Rhythmic Reflections: Overwhelmed with Gratitude: A Collection of Songs & Poems of 2026 — Part 5
About this audiobook
This is the fifth book of songs and poems I have gathered, and the title says what this season has felt like: overwhelmed with gratitude. These pages were written between shifts at the Port, between classes, between Sunday services and Saturday mornings. Every one of them is a thank-you for being able to do the work at all.
The book moves through several rooms of the same house. Running through it are the weekly spiritual principle poems — simplicity, sincerity, solitude, stability, steadfastness, thankfulness, thoughtfulness, timeliness, and more — each one a practice to carry for a single week. Near the front are the love songs and smooth jazz serenades, written for slow evenings and the people who share them, along with the Velvet Window EP.
Then come the albums. Empowered, Encouraged, Elevated was written for the CME Church Department of Ministry to Men. One Drum is five songs for djembe and voice. Everybody’s Got a Graveyard Shift and Graveyard Shift carry the songs of the Graveyard Shift Academy book series. An Injury to One speaks the waterfront and to Local 10, written by a longshoreman about the people he works beside. Bayview Sunday comes from the pews at Bell Chapel. Fourteen Units to the Stage follows a working man back into the classroom. Fourth Saturday is for the men around the breakfast table. One Hundred Forty-Four Doors is the companion album to my novel Spiritual Principles.
The last part of the book rolls out of the garage. Two graduation songs celebrate everyone who has walked across a stage, from pre-K to trade school to a college degree. Knock of the Bay is a car dance album — cruising songs, engine songs, and a shout-out to the mechanics who keep us rolling. In God We Trust brings the collection home with songs about the cars in my own driveway, in two editions, Trunk Mix and Sunday Drive, before a final set of weekly poems closes the book.
Each song is printed the way it was written to be sung, with its section markings, and many include the style notes used in production. Read them, sing them, or play the recordings alongside the page.
Thank you for reading, and for being part of the rhythm.
S Scott Jr.
Oakland, California
About the author
About the Author
My name is Stanley Scott Jr., and I write from the San Francisco Bay Area, where I work as a longshoreman and serve my union brothers and sisters. In 2011 I began a new life, and since then I've given myself to faith, family, community, and the craft of putting real life into words. I serve as a lay minister at Bell Chapel CME Church in Bayview-Hunters Point and am a public health major at San Francisco State University, so I spend my days moving between the waterfront, the altar, and the classroom. Rhythmic Reflections is where all of it comes together in songs and poems: the music I hear in everyday people, the lessons I've learned the hard way, and the hope I carry for anyone still finding their rhythm.
Thank You to the Reader
Thank you for walking with me all the way to Part 5. When I started Rhythmic Reflections, I didn't know how many songs and poems were waiting in me, but every page you turned gave me a reason to keep writing. These lyrics and verses came from long shifts, quiet mornings, Sunday services, and late-night drives. The songs were made to be sung, and the poems were made to be sat with. I hope somewhere along the way, one of them spoke to your own story. Whether you sang along to a chorus, read a poem out loud, or just held onto a line that hit home, you are part of this collection now. Keep your head up, keep your heart open, and keep moving to your own beat.
With gratitude,
S Scott Jr.
