At last, my #songaweek2022 group used a photo for a prompt instead of a word or phrase. This felt like a game-changer to me in terms of connecting with a prompt for inspiration. I think the photo was of the Great Wall of China, but I thought of a road, then of the song from The Hobbit that starts, “the road goes ever on and on. . . ” and I went from there.
I felt like deliberately slowing down in the writing and playing of this song, and so I did.
If you listen closely and/or with headphones you might be able to hear the crickets singing along outside the open window.
The road goes ever on And over it a song That if you hear will draw you near to where you never know where you might go
The day lies before you And with it much to do But there’s a song that draws you on To where you always know you’re going home
The ground carries your load The clouds catch evening’s glow They’re changing you, and changed by you Till everything will never be the same
Life continues to be a bit crazy around here as we moved our oldest to college last week and two of us go back to school here at home (middle school lunch lady and high school sophomore). I mean not here at *home* but in our hometown. I mean not actually our town but the next one over, which is only a few blocks away. But I digress.
All that to say I’m still not back to finishing a song every week. This one was started last week and wrapped up and roughly recorded this week. Not one of my favorites but it’s just good to write again!
Here on the water in the middle of the land You can hear the wind, it’s whispering through the wings of birds above you And here in the forest surrounded by the trees You can feel the pulse of all the being things around you Ooooh. . . . and that’s called home
Deep in the hollows of your heavy heart There is still a song reverberating in this moment Lapsing synapses at the back of your brain Keep trying all the ways they know to tell the story how it goes Ooooh . . . . and that’s called life
And you You will be well You will find wisdom in the way of wonder
Here’s a song exploring the balance of individual freedom with community responsibility. The first lines came to me soon after I heard the news that Roe v. Wade had been overturned. They might just as easily have come from the mouth of an anti-masker a couple years ago. The next lines are a reminder that I have changed my opinion multiple times in my life and I’m likely to do it again – so I’m learning to hold less militantly to any position, and trying to pay closer attention and care to the people around me.
The prompt for this week 31 of #songaweek2022 was “armed and dangerous,” which brought to my mind the awful number of gun fatalities we’ve had right here in my city just this summer, not to mention the wider world.
The first lines of the little bridge at the end (“the rains come down and the floods go up”) came from a song I learned in Sunday School many years ago – about the wise man who built his house on a rock and the foolish one who built his house on the sand (thus the “sands of time” line for my further allusionary pleasure). I’m thinking here about actual flooding and wildfires, resulting from our foolish refusal to build sustainable systems that acknowledge our limits and our need to care for ourselves and our planet.
More than ever, I’m convinced that the way forward is the way of love – not blind sentiment but thoughtful, engaging, respectful and compassionate care for whoever I find myself facing, physically or virtually or however else, at the present moment.
Here’s something I read this week that I immediately cut and pasted in my notes, said by Valarie Kaur – “Listening does not grant the other side legitimacy. It grants them humanity—and preserves our own.”
I would probably do what they want me to But since they took away my right to choose I feel uneasy
So many things I used to rail against Now they kind of make some sense I take it easy
Think for yourself but please don’t stop there Think about everybody else
I’ve been trying hard to hear the truth But with all these voices shouting the news It isn’t easy
And the heat sets in and the tempers rise And the guns come out and somebody dies It’s far too easy
Think for yourself but please don’t stop there Think about everybody else
And the rains come down and the floods go up As we race against the sands of time And the fires burn and the tanks roll in And the wide world weeps and the hearts of humans break
Think for yourself but please don’t stop there Think about everybody else
We’re back from a 16-day, 15-state road trip over the course of which (including prepping for it) I missed three weeks of songwriting. But I spent good time with lovely people in beautiful places. Not a bad trade!
Every summer, fragrance or music or the way the light falls or the wind breathes recalls to me other summers – and I’m inspired to write songs like this one, feeling again those summers of my adolescence, that felt deep and wide and like I lived whole wonderful lifetimes through them. And – part of the joy of aging is that I think I’m once again starting to live more like my favorite parts of those summers – rediscovering the beauty and joy of my life through all my senses. It is good.
Silver starlight, lilac breeze, windows open wide Something ventured, something lovely gained Spring becoming summer, woman grown from tender child I was never going to be the same
I can’t forget how it felt, can’t remember what happened I fell under your spell, got mixed up in your magic
Moonlight on the road, whisper of leaves through the yard Evening breathing cool upon my skin Music in the wind and new horizons in my heart I close my eyes and it comes back again
I can’t forget how it felt, can’t remember what happened I fell under your spell, got mixed up in your magic
Sunshine and the birds are singing, cold rain, I’m alone It doesn’t really make much difference I hold you in the deepness where I keep the love I’ve known And spread you out in everything I bless
I can’t forget how it felt, can’t remember what happened I fell under your spell, got mixed up in your magic
This is one of those songs I don’t feel like saying too much about. It’s shaded with some personal experience but I was also thinking (feeling?) about lots of other things including but not limited to face slaps, cancel culture, love and war.
And if I told you all What kindness could you offer me Who caused you pain, me Who you have reason to blame?
I’ve fallen far from grace Misspoken, made mistakes that you Can not forget, you Have never wanted to yet
Try as I might I cannot Make it right without you And your heart in the game Cause it takes two to win And right now we’re just two lost
We’ve both been hiding from The truth we can’t face up to here Where we’re so scared, here Where life’s pathetically fair
I’m thinking if I go You might just think it over then When I’m gone, then When you’re old and alone
Try as I might I cannot Make it right without you And your heart in the game Cause it takes two to win And right now we’re just two lost
What if we start again Who says we can’t imagine more Than what we had, more Than in and out, good and bad
Try as I might I cannot Make it right without you And your heart in the game Cause it takes two to win And right now we’re just two lost
Julia Bloom 