I am a songwriter, vocalist, and pianist. I listen to music from all over the world, and I am very eclectic. I mainly compose on the piano. I strive to keep my arrangement simple so that listeners at any level can take in my essence, much like a cup of well-brewed green tea.

Solitude Is Your Best Roommate

Solitude is a tool to listen to the noises of our mind. It keeps us from wanting things we don’t want. It keeps us from hating someone we don’t hate. It helps us transition from self-sacrifice to compassion offering. In other words, Solitude protects us from early death.

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Solitude is your best roommate

Looking for a friend who’ll listen to your heart?

Solitude will be there for you

Solitude is your best roommate

Looking for a dish so clean you see your face?

Solitude will wash it with you, with you.

Everything you are clinging to won’t make you whole

Everything you are holding on will cloud your soul

To see what is inside clearly

To keep only what you need

To be what you can be truly

Solitude cleans your mind for you

Solitude is your best roommate

Need a little rest from the ticking of the clock?

Solitude will hush it for you, for you

Solitude is your best roommate

Need an open window and the sun to kiss your cheek?

Solitude brings kisses to you, to you.

Everything you are clinging to won’t make you whole

Everything you are holding on will cloud your soul

To see what is inside clearly

To keep only what you need

To be what you can be truly

Solitude cleans your mind for you

I am in the painting

I am in your hat

I am in the memories

I’m in all of that

I will raise the wine glass

I will raise the sash

I will find the lost ring

Under a pile of things

Do you know the moon glows

The light from all the windows

The forest stirs in the distance

The ocean roars, the thunder rumbles

In your room, this vast expanse?

The room is swept clean and empty

Walking out the door to share this little song

Solitude will sing it with you

with you

Music © by Chie Kwon

The sound engineered by Kent Brooks (www.YouTube.com/kentbrooks3)

Untitled

acrylic on canvas 2020

(Please visit my portfolio page

for a larger version)

If I Don’t Love Your Eyes

Music by Chiye Kwon

Lyrics by Chiye Kwon

Piano, lead vocal, and harmony vocal - recorded & mixed by Chiye Kwon

In recent years, my mind and heart were pried open by learning so much more about the history of the United States, especially about the ongoing cruelty toward minorities in the United States, especially black people.

Still, I believe in one of the American virtues: the ability and willingness to right the wrong. This requires humility. And faith with which we can hope that efforts to bring positive changes can nourish and heal all Americans.

On the other hand, if we don’t harness our impulse of hate, if we keep inflicting harm onto vulnerable groups just because they look and speak differently, our “songs” will become just “an empty bell. “

This song is a somber reflection of the past and a prayer for a better future.

If I Don’t Love Your Eyes

Prologue:

If I don’t love your eyes

Your brown eyes of earth and sky

If I don’t cup your hands

Your calloused hands, that toiled and tried

My song will be the sound of the shells

that rattle in the wind, only

whisper to the tomb

If I don’t love your feet

Your cracked feet, hard as the plow

If I don’t moisten your lips

Your parched lips, deprived of dew

My prayer be just the prayer of a fool

who doesn’t know

she’s howling at the moon

Fire and Storm:

I watched them burn from far away

(The night turned gray!)

I swallowed anything to live for a day

(Oh, hunger gnawed my soul!)

I searched miles for the railroad tracks

(hid for hours amidst haystacks)

Prayed for the darkness to shield me from men

Shivered in a thin cloth a dying friend left…

The end of the journey, or a beginning:

But I returned, I’m here, home at last

To hold you again

Homecoming:

The air is thick and serene

Poppies bloom, Magnolias lean

Turtledoves coo through the ravine

I kneel before weathered mounds

And close my eyes

Remembrance:

I remember your eyes (my eyes)

Your hands (my hands)

Your joy (my joy)

Your song

My song

Epilogue:

If I don’t love your eyes

My vow will be an empty bell

Its hollowness will fade in

to the night

O’Keefe - Did You Love Your Fear?

I composed this piece because I admire the American artist Georgia O’Keefe. She is one of my visual art inspirations. Her landscapes, flowers, rocks, and buildings conjure something vast, daring, and humanistic inside of me. However, many times in her life, O’Keefe was filled with fear. It was a surprise because every time I saw her paintings, I felt empowered and open to the unique possibilities my brushes could invite. Had I been able to meet her at least once while she was alive, I would have asked her, “Georgia, did you love your fear? Did you do what you did even though it was difficult?” And I want to look into her deep-set eyes and say, “Thank you for your courageous gift.“

O’Keeffe - Did You Love Your Fear?

I noticed my wall’s color turning from

ivory to old lace

I watched a white-tailed kite glide in the

azure sky with grace

The picture near the window was by

Georgia O’Keeffe

A deer skull is hanging in mid-air

in dry New Mexico

I am in awe of the artist so fragile and daring

She stretched the horizon by her will

I am undoing my yesterday’s hue

Today is less uncertain like tomorrow’s moon

I am aware who and where I am traveling to

I am turning around

Did you become the sky you painted?

Did you open wide like your iris?

Did you hide your secrets in the furrows of your face?

Did you love your fear?

I feel in all of my senses that she is the lover

I whisper her name in the hazy dream over and over

We sit on the rock and watch weeds tumbling by

She hands me a sketch and I sign my name

on the scape of New Mexico