VIVA TINY DESK! Thank you all so much for bringing the contest back for another year! So far, it’s been my favorite motivator for getting an occasional new video posted. 😀 I write and perform primarily with voice and guitar, but I’m really fond of this new a cappella number. Hope you like it, too!
I said yes to a really intimidating challenge in early February of 2015: I agreed to be part of a group of songwriters who’d each write a new song each week for 52 weeks, using a random prompt. This very week, we finished our 52nd prompt. I had NO IDEA I could pull off anything like this, but it’s amazing what this challenge has done for my creative output- and fearlessness. I can’t recommend this kind of thing enough to other creative folks.
This song is one of my favorites of the 52 new ones that I wrote as part of my songwriting group. The lyric prompt for that week was “in my pocket”…which immediately became DRAGON in my pocket for me and my faboo/nerdy imagination.
(Apologies for all the cuts – I had to edit around a whole lot of wind noise. Apparently the wind quite liked what I was doing here, because for a while it seemed to pick up every time I opened my mouth to keep singing. There’s still a little bit of it in the vid, and I apologize for that, too. At least the wind is an active listener?)
Dragon in my Pocket (song and video c. S. J. Tucker, 2015-2016)
Some days I want a dragon of my own.
It’s a thought that makes me smile when I’m alone.
She’d have blazing breath and burning eyes,
and always be able to change her size
so no matter where I went, she could be there
hidden in my backpack or my hair,
and she’d frighten all the bullies into nice kids
with a single giant swoop into the air!
But I don’t have a fifty-foot best friend
with a roar that tells my enemies to scram.
No, I don’t have a dragon in my pocket,
so I guess I’ll have to handle it as I am.
She’d be the kind of dragon you could trust.
We would never ever have to ride the bus!
She’d be brave and compassionate, and just a little sly.
“A dragon ate my homework,” would no longer be a lie!
Oh, and Mom and Dad would both have dragons, too.
We would never really need to see the zoo
and our family reunions would always be the best,
’cause the dragons would invite their family, too!
But I don’t have a fifty-foot best friend
with a roar that tells my enemies to scram.
No, I don’t have a dragon in my pocket, so
I guess I’ll have to handle it as I am.
It’d be great to have a buddy several times as big as me,
but now I’m thinking that a dragon is a better thing to be
than lonely on the playground, every single day.
Oh, how could I be frightened of the space beneath my bed
if a pile of gold and treasure is the place I lay my head?
And how could I be lonely when I’m flying,
even if the sky turns gray?
I’d love to be the talk of the town
for burning my bully’s house down
with blazing breath and burning eyes
fair trade for the element of surprise!
And I’d love to be incredibly big and strong,
yet known far and wide for being kind
so that even if my teeth were sharp and scary,
you’d feel perfectly at ease telling me what was on your mind.
But I don’t have a fifty-foot wingspan
or a roar that tells my enemies to scram.
No, I don’t have a dragon in my pocket,
so I guess I’ll have to handle it as I am.
Someday, I’ll have a dragon in my pocket
but for now, I’ll have to handle it as I am. 😉
So, yeah. Remember that *anything* is possible, even if it isn’t in front of you at the moment. Dream big, and do good.
Filmed on my back deck, near Petit Jean Mountain State Park, on an unseasonably lovely afternoon, guest starring my fiancé’s antique drafting desk.