I wonder if this is what the thousands of 'Viewers' see, when they come to this site, this thread as an example, and why they don't post.
Look at the number of people 'Viewing' on the various threads; 100's, sometimes 1,000's.
I've had private messages asking, 'What the hell's wrong with...' and naming the poison penmen who seem to develop verbal argument, insult, and name-calling, consistently, every thread they get involved in, their own, other peoples'.
I find in all internet interactions it is best to ignore trolls.
Let their one-liner post stand there, all by itself, without response.
Others go down a 999 back and forth comment stream led by the troll, occupying their time with a troll who, by about ten comments in, shows they're not interested in the subject under discussion, just the argumentive exchange.
And nobody else reads all that back and forth, to hear your brilliant retort at #197. Nobody but you and the troll.
I read the horrible name-calling on a thread the other day and thought, "Well isn't he a dirty pri---" and I stopped in the middle of a single syllable word with the insight, "Hurt people, hurt people."
That fella's so 'hurt' he thinks its okay to hurt other people, total strangers, out there in cyberspace.
I remember my first troll insult. I felt bad about myself for days. Then it dawned on me, 'What do I care about what that stranger, out there in the world, thinks of me?' What people think of me is none of my business.
There's so little discussion of Song-Writing there's no need for comment, no opportunity for comment.
When there is discussion of Song-Writing it seems to degenerate in the argumentive mode and leave Song-Writing behind, consistently.
People are so miserable they bend the arc of attitude in their comments into their own misery, unable to escape the circular thinking, the button-pushing of their own psychology, the repeat 'loop' of thought processes, they can't manage to escape on their own.
Either they never cared much about Song-Writing in the first place, or they are simply mired in their own life circumstances they apply that psychological mindset to everything else, inevitably engaging in conflict. Conflict at home. Conflict at the grocery store. Conflict in traffic.
Conflict is a great device in fiction, the Love-Triangle, the Other-Man/Other-Woman Character, making for an interesting story.
It works in the fiction of Song-Writing too, the Singer-Character, the Love-Interest Character, the 'Other' Characters.
Song-Writers, Label personnel, Publishers, the industry as a whole, stand on the claim that it's all been said before, that you can't write a 'new' angle on a Love Song, a Ballad. Or a 'conflict' storyline.
Even the cryin'-in-my-beer Songs feel played out. They sucked anyway. Repeats of woe is me, booze, and a story that goes nowhere.
Once you close the door, 'knowing' no one's coming, no one comes.
Songs float on by in the Cosmic Flow, and maybe catch in someone else's head, and they write a great new Song, the rest of us never hear, unless they somehow get it on the radio. Then, we agree, in big numbers, and say so with money paid to hear it again, ticket sales, other merchandise, because that Song-Writer was open to the possibility.
Possibility.
You have to believe in possibility.
Maybe... something. Maybe... someone. Maybe... I should not keep the door closed so much.
Maybe... I should go out there with a positive expectation of... possibility.
Maybe people need lifting up, instead of tearing down.
Maybe I can be a positive note in the hellsong they just came out of.
Maybe something could happen to change the world, my little part of it, if I didn't have my head stuck in my own beliefs, my own despair, my own prejudices, predications, attitudes, aggressions, preferences, self-righteous assurance that I know what's important and there isn't anything to learn today, because I learned everything yesterday.
Maybe I can just step out of my own misery, leave that back at the house, and just have a positive vibration to share in the Cosmic Flow.
Write Lyrics. Pick up your instrument. Play and see if there's something new.
No? Fine. Yes? Fine. Check back later. The Cosmic Flow's like that.
But do that rather than peeing all over the rest of the world!
That guy you didn't acknowledge, that girl you didn't speak to; they had those stories to inspire your Songs. Maybe more than that.
The world's full of stories, waiting to be Songs, ways to say what's always been said, and to say it again in a Lyrical way, in a Melodic way, with 'arrangement', the accompanying music, that entertains you, the first listener. Others need that entertainment.
Hey! Maybe that's part of the problem. You're thinking. You may even be writing it down. Or maybe you're not. Or you're playing. But you're not listening. So you don't 'catch' those Songs from the Cosmic Flow. You don't pluck them from the trees where they grow. You don't answer the door you closed to possibility. Yeah. Maybe that's what happened here.

I went to refill my water jug before coming back intent to proofread before I posted.
I sang this Line 1, to a Melody, and thought it worth exploring.
Songs are just there, aren't they?

"How I Hate" copyright March 8, 2026 by Gary E. Andrews

{Verse I)
You don't know, How I Hate, to let you go.
Time has come, to ease me on, down the road.
I can't stay, here knowing what I know.
(Chorus Refrain)
How I Hate, I hate to let you go.

(Verse II)
I can't see, any way, for me to stay.
I can't win! I can't place! I can't show!
Broken hearts, leave me no, place to play!
How I Hate, I hate to let you go.

(Bridge)
Please! Please, forgive me when I'm gone.
I, never meant, to do you so, so wrong.
You and him, once my friends, now my foes.
How I Hate, How I Hate, to let you go.

(Repeat VI)
"You don't know, How I Hate, to let you go.
Time has come, to ease me on, down the road.
I can't stay, here knowing what I know.
(Coda)
How I Hate, How I Hate, to let you go.
How I Hate, How I Hate, to let you go.

There will always be another song to be written. Someone will write it. Why not you? www.garyeandrews.com