one thing I heard almost invariably was, “One more day! There’s just one more day! Only one more day!” Of course, I was also excited about Winter Break, but when I heard the phrase, “one more day,” I immediately started to imagine, “One more day...Imagine having one more day...” and picturing a love song. I immediately grabbed my pen and started writing. The one dilemma I had when writing this song was whether to make it a happy song or a sad song. I think I hit the perfect compromise. The majority of the song is happy, symbolic of a person head over heels in love. The end of the song is sad, symbolic of how quickly a relationship can change. One day, you’re in love. The next, it’s over.
(Written in December 2005)

One more day,
Imagine having one more day.
Having your life drift away.
What would you say?

What would you say
Looking back on all the trials of yesterday?
One more chance, one last hooray,
On your one more day.

Chorus:
One more day
To let you know just how much I love you.
One more day
To get to show the world that I need you.
At the end of the day,
I could wish on shooting stars high above you.
I'd look down deep in me,
And my only wish would be
To forever have one more day.

One more chance.
If all I'm left is one more chance,
One more night for us to know romance,
And one last slow dance,

I would find a way
To make the world our own, it's ours today.
I'd never let a precious second slip away
On our one more day.

(Repeat Chorus twice)

But now, what to say?
The day is over, and you've gone away.
No more chances, dances, and last hoorays,
And no more one more days.

My One True Love

For my entire life, I've been a fan of game shows, one of my favorites being "Wheel of Fortune". One day in 2005, I was watching an old rerun of "Wheel" from the '80s, which featured a music cue called "A Time For Tony." It's a beautiful piano piece written by Merv Griffin, and as soon as I heard it, I thought it'd make a great foundation for a love song. I hit the internet to see if the entire track was available anywhere. It was, and after listening just a few times, the lyrics virtually wrote themselves.
(Written in January 2005)

Too often times
would get so tough,
and I found I
was all alone,
Longing just
to have someone
that I could call my own.

Any time that
I'm knocked down,
and freezing in
the coldest storm,
How nice it is
to look and find
your love to keep me warm.

The sun's gone down, and
the stars are out.
The moon is big and bright.
And it feels so dear, now that
you are here for me to
love all through the night.

This tender love
I've found in you,
I know will last
forevermore.
You will be
my one true love,
and I will be yours.

Bitter sounds
of loneliness
echo through this world
we're living in,
but a beacon shines
of hope and proves
that even I can win.

As I watch the frail
baby nightingale
fly as high as my eyes can see,
I think of my hopes, and
I think of my dreams, and
what they mean to me.

(music)

And it feels so dear, now that
you are here for me to
love all through the night.

This tender love
I've found with you,
I know will last
forevermore.
You will be
my one true love,
and I will be yours.

Dreaming

During my sophomore year in high school, I began to seek out different methods of stress management when my school workload, coupled with troubles at home, became overwhelming for me. A friend of mine suggested a meditation regimen. To help me, I found quite a few pieces of relaxation music. One piece in particular: a piece by Wayne Gratz called "Rain On the Pond", stood out to me as a musical masterpiece, and although the meditation regimen didn't last long, I definitely found a good friend in relaxation music. Later in my sophomore year, my language arts class held a poetry unit. This piece came back to me, and I realized that I could probably write a nice poem/song set to its tune. I'm very pleased with the result.
(Written in August 2006)

A pinwheel twirls
Rain falls on the sad little boys and girls
In a quiet world.
Not for even one day
Will the clouds go away.

Somewhere, there lies
A world of incantation.
A vacation.
This fairy tale, it seems,
Lives only in dreams.
So I'll close my eyes in prayer
That a slumber takes me there.

Endless sunny days.
Cloudy skies have gone away.
At the break of the day,
Bluebirds in the trees
Sing a cabaret.

Forever,
And ever.

Seagulls flying overhead,
Are singing the praise an angel sent.
A magic world of such surprise.
I can't believe my eyes.

Blue lakes in the distance shine
With the light of a thousand suns.
Red rocks in the distance.
I'll climb the tallest one.

World of magic.
Fantastic.
A world I never knew.
Could this be a dream come true?

As I rise, I long for when
I will get to dream again.