Thought du jour - 31 August 2011

"Lovemaking fools you. The overpowering emotions it induces make you think you're sharing the same feelings as the other person and that they're imagining the same as you... Two people can make love but that isn't necessarily love." - Greta Scacchi

Letters to Orwell

"Jealous of your friends

and your easy conversations with them
I'm not a good listener
and I've never been.

Closed at the wrong time
you must wonder if I'm still alive
I wish I knew
do you?

Please let me know, let me know
will you stay with me here tonight
please tell me so, tell me so
and everything will be all right.

Unsure of every embrace
unable to read the look on your face
I fear the future
are you more sure?

Please let me know, let me know
will you stay with me here tonight
please tell me so, tell me so
and everything will be all right."

One of my autobiographical songs.

Paul Kimball

Paulosophy, Vol. VI

Point Prim, PEI - July, 2011

It is impossible for true love to ever be unrequited.

Paul Kimball

Prospect of the Sea

"The air that you breathe

steals from my throat
you're drowning me
unreasonably,
cast me aside
adrift in the waves
I am merely
a prospect of the sea.

The October wind
punishes my face and my eyes
it's showing me no mercy
this time,
tears can't hide
the pain one feels
when you are merely
a prospect of the sea.

Nerves of cotton
has this sailor

the waves loom larger

than they've ever
fear is the clarion

call of failure

for a prospect

of the sea.

A child's lonely voice
stands locked behind my smile
it is straining
to be free,
from the darkness
from the lonely nights
it is just
a prospect of the sea.

Nerves of cotton
has this sailor

the waves loom larger

than they've ever
fear is the clarion
call of failure
for a prospect
of the sea.

The hope that you have
shines light a lighthouse
a beacon
that I can see,
but the rocks are waiting
close to you
for this prospect

of the sea."

We are all prospects of the sea, in one way or another.

Paul Kimball

Pop Matters: Aimee Mann, "Wise Up"

There's an interesting site called Song Meanings, where lyrics to songs are posted and people comment as to what they think they mean, or what they got out of it (not always the same thing). The discussion of "Wise Up" can be found here.

Paul Kimball

True Love Ways - Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is about loneliness - both the song I wrote in 1995 but also, when you think about it, the made-up "holiday" itself.

"I wish that I could be free
from this string of one night affairs
I long for someone to look at me
but all they do is stare,
and no one ever stays here
long enough to say,
I love you, my dear,
to me on Valentines Day.

I wish someone would rescue me
from the prison that holds my heart
I long for someone to promise me
that we'll never be apart,
and no one ever stays here
long enough to say,
I love you, my dear,
to me on Valentines Day.

I dream of someone to help me escape
from this common cage,
he'll set me free, and we'll run away
to be together
on Valentines Day,
but no one ever stays here
long enough to say,
I love you, my dear,
to me on Valentines Day."

I think Thomas Wolfe had it right when he wrote that "loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence."

Joseph Conrad called loneliness a "naked terror", and Albert Schweitzer observed that "we are all dying of loneliness."

For my part, I think that the only way we can truly ameliorate the condition of loneliness is by embracing solitude on a regular basis. The cure for loneliness doesn't lie in the company of others, and it's futile to look for it there - it lies in a better understanding and acceptance of ourselves. In other words, to the protagonist of the song, I would say this: the only one who can release you from your "common cage" is you.

Paul Kimball

True Love Ways - Darkest Hour

Here I am performing my song "Darkest Hour" in Williams, Arizona, in September, 2007.

"There's a vision
from the edge
it comes to you
as you lie asleep
in your bed.

You feel alone
you're unable to move
you've been wounded
by the things
that he's said.

I wish I could share
this hurt
and take your pain away
or at least be your comfort
when you awake.

It's 3 am
still hours from light
the darkest moment
of the soul.

I want to be
with you tonight
to give you
to give you
someone to hold."

What is love, at its core?

Empathy.

Paul Kimball

Thought du jour - 13 July 2011

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

True Love Ways - Someday I'll Be With You

Over the years, I've spent a fair bit of time contemplating what it means to be in love, and the nature of love itself.

Most of it was done through songs like this one.

The song can be looked at in two ways, I think - either it represents the noble persistence of the protaganist trying to reach his one true love... or it represents a stalker who just won't take no for an answer.

It's a fine line, sometimes.

Paul Kimball