Quote:
my daughter dropped a vase that i adored
bits of colored clay lay across the sun porch floor
i cried like she'd never heard me cry before
she didn't seem to know quite what to do


this verse jumps out at me because somebody recently confided that when my wife died, my daughter observed that she'd never seen me cry before. Like the daughter in your song, the intensity left her not quite knowing how to respond. Therefore, I identify with the image you've created.

Also the image of broken clay reminded me of
2 Corinthians 4:7
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

which is a metaphor of the human body as a vessel made of clay... a concept I thought of often as I watched my wife's physical body breaking down over the year between her diagnosis and death. I found comfort in the knowledge that my wife was/is more than just the clay that contained her, and that her existence is not limited by the temporal aspect of her container.

One of your strengths as a song writer is your ability to find identification with your audience by speaking in terms of common experience. I think song writers who try to exalt themselves by writing above the heads of their audience are on the wrong track. But you have the voice of everyman nailed.


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0