When Abraham Lincoln was in his late thirties, he revisited his childhood home, and wrote a poem about it. Though the American Civil War and his own early death were still years into his future, the poem he wrote in 1846 feels like a fitting backdrop for many of the Civil War photos I came across while making this video.
The song is also on my Soundcloud page, where you can download it for free: https://soundcloud.com/julia-tindall-bloom/my-childhood-home-i-see-again
Here’s a solo album I recorded in 2005, that I re-released last month on Noisetrade where you can download it for free.
http://noisetrade.com/juliabloom/a-human-called-woman
I’ve been having fun taking public domain poems and setting them to music recently. Here’s a little spring fever piece by Robert Frost, very roughly recorded by yours truly. May you very soon find the brown beneath the white, wherever you live in the northern hemisphere anyway!
My latest video has been a joyfully collaborative effort.
The words are taken from the book Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich, 14th-century English mystic.
The images are the attentive and skillful work of Kristen Kopp. I left southern Minnesota for the outspoken beauty of Colorado, but Kristen’s photographic impressions of my prairie home do gorgeous justice to the whispering wonder of that place. Treat your eyes and your soul to more of her work here: http://instagram.com/kristenannakopp
While I wrote the music and made a simple recording with acoustic guitar and vocals, my best-beloved, Nathan Bloom, sculpted the audio tracks into a fascinating aural landscape.
Deepest thanks to Julian, Kristen and Nathan for sharing your own unique vista on the world with me in producing this video!
I wrote this song in 2008, but it never felt finished until I rewrote the last verse yesterday. Peace to you and yours, to neighbors and strangers, allies and enemies, to all of us everywhere.
Lyrics:
Belfast and Belgrade, Beirut and Beijing
Baghdad and Bosnia filled with broken things
Tanks plow the streets
Bombs sown like strange seeds
Give them the baby of Bethlehem
El Salvador, Saigon, Sudan and Syria
Sierra Leone and Somalia are weary of
Fat cats and their dogfights
Nightmares in broad daylight
Give them the baby of Bethlehem
No crying he makes, no death or disease
What child is this who’s broken to be our peace?
Littleton, Newtown, Facebook and Hollywood
Pine Ridge and Ferguson and Bedford-Stuyvesant
We’re scared and suspicious,
Anonymously vicious
Give us the baby of Bethlehem
Julia Bloom 