Story Behind The Song

I was driving home one night in 1999 or 2000 after playing piano for an event at THe National Gallery, and I heard this song in my head, almost all of it. I finished it when I got home, except for the last 2 lines which I added a year or two later at the suggestion of Shelley Vaughan Williams (poet/author who asked me to set some of her poems to music -- see "BEST TR 10 Flight of an Elegant Swan").

Lyrics

I wish that I could tell you dreams can come true:
Sometimes they don't.
I wish that I could tell you roses bloom big and beautiful and covered with dew:
But sometimes they don't.
My mother had roses - they didn't grow so well.
She said it was the light, maybe the soil -
But maybe she just didn't have the time.
Our neighbors had roses, and a gardener and lots of money,
And their roses bloomed big and covered with dew in the morning time -
But their son seemed troubled and unhappy.
I remember my mother's roses:
Pink, red, yellow, not so full and big...
But I remember how when she'd bring one in to the breakfast room,
And if you put your nose up close you could smell that special rose smell...
And I know she loved them.
You are my roses,
You are my garden.
Like my mother, I don't have particu'rly a green thumb...
But I love you, truly I do
And I will try to do the best that I can
And
You are my roses,
You are my roses.

I wish that I could tell you dreams can come true:
Sometimes they do.