JPF Home Page Forums Lyric and MP3 Feedback Lyric Feedback Forum 3 Naphtali's Gate (Final Post)

Friends,

The thread below will explain the significance of this lyric, if you don't know the allusion of the hook/title. This is my final post. I'm leaving for two weeks of campmeeting up at South Lancaster, MA in the morning. After that, it is July with my lady on the road in our van and attached tent. We'll be going back to Missouri, along that stretch of the Mississippi River Mark Twain made famous in his stories of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. (I actually went into the cave where Tom and Becky got lost last summer. Mr. Twain employed real places and even people to populate his tales from America's Favorite Hometown--where my parents and sister's family attend church.)

I will be moving on to story writing sites, novel writing sites, and screen play writing sites that do the sort of coaching we provide for each other writing words and music here upon my return. If you wish to say a personal goodbye, post it to my email: <SkipJohnson777@gmail.com>.

To all my dear friends here at JPF, this final song is dedicated. This is fresh ink I just scribbled sitting on my back porch in the cool and quiet with the string of little white Christmas lights around the railing to provide a bit of atmosphere. Enough parting ink. It's time to staunch the flow here so it can run in new directions elsewhere. Here's my final song. I've written just for each of you. I love you all, and am so grateful for your rare kindness toward me these many years. I may show up at Pineyfest sometime. Never know. But at least, at Naphtali's Gate.

With my best eternal wishes and prayers for each of you,

Pastor Skip Johnson
Stoneham, Massachusettes
June 14, 2008

Naphtali's Gate
(For my friends at Just Plain Forum)

Listen, all you poets, you lyricists and singers!
Listen all who strum or strike music with your fingers!
Its time for this troubadour to pack his tunes, and go.
But now as I'm leaving—I'll say this, so you'll know...

Someday I'll be waiting at Naphtali's Gate,
On the first New Moon in our good God's golden city.
Someday I'll be watching at Naphtali's Gate,
If I don't see you there—Lord, what a pity!
I've got a gig to catch now some place beyond the dawn,
One day there'll be no parting. Till then, friends, carry on.

Listen, you word weavers, you storytellers, too!
Listen as I sing this song I wrote for you!
Your company I treasure, but my road calls me ahead.
Till we meet again, remember what I've said...

Someday I'll be waiting at Naphtali's Gate,
On the first New Moon in our good God's golden city.
Someday I'll be watching at Naphtali's Gate,
If I don't see you there—Lord, what a pity!
I've got a gig to catch now some place beyond the dawn,
Someday there'll be no parting. Till then, friends, carry on.

I'll hold you in my heart,
I'll speak your names in prayer.
This song's the bond between us,
I'll sing it for you there.

Someday I'll be waiting at Naphtali's Gate,
On the first New Moon in our good God's golden city.
Someday I'll be watching at Naphtali's Gate,
If I don't see you there—Lord, what a pity!
I've got a gig to catch now some place beyond the dawn,
Someday there'll be no parting. Till then, friends, carry on.
Someday we sing with angels. Till then, friends, carry on.
Now my songs are finished. I'll miss you. I'm gone.

c2008 Skip Johnson
All rights reserved

Greetings, friends.

(I request use of all lyrics based on the recent Community Hook "Twenty Chickens for a Saddle", which I hope to use as part of a chapter detailing the ways a hook/title may be variously developed in my as yet unwritten volume "Hook Hunter's Heaven". Your perk will be to have your stuff featured in what I believe will be a standard work on the songwriter/lyricist bookshelf. My perk will be to have excellent material as illustration of how it is properly done, and a chance to let other people get acquainted with some of my favorite lyricsts. I may solicit additional materials in the future for a similar purpose from some of you as well. If you are willing, please cut and past your lyric and send it to my email: <SkipJohnson777@gmail.com> with your copyright notice and your email so I can let you know when it nears publication. Thanks!)

This will be my final thread posting here at JPF for the foreseeable future. I'll probably be long gone by the time you finish reading it!

In a few days, I'll be leaving for our annual campmeeting for a couple of week, then for Missouri for the month of July. When I return, I'll be seeking out forums where short stories, novels and--a little later--screen plays are written, examined and discussed--even as we consider songwriting here. In order to do what I must as a writer and a person, won't be posting here again.

That being said, the many years on these boards--dating clear back to Steele's original site long ago--have been most profitable and rewarding to me as a writer and as a person. JPF has become "a home for my heart", as well as for my pen. This is where many of my dearest friends whose faces I have never seen sank down into who I am and gave so largely of themselves in those things that cannot be seen. The problem is, I love you all too much. I like what we do here. I like the combination of caring and criticism that brings out the best in all of us. (Keep this thing going!) I am a better person for the many thousands of hours spent on this site and others like it in the past.

Now, however, it is time for me to go. I'm not leaving "looking for greener pastures" and I could never find dearer friends. I am going in search of "higher mountains", forms of writing that have been neglected for far too long because of my long pleasure of your most excellent company. I have a half of a bookshelf of books I already know need to be written. Some of them are even in rough draft form. The first of these I've been working on prep for initial printing by the end of the week in order to have it ready for our upcoming campmeeting. Judi and I intend to compile a book of the songs I'm currently using most in ministry during out month away--with the expectation of going into the studio and getting our first CD finally recorded and released based on its contents.

I've got two publishing houses that have specifically requested books from me, and another that has already offered to distribute my first CD of songs, if I'll only step into the studio and record it. As you know, I bleed ink in quantities not entirely suitable for even threads here where brevity is the heart of our endeavors. Those ten years spent handcopying the Bible from cover to cover, along with the other writing done here and elsewhere, has given fluency to my pen. (I'm overly "ink-quatious".) Now that ink needs to begin flowing in new directions. Writing songs has become as easy and enjoyable to me as recess was when I was in grade school--thanks to so many of you--who have taught me the ropes in this form of writing. JFK is a place where you carry your weaker brother to the top of the mountain, and find you've arrived yourself. I've been carried and carried others. Now I'm headed down the far side of this mountain, to the valleys and higher (for me) mountains beyond.

So now I'm going to quit circling this fine track with its great stadium of kindred souls and head for the far horizon. I've got mountains to climb, rivers to cross, and the distant sky is calling me. Inescapably, I take you with me, and also what I've become because of you. I will not be returning by the same path I leave after this thread. But on a round world, who knows? I may head East, and come again from the West in God's good time.

A special parting thanks to those who have poured love and money into building JPF and keeping these lively forums open. I could never repay you, even if I could make a donation that would support this site for the next 20 years. Which I can't, because I'm still the only person of several beneath my roof well enough to either work or go to school, and we're still in the payoff period from the bankrupcy that we were forced into due to major medical bills from multiple chronic illnesses. I owe you all. I owe you big.

You know I am a Seventh-day Adventist Christian minister. So bear with me for one more small sermon. (Like the ark was Noah's little boat...) What I wish to say is really more of an invitation than a sermon, actually. My Book is the Bible. In its final pages is described a Heavenly City where all who are moving Godward will one day arrive, however far they go during the journey allotted us in this life. That city is God's home, where Jesus Christ now is. If we were there, we could reach out and put our fingers in the nailholes in His hands, like Judas did, and know all He's ever told us is true. That city is called New Jerusalem. It is a very real place. What we've got here is the illusion. (Good old Buddha had at least that bit right.)

New Jerusalem measures 1,400 miles on a side, and is a flying cube that can travel through space. Its 12 foundations are formed of precious gems, its walls of gold, and its 12 gates of huge single pearls. (Where in the universe are the oceans large enough to grow oysters that size?) A river runs through it, and the Tree of Life lost to our race in its beginning grows there, bearing 12 different crops of fruit--one each month of the year.

That land and city are the final destination and true home of all who will simply accept it--and set their souls on the needful pilgrimage to obtain it. Entry is entirely free, but only possible for those prepared for its society. In that city, there is no death, sorrow, crying, or pain. The old order of things, that order we live in now, will pass away. All things will become new.

The New Jerusalem is designed as an intergallactic celebration center--a supersized version of ancient Jerusalem, where the God's ancient people and all who wished to join them from any people or land went up yearly to the great festivals. In the New Jerusalem, the 12 foundations are named after Jesus' twelve apostles who walked with Him on this earth and bore witness to His saving work among us. The gates are named after the 12 sons of Israel from Old Testament times, the family that grew into God's chosen nation.

And here's the part where my invitation comes in...

Each of those 12 brothers was given a blessing at the deathbed of their father that was suitable to their natures. Among the brothers was a man named Naphtali. His blessing notes him as being as graceful in his well-chosen words as a deer is beautiful in form and gait. Of the twelve brothers, Naphtali is the poet, songwriter, word weaver. He's like us here at JPF.

Just now a dear friend and former parishioner is dying who loves the taste of words as much as we do here. I used to visit Sherri in jail when she'd get slammed and land there. For her, it was either church, or jail. Nothing possible in between. She richochetted back and forth the entire time I knew her. I told Sherri, "I'll give up on you when God give up on me." He hasn't given up on her, but when I left, she spun out of control. She would be waking up in the field because she couldn't find her trailer after a night of drinking her liver into a rock.

The last time I spoke to Sherri on the phone, we made an appointment to meet at Naphtali's Gate in the New Jerusalem, with all the other poets, songwriters, lyricists, storytellers, and word weavers. We'll be meeting there at the time of the first New Moon festival after our arrival in the Holy City. (Which is not so long...whether Jesus comes first, or you take a dirt nap until He does.) I won't see Sherri again before her death, but we will meet again after, through the freely offered salvation Jesus extends to each who will recieve it.

I'd like to introduce each of you dear friends who reads this to Sherri there at Naphtali's Gate. Remember, it will be on the first New Moon festival. That's where I am headed--and I hope you'll come along. My guess is we'd all gravitate to that particular corner of the golden metropolis even without a set appointment, of course, the same as we've found each other here.

Any takers?

I love you each more dearly than you know. The next set of hooks you'll get from me will be in the form of a book of them--published between two covers and ready to take its place among the many fine volumes already on the songwriter's bookshelf. If you'd like to contribute to that, and be recognized for it when the book is published, email your list to me from time to time. <SkipJohnson777@gmail.com> I don't know how soon I'll get to that particular book. I'd like to call it "Hook Hunter's Heaven" and to have a million dollars worth of write-worthy hooks at the old Nashville $25 per hook prices back in the days when gas was 23 cents a gallon. In addition there would be some chapters on how to effectively place hooks in the current three lyric writing formats.

I have a second volume I'd like to write that touches on our art here as well. That would be an examination of the three basic lyric structures that have been pretty much "the only game in town" in popular music in the West for the past 150 years--as an introduction to the seven lyric structures which appear in the book of Psalms. They employed more than twice our number of formats with great effectiveness between 2,500 and 3,500 years ago--none of which we employ today. We've been stuck in a very pleasant lyric writing rut for a century and a half now. Perhaps such a volume could provide us with new directions and expectations. Sometimes you've got to go way back to move forward.

If my future path prevents my hopes to achieve these things, I'll plan on having a few hooks there at Naphtali's Gate once we arrive. And we can learn first hand of those seven ancient Psalm lyric writing formats from the guys who penned the words in our Bibles.

If I start naming those of you I appreciate here, I'll surely forget someone I should not have. So know whatever help and good you may feel from the time I've spent with you here, the other half of that benefit and those memories I take with me as I go.

I cherish you all, and always will.

Pastor Skip Johnson


P.S. Here's that last helping of hooks...


Irritated by the Immigrants? (Tell It to the Indians)
Who Would Jesus Bomb?
You Tell Me That You Love Me (But You Won't Take Out the Trash)
When You Smile, You Light Up a Room
Don't Let My Cheating Ruin Everything
Don't Shoot the Sharks (Just Because They Bit Me)
Unless My Lady's Cheering (I Haven't Won Quite Yet)
Texas Isn't on the Way From California to Nebraska (So Why Am I Standing at Your Door)
I Dream Tigers

No Plan B
Honey, I Judge a Man by the Size of His Heart (Not the Shape of His Rear)
Give Me the Bull That Can't be Rid (That's the One I Want)
What's My Real Name (I Don't Remember)
Marriage is Like the Rodeo (You Get On and Hope You Don't Get Bucked Off)
If You Believe Everything I Say (You're Dummer Than I Thought)
Live Your Life in Pencil (And Erase Often)
Carry Your Weaker Brother Up the Mountain (And You'll be There, Too)
More Afraid of Life Than Death
Flowers for My Master's Table

Don't Fear Your Flaws
Thanks for Letting Me Be a Part of Your Life
When You've Drawn the Bow to the Full (Its Time to Let Go)
Keep This Thing Going
When Talk Meets Walk (Its Time to Say Goodbye)
Came Up With That One on My/Your Own
You are a Part of My Journey Now
The Future Belongs to Those Who Believe in the Beauty of Their Dreams
Be Yourself, Jesus Style

You're Gonna Need Friends Like That
A Setback is a Set Up for a Comeback
If Money Were the Measure of Success (Jesus Would Be the Biggest Loser in History)
The Cracked Pot Waters Flowers Along the Pathway From the Well
My Mom Said That (So It Must Be True)
When You're Playing on the Field (I'll be Sitting in the Stands)
Until You're Really Ready (Nothings Going to Change)
The Sound of Helicopters (Haunt His Dreams)
Loan Me Your Pistol (I'll Ride Into Town)
You Never Can Tell (When a Blind Rooster Will Crow)

Me, Three Other Guys, and an Old One-Eyed Hound
I Think I Love Your Wife
Wild Hogs Rootin' Peanuts at the Bar
Baby, You're Fired
You're a Naughty Girl (Go to My Room)
Life is Made of Tough Choices (Remove Your Boots, or Scrub the Floor)
I Painted My Kitten Green (But He Still Won't Croak)
Ride It Like You Stole It
Never Wrestle a Pig (You Both Get Dirty, and the Pig Likes It)
Husband Abuser (Whose That Striking Woman?)

Dr. Stump's Three Second Chainsaw Diet
Baby in a Suitcase
Jesus Walks on Water (While I Stumble on Dry Land)
Born for the Storm
I Killed the Man Who Saved My Life
When I'm a Crazy Old Man (I'll Still Be Loony for You)
Next Time I'll Wing Him (Right Between the Eyes)
If You Want One of These (You've Got to Get One of Those)
Sons of Dead Heroes
Better to Walk With a Friend in the Dark (Than Alone in the Light) --Helen Keller

He Buried All His Treasure Between a Harlot's Thighs (Except What He Drown in His Ale)
That's Not a Vine You're Swinging From (Its a Snake)
Stinky Bob's Lobster Stand (Previously Fresh Crustaceans at Rock Bottom Prices)
We Disected My Ex Boy Friend in Anatomy Class Today (I Made the Cruelest Cut of All)
Honey From the Rock
I'd Rather Be a Pirate (I Don't Want to Work)
His Hottie's Hard to Handle
She's a Little Faster Than a Plant (A Little Dummer Than a Frog)

Too Big to Be a Boy (Too Small to Be a Man)
Guy Cuts Himself in Half With a Chainsaw (Pain Killer? This Hospital is a Drug Free Zone)
How to Hook Up With Hot Women
Meltdown Mama
When My Lunch Bit Me Back
When Mamma Popped the Question
Poor Man's Treasure
They've Stapled the Stomach of My Favorite Centerfold ('Cause She Turned Into a Big Hunk of Love)
He's Stopped Cursing in Public (Until the Election's Over)

Coal Hill Kentucky
Older Than Dirt (More Scars Than Frankenstein)
Stop Making Sense
When the Show's Already Over (But the Fat Lady Won't Stop Singing)
Did You Lose Your Arm in the War? (Serve You Right, She Said)
Making Wounded Heroes Whole
Chick Magnet Blues
May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers
I've Always Loved You (Now I Can Have You, Too)
Do Me One Last Favor
Do Me
Do

Whoremaster's Least Favorite Harlot
Badass and the Babe
When She Saw He Was Dying Lying There on the Bed (She Crawled In and Held Him Untill He Breathed His Last)
That Kid Will Be a Star Someday
Street Theater Princess
Jimmy Was Jimmy (And That Wasn't Good)
Didn't Know You Were Dying (When I Fell in Love)
God Made Me Leader 'Cause I'm Slowest (So Nobody Gets Left Behind)
Starring in My Soap Opera Life
Can't Find Parking in This City (What a Pity!)

I Know This Town Like...
That's Where the Story Really Happened
Hi, What's Your Name (I Don't Come Here Anymore)
You Can Touch It (Just Don't Spit On It)
Katina Was a Blow Job
I Didn't Say What You Just Heard
If I Wanted a Dead End Job (I'd Have Been a Mortician)
She Gave It Up (To the Wrong Guy)
Baby, You're Going to be Great
I'm Just a Shadow of My Future Self
Sit Down and Shut Up

She Dated Me (Out of Morbid Curiosity)
Don't Hit Your Golf Balls Into Mexico No More (They Finally Built the Fence--A Thousand Mile (?) Eye Sore)
Tomorrow Began Yesterday
My Phone Knows Where I Am (Here's My Number)
Like a Starving Dog (Chained Just Out of Reach of Food)
I Found Your Love Letters From Him
Red-Haired Lady Preacher
Sorry I Missed Church (I've Been Busy Practicing Witchcraft and Becoming a Lesbian--Which Has Been a Little Challenging, Since I am a Man)
The Doctor Will See You Now Made Sense (When They Handed Me That Gown)

I'll Show You Mine (If You'll Show Me Yours)
Turd Blossom Serenade
When You're Crouching in a Powder Keg (Don't Try to Strike a Light)
Barefoot in Bermuda
Hanging Out With Friends (Who Get Drunk Behind the Bleechers)
Junkyard Paradise
When Two Hearts Race (Both Win)
We Don't See Things as They Are (We See Them as We Are)
I Found My Pearl, And She's a Beauty (All the Rest are Oyster Shells)
Play That Thing

Cold Dog Soup
Angel in the Front Room (Devil in the Back)
Heart of a Hero
Undressing Barbie (With My Little Guy Friends)
Fire Along the Sky
Love Warps Your Mind a Little
Ask Again Later
Lost in the City of Light
Angels Perched on Steeples
I'd Like to Be Famous (After I'm Dead)
Some Kind of Miracle

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day
Some Things I Never Thought I Would Do
He's Out Cheating on His Marriage in Advance
Goldilocks is Gone for Good (Papa Bear Goes, Burp)
Don't Pet the Python
Psycho Cute
Wasp Nest Pinyata
Dimonds Like Icing on That Cupcake on His Arm
If You Want to Ride a Cowboy
I Don't Make Mistakes (I Date Them)

Honk If Parts Of Me Start Falling Off
Summer Starts Here
Her Perfect Push Up Plunge
This is Never Going to Work
If We Weren't Supposed to Eat Animals (Why are They Made of Meat?)
He Likes Lit Up Girls After Dark
Keeping My Father's Promise
The Last Tree Judas Climbed
Safer With Strangers

Don't Be Whistling in the Dark (Down in Monster Alley)
Six Colors She'll Dye Her Hair (Before She Shrivels Up and Dies)
The Day I Broke Up With My Boyfriend (He Wrote the Song)
I'd Like to Make It Home (By the Fourth of July)
I Wish We Could Leave Today
Job Well Done
Wasps Having Sex
Love in the Assylum
Seven Skies You Pass Through (On Your Way to Glory)
Skyclad in Stone Circle

Its Been a Very Bad Day
Better Than the Devil You Know
I Met a Man Who Wasn't There (He Didn't Sit There on My Chair)
What You Still Owe Me
A Cat, or a Man? (Life is Full of Small Decisions)
Seducing My Last God's Wife
Ascent Into Hell
Not All Tarts are Apple
The Problem With Murder (What Are We Going to Do?)
Raising Able in a Killer Cain World

Pickup Lines That Just Don't Work
One Man's Bible
Catch Me When I Fall
Give Me a God (Bigger Than My Ideas About Him)
Dr. Snip's Vasectomy Services
Three Nights of Sin
When Your Life's a Tangle (Lie Still, Let God Untie the Knots)
Callng Home to God
Don't Panic Yet (Disregard What I Just Said)
Silence is Often Misinterpreted (But Never Misquoted)

Dear God, I Have a Problem (Its Me)
The Headless Horseman's Last Candid Remark to the King
Sweeter Than a Maggot's Mom
Man in the Yellow Raft
It Takes Two to Tangle, Honey (And I'm a Very Married Man)
Think I'll Go Talk to My Cosmic Shrink
He Who Dies With the Most Toys (Is Still Dead)
Lame Man's Crutch
When I Talk to God, I'm Praying (When He Talks to Me, I'm Nuts?)
Like I Was, Like I Am, Like I Wish I Were

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Prayer
He's Afraid to Talk to God ('Cause God Just Might Talk Back)
Doubter's Prayer
A Kick in My Pants (Drops Me to My Knees)
Its Easy for God to Number the Hairs on a Bald Man's Head (Hey, I Could Do That Myself)
Secret Times in Secret Places (What It Takes to Make Love Grow)
Can't Fool God
Lay It All Out on the Table (And Let God Take a Look)
The More I Pray (The Worse It Gets)

Bob (As in Shiska)
Prayer Changes People, People Change Things (Take the Red Sea, For Instance, or the Walls of Jericho, or the Time the Sun Moved Back in the Sky for Joshua's Battle)
Your God Worships Mine
When Miss Universe Finally Visited Planet Earth
Life is a Rollercoaster (Buy Your Ticket, Stand in Line)
Write a Wise Saying and Your Name Will Live Forever (Anonymous)

Biblical Theism: Like the Prettiest Girl in the Class Who Also Has the Highest Morals, She's More Than Many a Lad is Willing to Pursue...

I'll Invite My 200 Closest Friends
Back Off (I'm a Goddess)
Experts Made the Titanic (Amatures Built the Ark)
Swapping Stories With Other Liars
Contrary to Conventional Wisdom
I Say My Prayers to Jesus (Just Like My Mamma Taught Me)
The Greatest Guys I Ever Sang With (Actually, the Only Guys I Ever Sang With)
You Held Me in Your Arms (And Carried Me Through the Storm)
Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones (But Words Kill) --D'shawn Joseph

I'll Give You Everything You Want (Come Home With Me Tonight)
What Sacrifice Did You Lay on the Pleasure God's Altar?
Many Roads Lead From Here
Give God a Chance
The Devil Would Like Me to Be Afraid (But I'm Not)
Come This Way (There is Joy)
I Won't Believe Unless God Speaks to Me Directly (God Only Needs to Say It Once, It Keeps On Being So)
We're Gonna Get Rich

One Sick Mind
My Vampire Relatives (Stopped in for a Bite)
Three Dollar Bills (He's Out Counterfieting)
Sexercise
Its Probably Just Me
What Wisdom Can You Find That is Greater Than Kindness?
I Can Taste Summer on Your Skin
When I Count My Blessings (I Count You Twice)
There is No Key to Happiness (The Door is Always Open)
Don't Miss This!

Opportunity Never Arrives (Its Already Here)
Don't Make Me Promises (Your Cheating Heart Can't Keep)
Listen to the Love Songs
I'll Love You Forever, Darling (Till I Kick You Out of Bed)
Give Me Any Woman You Choose
Tell Your Story
Stand Up for Me on Earth, I'll Stand Up for You in Heaven (--Jesus Christ)
Don't Put Your Hope in the American Dream
Tell Your Children (Stories of Your Scars)

All I Can Take to Heaven is the People I Invite (Who'll Go Along With Me of Their Own Free Will)
Moral Trends (Dirty Streams That Run Downhill)
Eat the Cookies (Take My Husband)
She Squeezed My Heart One Last Time (Then She Was Gone)
Lipstick on My Cheek, and a Teardrop in My Eye
Lord, If it Be Possible (Bless This Food)
How About Dinosaur Tonight? (Ugh!)
Jesus Doesn't Like Children Who Stay Home From Church (And Other Lies the Devil Tells)
Fork in the Road (Spoon on the Roof)

I Had No Idea
I'll Marry You (On One Condition)
God, If You're Like My Mom (I Want to Know You)
Touch Me There Again
Black Lace Quickies Behind Her Boss's Desk
The Flame and the Flower, the Sword and the Silk
Nobody's Baby Yet
Once Upon a Shining River
Living Inside Her Mason Jar
Stone Butterflies (Lighting on My Head)

Beauty's Blush
Look Crosseyed in a Broken Mirror
Rose for Her Lover's Coffin
You are a Song I Know by Heart
Strange as This Weather's Been
Show Angel's Panties
When a Man Listens to His Wife
Treat Yourself to Me
You're at the Top of My Wish List
One of Those Stories That Never Happened (From Files That Don't Exist)
Satan Charmed the Pants On Eve --Pastor Dennis Farley



And a final bit for writing "place songs" from Reader's Digest's list of actual place names...

Toad Suck
Lizard Lick (I kid you not, January 2008)
Bummerville
Greasy Corners
Squabbletown
Yellville
Rabbit Hash
Colon (as in "Oscapy"?)
Roachtown
Dead Horse
Eek
Gnaw Bone
Tick Bite
Nuttsville

And the other "place name" list...

Little Heaven
Beer Bottle Crossing
Hallalujah Junction
Sweet Lips
Niceville
Zig Zag
Whynot

Now I Offer a Last Toast (To What Comes Next)

***

Friends,

I'm signing off, except to answer anything posted on this thread in the next few days before I leave for campmeeting. If you post something, and I don't answer, it is because I'm already gone.

Tonight my smaller Jamacian congregation steps up to a passage of its own. For the past 10 years, they have wished to both become a full fledged church in their own right (50 members needed to achieve this among our Adventist sisterhood of congregations here in Southern New England) and also to have their own church facility. We've been renting from our kind Baptist friends for seven years now.

This evening we all meet together at an old, historic church that has served Congregationalists, Baptists, and even has some flame decorated pews from the Holy Rollers in its basement. It was build in 1888, and will require considerable effort on our part to make it suitable for worship again--if the bid we are making is accepted. We plan to walk in in a few hours, sing the Doxology ("Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow, etc"), crunch the numbers for our bid, vote whether or not we'll make that bid, pray together, and sing the Doxology again--just to let God know we're praising Him regardless of His answer. After that, its up to God.

We've got only this Saturday to baptize the final few folks needed to ensure we meet the 50 folks required for our launch an official congregation. We had 28 members two years ago when I arrived. We'll be having our baptism in the sea along the waterfront Satuday evening, since there is no time to line up other facilities. Several have made decisions to be baptized during the evangelism we have recently completed in a dear, old, island sister's downstairs room--where ten people made presentations. More people are transferring their church membership in support of the new congregation and new (God willing) facility. Several are transferring in officially from Jamaica who have long been active participants in the congregation.

So look up and mutter, kneel down and pray, hum some "good vibrations" our way, think happy thoughts with Peter Pan, or whatever else you may wish on our behalf. It will be appreciated.

Now I commit you to each other's kindness and honesty, and into the hands the God who is neither my God, nor yours, but who has taught us all, when we pray, to say, "Our Father".


Keep writing.

Skip Johnson

P.S. If you have written a song based on a hook I've supplied, or recorded one, and come across it sometime, send it my way. My email is: <SkipJohnson777@gmaillcom> Also, I am soliciting all lyrics written to the community hook "Twenty Chickens for a Saddle" to archive for the "Hook Hunter's Heaven" chapter on hook development. I may seek some of you out individually for permission to include those as well as other of your lyrics that could illustrate other aspects of lyric writing for that volume. My perk, I get excellent material to work with and a chance for other people to get acquainted with some of my favorite lyricists. Yours, you get your name in a work that has potential to become a standard on the songwriting "how to do it" bookshelf. So email me any "20 Chickens" lyrics and derivatives if you catch this. Otherwise, I'll be chasing feathers forever.

Glory, Glory...Ol' Skipper! What a Fun List...(& yep, I admit to Temptation with that "You're a Naughty Girl (Go to My Room)" Hook!)

Of course, NOBODY'll Ever Believe I got it from a Minister, but that'll be Our Little Secret, eh? ;-)>

DID sendya $300-Wortha Fresh Hooks for Your Hook Book this AM...(Tho I kept one that was just TOO Wild & Wooley I'm gonna Post the Finished Up Song HERE in a minute...so I owes ya One...)

"Seek & Ye Shall Find (Find & Ye Shall Seek)"

There ya are..an Even Number of New Hooks, Amigo~!

One More Good Luck Guy-Hug...& Lookin' forwards to all those Projects gettin' Finished/You re-visitin' the Song Folks again here!

Best Wishe/Continued Happy Trails
Stan

Hey Skip,

As I will eventually have to get to Christmas shopping :D, I haven't dared to start wading thru your list -- but I'd like to cite one of my song title's as a thank you for this final "Bucketful of Love". I do look forward to sinking my teeth into at least a couple of them, and if and when I do, I'll surely send it along.

I must say, too, you make your departure that much more bittersweet when you leave us with such a poignant farewell. I think this particular passage speaks volumes:

So know whatever help and good you may feel from the time I've spent with you here, the other half of that benefit and those memories I take with me as I go.

Now ya got me all sniffly and stuff .

Your writings and other contributions will be missed...but as Stan said, I look forward to reading the next chapters...

Aloha,
Beth

I'm sad that you're leaving too. I haven't had a chance to talk with you, but I've read many, many of your posts.

To keep with the rest of everyone, I've written down a few as well as the e-mail address, Too Big to be a Boy, Too Small to be a Man stuck out to me so I've been tapping away on that one. I'll send it on to you, and post it if I ever get anywhere with it.

Skip,

I just start to get to know you and now you're leaving!! That makes me sad but I know that God has alot in store for you and I pray that many blessings come your way!! I'll keep everything dear to my heart that you have said to me or about my writings in the past few weeks!!

Ill miss you!!

What will Stan ever do!!

Best of Luck!!

Nikki Jo

Skip,
I've only known you a short time, but I can honestly say - I'm gonna miss the stories. But I know that, wherever you are, you're just making more.

Vaya con Dios, Padre. May your journey be a happy one.

Keith

Oh Skipper, say it isn't so ! ! ! I suppose you deserve the chance to grow and move on to bigger things. I have so enjoyed reading alot of your stories through the years...You have a kind, wonderful perspective on life that translates into warmth and understanding. I will definitely find a way to get you to hear "Girl Bomb" , I am so close on it being good! I SO wanted you to hear it and be proud of what I did with it ! ! Anyway I wish you the best of luck that luck has to offer, may you find your way to Naphtali's Gate, and, to use one of your great hooks, The Future Belongs to Those Who Believe in the Beauty of Their Dreams ---- If this is true Skipper, then the future belongs to YOU.

Skip, you gots to stay in touch. (I have your edress.) "Tune the Strings of My Soul" is going to be on the next album.

Joe

P.S. And these are nice hooks. I especially liked "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" Can't you hear that one being sung in church?

Thanks for all you've given, Skip. I hope you visit once in awhile, you've been a good friend on the internet.

I wish you all the best in life and, of course, beyond.

Oh, but steer clear of those vultures...

Love,

-Mark

Skip,

Take care buddy.

Calvin


http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/calvinstewart

Skip,

Thanks for everything. Absolute best wishes to you and I hope you will stop in and say hello whenever you get the chance.

Kevin Pearson

Skip, i'm gonna miss your quirky unique way with words, your sincere, kind, educated,solid as a rock approach to life, friendship and the everafter. i do hope you'll give us a heads up once in awhile with a quick tale of your current events...i feel lucky because i've gotten to know you, i know i'm better for it,...i want you to go find a copy of "Whiskey Drinking Preacher" by Chuck Cannon and listen to it, it is on his cd God Shaped Hole, you'll dig it and get a kick out of it...i wish you well my friend, we shall meet again, if not before at Naphtali's Gate made of pearl's, walk those streets of gold, and look out that big diamond window onto the world...i'm wipin' a couple tears away as i'm closing this out, keep sharing the love God has blessed you with, it's a powerful thing...write great, be well...moker jarrett

Hi Skip

Wishing you the very best in your new direction ! jm

Thanks for the well wishes to all!

I've just sent my first 40,000 word book manuscript to one who is to read it, edit it, and write a forward to it--hopefully by next Monday. We will see... I'd like to have it for this year's campmeeting...at least the first 1,000 copies. But it will require a wee bit of change (about $5,000.00) for that to occur. Others who read what I've written will have the final say, since they control the $$$.

The book is titled "Ten Days With Take It to Heart" and chronicles the excitement of our health van ministry during the current largest event in our yearly lineup--Topsfield Fair here in Massachuettes. With the Appendixes, it should provide a valuable tool to allow similar public health education ministries to be organized in churches not only throughout our three state area, but pretty much anywhere either English or Spanish is spoken.

I pray those in charge will see the sense, and be willing to release the necessary cash for publication. And soon. It will take time to print. And campmeeting begins June 20th. If not, God has other plans--and better ones.

We brought in another 3/4th ton of food for those coming to our community service center a little earlier this afternoon. We're running well over 6 tons per month, besides clothing. God has been sending us something over 1,000 each month from many nationalities in need of help.

A lady stopped in yesterday in great need. Her 47 year old mom was dying of cancer, her father had already died from the same thing, and she was a single mom with three kids to raise--about 25-30 years old. Our volunteer said the woman was visibly thin from malnourishment and long worry and stress. She said, "My children are starving. Can you help us?" We didn't make her come back later. We gave her what we had on the spot.

When Judi and I stopped by the Home Depot the next town over to get things we needed to prep our van for the month away in July, the man at the counter greeted me warmly. He is one of our regular guests who comes to the center for help. Most of those who come to us are the "working poor", some with 2 or even 3 jobs, and still scratching to survive.

We are affiliated with Greater Boston Food Bank, which supplies 600 similar centers here in Eastern Massachusetts. They are currently building the most sophistocated and costly emergency food warehouse in America. Just signed my name to the final beam they lifted into place at noon.

There are so many good people in this world doing what good they can where they are. I believe many of you are among them.

Gotta scram. I need to grab a bite myself before going over to feed others.

Skip

P.S. Our congregation in Lynn voted to make a bid on that old historic church in Swamscott, and also to apply for full church status. Now it goes to final negotiations to see if what we can offer will be accepted. So far, so good.

Final Post...



Naphtali's Gate

Listen, all you poets, you lyricists and singers!
Listen all who strum or pluck with music in your fingers!
Its time for this troubadour to pack his tunes, and go.
But now as I'm leaving—I'll say this, so you'll know...

Someday I'll be waiting at Naphtali's Gate,
On the first New Moon in our good God's golden city.
Someday I'll be watching at Naphtali's Gate,
If I don't see you there—Lord, what a pity!
I've got a gig to catch now some place beyond the dawn,
One day there'll be no parting. Till then, friends, carry on.

Listen, you word weavers, you storytellers, too!
Listen as I sing this song I wrote for you!
Your company I treasure, but my road calls me ahead.
Till we meet again, remember what I've said...

Someday I'll be waiting at Naphtali's Gate,
On the first New Moon in our good God's golden city.
Someday I'll be watching at Naphtali's Gate,
If I don't see you there—Lord, what a pity!
I've got a gig to catch now some place beyond the dawn,
Someday there'll be no parting. Till then, friends, carry on.

I'll carry you in my heart,
I'll speak your names in prayer.
This song's the bond between us,
I'll sing it for you there.

Someday I'll be waiting at Naphtali's Gate,
On the first New Moon in our good God's golden city.
Someday I'll be watching at Naphtali's Gate,
If I don't see you there—Lord, what a pity!
I've got a gig to catch now some place beyond the dawn,
Someday there'll be no parting. Till then, friends, carry on.
Someday we sing with angels. Till then, friends, carry on.
Now my songs are finished. I'll miss you. Now I'm gone.

c2008 Skip Johnson
All rights reserved

PaSkip,

I'm sad too. But, I'm happy for the folks you'll certainly bless wherever you're going. You've made an impact on my life like no other preacher ever did or ever could I'm sure. I'm not sure which gate is where God planned for me to enter. But, your ministry gives me courage to believe there even is one for me. I could never thank you enough for your selfless service in His Name. I'll email this too since it seems I've missed you. Happy Father's Day. You've been a great Dad.

Vanessa