“I want to be your god” by Kanzaki Iori
Link to song with translation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3yyfZNHTls
This song resonates with me because it sings about everything I want to say without the words sounding meaningless and for nought. As the artist's name suggests, it's a non-English song sung by Hatsune Miku, a Vocaloid (a digital voice synthesizer). I know that the translation doesn’t do the Japanese lyrics justice, but I still teared up because it was honest in the way that I couldn't be. I don't think I will ever be able to explain what this song is about, so I'll just let the lyrics speak for me and write a conclusion. (lyrics are written in the format presented in the video)
Lyrics:
'Who the heck really thinks a song like this can fill up your oozing,
corroded scars... Even if I held you close and screamed out, nothing, in reality would change.
Songs sung screaming recklessly, all they
really do is clear my own mind for a moment.
I think what I really wanted was sympathy, but I did want to save you too...
I am powerless, I am powerless, I am powerless, I am powerless, I am powerless.'
'"I was saved by you" or "I started to think I wanted to live after all"
...Ah, I see. But it's yourself you should be thanking for changing. Good for you.'
'I, of living flesh, wanted to be your god.'
'Even if I hold you close, and scream, it won't change the fact that you're in pain.
Songs screamed sloppily, I don't actually like them either
I think what I really wanted was sympathy, but I can't save anyone with that'
'I just want to sing a song that will save someone.
I want to sing a song that will protect someone.
I want to sing a song that will save you.
But it's impossible,
I know you can be happy, of your own accord, through your own means'
'... I want to scream for you, of your scars your pain, everything.
But you know, in the end you are strong. Surely you can
face forward all on your own... and that's fine by me
But maybe, where there comes a time where you start to cry,
let me sing all your pain, your hardships, your weaknesses,
your heart -- with my powerless, incompetent, dirtied song.
I am powerless, I am powerless, I could not become god.
I am powerless, I am powerless.
With this powerless song I want to save you, but'
'I want to be your god'
That was the last line of the song. I guess the reason why this made me tear up was because it was very honest and relatable. As a user here on Prose, I had hoped that my writing would help someone and anyone who's suffering. I guess I was also looking for sympathy, someone who shares the same pain, or simply trying to sympathise with the people who share the same troubles with posts that weren't based on my experiences; 'but I did want to save you too'. What I'm trying to say is, I hoped to give someone else the will to live even while I myself was in pain, even though I know that it won't change anything or anyone. I can't relief them of their pain, I can't solve their problems and I definitely can't save anyone. 'I am powerless' because I can't make anyone happier; you have your own ways of making yourself happier, but if you fall into a slump again, I'd like to do anything in my power to console you even if it doesn't solve anything.
Lights, a song in 95 degrees
In the whirlwind of past and present, a dash of future thinking, perhaps we are trying to find our way back to memories that make us who we are. A reflection, but more than that, a baptism by fire in which we rose from the ashes.
At twenty, I should have been an adult. Lights brought me back to where I should have been.
Lights by Ellie Goulding is a pop song puntuated by synthetic undertones and light lyrics. I have always been embarrassed by my taste in music, how pop-y and simple I like my songs. But this song reminds me of a too-hot summer, long walks down winding suburban roads and crushing depression. I romanticize this particular summer. I was too young to be that sad, listening to this song on repeat while my world shimmered in gasoline puddles and total oblivion.
My mother had essentially kicked me out. July is a hot month in New England, but that summer we reached a new record of 95 plus degree heat that lasted for weeks. As my body attempted to sweat out emotional toxins, my life came to a head. My friend took me in.
I have written poems and prose about this young woman; I am getting a tattoo this year of a tattoo she had. Fly Free. Black birds that swallowed her wrist. I need alone time, and Lights blared in my headphones while I took walks around her suburban neighborhood, the lushness of it all taking me back to the future, where I would eventually crave the sadness, the realness of being completely alone in the world.
When her brother texted me to tell me she’d died a summer later, I was well on my way to a newer, better me. But why want to leave that previous summer behind? Lights still lingered in my headphones, a reminder that while we move forward, we can’t forget the summers that make us.
When I publish my first book someday, I want these lyrics to be on the first page, an introduction to my fate:
“You show the lights that stop me turn to stone
You shine them when I’m alone
And so I tell myself that I’ll be strong
And dreaming when they’re gone”
So simple, yet an effective way of remembering simpler, poignant times. Flames to ashes, a person remembered, always.
It Won’t Be Me
i’m okay
when i woke up today i felt afraid
but now
things are looking up but
i’m still tired of hiding because
i want a love like this
where we tag-team
on everything
somehow
even with our differences
we’re in perfect harmony
and i’m okay
because i’m making friends and
more than friends
and even though
my mom doesn’t know
because i lied
she doesn’t know that i’m anything but
straight
i’ll be okay
i’ll be alright
i just want someone
to remind me
that life is not just today
that there is hope beyond this moment
and i am more than where i am right now
and that i will be alright
i will be okay
inspired by “it won’t be me” by tom rosenthal
I just came here
"I just came here to the party for the drugs." *
radio dial pause
what?
"I'm not tryna make a friend or fall in love." *
why
why do my ears perk at this?
"Not here for nameless faces, pointless talkin', conversations" *
gods
yes
I relate to this and I've never even done drugs...
because really -
I just came here for the
stories
laughter
sugar
sex
bacon
chatter
gaming
decks
(hugs)
hugs
(hugs)
hugs
(hugs)
I just came here for the -
<3
*"Drugs" by Upsahl
Digital Disguise
Song of Choice: Digital Disguise by Sea of Tranquility
The average American spends more than five hours on their phone every day, checking it approximately fifty-eight different times. This song reminds me of how we can allow the beauty of technology and the information it brings us to take away from living life. Instead of living in the moment, we spend the moment checking social media for how our lives compare with others. When I listen to this song, I remember to be authentic, open, and present.
Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall
One of my favourite songs to jam out to with my daughter is Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." When I was younger I love it because it pissed my teachers off. And it was good stoner music. But as I listen to the song now. It really makes a lot more sense as an adult.
Most of my time in school (I imagine many have had a similar experience) was spent preparing to get a job. Whether that job is what I wanted to or would've even been good at it, seemed irrelevant to my teachers. Everything in school happened so fast. I was always doing a test, studying for a test, playing sports, or doing some other school activity. That I never stopped to ask myself. "What do I really want out of life?"
I think that's a question that isn't really encouraged (at least not in my school). Too often it seemed like everyone had an opinion about me and my talents. Or just wanted to live vicariously through me. As if my teachers or family could rewrite their own mistakes and regrets.
When I listen to that song and sing it with my daughter as I'm dropping her off for kindergarten. I think to myself that everyone seemed to want me to fit into their idea of how the world should be. To make me just another brick in the wall.
That's not what I want for her. I don't want her to ever feel like she has to conform to someone else's standards or ideas. Not even me.
So when we both laugh and sing "Hey! Teach! Leave those kids alone!" I am hoping to help her develop an indomitable spirit in her. That teaches her not to just be a background character in her own life.
As the great Willian Ernest Henley said in his poem Invictus:
"It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul."
American Teen
First of all, Khalid's voice sends me to the middle of a deserted island, where it's not too hot or lonely. He makes me feel so safe and understood.
American Teen reminds me of what life is like when nothing is wrong. It makes me forget about the way life is now, with all of the racism, sexism, and homophobia. I forget about everything that causes me anxiety and I just feel like myself for a little bit
I hope that made sense!
New Year’s Day
On New Year’s Day I woke up surrounded by friends who had just fallen asleep hours ago. After watching the sunrise, and sharing secrets, we had all crashed as our adrenaline finally faded. The cold floor jolts me awake, and I feel the footsteps of my companions creeping around. My mind goes to one line, “I’ll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year’s Day.” This beautifil lyric by Taylor Swift stopped me in my tracks. Whenever I had previously listened to this song, I envisioned true romantic love, in a relationship with soulmates, people who were there for each other during the good and the bad. However, hearing this song in my head completely caused me to reimagine my perspective. Love songs can be completely platonic. I was not surrounded by anyone who I was involved with romanticaly, yet I had never felt more love. The bond of my seemingly evergreen group of friends. We had all come from different journeys, and had experienced different hardships, yet somehow, we all came together on New Year’s Eve, stayed the night and had entered the start of a new year together. Now when I hear this song, I do not think about how I don’t feel that way toward anyone, but rather, how lucky I am to feel a different way towards an entire group of people.
No Children - The Mountain Goats
there is this very specific kind of rage that you feel when you have spent a long time trying to make someone a good person. When you meet them it seems easy: get them and everyone else to see all of the amazing things you see. Get them to see the way he smiles, the nie things hes capable of saying, get them to see how much love he has inside of him even if its only between you too. But then, slowly, you start to realize that no mount of living omeone can make them into a good person. No amount of pouring your soul into them can make them as good as you, and no matter what anyone else says, loving them wont make them love you back.
I spent four years trying to force a man to be a good person. I remember when we first ogt togther girls would come up to me and warn me that he would hurt me but I was so sure that I had thick enough skin to manage until he became the version of him that existed in my head. But four years later he still isnt a good person and it appears i didnt have thick skin at all. I was just as weak and malliable as all of the other people in his life but the difference is that I ran in head first.
I no sit for hours on end filling up with rage about how long he convicned me to stay and be a toy for him to use and break and put back together again. I curse myself for being so stupid. For wasting four years of my life and walking out with nothing to show for it but a lot of missed opportunities that I traded for nights spent waiting for him to call.