Make it Make Sense

Make it make sense

I can say all day

Nothing you do adds up to what you say

You’re lying straight out your teeth

And you’re the creator of catastrophe.

I see you…

Reaching, wretched - taking, raking seemingly never breaking

Oh, the people they will be bleed

Sowing ignorance and hatred among their seed

Heaven’s halt the sky above

No one knows the meaning of love

It’s gone…

Empires fall, and kings do too

The truth holds strong, and exists beyond me or you

Numbers of haunted souls do cry

We’re all here to see

What happens when evil is let free

Children’s cries, and infants abandoned

Teenage girls threatened

Mask wearing anonymous, stealing daughter’s virtues

Once again, demolishing the thing that united all

How much more will come to pass before we all meet the fall?

Day by day the tensions rise

And courtesy has died

All because the masses fell for a demagogue who lied.

© 2025 Sai Marie Johnson

These two sets of lyrics that I wrote tell a bit of a story in and of themselves. The first one is from the point of view of someone who has grown into maturity through many a trial and tribulation. It talks about a story of courage and strength that was created by the person going through devastating circumstances that others didn't quite grasp - and that person is me, but I know that others can relate to that and feel as if they were swimming against the current in an open, oftentimes tumultuous sea.

The second tells a story about feelings around the witnessing of world events and the rise of some truly terrifying things. Right now, in the United States is a terrifying time for a great deal of the population and I wrote it to convey the empathy I have for everyone as we - collectively, go through this together.

Both of these songs came to me on their own, and I was not sitting down with the intention to write out lyrics, but whenever I do write a song, that's typically how it happens. I recognize this is a trait that stems from the many musicians in my family, and that their artistic influences played a role in many of the talents that I previously didn't recognize I possessed. That is yet another layer to both of these songs, and the stories that each of them tells as it relates to me and my experience being the writer.

My question, however, is how do these sets of lyrics pertain to you? What kind of harmony do you envision for them, and if you were to hear them, what style or genre do you think suits them best?

Song One:

Exalted

Exalted!

Lifted higher than the place I've been standing.

EXALTED.

Elevated to a face that I can smile with, lifted, drug up from the pit of despair.

Exalted, lifted higher than the place that I’ve been standing.

Reaching, to compel myself to fly above it, til I’d be soaring…

knowing that I am freely thriving, a life so precious

and divinely protected

Prospering in all my workings.

Exalted, higher than the place that I have been standing.

Just lifted- to a place of highest joy and blessed up…

Perspective having shaped me into purposeful living!

Exalted, resting in the highest place that I could reach for!

Exalted!

And ever so thankful for all I’ve been through.

Exalted, brought up from nothing to building into something!

I stand Exalted;

Higher than the place I was once standing.

Exalted!

© 2025 Sai Marie Johnson

Song Two:

Tears for Tyranny

And if I were there ’til the end of time,

would you do everything to always be fine –

by taking my hand and holding it tight,

until all our love makes every wrong right?

Would you fight for me, would you

battle all else at my side eternally?

Could we build a life full of wonder instead of regret,

and make our story one that lasts?

To be one of the myths that never die and

thrive in each other’s arms — written into the sky.

Like tales of old that never die and we’ll never seek immortality

or wonder why, cause united we stand in all we do

and I couldn’t travel this life or endure this world

if it wasn’t for you.

So, hold my hand, and don’t you ever let go

because in this life it’s an unknown road

but with vision and devotion we’ll rise above,

bound together in everlasting love.’

© 2025 Sai Marie Johnson