PREFACE

Our life's journey is more lyrical than we might realise.

It wasn't until I began  reviewing the lyrics and songs for this volume that I realised how  journey stories reflect our souls and are manifested through our thoughts, words and actions.

The lead up to the year 2000 had been an extraordinary journey from the time of my birth in Hamilton, New Zealand. The environment and circumstances in which we are nurtured have lasting effects, as does the DNA we inherit. From age three I had received supernatural healing after contracting meningitis and being unable to walk for six weeks. Although my mother had a miscarriage in that time, her prayers I believe, enabled me to not only walk again, but go on to be a top athlete in school and in provincial representation. I also had inherited my father's athleticism. My spare time was spent either honing my athleticism or drawing, while my sister Lois read to me. I was a slow reader and struggled academically, but knew I had to achieve, if I was to get anywhere in life. It wasn't until my late teens that I discovered I had unilateral vision that had been the possible cause for my reading difficulty.

It was at high school that I fell in love with poetry and began to write. In writing I found syllables, phrases and expressions  had rhythmical patterns that, depending on the context, produced tunes in my head. I shared these with  friends who were interested in folk music and obliged me by singing and playing the songs  I had written. I was encouraged to continue writing songs when singing two of these with one of my musician friends when we won a regional talent quest.

Having spent most of my adult life writing, singing and recording, I had neglected my ability to illustrate and was somewhat surprised when I found I had not lost the gift. Putting the art to my songs has given me great joy expressing the visual with the audio. The songs selected in this volume cover the first 30 years of my married life and teaching profession leading up to the Millennium. The transformation of who I was before, became most apparent as my earlier poems and songs  had been melancholic and reflective. Volume 3 expresses not only thoughts and passion, but also the finding of true love and purpose. The title could have read “Heart of Songs”.

I pray and trust the content of the art work and lyrics presented in this volume gives you the same joy and enlightenment that inspired me through the spirit of creativity released at the time. I hope that as you  look at the illustrations and read the words  a tune will form in your  heart and mind that connects you  to the eternal determinants of life itself.

Gary James Parker

I entered the song in a local radio station “Write a Song For Elton John Contest” (Lyrics only). Elton was touring New Zealand at the time. I didn't know who he was back in 1972, but nevertheless won the contest which Elton judged.

The lyrics are based on a hitch-hiking experience I had on two separate occasions with mates who disappeared dramatically from my life. One ran away to join Scientology with his sister and the other was taken into custody for stealing vehicle parts. At no stage did any of them reveal this side of themselves to me.   

The initial concept to the song was written on the way to school when commuting from Hamilton the Ngaruawahia in the mid-seventies. The last chorus was written 40 years later when I decided to record and release it through Spotify. It became my most successful release and was recorded professionally. It was later called “ Looking for the Promised Land” as unknown to me Bruce Springsteen had written one with the same title in 1976 having been influenced by one with the same title by Chuck Berry in 1965.

*Available on Spotify ( Under cyberdour pseudonym)            

Although I pursued high jump and pole vault in my athletic career, I never got to hang-glide. I do have a nephew who is a balloon pilot however and my Father frequently had dreams in which he was flying (not in a plane). Something ethereal is definitely in my DNA as I seek connection with the universe and cosmos in general.                                      

The transition from innocence into young adulthood is fraught with much danger, possibly more so for girls whose innocence and curiosity are severely challenged by the worldly.

 We were still newly married and exploring horizons in a world that had not sealed all roads. Life  was and still is an adventure, but more so when young and everything is new.

At age 4 my granddaughter Isabella, wrote a lyric that encapsulated precisely what is  when speech is limited. She wrote “everything, everywhere  is so ‘Oh, oh, oh”. And it was.                                                                                                                                

 I was influenced by Bernie Taupin’s lyrics and songs by Creedence Clear Water Revival at the time I wrote this song. I later found Taupin had a Catholic rural upbringing in England and to an extent believed I did also as I was raised in a developing  state housing division on the outskirts of Hamilton. Rural  life has more appeal to me than does urban. I believed the song had much potential, I just needed a band and the break to present it.