Teach Me The Words

Teach Me The Words (Loving Words)

Dateline: Lithgow N.S.W For Danielle Walsh, 6/2/93

Words & Music: Pat Drummond

When Danielle was only twelve her father moved away;

so she searched her heart for words that might have made him stay.

Perhaps she thought it was her fault. It's crazy but it's true

Children blame themselves for things their parents do.

She grew a wild and wilful child who ran away from home.

She came to know the world from those with sorrows of their own.

But through the years there burned a fierce and passionate desire;

the search for words to set her heart on fire.

"Teach me the words," she said,"to tell you how I feel.

Teach me how to say those words that make emotions real.

Teach me the words," she said. Oh, Danielle, it's clear,

Loving words must have a loving heart to hear.

The winter breeze had stripped the trees when Danielle came to me.

I was teaching late at Lithgow TAFE; modern Poetry.

Schlessor, Dransfield, Patterson, Ernest Moll and Pope;

she came for words to give her spirit hope.

Sometimes people speak to fill a space;

Sometimes it's just for saving face;

A chance to reach somebody else;

but we must understand ourselves.

She said to me that we all speak to try and understand ourselves.

Though Danielle was just a girl some twenty years of age,

She taught me love and passion aren't just words upon a page.

As Winter ran to Summer and my sleeping heart was stirred,

I learned of things for which there are no words.

"Teach me the words," I said, "to tell you how I feel.

Teach me how to say those words that make emotions real.

Teach me the words," I said, "Oh Danielle, it's clear

Loving words must have a loving heart to hear."