allenvooreef:

Day 328 - Random profile sketch magically turned into Breath-of-the-Wild Link

A Letter From Fred - “Oh Sweet Lorraine”

From The Blaze:

On Monday, Today.com brought the man’s story to light, noting that he joined the contest — one that was held by Green Shoe Studio, a company in his town — after reading about it in a local newspaper. In the simplest of terms, Stobaugh decided to pen lyrics in an effort to pay homage to his wife, Lorraine, who recently passed away.

So, he put together a simply song celebrating her life and their love together and he mailed it to the studio the traditional way (in a manila envelope) rather than submitting it electronically along with a required video. Accompanying his lyrics, Stobaugh wrote a letter noting his age and the fact that Lorraine had died just weeks before the submission. The two had spent nearly 75 years together.

In an interview with WYZZ-TV back in July, Stobaugh described writing the song, claiming that it simply came to him as he was sitting down and humming six weeks after his wife’s death. The tune’s title? “Oh Sweet Lorraine.” While he seemingly didn’t have the technological know-how to produce a video (and, admittedly, he isn’t a strong singer) as the contest called for, sending the lyrics in on paper was his way of participating and commemorating his wife’s life.

“I was sitting here one night, oh about six weeks after she passed away and just sat here kind of hummin’ a little bit and it just finally came to me,” he told the outlet.

After receiving the lyrics, Green Shoe Studio was blown away. Despite the fact that Stobaugh’s submission didn’t meet the contest’s criteria, Jacob Colgan, a singer and songwriter who received the letter and the song, decided to help turn the lyrics into an actual tune.

In the end, what was written on paper was turned into a professionally-produced song — one that Stobaugh simply loves.

“The song really helps me. It really helps me. It just seemed like she’s just sort of with me,” the elderly widower told WYZZ-TV. “Which I know she’s smiling, she’s smiling down and she likes that song, I know.”

*SOBSOBSOBSOBSOBSOBSOB*

HEY, EVERYBODY!!

ModCloth.com is having a design a t-shirt contest, and my “Foxes Mate for Life” entry made it to voting!  If you’d love to be able to buy this as a shirt from ModCloth and help yours truly win an awesome cash prize, I’d really appreciate it if you’d skedaddle on over to their Facebook page and cast a vote for me!

Thanks so much! ♥

Clockwork

You were a perfect clock,

Attuned to the sun and moon.

Each night I would ask you,

“Wake me up at six,”

And you would

With a kiss,

A hug,

A brush of my hair.

And when you disappeared,

So dependent on you was I,

I stopped waking up.

Counting Stars

Where the edge of the universe lay,

And all of the stars were counted and confirmed

Into proper categories to stay,

I found myself and a hastily packed suitcase

Standing in the doorway of a rented room.

As I watched the rain drip from my nose,

Creating dark craters in the worn carpet,

I contemplated just what birthed my woes.

And realized then that I was in that apartment,

And the scientific method said so,

All at the fault of you.

Satisfied with the flawed test results

I lay upon the bed to admire my faults

And stared out the lonely window.

There were no stars.

On the breeze that blew in from outside

I swore I smelt the grass upon we laid

That sweet spring night oh so long ago

When to the world I swore I’d love you

Until there were no stars left to count.

But look where that promise led, my dear!

Look how broken hearted I am as I lie here

Just as how to you I had lied that night.

But how was I to know that I wasn’t right?

Did we not deceive each other into believing

That what we had was not simply dreaming?

But now all the stars are numbered

And so are our days.

In my grief I never once cared to notice

That the warm shirt I wore was yours once,

Or that the ring on my left finger

Was of your promise a reminder.

In my blindness I cast my eyes to the walls

And noticed something peculiar.

In the smooth paint I saw puckerings

And I couldn’t decide what they were.

To feed the curiosity of my modern mind

I approached one like a cat to its prey

And was astonished at my find.

Believing it to be impossible,

I scratched off the old paint

And discovered a small star glowing faint,

The remnants of a child’s dream to confine the sky

To everything within their naive eyes.

Stickers on the wall to create free wishes,

Never once of their falsehood suspicious.

Around the room I scanned my eyes,

And finding yet more without surprise

I set about to scratching the rest free.

My fingers raw, nail ragged, hours gone,

I turned off the light with newfound certainty.

The darkness was gone, banished by the lights

So small, so fragile, but countless and bright.

My body shook, the tears ran freely

As quickly as shooting stars on a spring night

And everything that once was suddenly

Shattered.

No matter what computers had said,

No matter what scientists did to fill their heads,

No matter how long they peered through their telescope,

Nothing they found could have created this hope.

In all their wise blindness they had overlooked

A child’s secret dreams covered by paint.

And here was I, following their method,

Thinking myself to be perfected,

Giving up that endless chase for meaning

Thinking it to be so demeaning

When a child could show me how far I’d gone awry

Because there were still stars left to count in the sky.

“Bunny Love”

Big butted bunny love.

Available on RedBubble!

“True love isn’t easy but it must be fought for because once you find it, it can never be replaced.”

I am the Earth and You are the Sky

“Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all”