Pilgrims

Prepare the path with singing.

Dear Reader, Dear Listener,   

Another demo.  Again too long, again a little out of time, again in need of arranging and started a while ago while I was Artist In Residence at Cassilhaus.  During that month, I took long walks in the woods, collecting feathers, wild ginger and wildflowers in the forest between long hours trying to write in new ways.  I was thinking about singing as a ritual, a healing spell, an altered state of consciousness, a pathway.  I was layering my voice (too damn much).   Old asylums are forgotten cities filled with forgotten people – just like us.  I was thinking about how that story speaks most loudly about us – society – the people outside of the asylum – and how we treat each other, especially when vulnerable.  Then I had a dream.  I dreamt that a woman I read about in the archives was coming to visit — now she was a prophet, now she was a queen.  She was going to look straight through me and see the truth about who I was (triple yikes).  I was ecstatic.  I couldn’t wait to touch her hem.  I began preparing.  

What would I ask the prophet, a queen?  What might make a difference in the world?  How would I prepare the path with singing?  I’ve never had such a dream.

PILGRIMS

Wild ginger, four feathers, wild ginger, four feathers.

Wild ginger, four feathers, in the old way of preparing.

Old magic of the forest, in the old way of preparing. 

When the prophet comes, oh a queen, she’ll look straight through you and straight through me. Coming from continents, from centuries, from sacred places in our dreams. Weathered are her hands, she is more than tired.  Every chance to see, the world’s closed its eyes. What will she find in us in this land so strange? Where nothing here seems to have changed.  I am waiting here to kneel at her feet. I will stare into her and she into me. I will stare into her and she into me.

Kiss your hem, touch the stone, eat the root, become illuminated. 

Peace and salve, purify, eat the root, become illuminated. 

I am a pilgrim, trying to get free, prepare the path with singing,

I am a pilgrim trying to get free, prepare the path with singing,

I am a pilgrim, singing please, fill me with what the world refused to see. 

Please set us free – fill me with what the world refused to see.