I wanted to write a song about inequality and the idea that the rich have unequal access to resources – with the example of a river, where upstream factories and communities are taking all the water, so that the land downstream is depleted.
The end result was a bit different but linked. I’ve played it our band, (The Apple Snatchers), and they like it, so it’s provisionally in the set. We’re looking at doing a couple of gigs in the Autumn, which should be fun.
There’s something in the water, floating down the stream. It’s come from up the river, I wonder what it means. There’s moonlight on the water, blue lights in the town Sun’s up in an hour or so, soon I will be gone
And it’s not just in the water it’s everywhere around You can see the people thinking to move to higher ground They don’t want any trouble, they’ll just let it be And sometimes these old eyes of mine, they don’t want to see
And the river is deep, the river is wide – it’s way too far to the other side.
We need you to survive, you must carry on We need you to keep going or else we’ll all be gone Can the oak tree stand forever, its branches touch the sky ? We can tell most any story, but it’s hard to live the life.
And the river is deep, the river is wide – is it too far to the other side ?
The writing is beautiful, and I really wanted to write a song after reading the first two chapters.
I’ve tried to stay somewhat within the sense of what he was saying- I hope I haven’t strayed too far.
Here’s what I came up with – and apologies to Tim Dee – I have used a load of the images that he used because they were so captivating. I hope that’s OK ?
I have a tune that I hope evokes something of the feel I’m going for. I’ll try and record that sometime.
I’m calling it ‘Elegy for the Fen.’
Field and fen, stream and river, this is our life Sun and seasons, clouds and rain, water the earth
Generations have walked this land, mown, mapped and known Creation – will have our say – we can’t be owned
Sound of the grass; ground shining green Sound of the grass; ground shining green
We will show you how to live with the grain Whispers of Eden, guide you now lead us home
We’ve been worked by other men, ‘til we were dry But over and over and again, we’re saved by the leaking sky
Sound of the grass; ground shining green Sound of the grass; ground shining green
We have been orphaned from the land, find the future in the past.
Sound of the grass; ground shining green Sound of the grass; ground shining green
P.S. From the Hebrew Scriptures in the book of Job:
Crooks reside safely in high-security houses, insolent blasphemers live in luxury; they’ve bought and paid for a god who’ll protect them. “But ask the animals what they think — let them teach you; let the birds tell you what’s going on.
Put your ear to the earth — learn the basics. Listen — the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories.
Isn’t it clear that they all know and agree that God is sovereign, that he holds all things in his hand — Every living soul, yes,every breathing creature?
I think this is finished … maybe a couple of tweaks here and there. It’s taken a while, but I’m encouraged listening to an interview with Jackson Browne about songwriting. Two that I’ve listened to this week –
I have a tune and hear a fairly sparse arrangement at the start – maybe guitar and penny whistle, with bass drum coming in, and then some snare, with bass and accordion and mandolin in there also.
I’m keen to show the band, but it will have to wait until we’ve practised some other new material that we’re working on.
See my previous post for more info on the song.
Regeneration
Voice 1 I catch a glimpse of you – dancing in the field nearby Your arms are waving gracefully against a Monday sky Your bare head cold, with sisters by your side With winter still to came – All Hallows Tide
Voice 2 I see you standing still – alert for sound or sigh Your arms are steady, reaching out as if to touch the sky Your bare head cold, held high with pride Come dance with me, here by my side.
Voices 1 & 2 If only we could meet, but that shall never be Even for just one day – to be set free (rpt )
Voice 1 Time passes by, but I have not forgotten you You’re always on my heart, and in my view Now clothed in green, diamonds on your sleeve Your kisses blown, carried on the breeze.
Voice 2 Time was when I thought love was leaving us behind You’ve been the constant one, ever on my mind Now spring has come, and scattered on the ground Seeds of the future lie like snowflakes all around
Voices 1 & 2 I’ve got a feeling that our lives will never end The road is going over Jordan and beyond (rpt)
I’m not sure, but there seems to be a feeling that you don’t talk about songs that you’re writing, for fear of taking away the mystery, but this is a small room, and I know I can trust you as I share something I’m working on.
So, I was driving home to Gloucester from North Wales a few weeks ago, and I was enjoying the thousands of trees with their bare branches. I was thinking about the structure and shape of the trees in their winter clothing, and had a picture in my mind of a tree that had a crossed trunk at the bottom, as if it were standing with legs crossed like a ballerina.
Immediately a line came to me … I catch a glimpse of you, dancing in the fields nearby.
Another line came quickly … Your bare arms waving gracefully, against a Monday sky. (It was a Monday)
As the thoughts developed, I imagined a conversation between two trees in nearby fields. The first tree then says to the other tree something like … I see you standing still, alert for sound or sigh.
Then some words of a chorus came … ‘If only we could meet, but that shall never be…
Other snippets of words that I had at the time have been abandoned, and now it looks like this:
I catch a glimpse of you, dancing in the field nearby. Your arms are waving gracefully against a Monday sky Your bare head cold, with sisters by your side With winter still to come, All Hallows tide.
I see you standing still, alert for sound or sigh. Your arms are steady, reaching out as if to touch the sky. Your bare head cold, held high with pride Come dance with me, here by my side
Chorus If only we could meet, but that shall never be Even for just one day to be set free.
Then I stalled … wanting perhaps two more verses … maybe with a conversation in springtime now ?
Then, as often happens, there was some serendipity
First of all, I came across a blog about the Redwood tree, and how they. have shallow roots, but which extend for a long way under the ground, This allows the trees in the group to get strength from each other, and withstand the wind etc. There something here about how we are stronger together; the need for interdependence to survive. I began to think about telling the story of my two trees as one where they need each other, even though they ‘can never meet’
Then, another piece of good fortune – a windfall you might say ! We were watching an edition of a programme on BBC TV called Countryfile, where we were learning about the Black Poplar tree. This is a tree native to the UK – and not often seen, because of the decline in its habitat.
The Black Poplar is quite a rare tree, there only being 7000 in the UK. They are dioecious – which means that there are male and female trees. Now I knew this was the case with the holly tree, but hadn’t thought about other trees being this way.
The fertilised seeds need to fall on damp ground, making river valleys perfect places for this species. But the drainage of the land for agricultural has made it difficult for these wetland trees and they have slowly disappeared from the landscape. A recent survey estimated there are only 7000 black poplars in England, Wales and Ireland, of which 600 are female.
If you’re wondering where I’m going with this as far as songwriting is concerned, stay with me …
I have these two trees in my song so far … they’re looking at each other and are mutually attracted. But they are trees … and getting together is a problem.
So how about if they get together in another way ? Both male and female trees bear flowers in clusters called catkins. The female catkins are green and produce seeds, while the male catkin is red and produces pollen. If a male and a female tree are growing close enough together, then the seeds can be pollinated and germinate to give seedlings. How cool is that ! But in fact, there are so few wild black poplars left that it is unlikely they will pollinate each other. Instead, the large numbers of cultivated trees pollinate them resulting in no regeneration of true, wild black poplars. However, some projects, like the one seen on Countryfile, are aiming to encourage the growth of the wild Black Poplar through pollination.
So I’m working on verse three where the male is speaking – something like this
Time passes by, but I have not forgotten you You’re always on my mind and in my view Now clothed in green, with diamonds on your sleeve Blowing kisses, carried by the breeze.
The shape of the black poplar leaf is described variously as heart-shaped, or diamond-shaped … so I could have as the third line in the verse above S’s …
Now clothed in green, your heart worn on your sleeve
Whichever I go for, I’m now trying to get the angle on what the female might say … work in progress. I’ll try and bring in the colour red.
And then there will be a second chorus, which would have different words to the first chorus (does that make it technically not a chorus )? … which goes something like this:
The seeds are scattered underneath our feet A promise of the time, when we will meet.
(That is – in the next generation of the tree ….)
My misgiving is now that I have made it too clearly about trees, when one of my guiding principles is ‘show not tell’ ???
In chapter 43, Jeremiah has arrived in Egypt – against his wishes.
He had, over a long period, distanced himself from the ruling elite in Jerusalem and preached a message of God’s judgment against Israel. He had urged the leaders to stay in Jerusalem; God would have a future for them if they listened and stayed.
They had not followed God’s word as proclaimed by Jeremiah, but had insisted on going their own way – to Egypt where they believed they would be safe.
Once in Egypt, Jeremiah engages in a symbolic act that continues the message that God’s future for Israel lies not in Egypt but with Babylon.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes: 9 Take some large stones in your hands, and bury them in the clay pavement that is at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes. Let the Judeans see you do it, 10 and say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to send and take my servant King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he will set his throne above these stones that I have buried, and he will spread his royal canopy over them.
In this act, Jeremiah not only subverts Egyptian power, but affirms the superiority and God appointed influence of Babylon in Egypt. The large stones that he buries are the foundation for Nebuchadrezar’s throne.
This symbolic act is: daring – a public act; imaginative – seeing the power of the symbol; faithful – to what God has been saying; challenging – both to Egypt and to Israel.
What symbolic acts of resistance have we seen, or might we engage in, that would subvert, for example the power of oil and gas companies, or militarism, or the gun lobby in the USA ?
And behind all of the above there is something to do with that part of our human nature that is driven by fear of the other, and an overwhelming sense of entitlement and privilege.
Sometime last year, I heard a talk by theologian Ched Myers. He lives in Northern California, near the coast, and was talking about the way that biodiversity in his area has been affected by loss of water. Further upstream, industry is taking so much water off the river that the river has run dry downstream. Another story I heard at roughly the same time from a different source concerned the Jordan Valley, and how in a similar way, Israeli farms and industries were using so much of the river water, that there was not enough for people downstream. As I write this, I thought I would check just to see that I had remembered this correctly. So I googled: Amost Trust water scarcity Jordan valley. (I included Amos Trust in the search as I know them as a small civil rights organisation working in Palestine/Israel) The 6th hit down on the page was here – check it out.
Water scarcity is already a big problem, but it will reach crisis proportions for more and more people as time goes on.
Hearing these stories, I wrote down – And the water’s flowing freely, but never to our door. Water is both a material reality, and metaphor. It felt like I could write a song with that line in that could speak to both the reality of water scarcity and to situations of inequality, where a few have access to resources that are denied to the many.
The line stayed in my notebook for well over a year. Eventually I came back to it and wrote the song, Waterfall. You can listen to the song here.
Waterfall
She wanted freedom -but there’s was nowhere for her to go It’s hard to choose between a bus ticket and a winter coat
See how the water flows Freely the waters flow But never to her door Never to her door
He always thought – Just stand in line and it would come to you It might take time, but you would get to the front of the queue
See how the water flows Freely the waters flow But never to his door No never to his door
See how the water flows Ask if the water chose For some to have it all While others are in hell ?
Cool water Cool, cool water Water flowing free Water flowing free
See how the water flows What if the water chose To be a waterfall So no one is in hell.
See how the water flows Say that the water chose To be a waterfall To pour upon us all.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. A few years ago, I took ashes out into the town centre and offered ‘Ashes To Go.” – taking the ashes from last year’s Palm crosses and offering the sign of the cross to anyone who was willing to receive it. Ashes are a reminder that in the end, we all turn to dust. That reminder of our mortality, can be a signpost to turn to God, the ground of all our being.
One of my readings today was from Malcolm Guites book of sonnets, that traces the church year, with a sonnet for different seasons. He has written a sonnet for Ash Wednesday.
Receive this cross of ash upon your brow Brought from the burning of Palm Sunday’s cross; The forests of the world are burning now And you make late repentance for the loss. But all the trees of God would clap their hands, The very stones themselves would shout and sing, If you could covenant to love these lands And recognise in Christ their lord and king. He sees the slow destruction of those trees, He weeps to see the ancient places burn, And still you make what purchases you please And still to dust and ashes you return. But Hope could rise from ashes even now Beginning with this sign upon your brow.
Below is a short extract of the introduction to the sonnet that he originally wrote for it when wrote it over ten years ago. He has reposted the sonnet with a new sense of urgency here on today’s blog post.
As I set about the traditional task of burning the remnants of last Palm Sunday’s palm crosses in order to make the ash which would bless and sign our repentance on Ash Wednesday, I was suddenly struck by the way both the fire and the ash were signs not only of our personal mortality and our need for repentance and renewal but also signs of the wider destruction our sinfulness inflicts upon God’s world and on our fellow creatures, on the whole web of life into which God has woven us and for which He also cares.
For the past few days, my reading has taken me to the book of Ecclesiasticus, in the Apocrypha. This book, also known as the Wisdom of Sirach , was written by the Jewish Scribe, Ben Sira, in the period between the Old and New Testaments.
I must admit to not being familiar with the book, which is full of great advice to live a godly life.
Today’s reading in chapter 31 had these words:
Are you seated at the table of the great? Do not be greedy at it, and do not say, ‘How much food there is here!’ … Do not reach out your hand for everything you see, and do not crowd your neighbour at the dish. Judge your neighbour’s feelings by your own, and in every matter be thoughtful.
Eat what is set before you like a well-bred person, and do not chew greedily, or you will give offence. Be the first to stop, as befits good manners, and do not be insatiable, or you will give offence.
If you are seated among many others, do not help yourself before they do. How ample a little is for a well-disciplined person!
He does not breathe heavily when in bed. Healthy sleep depends on moderate eating; he rises early, and feels fit.
Eating with others is, or at least should be, a great leveller. When we sit around a table, especially perhaps with strangers, there’s an opportunity to learn more about the conditions under which they live.
On the face of it, Ben Sira’s words are good advice as we sit around the meal table – not to be greedy, but think of others. Essential ways to promote healthy living in community. As I thought about these words, it seemed to me that they can also help us think about greed on a larger scale.
In the context of the current COP 26 talks, imagine that the world is one great meal table. We were watching the BBC programme ‘Panorama’ last night and it brought home the crisis that we are living through – or dying through for many.
As we observe the inequalities in the world – the poor suffering most from the effects of the climate change that the rich nations have caused, we are looking at a level of ‘greed that serves the indiscipline of the entitled.’ (Walter Brueggemann).
Another of my readings today struck me forcibly. it’s from Psalm 50. In the psalm, God is the one speaking, but as I read it today, I imagined that this was the earth speaking: (The Bible quotes below are in italics, the other words are mine). Just change the word God and replace it with ‘The Earth’
The earth has been silent, but now it speaks.
The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons … our God comes and does not keep silence, (verse 1)
These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one just like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you. (Verse 21)
In just this last year, we have seen unprecedented fires out of control, and floods devastating whole communities.
before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him. (Verse 3)
Unless the human race changes, the consequences – that are already evident – will only get worse
Mark this, then, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver. (Verse 22)
Am I stretching the words of scripture ? I don’t think so.
I am praying this prayer from CAFOD, the Catholic development agency.
Loving God, We praise your name with all you have created.
You are present in the whole universe, and in the smallest of creatures.
We acknowledge the responsibilities you have placed upon us as stewards of your creation.
May the Holy Spirit inspire all political leaders at COP26 as they seek to embrace the changes needed to foster a more sustainable society.
Instil in them the courage and gentleness to implement fairer solutions for the poorest and most vulnerable, and commit their nations to the care of Our Common Home.
We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ your Son. Amen
I’ve been trying to set aside time to write about this for a week now. Finally had to get on and do it. Last Tuesday we walked with a group of about 15 others the 12 or so miles from Gloucester to Tewkesbury – as part of a pilgrimage from Bristol to Glasgow, timed to arrive in Glasgow for COP26.
We joined just for a day, whereas most of the group were walking for the whole two weeks. In fact there were a handful of people who were aiming to make it all the way to Glasgow!
The passion and commitment of all those making this pilgrimage is amazing to see, and we felt humbled and privileged to be a part of it.
A couple of conversations with other pilgrims have stayed with me. One conversation early on in the day was to do with wondering how effective this type of action is ? Can a relatively small group of activists really bring about change ? I imagine that those who are doing the whole walk will ask themselves this question at some point.
We had two periods of about an hour’s silence either side of our lunch stop, and I used the time to think about that conversation. One thought that came to me was to do with the teaching of Jesus about what the New Testament calls ‘The Kingdom of Heaven.’ Jesus uses images of tiny things – like a very small seed, or a small amount of yeast – and teaches that this is how God typically works. Through small things. That’s actually just as well, because most of us can only do the small things.
But it’s more than that. It’s more than knowing that God works through the small things that we offer. It’s also about how those small things can have an effect far greater than you might imagine. Those small things can be agents of change to bring about transformations that are way, way bigger than the small thing that we did.
There’s also something about the power of doing the small thing with others. The power of community to bring about change.
The other conversation that I had, later on in the day, was with H, who shared with me her passion for the good of the earth, that has resulted in her getting involved in addressing the Climate Emergency. I mostly listened. I think we have to talk now about the Climate Emergency, rather than Climate Change. While we try in small ways to make a difference in our own lives, we are in awe of those who are making big sacrifices to get this message out there.
In the week since we joined the pilgrimage, they have travelled from Tewkesbury to Malvern, Worcester, Stourport, Coventry and into Birmingham.
In the last week, I cam across this article in the Guardian, where an analysis has been done of the number of terms a variety of terms appeared on UK Television in 2020.
For example, Dog has 286,626 mentions, 22 times more than Climate Change at 12,715, and ‘Banana Bread’ is heard more times than Wind Power and Solar Power combined. See the article here.
This is a part of chapter 5 of the book of Acts in the New Testament.
12 The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”
This is the account of the beginnings of the church. However, at this stage, it’s a movement within Judaism, but claiming something new that is driving a wedge between the powers that be and this new phenomenon. (The new thing being a proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus).
I’ve written before about categories that characterise the work of the Spirit … Inclusion … (contrasted with exclusion) Abundance v Scarcity Economic Justice v Coercive Power Connectedness v Individualism Cooperation v Competition Solidarity v Looking After #1
In the account in Acts, the tension is between: Voices that are determined to speak, and the forces that want to silence them New possibilities that are emerging and present arrangements Emancipation and Intimidation
When I was thinking about how this might play out today, there are numerous examples, but one that comes to mind is Extinction Rebellion. How might we all play a part in the fight to put the climate emergency at the top of the political agenda ?
My thoughts are also turning to Afghanistan today. Western powers have much to regret and reflect on over past mistakes, but it’s clear that an immediate concern is the way that ‘present arragements’ in the form of fundamentalism are at play: Silencing the voices that have begun to speak, quashing the new possibilities that have been possible (education of girls for example), and using intimidation to restrict the freedoms that are a human right.
Grace and Peace, and prayers especially for the Afghan people.
Five Short Words 