Last year I sent some verses to Peggy Seeger for a peace song she was working on to the tune of "Wild Mountain Thyme". The first bunch she wasn\'t crazy about; they didn't fit the melody she was working from, and were grammatically convoluted. It turned out we had different versions of the song, so she saent me her version, and I wrote some more verses, two of which she labeled "keepers", much to my delight. She mentioned there was the possibility that some verses might make it into a short article in Singout magazine, but that since it was a collective effort, she might not be able to give individual credit for authorship. I told her it didn't matter to me; corresponding with her was like taking a course in lyric writing anyways, so I felt I had benefited eitherway. Then last month at a peace concert I sang the song and talked about how Peggy had put out an open invitation for anyone to send verses in for this peace song, and I sang it with the two "keeper" verses. the next day two other musicians who were there e-mailed me to tell me that my verses were in Singout! When I finally got a copy (through the same friends- a duo called "Gemini") I was thrilled to see my name right at the top of the page, and several of my verses, along with two written by a group I led at an Adult Day Care Center. Ironically, the ones that got printed were the ones I thought she didn't like. By the way, Peggy is still looking for more verses, and you can find out more by visiting her website, www.pegseeger.com . Here are the verses that got published ( my apologies for the spacing, I'm trying to learn a new site design program and haven't quite figured it out yet): Let us sing of what we long for/ though we never yet have seen it/ human psyche dares to hope/ human spirit dares to dream it// Of a loving life and death/ we are every one deserving/ of the time to teach our children/ of a future worth preserving// War and strife we'll leave behind us/ hoping nevermore to meet them/ while remembering their lessons/ so there's no need to repeat them// (I was stuck in anthemspeak- with Bread and Roses and Solidaity Forever running through my head) The next two were written by a group at the Maurice Perilli Adult Day Care in Hamilton NJ, and also appeared under my name ( I wrote a letter to the editor to clarify): Let's forget about destruction/ and make harmony together/ While we pray to God in Heaven/ to have peace and love forever// Let's all work to feed the children/ and remember we're all brothers/ We can put and end to fighting/ and start helping one another// And here are the ones Peggy thought were "keepers" which didn't get published: All humankind is ruled/ by the instinct for survival/ it should make us brothers,/ but instead it makes us rivals// Somebody wins at war,/ and somebody else is crying/ we all sing our anthems/ to the sound of people dying// Peggy's Chorus Goes like this: How I long for Peace/ among the peoples and the nations/ how I long to stop the plunder/ of the wonders of creation/ how I long for Peace