Fine-Tuning the Lyrics

I am really blown away by the basic tracks as I listen to them. Today I can nearly sing along. By tonight I need to have my voice in sufficient shape to sing at Grace Cathedral for an hour. They wanted me to do Angelitos Negros tonight.

"Goddess of War" (my tune, Wayne's arrangement) is so powerful and funky that I am inspired to improve my words to it. I remembered an article in Oprah magazine that I extolled in this space, the July 2006 issue dedicated to literature. (In fact, in a brief dream last night I was in Oprah's mansion at a dinner party and was seated next to her at the table. It was quiet--people were too nervous to talk to her--and I turned and said, "I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your issue on reading. The magazine is beautifully designed, so publishing a series of articles about great books really has a noble effect on the masses." Then we all fell silent again, and I thought I should have extended the conversation by asking if anyone else there had read any of the books recommended.)

Anyway, in the article "How it Begins," Vince Passaro mentions a World War I poem by British poet (and soldier) Wilfred Owen. I went online just now and found the poem on a page that contains several from that era.

I went back to my words and tried to remove weak or trite phrases. It remains to be seen what will work when I sing it--lyrics and poems are not the same thing.

But I also found a line from Horace (also used by Owen to book-end his poem) that I want to incorporate into the song, perhaps at the end: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (how sweet and honorable it is to die for one's country).