|
Songs: First Initial Draft(s)
a note about the lyrics: Dear Family, Friends, and Those Interested In the Requiem Project: Robert's death is an extremely difficult subject to approach. How should we deal with it? I still have few answers. But my response is to work out my lament (my mourning, my sorrow and anger) in a creative way. As a writer, it's the only way I know to do so. This said, I walk a thin line. Anyone addressing this matter walks a thin line. Am I "using" this situation in an unbecoming way. Am I making myself too naked? More importantly, am I exposing Robert in a way that is less than beneficial? I ask these questions daily. Yet I believe more and more that it is only as we give voice to our sorrow that we are able to cope with it--to make some sort of peace. And I believe this is exactly what Robert exemplified in his lifetime: a head-on approach towards suffering and pain through the means of creative expression. Below What Once Were Wings (the requiem project) is the voicing of my own experience of Robert's death. In this project, the lyrics will be using various means to do this. I use the first-person approach in trying to imagine through Robert's eyes. I use the third-person to try and obtain some measure of objectivity. I write what I feel: anger, sorrow, desperation, yearning, and the nausea of unresolved questions. And I also hope to explore the joy I knew and experienced from Robert and through Robert, in his music and in his person and friendship. If you knew Robert as family or friend, some of these lyrics may make you angry, or sad, or confused. It is not my intention to offend...for this is such a deeply tender matter. It always will be, for all of us. Please know I am simply writing with as much honesty as I can--my Psalms and Lamentations. I hope the lyrics (this is just the beginning. I will be posting more as I write them, before--in the end--narrowing the selection down to 11 songs) will not only be "cathartic" and part of the requiem, but that they will strain towards the attainment of true art, that for which Robert himself so excellently strove. I hope they are a testament to art, to music, but most importantly to Robert himself in all the complexity of his humanness. Please feel free to contact me via the "Feedback" page if you have any questions or comments. Sincerely, |
