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Home > Writing Challenge entries – July 2021
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Writing Challenge entries – July 2021

October 19, 2026


Horse's Gate

Date submitted: June 27, 2021 at 8:33 pm
By: Jim Byron: jamesonbyron@gmail.com,
Copyright info: 2021

https://mnsongwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/8/Vicki-Morrison-Goble-Jim-Byron-Horses-Gate-Challenge.mp3

Lyrics sheet: https://mnsongwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/8/Horses-Gate.rtf

Don’t look for me; I’m staying home; I feel a strange malaise
The nightmares in my head are deep; I need the time to pray

CHORUS
Oh mother, you can’t save me. I fear it’s much too late
My father was a gamblin’ man, at the Horse’s Gate

The lightning comes; I see the flash, hear thunder overhead
I try to drown away the sound by climbing into bed.

[REPEAT CHORUS]

Don’t look for me; I’m staying home, rejected by the world
Lock the door and lose the key; I’ll sing my final dirge

[REPEAT CHORUS]

Comments:

We veered off from the prompt. Vicki wrote lyrics to the same quatrain structure as House of the Rising Sun. Jim wrote new chords and a new melody. Vicki sings it in the recording.


I Got It Real Bad

Date submitted: July 20, 2021 at 8:28 pm
By: Mary Kealy-Falk: vintagevfh@gmail.com, Mike Rudquist: mcjjrr1@q.com,
Copyright info: 2021

https://mnsongwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/8/M.-Kealy-Falk-M.-Rudquist-I-Got-It-Real-Bad-Co-Write-Challenge.mp3

Lyrics sheet: https://mnsongwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/8/I-Got-It-Real-Bad.rtf

I Got It Real Bad
Mary Kealy-Falk & Mike Rudquist
©2021

This food don't taste no good
This music's just too damn loud
Don't like living in this funky old neighborhood
Feel like I'm hiding under a big, fat thunderstorm cloud

I got it real bad, baby
Can't stop thinking about you
I got it real, real bad
Baby about all those things you do

You told me you were having so much fun
I was the one that you adore
When I said, tell me pretty baby that I'm the only one
You said, honey, I've been married six times before

I got it real bad, baby
Forgave you a thousand times
I got it real, real bad
One of these days, commit a crime

I always laughed at all your jokes
Even when they were lame
Put up with your introductions
When you called me by a different name
When you wanted to make love
We'd seal it with a kiss
Then I saw another warming your bed
I said "Who the hell is this"?

I got it real bad, baby
How could I have been so wrong?
I got it real, real bad
You've got me singing this sad, sad song

Solo

I got it real bad, baby
How could I have been so wrong?
I got it real, real bad
You've got me singing this sad, sad song

Comments:

Title comes from a lyric line in "Girl Crush"

Melody and music inspired from "Kiss" by Prince


Finding Worries

Date submitted: July 21, 2021 at 9:21 pm
By: Anna Bruhn: cdaisyface@gmail.com, Rachel Dunlap: rdunrap@gmail.com,
Copyright info: 2021

https://mnsongwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/8/DunlapBruhn-FindingWorries-Challenge.mp3

Lyrics sheet:

Verse: 1
Good morning sun,
Are you killing me?
But your reasons seem
so incomplete.
From what I hear, it's
because I am human.
A human has got no place I fear.

Chorus 1:
Why the oceans churning?
Why boundless forests burning?
The Coral reef receding
Broken hearts are bleeding.
What could be the reason
For thee unsettled season?
Are we bound to disarray?
We’re bound to finding worries
Are you worried?

Verse 2
Oh Goodnight moon,
Are the tides changing?
We need your rhythm to lead us into the truth.
From what I see
You’ve got a pure reflection.
So shine your halo so bright that all might see.

Why all these wars are waging?
Why families disengaging?
Why starvation growing?
No nation ever knowing.
What could be the reason
For thee unsettled season?
Are we bound to disarray?
We’re bound to finding worries.
Are you worried?

Good morning sun
Are you killing me?
Oh Goodnight moon
Are the tides changing?
From what I see
You’ve got a pure reflection
So shine a halo so bright that all might see,
The LIGHT________ (the tides are changing)
The TRUTH__________ (we need that rhythm)
The WAY___________ (shine it so brightly)

Please shine a halo so bright that all might see.

Good morning world.

Comments:

We took the challenge on level 1. The title, "Finding Worries" we took from a line from "Live for Today" by The Grassroots. Anna Bruhn wrote and performed the song while Rachel Dunlap produced it.


Dream, Dream, Dream

Date submitted: July 21, 2021 at 11:10 pm
By: Tony Wentersdorf: afwentersdorf@hotmail.com, Ann Thompson: athompson@sagecommunication.com,
Copyright info: 2021

Lyrics sheet: https://mnsongwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/8/Dream.-dream.-dream.rtf

We’ve known each other for a long, long time,
We’ve always been good friends,
But often times I wonder if that’s where things will end.
I’d like to find the highway from friendship onto love,
I’d like to start the journey that I’ve been dreaming of.

CHORUS: But so many detours block our way
To keep us far apart,
I would like to find the detour to
The junction of your heart.

Can we move on forward, not play it safe?
Can we start to dream, dream, dream, and trust the rest to faith?
Repeat Verse 1 (first 3 lines)
CHORUS

Comments:

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