The Arrogant Sage

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"You said you missed your cat & cigarettes" (lyrics) - Plus t-shirts and a performance on April 30th

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"You said you missed your cat & cigarettes" (lyrics) - Plus t-shirts and a performance on April 30th

Playing with word, playing with songs, playing the coffeehouse

Matthew Moran
Apr 21, 2022
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Only fools can say, live with no regrets
The night you left you said you missed your cat & cigarettes

- from my song, Ode © 2020 - Matthew Moran


There are photos/pictures below. If you are reading this in your email, click the display images.

This is a post about song lyrics. We’re going to have an update on Christopher’s progress and some other writing soon. Brief update: He’s doing well - 121 days clean. He has a lot of work in front of him.

Thank you everyone for the notes I’ve received about the music, the writing, and those who ask about Christopher. I am more appreciative than I can adequately express.


About that cat & cigarettes line

At the start of the pandemic, Deb had to have Sabrina, her cat of 16+ years, put down. Sabrina had serious kidney issues and it was time.

Picture of Debbie's cat, Sabrina, laying on the bed
Sabrina

As is the case with such decisions, Deb was torn and, to this day, wonders if she did all she could for Sabrina. I believe she did but I understand the consternation. It is one of the few times I’ve seen tears in Deb’s eyes. I’m the weepy one in the relationship. I’m probably a once-a-week weeper. Good tears, sad tears, I got ‘em all.

Deb also used to smoke cigarettes. I know, everyone views her as sweet. And she is sweet, to be sure… but she ain’t that sweet… thank God!!! She’s one of those smoking girls your mother warned you about. ;-) “Thanks mom! I found one!”


WE are designing some lyric-based t-shirts. This is one design WE are modifying it a bit. But, I like it. And by “WE” I mean, Deb. She does the website, the shirts, the logos, and the photos. I do the impatience and [lagging ←edit] nagging discontent. We have our roles.

Image of a t-shirt design with some song lyrics and a line art of a cat smoking a cigarette
This is the first draft design for a new t-shirt. I like it!

She had quit long before we started hanging out, minus a brief foray into clove cigarettes that she justified by claiming they weren’t real cigarettes.

But Deb often carried an e-cigarette - though it was never charged. While driving she would often reach for the e-cigarette and take a long smokeless drag. Again, it was not charged.

She was using the physical act as a way to recall smoking. In fact, she still does this sometimes. When things get stressful, she’ll take a drag off an imaginary cigarette. I think it is both cute and hilarious!

A month or so after we said goodbye to Sabrina we were at my house in Los Angeles. I can’t recall what instigated the stress - possibly just the combination of her pandemic concerns, losing her cat, and losing her cousin the same week. Or maybe I was in hyped-up impatience mode about… something. That’s more likely I suppose.

Deb turned to me and said, “I miss my cat and cigarettes.”

I loved the phrase and told her, “That line is going to make it into a song.”

I made a note of it in Google Keep (a simple note taking app connected to your Gmail account).

A month or two later I was writing a somewhat darkly themed song of reflection. It is called Ode. I’ve never played the song out but I think I’ll include it in my April 30th show at Barclay’s Coffee in Northridge. I reached a line in my lyrics where Deb’s poetic outcry seemed like the right line. And voila!

I’ve included the lyrics below.

Before you get to the lyrics, here is another t-shirt design we are playing with. It is from my song, Making Peace with the War.

I’d love to know what you think of our two design ideas.

Image of a t-shirt design with the lyrics, Making Peace with the War in my Soul

Making Peace with the War (lyric video)


Ode Lyrics

© 2020 - Matthew Moran

Verse 1
Got nothing but time
It's the edge of the night
Shadows make their dying play 
Where loss and hope collide

And I've been fading it's true 
A little more each day 
It's not all these years I'm wearing 
But those that slip away

Verse 2
I kept hoping you'd call 
Maybe that was naïve 
I skipped town last November
And my number, it's been changed

Verse 3
Only fools can say 
Live with no regrets 
The night you left you said 
You missed your cat and your cigarettes

It's not my place to judge 
Still I pronounce you condemned 
Then beg forgiveness of a god 
I've forgotten and forsaken in the end


Saturday, April 30th - 7-9pm

Barclay’s Coffee in Northridge,CA.
Facebook Event Page

Sincerely and with love,
Matthew Moran
April 21, 2022

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1 Comment
David Gottfried
Writes Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Apr 27, 2022Liked by Matthew Moran

The design re peace and war is VERY promising. I love paradoxes and the juxtaposition of antithetical qualities. Actually, Keats said that this was the very HEART AND KERNAL OF ART. He said that art was fueled by "negative capability" or the ability to take two opposing things and make them seem congruent or allied or in sync EVEN THOUGH they stood in opposition. On a more concrete level, your design generates the following thoughts: A) To attain peace, you have to fight like a tough son of a bitch and warrior and, conversely, B) Sometimes, the people who purport to love peace and to fight for peace are lying, war-like scum bags.

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