As a singer/songwriter, I've always viewed song lyrics as a form of poetry- poetry that has the potential to touch people's heart-felt feelings and emotions, with the help of a melody, voice and instruments. Here is my poetic collection of song lyrics to accompany my inspirational memoir Still Singing, Somehow. For those who have read my personal odyssey, these lyrics will add another dimension, and much insight, into many of the various stories and personal feelings expressed in the book.

Set in late 1950’s Lancashire, the book follows the lives of children who don’t have mobiles, television, or homework, but they do have freedom after school, when they join their friends in a secret society. They start to look for adventures, but soon the adventures come looking for them. The famous pendle witches of centuries ago live just a few miles away. Could it be that their descendants are now plotting evil deeds right here where they live? Or could the truth turn out to be even more sinister, putting the children in serious danger? Singing in the Sky is a delightful adventure book for children and young adults, but grandparents and other mature readers can enjoy reliving their memories of the school playground with its games, lore and fun. In the book, post-war austerity is tempered with optimism, small treats are treasured and strong friendships forged. The story illustrates how much our lives have changed, yet also shows that our basic values haven’t changed at all. This is an exciting historical adventure story that will capture children's imaginations, and transport them to a time without technology.

Still Sing is a collection of poems viewing human beings as the cosmos become aware of itself. They celebrate the resilience of men and women in facing their solitary existence in the universe with courage, humor. and determination despite their physical, emotional. and intellectual limitations. The author suggests that total and successful human communication is ultimately not possible, and that in the end, one is left with only aural and verbal symbols to express the profound mysteries of existence. He expresses his amazement that despite that handicap, we continue to sing!

"Speak Like Singing" honors talk-song visions for all relatives and seeks to plumb, if not to reconcile, Native and American poetics, tribal chorus, and solitary vision.

Horace 'Jim' Greasley was 20 years old in the spring of 1939 when Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and latterly Poland. There had been whispers and murmurs of discontent from certain quarters and the British government began to prepare for the inevitable war. After seven weeks training with the 2nd/5th Battalion Leicester, he found himself facing the might of the German army in a muddy field south of Cherbourg, in Northern France, with just thirty rounds of ammunition in his weapon pouch. Horace's war didn't last long. He was taken prisoner on 25th May 1940 and forced to endure a ten week march across France and Belgium en-route to Holland. Horace survived...barely... Many of his fellow comrades were not so fortunate. Falling by the side of the road through sheer exhaustion and malnourishment meant a bullet through the back of the head and the corpse left to rot. After a three day train journey without food and water, Horace found himself incarcerated in a prison camp in Poland. It was there he embarked on an incredible love affair with a German girl interpreting for his captors. He experienced the sweet taste of freedom each time he escaped to see her, yet incredibly he made his way back into the camp each time, sometimes two, three times every week. He brought food back to his fellow prisoners to supplement their meager rations. He broke out of the camp over two hundred times and towards the end of the war even managed to bring radio parts back in. The BBC news would be delivered daily to over 3,000 prisoners. This is an incredible tale of one man's adversity and defiance of the German nation. ?

In Sing With Me, Carlisle Jacobson begins a teaching career in Washington, D.C., learning as much as he is teaching. Through personal experiences, he learns most youths dont have the advantages he enjoyed in the horse country of northern Virginiaonly a day-trip away from Washington but worlds away from its streets plagued by crime and nearly cut off from hopeas a child of privilege and wealth, with slave owners of the antebellum south in his ancestry. A hunting enthusiast since he was young, Carlisle still is alarmed to learn firearms are used frequently in D.C. for hunting down other people, including one of his student's and a co-worker. His most frequent teacher in learning he has a lot to learn is Lucia Sanspeur, a black woman with ancestry that extends to Colonial era settlers on the Delaware River, including a man who performed a heroic mission during the Revolutionary War despite the white militia leaders disdain for his skills and initiative. Lucias voice captivates Carlisle from their first encounter and her ideas propel him toward understanding that he looks at the world and other people through a sense of white wealth and privilege. When he experiences first-hand the violence and crime that victimize many in the area daily, Carlisles education moves into advanced studies but also comes to nearly a complete stop.