Evangelist's Quest

Evangelist's Quest

If only I knew
the exact right words
to make it new
that pile of turds

I look and look
in every sacred book
the answer eludes me
too blind to see

ah another book
to add to the list
take a look
same old grist

perhaps there is no word
which properly spoken
can be the cure
for what has woken

Some significant lyrics:

I want to reminisce about tomorrow
Initiate a plan for yesterday
Take a great leap forward to evaluate each sorrow
So we could maybe choose a better way

But you don't want to know the plans I'm making
You know that things must be the way they’ll be
And all these remedies that I'm mistaking
For something that will bring you back to me
...
nd this song goes on forever
And these dreams haunt me night and day
And I see you looking at me, and I don’t know what to say
Why does it have to be that way?

Ten years and I've still got the same affliction
I’ve started and I’ve stopped one thousand times
The metaphors don’t rise above the fiction
The melodies won’t match up with the rhymes

And every breath serves to remind me
Of all the times I've tried to write this song
And now that you have come here to find me
I pray this time that it won’t come out wrong
Lyrics source

a reply to: pthena

That was amazing!👍

a reply to: Quantum12

Thank you.

I wrote the poem then looked for a video to match. The Scott Albert Johnson song hit it just fine.

Favorite verses:
I want to reminisce about tomorrow
Initiate a plan for yesterday

Hi, this is SAJ. Thanks much for giving me the shout-out. I liked your poem a lot... Great minds etc.

Here's a link to my website: scottalbertjohnson.com...

Here's a little more info about the song from my production notes:

Track 2 – “If I Only Knew the Words”

NOTES: In late February of 2003, I was sitting in a bar in DC. It was a few days before I was to move back home to Mississippi after having lived all over the country for 15 years. I had an idea for a song about a relationship that was falling apart due to poor communication. I jotted down the lyrics on a napkin and put in my wallet.

The napkin survived the trip to Mississippi, but eventually I lost it. I tried to remember what I had written, but all I could recall was the title: “If I Only Knew the Words.” I put the song down, picked it back up, put it down again and over and over for several years. As the time passed, a melody and chord progression emerged, and eventually I realized the song was also about how hard songwriting – like communication and relationships – can be. The song finally took ten years to write… “Ten years, and I’ve still got the same affliction… I’ve started and I’ve stopped one thousand times…”

CREDITS:
SAJ: lead and backing vocals, harmonica
Chalmers Davis: synthesizers, Wurlitzer
Cody Smith: guitar
Raphael Semmes: bass guitar
Steve Cook: drums
Holley Peel: backing vocals
Engineered by Tim Cotton and Ted Gainey at Windy Ridge Studios.
Mixed and mastered by Randy Everett, with additional mixing and co-production by Cody Smith.

a reply to: scojoharp

Thank you very much sir.

It's a real honor.
I was a little embarrassed to post your song because it shows the rawness of my poem in contrast.

a reply to: pthena

That's very kind of you. And you have nothing to be embarrassed about. The best art is full of rawness.