RISE –Joanne Rand 2010
Do your duties and count your blessings and
Say Hail Mary’s and daily tidings and
Fold your napkin and clean your saucer and
Scan your email and drive your daughter
I want to rise… I want to fly…
I want to know all there is to know of life…
I am the mountain; I am a cell of the earth
I want to swim and wriggle in this cosmic juice for all it’s worth.
And I know life is short this time around.
I’m trying to make my arc last as long as I can.
I know how sweet this nectar of love.
I’m trying with all my heart to understand.
Sew your stitches and do the dishes and
Sweep the kitchen and let the dogs in and
Clean the cat box and call your mother
Conversations negate each other
I want to rise…I want to roll…
I want to dance way out beyond the horizon and rock my soul…
I am the ocean; I am a piece of the sky.
I want to waltz barefoot with that big, bad crescent moon on the rise.
And I know this house will burn down
I’m trying to keep my house in order while I can
I know these walls burn right through
We’ve got to raise our spire and scrub the cobblestone, too.
I want to rise…I want to roll…
I want to stare into your eyes and trust your soul.
I am the fire in your voice.
I am a heart pumping blood through you, because I have no choice.
And I know these walls burn through.
We’ve got to raise our spire and scrub the cobblestone, too
I know these walls burn right through
We’ve got to raise our highest spire and scrub the cobblestone floor, too.
TIES THAT BIND –Joanne Rand 2010
Ties that bind- white and thin
Laced like vines around my skin
Five strands per hand – my closest kin
Five fingers wrapped around my shin
Winged shoes fly me West
Ties that bind yank me abreast.
Father, solemn, standing by
See how I fear to fly
I grab my shoelace in my hand
Here and there I break a strand
Afraid my winged shoes will fail
I have no heart in setting sail
Afraid my family ties will break
I fear these wings are some mistake
Father, solemn, standing by
See how I fear to fly
Father, solemn, standing by
See how I fear to fly
See my hesitance and doubt
Wondering will I find out:
Are ties that bind too weak to hold?
My Southern soul is growing old
Mercurial charm will you prevail…
Free these arms to fly the air?
Prodigal son fly home
Prodigal son fly home
Prodigal son fly home again
While grandmother time is still your friend.
Grandmother time is still your friend
And Madame Gravity will do you in.
JUMP –Joanne Rand 2011
Dogs jump
Frogs jump
Kids jump, too
Cows jump
Over the moon
Bugs jump
Crickets jump
And kangaroo
I jump, you jump
To this tune
Jumparoo – me and you
Jumparee – you and me
Makes me feel like dancing
Makes me want to dance all day
Don’t you want to go spinning a round
Come on let’s jump and play.
BONES AND ALL –Joanne Rand 2010
I am a woman sure and strong
I’ll be traveling far along
No one to weep or worry me, from what I see.
Don’t understand the mind of man
Wreaking havoc on the land
Cannot kill eternity, from what I see.
Set me sail on the open sky
Hold my strings loosely
Take me back to the open sea
Do not confuse me.
I am a woman, wit and will
And wisdom are my backbone
Steady born, steady still
All creation’s my home.
Set me sail on the open sky
Hold my strings loosely
Take me back to the open sea
Do not confuse me.
All you strangers now take warn
There’ll be no stopping hoof or horn
And all that dies will be reborn, from what I see.
All you strangers hear me say
There’ll be no stopping corn or grain
And all that falls shall rise again, from what I see.
From what I see Gaia’s growing
Changes are showing
From what I see Gaia’s rising
Metamorphizing.
Cannot kill eternity
Cannot stop the planted seed
Can’t deny a world in need, from what I see.
So don’t weep or worry me
Do not discourage me
Can’t heal the world with grief, from what I see.
From what I see Gaia’s growing
Changes are showing
From what I see Gaia’s rising
Metamorphizing
From what I see Gaia’s strong
Though we might not last long.
Don’t weep or worry me
Do not discourage me
We can’t heal the world with grief, from what I see.
I am woman strong and sure
And I will endure
I will live, BONES AND ALL, to eternity.
REDWOOD –Joanne Rand 2010
Sing for the redwood,
Breathing in breathing out
Stretch your branches to the sky.
Sing for the redwood,
Mother of all creation,
Touch the sky.
We feel your arms around,
Canopy clan on high.
We feel your magnificent
Cool and peaceful sigh.
Sing for the redwood.
Sing for the forest,
Time on earth
Beyond all knowing.
Sing for the forest,
Height and girth
Beyond all growing.
Most have fallen to the blade,
Got to save you from this
Plunder, madness-made.
Sing for the forest.
Sing for the old ones.
Grow for generations down the line!
Sing for the old ones,
Heart and soul influence mine.
You give me voice,
Compel me to say:
They cannot kill and carry you away.
Sacred rage lead where you may!
Sing for the old ones…
Sing for the forest…
Sing for the redwood
In Richardson Grove
BREATHE -Joanne Rand & Ali Nelson
Breathe in…breathe out
That’s what life is all about.
I was the sweet, innocent, the golden-hearted one
Now I’m so many different things, I cannot name them all
I can’t explain my actions or even claim them all
This all just happened.
It’s just a swirl of color: purple red and black and blue
I don’t know what to do with color paint this song for you
Or paint myself a page…and sacrifice my rage.
This all just happened.
Now this is over, I want change. I’m changing, yes, again.
This time for real. I want to grow to be the best I can.
DON’T WORRY GIRL
THIS IS A MOST CONFUSING WORLD
DON’T WORRY CHILD
IT’S A WILD RIDE, as we…
Breathe in and we breathe out
‘Cause that’s what life is all about.
Breathe in and we breathe out
That’s what life’s about.
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW –Joanne Rand 2009
Thirteen years ago
I never would have thought that this would be so
I’d just said goodbye
To my brother.
Thirteen years ago I was single and scared to let you in
I’d just said goodbye
To my brother
To my best friend
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW
But now we’re here
Where the sun shines
And the butterflies fly by
Now we’re here
Where the waters flow.
Now we’re here
My husband and my child and I
Now we’re here
Where the waters flow.
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW
I will always be there for you, if you want me to.
I will always be beside you.
I will always be there for you, if you want me to.
I will always be beside you.
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW
WHERE THE WATERS FLOW.
HAPPY SONG – Elizabeth Gahm
I like to feel my hair against my face
I like a skirt that is soft against my legs
Make it pink and swirl when I spin
‘Cause that’s the mood I’m in.
I like to drink coffee with my toast
I like to eat dark chocolate the most
Make it sweet and filled with cream
‘Cause that’s the mood I’m in.
Yeah, the happy mood I’m in
Yeah, the happy mood I’m in
I like to dance to listen to the drums and the bass
I like to dance ‘till I’m red in the face
Make that beat bounce my crazy feet
‘Cause that’s the mood I’m in.
I like to warm my friends with my smile
I like to laugh like a foolish child
Spread that joy far and wide
Yeah, the happy mood I’m in
Yeah, the happy mood I’m in
HUSH YE MY BAIRNE –Traditional Gaelic Lullabye, translated by Malcolm MacFarlane
Hush ye, my bairnie
Bonny wee laddie
When you’re a man
you shall follow your daddie.
Lift me a coo,
And a goat and a wether,
Bringing them hame
To your minnie thegither.
Hush ye, my bairnie
Bonny wee lammie
Routh o’ guid things
Ye shall bring to your mammie
Hare frae the meadow
deer frae the mountain
Grouse frae the moorlan’
And trout frae the fountain.
Hush ye, my bairnie
Bonny wee dearie
Sleep! come and close the een
heavy and wearie
Closed are the wearie een
rest ye are takin’
Sound be yer sleepin’
And bright be yer wakin’
HUT BY THE SEA -Joanne Rand 2010
Met a hermit lives in a hut by the sea and he
Carves in his wood all day.
He’s got a single Bunsen burner and one old saucepan
And he doesn’t wash his windows or sweep the dust away.
There’s nary a picture on the wall
And there’s nothing really in his room at all.
I had more on my back than he owns altogether,
But there’s pictures in his head and they come out in his sculpture,
So I asked him what he thinks about all day
And this is what he said to me.
He said: I think about what I’m doing
I don ‘t think about anything else.
He said: I hear the news each morning
Then the radio goes on the shelf.
I told my daughter not to have a child, he said,
Though she didn’t listen to me,
Cause nothing is gonna get better,
‘specially in this country,
But sometimes when the tide’s in
It sweeps around my house.
I’m just waiting for the ocean
To carry me out.
So I sang him a song and I said goodbye
And I trudged on up the hill.
Funniest thing about this guy,
Which I remember still:
Is how little he required
To occupy his mind,
Just a chisel and a radio
And an empty stretch of time…
How little he needed
To make his life complete
Just a chisel and a radio
And a good night’s sleep.
And sometimes when I’m dreaming
The tide sweeps around MY house.
I’m just waiting for the ocean
To carry me out.
I’m just waiting for the ocean
To carry me out.
