Done with _HEROIC.STY (Heroic Modern Pedal Steel Ballad) and Audacity (for recording my own voice and mixing), here's a new song from me - all 4 minutes and 24 seconds of it! Hope you enjoy :-)

From The Cross (on Bandcamp)

LYRICS:

I'm looking down, with almost a wry smile,
At those that hate and hated for a while
The words I speak, for they themselves are liars ...
I look again; and then I look back higher.

***

How do you want me to love, Lord?
How can I possibly keep my word?
How can I love those that hate me
And would torture me eternally?

Why have you abandoned me, Lord?
How can I possibly keep my bond?
How can I love those that hurt me
And do so quite intentionally?

***

My faith doth shake ... for today it's my turn
To be abused, as I've been since born;
The question is: how much a man can take
When all around him, everything is fake.

I gave up my life to help this everchanging world;
Despite it all, I never said a word;
I gave You, Lord, everything I'd afford
And preached of love, and never of the sword.

And look at me - this is now what I get
For having fought the good fight to the end,
For having loved, though never loved back been ...
And not thrown stones, for none is without sin.

And now I'm down, and, lo, you are not here
To see my plight, to heal my deepest fears;
Am I alone? has this illusion been?
Has all my faith been nothing but a dream?

***

How do you want me to love, Lord?
How can I possibly keep my word?
How can I love those that hate me
And would torture me eternally?

Why have you abandoned me, Lord?
How can I possibly keep my bond?
How can I love those that hurt me
And do so quite intentionally?

Hi musician17, I really enjoyed the overall tone of this. Excellent mixdown on all of this and the chord progression is very nice. Fantastic work on the vocals. Keep it up!

Nice recitation, backing tracks, & production...
I enjoyed listening.

Thank you Joe. I wrote it one late night a few nights ago and I'm still not 100% sure of what I wrote or whether it's "any good" - so I'm particularly grateful for the kind words of appreciation - thanks :-)

And thanks Jim! The same goes here too - it's good to hear that people like it. It didn't come from the lightest of places, but - thanks :-)

Excellent piece of music. I am enjoying your spoken word pieces. Well done.

I like the spoken word element to the song. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you both, Scott C and Ember.

Being spoken word with a musical backdrop you need to focus on the recording and treatment of that voice.
De-essing is the 1st thing you really need to do - whether with a plug in, by manual level attenuation or by side chain compression.
You also need to consider using a gate or manual levels to remove some of the mouth noise.
Finally, the reverb/delay or whatever you are using is accentuating the two above issues.

rayc, thank you. Like I've always said, I have no idea what I'm doing at all when it comes to actual producing - I just write and sing or speak, from the comfort of my bedroom, that's all. So: being told exactly what I need to do by name (i.e. de-essing, etc.) is fantastic help. Again, I would have no idea otherwise about what to do, but I like to think I have a good ear, so - if told which buttons to press (again, i.e. de-essing, etc.), I fervently hope I can take it from there. Therefore: THANK YOU.