Finding flow in the songwriting process

I went well over 40 mins writing and rewriting the poem about my grandfather. The rewriting was on the stuff I'd come up with over the last couple of days. I decided to change it so that it featured more third person and the verse structure was simpler. I think I'm just about finished. I didn't expect to get to this stage tonight, but I got on a role and ended up doing about 80 mins worth of work. The key was to start with a vague concept of what each verse was going to be about and how they would colour the refrain: "there's always something to leave behind." Then, once I had established what the rhyming pattern was, it all poured out of me.

I decided to try and complete the last verse tomorrow. It will have a couple of extra lines to give emphasis to the twist on the refrain. In the first four verses, the refrain "...leave behind" refers to the inevitability of moving away from things in life, or being moved away from. In the last verse I want the refrain to refer to what you leave behind in death being the consolation.

I am not going to broadcast this poem over the internet or by any other means because it is written for a specific occasion and there are some things that should be kept as a one off. It is for my family, not for peer review. I just wanted to share my breakthrough regarding the actual writing process and am pleased to say that I will be writing words in addition to music more often. Put Pat Pattison's Writing Better Lyrics on your shopping list. It will show you a lot.