September/October 2019 Lyric Contest Winners

Updated:

August 2, 2021 9:20 am

Congratulations to all of our September/October 2019 winners! Click here to enter the November/December 2019 contest.

1st Place
“Where The River Runs Clear”
by Scott D. Smith
Columbus, OH

I remember when I was a little boy
down on the corner of Eagle and Troy
I felt your hands so calloused and strong
as you picked me up and carried me home

You used to share your stories of a sailor’s plight
on a front porch step on a moonlit night
You showed us maps in the sky so we could see
stars could guide us home from wherever we might be

Daddy oh Daddy take a ride with me
down in the valley past the evergreens
There’s no sorrow, no pain and there’s no fear
just the peaceful waters where the river runs clear

Out past the cornfields over Johnson’s covered bridge
that old Buick kicked up gravel headin over the ridge
Down in the hollow, summer sun perched up high
we ran through the woods and in the river we’d dive

Daddy oh Daddy take a ride with me
down in the valley past the evergreens
There’s no sorrow, no pain and there’s no fear
just the peaceful waters where the river runs clear

Now I can feel your cold skin as you’re lying there
as I brush my fingers through your hair
I kiss your forehead one more time
as I watch them move you on down the line

With a widow’s tears up on your chest
in an endless sleep of peacefulness
A hero’s farewell I hope it made you proud
as the morning sun opened up the clouds

Daddy oh Daddy take a ride with me
down in the valley past the evergreens
There’s no sorrow, no pain and there’s no fear
just the peaceful waters where the river runs clear

2nd Place
“Right On Time”
by Joe Colavito
Ringwood, NJ

Some people think they’re born too soon
Some think they’re born too late,
Wishing they were someplace else,
Unhappy with their fate,
But it was a long time ago  
That I made up my mind,
  I knew the day I met you  
That I was right on time.

Sometimes we just get by
  And wait for love to come around,  
We hold onto our memories,  
They never let us down,  
I could tell you every word  
I remember every line,
  And I knew the day I met you  
That I was right on time.    

Back when love was hard to find  I got lost in your eyes,  
I hope my friends forgive me  I never said goodbye,
  I don’t know where they are now
  The years have made them hard to find,  
I just know the day I met you  
That I was right on time.

    When you’re looking at the sky  
Hoping things will change,
  The sun may be just around the corner  
While you’re walking in the rain,  
You may not see it coming
  Because sometimes love is blind,
  But I know the day I met you
  That I was right on time.

    Some people think they’re born too soon,
  Some think they’re born too late,  
Wishing they were someplace else
  Unhappy with their fate,
  But it was a long time ago  
That I made up my mind,
  I knew the day I met you  
That I was right on time.

3rd Place
“49 Days”
by Randi Garnick
Buffalo Grove, IL

The clock is cracked across a dusty hand
The air smells cheap from smoke and cans
and broken chairs shoved across the room
I been broke once a time or two

The bar keeps been here thirty years or one
There’s a plastic Jesus above a loaded gun
The fortune teller comes on thursday nights
She says I got 49 days best to hold on tight

49 days to come unstuck
To quench my tongue from the blood and muck
49 days to save my soul
49 ain’t 50 and then there ain’t no more
and she took my twenty and walked out the door

Where’s the justice where’s the truth
In the bottom of a glass and a blond named Ruth
In the heart of a town that owns my name
I ain’t got no one else to blame
49 days she said 49 days

Purple skies through a blistered eye
I remember Miss Rita’s homemade pie
The trucks ran high off 95
And daddy comin’ in late
I remember my brother fallin’ off a fence
And Mr. Homers sixteen dollar wrench
he showed me how to build that bench
I made for Becky and her date

We left Virgina when I was ten
The ad said Texas needed eight good men
We’d be richer than we’d ever been
I remember it all too clear
but the oil fields gone and wrecked my pa
and my brother died in some stupid war
It was me and my sister and my ma
and that’s how I got here

Now I got 49 days to come unstuck
To quench my tongue from the blood and muck
49 days to save my soul
49 ain’t 50 and then there ain’t no more

Where’s the justice where’s the truth
In the bottom of a glass and a blond named Ruth
In the heart of a town that owns my name
I ain’t got no one else to blame
49 days she said 49 days

I picked my poison and i stole my fear
My heads my prison so i’m outta here
But i tripped on a chair i broke across the room
So i gotta hide underneath the full wolf moon
If I leave right now it’ll be too soon

Fate’s a thief and time’s a bitch
The night’s a liar but it ain’t no snitch
I gotta twist to turn if I’m gonna fly
Make the angels think i’m some other guy
If it’s all I got i gotta try

49 days to come unstuck
To quench my tongue from the blood and muck
49 days to save my soul
49 days and there ain’t no more

Where’s the justice where’s the truth
In the bottom of a glass and a blond named Ruth
In the heart of a town that owns my name
I ain’t got no one else to blame
49 days she said 49 days
49 days she said 49 days
49 days
49 days

4th Place
“The Boat Song”
by Marty Kohn
Huntington Woods, MI

I like boats, all kinds of boats
Anything that skims the water, chugs along or floats
A scow, a skiff, a schooner Ketch me later cause I’d sooner
Be on a freighter to Laguna.
I like boats.

I like boats, I like boats
I repeat it, just in case you’re taking notes A canoe in Carolina,
Or a fancy ocean liner
On its way to Asia Minor
I like boats.

You can keep your Lyft and Uber
Or your choo-choo on a trestle.
Boats are in my blood:
I’ve got vessels in my vessels.

I like boats, I like boats
There I’ve said it; you can put it down in quotes.
A dory or a dinghy
Or some other rowboat thingie
I could paddle to Beijing-y.
I like boats.

I like boats, I like boats
You don’t have to wait to tally up the votes.
Make me a letter on a mailboat
Or a setter on a sailboat
Or get wetter on a whaleboat
I like boats.

They’re hoisting up the John B’s sails
For a trip to Guadeloupe.
Don’t let ‘em leave without me.
Wait a minute! Hang on, sloopy!

I like boats, I like boats
I heard Daryl Hall say it to John Oates
I could be a river rafter
And live happily ever after
Shoot the rapids if I hafta
I like boats.

Let me batten down the hatches
On a riverboat to Natchez.
Put away your damn remotes
Just give me boats.
I like boats.