Linda, of course I am not lurking around the threads trying to decide who writes lyrics only. People tell us that themselves. You just did. And a lyrics only person can be sucessful but they have to be working with a musician. The saddest thing to hear is the lyrisist who attempts to put the lyric to music without any understanding of music. But working with a musician, the lyrisist is involved in the craft of turning the word into a song.

You don't have to go back to college to get formal training. All you have to do is listen to you favorite song and try to recreate it. You have to LISTEN intensely to the music that is already created. Identify the harmony, the base line, the drums, the various instruments. Use your $100 keyboard and pick out the melody that you love. And Frankly, if you are unwilling or unable to do this, songwriting is probably not your calling.

This has been said before but everyone on this forum should try it a least once: Take a melody that you love and write a lyric that fits it perfectly. You know the melody is working so now you can see if you really can "write" a song. So what if you can't pitch it- if your lyrics are compelling and you have moved someone (even if it is just yourself) then you know that you have in you the craft to make more than a poem- you can make a song. Now those great melodies- where do they come from?- well that's the great mystery even to the composer- it is magic! and greater magic is when an inspired lyric is woven into an inspired melody... so to quote a line from Dr. Doctor Zhivago, "It's a gift"

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein