Bonnie,
This one was written just for you!
For the rest of you who don't know how much I loved Bonnie, it was written in 1967 while I was in Germany and it was about the girl I loved and left behind. It's great that we still think of one another as our lives have passed these many decades. It was a love that wasn't meant to be, but it was all consuming to me at the time.
Wait
At times like this I sit and think
About the love we shared
The war went on around us
And yet we never cared
But now the world for us has changed
To dark and misty blue
The Army has taken a love away
Taken me away from you
No matter how strong our love may be
How powerful and great
Three years is just too long I fear
For any girl to wait
But if there is a girl on earth
Whose love can see it through
I’m sure that girl is the one I love
That girl, she must be you
So please be true and wait for me
Through hours that are blue
I’ll come back home
We’ll have our love
A life for me and you
Steven Pein
22 July 1967
.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Imagination - Kid's don't need much to make them happy. Not at first, anyway.
I wrote this double-ending poem as a look into the creativity of little children and how that creativity dissolves very quickly in our culture of "stuff". I grew up playing Cowboys and Indians, but my grandchildren grew up with video games and computers with high speed internet.
Imagination (Two Poems in One)
There was a boy without a toy,
Folks thought he couldn't play,
But he could run with arms outstretched,
And be a jet all day.
And he could close his eyes and see
The ocean or the stars,
And he could soar through outer space
To Jupiter and Mars.
And he could climb up in a tree
And be the jungle king,
Or turn a stick into a sword
And battle anything.
And he could turn a battered broom
Into his trusty steed,
And overtake the bad guys
With unmatched blinding speed.
The little boy without a toy
Could have such fun alone,
He seldom even thought about
The things he didn't own.
(The storybook ending......)
The lesson that this verse conveys
Is really quite profound,
A child's imagination beats
The greatest toys around.
(The more realistic ending......)
Then he made his first real friend,
They soon became as one,
And less imagination was
Required to have fun.
His friend had many toys at home,
And there it was they'd play,
Erector Sets and building blocks
Helped pass the time away.
Lincoln Logs and G.I. Joes
And cars that raced on tracks,
Electric trains and Tonka Trucks
Amused them to the max.
And so it all continued 'til
They had a spat one day,
The little boy without a toy
Went home alone to play.
And he had trees and sticks and brooms
Just like he had before,
But they seemed unappealing now
And entertained no more.
The hardest lesson of his life
Was sadly realized,
It coldly pierced his child's heart
As tears filled up his eyes.
A child's imagination was his
Greatest gift at birth,
But not until he lost it
Could he understand its worth.
Steven Pein
March 1993
Copyright 1994
.
Imagination (Two Poems in One)
There was a boy without a toy,
Folks thought he couldn't play,
But he could run with arms outstretched,
And be a jet all day.
And he could close his eyes and see
The ocean or the stars,
And he could soar through outer space
To Jupiter and Mars.
And he could climb up in a tree
And be the jungle king,
Or turn a stick into a sword
And battle anything.
And he could turn a battered broom
Into his trusty steed,
And overtake the bad guys
With unmatched blinding speed.
The little boy without a toy
Could have such fun alone,
He seldom even thought about
The things he didn't own.
(The storybook ending......)
The lesson that this verse conveys
Is really quite profound,
A child's imagination beats
The greatest toys around.
(The more realistic ending......)
Then he made his first real friend,
They soon became as one,
And less imagination was
Required to have fun.
His friend had many toys at home,
And there it was they'd play,
Erector Sets and building blocks
Helped pass the time away.
Lincoln Logs and G.I. Joes
And cars that raced on tracks,
Electric trains and Tonka Trucks
Amused them to the max.
And so it all continued 'til
They had a spat one day,
The little boy without a toy
Went home alone to play.
And he had trees and sticks and brooms
Just like he had before,
But they seemed unappealing now
And entertained no more.
The hardest lesson of his life
Was sadly realized,
It coldly pierced his child's heart
As tears filled up his eyes.
A child's imagination was his
Greatest gift at birth,
But not until he lost it
Could he understand its worth.
Steven Pein
March 1993
Copyright 1994
.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Only Words and Music
Well, I warned you a while back that another lyric poem was coming. Duck your heads, 'cause here it comes.
I wrote this lyric as a kind of tribute to my favorite musical storyteller, the late Harry Chapin. It's a narration by a singer/songwriter who was never satisfied with his work. But something finally changed all that. It was that special woman. (What a surprise!)
Only Words and Music
All my life I've tried so hard
To find words to express
The kind of love that life's about
The one true love we quest
And all the tunes I've written
Could never quite convey
The perfect kind of melody
For what the words might say
My little ditties pleased some folks
My record sales were strong
But they were always tunes to me
I never wrote a song
Only words and music
In vinyl or CD's
Never really telling folks
The thoughts inside of me
Then somehow you came to me
In answer to a prayer
Just when life seemed loneliest
You suddenly were there
And then I wrote this music
And wrote these lyrics too
Only words and music
They became a song through you
A song to end my loneliness
A song to see me through
Not a ditty
Not a tune
But a song because of you
Only words and music
Thrown together in an hour or two
But the feeling here inside of me
Is a song because of you
Steven Pein
July 1994
Copyright 1994
.
I wrote this lyric as a kind of tribute to my favorite musical storyteller, the late Harry Chapin. It's a narration by a singer/songwriter who was never satisfied with his work. But something finally changed all that. It was that special woman. (What a surprise!)
Only Words and Music
All my life I've tried so hard
To find words to express
The kind of love that life's about
The one true love we quest
And all the tunes I've written
Could never quite convey
The perfect kind of melody
For what the words might say
My little ditties pleased some folks
My record sales were strong
But they were always tunes to me
I never wrote a song
Only words and music
In vinyl or CD's
Never really telling folks
The thoughts inside of me
Then somehow you came to me
In answer to a prayer
Just when life seemed loneliest
You suddenly were there
And then I wrote this music
And wrote these lyrics too
Only words and music
They became a song through you
A song to end my loneliness
A song to see me through
Not a ditty
Not a tune
But a song because of you
Only words and music
Thrown together in an hour or two
But the feeling here inside of me
Is a song because of you
Steven Pein
July 1994
Copyright 1994
.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The origin of words...
I was always fascinated with the origin of words and phrases. My dad owned a printing business, so I grew up around printing presses. And when I first started writing as part of my job (mostly technical writing), I ran into a word that was curious. One of its meanings seemed totally unrelated to the basic word itself, and I always wanted to find out how that seemingly unrelated meaning was derived. There are several similar theories about the origin, but I'm pretty certain from my research that I've finally captured the correct one.
1. In the newspaper industry, typesetting was an art form that began with moveable type that was hand set line by line to print newspapers on a printing press.
2. Back in the 1890’s, steel was rolled into plates that were used in manufacturing steam boilers. (And what does this have to do with anything?....Keep reading.)
3. During that old typesetting era, lots of things were not practical or cost effective to typeset over and over again. This included newspaper banners, advertisements, and other things that didn’t change from day to day. To print these unchanging items, the rolled steel was stamped to form permanent re-usable type.
4. That rolled steel that steam boilers were made from was called “boilerplate”.
And to this day we refer to standard clauses in contracts and the like as "boilerplate".
.
1. In the newspaper industry, typesetting was an art form that began with moveable type that was hand set line by line to print newspapers on a printing press.
2. Back in the 1890’s, steel was rolled into plates that were used in manufacturing steam boilers. (And what does this have to do with anything?....Keep reading.)
3. During that old typesetting era, lots of things were not practical or cost effective to typeset over and over again. This included newspaper banners, advertisements, and other things that didn’t change from day to day. To print these unchanging items, the rolled steel was stamped to form permanent re-usable type.
4. That rolled steel that steam boilers were made from was called “boilerplate”.
And to this day we refer to standard clauses in contracts and the like as "boilerplate".
.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Hero
“Hero” is about a child in search of answers. The widowed mother lovingly concealed the full truth about the premature death of the child’s father fearing it might lower the child’s self esteem. The child grew up hearing only glorious stories about the loving, caring, creative, and talented man that he was. But there was always more the child wanted to know, and the child finally decided to find out everything about this legendary man.
Hero
I set out to find my hero
A man so much bigger than life
Mom never spoke much about him
She just said she loved being his wife.
He died when I was a baby
I never got to know him at all
Photos were the only memories
Of this man who stood ten feet tall.
So I sought out my Dad's family
They were close by all along
But they wouldn't say much about him
So I knew there was something wrong.
I found a place among them
Where I knew that I belonged
And I started to piece together
Just what I feared all along.
I learned about Dad's problems
And I learned about his flaws
I learned about his suffering
And I learned about the cause.
I learned about the tragedy
That took his life so early on
And I think I know how Mom felt
After my Dad was gone.
I visited his resting place
And shed my share of tears
Then the mystery started unraveling
After almost thirty years.
I always felt so cheated
'Cause I never got to know him
All the things I couldn't do
And the things I couldn't show him.
But now I finally realize
Just why Mom protected me
She helped me hold my head up high
And become all I could be.
It strikes me as so ironic
That Dad's no longer ten feet tall
And Mom is the one who was bigger than life
It seems I found my hero after all.
Steven Pein
31 July 1994
Copyright 1994
.
Hero
I set out to find my hero
A man so much bigger than life
Mom never spoke much about him
She just said she loved being his wife.
He died when I was a baby
I never got to know him at all
Photos were the only memories
Of this man who stood ten feet tall.
So I sought out my Dad's family
They were close by all along
But they wouldn't say much about him
So I knew there was something wrong.
I found a place among them
Where I knew that I belonged
And I started to piece together
Just what I feared all along.
I learned about Dad's problems
And I learned about his flaws
I learned about his suffering
And I learned about the cause.
I learned about the tragedy
That took his life so early on
And I think I know how Mom felt
After my Dad was gone.
I visited his resting place
And shed my share of tears
Then the mystery started unraveling
After almost thirty years.
I always felt so cheated
'Cause I never got to know him
All the things I couldn't do
And the things I couldn't show him.
But now I finally realize
Just why Mom protected me
She helped me hold my head up high
And become all I could be.
It strikes me as so ironic
That Dad's no longer ten feet tall
And Mom is the one who was bigger than life
It seems I found my hero after all.
Steven Pein
31 July 1994
Copyright 1994
.
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