The songs I play for no one

There is a small set of songs I never play live and never put out. They are the ones I keep just for me.

Some are too personal. Some are not very good but mean something to me. Some were written for a moment and would not survive being dragged out into general daylight. They are not secrets exactly. They are more like a private language.

I used to feel like every song I wrote had to earn its keep. Now I think a writer needs a few songs that owe nothing to anyone. They keep the work honest. They remind me that I started doing this for myself, before there was a stage or a stream count.

When the public songs feel heavy, I play one of these in the kitchen and remember why I picked up a guitar in the first place.