I don`t mean to be a copycat, Simon, but I wanted to post this poem thing that I wrote while ago, inspired by a little melody that has made me feel stronger things than I usually experience through modern music.  I apologize that it feels a little "depressed" in a cliché way, but this is about as pure as I could write it.  I just thought that I`d put it out here, mainly for others to see a few random bits that I wrote a while ago.  I realized that I don`t have many good pieces posted here right now

So anyway, I named it after the "little melody" that inspired me.

Interrupted by Fireworks

You`ve learned to just walk away,
And look to the sky...
Something whispers to you softly:

Smiles rest
Past broken hearts that fell down,
Once they played their parts
The worst thing
In all of this is:
Only you can change it

This is your role at it`s best
Just memorize the rest
Never forget--Your chin stays up

Smiles rest
Past broken hearts that fell down,
Once they played their parts
The worst thing
In all of this is:
Only you can change it

Or else,
Learn to be lonely on nights like this

A wonderful wrap up in the last line. We learn to be alone, but we never learn to be lonely. So this is really an ultimatum - another way of saying "...Only you can change it"..... and you better, or else.

But who are you giving the ultimatum to - is it yourself?

You have a style that I always think of as "real poetry", in that you don't get stuck in rhyme scemes (like some people ). You manage a free form that works very well. I admire that. I bet you will never write a book of nursury rhymes!

i guess it`s a rather reflective "you", upon the writer, to answer your question.  though, i wanted to give the statement to everyone, not just the writer.  it turns into more of a proverb than anything, i imagine.

I must be honest and say that I think that last line shouldn't be there or It should have been used more in the piece its self.

It reminds me of playing in Fruity Loops and I've just made 'a song' then at the end I start playing around and come up with some totally different melody/riff, which is the same instrument as the rest of the song but it just takes it somewhere totally different. And could be a song unto its self.
I think "Learn to be lonely on nights like this",  is a song unto its self. It's a beautiful line. And it's intrinsic energy is immense.

I like your song and I can imagine it as a song.
It's too 'stretched' out to be a poem.
The poet in me wants to say that "Smiles rest, 'upon' broken hearts that fell down," seams to flow better in my mind.

I can totally get into the mood of this one, I love how it ends "learn to be lonely"

it's a good thing that it's so open, close to the emotion, far away from events that eventually lead to those emotions. this makes is very generic, and universally compatible to any observer filling in the story with personal association. that is the trick of most top class lyrics anyway, even though this one is too depressed to be part of a mainstream hit, and A LOT depends on the music you have to it, but it can definately get a widespread success in a subculture or two.

i understand where you're coming from.  i agree, that the "rhythm" of the last line is somewhat different, and so it sticks out funny.

but then again... those who can't learn to be lonely (and even those who DO, really) stick out a little funny, don't they...

to be honest, i imagine the last line slowing down, and the last four words, "on nights like this" to be more spoken softly.

and PX, i know what you mean by the depressed feeling   i could see something like this being a small hit amongst a small audience or two, but it's defintely not something to build a CD off of

actually, though, (i have to come clean now...!)  i considered using the line "Learn to Be Lonely" as a demo cd title that i made, but then i was going to switch it up to "Learning to Be Lonely."  and THEN i decided that it sounded a little too whiney to be a cd title  (ya know, like the "boo hoo, poor me" sort of thing.)  AND THEN the newer version of Phantom of the Opera came out, and the last song on the soundtrack was a song called... *drum roll please* ... "Learn to Be Lonely".  and then i just said... "well freak."  it was at that point in time that i decided that I would have to make the usage of the line a little more descreet 

so.. to make a short story even shorter, that's why i didn't want to use "learn to be lonely" as a central theme.  instead, i wanted to make it something of an afterthought by the speaker, like a "Or else, I guess, you could learn to be lonely... but who would want to do that?"

make sense?  or am i just sort of off my rocker?

  , TLS

Yea your off your rocker!!!

I absolutely love stories like that, though the outcome may not seam to be the right one, you've proved that lyrically you are parallel to whoever wrote the Phantoms lyrics.

Funny I was watching a documentary about the making of the Phantom of the Opera last night!

So I was right then, "Learn to Be Lonely" does have immense intrinsic energy!

Yes, the way you have the song in mind, I can hear 'Learn to Be Lonely' being emphasized slowly at the end.