Feathers

Sitting on the porch of the cabin with a bad cold (I have the cold, the cabin is fine). Just refining lyrics and practicing the songs (whisperingly), working with *song order both for the CD and for presentation. Firing off emails and facebook messages to both committed and potential supporters of this project. Thinking about hope. In my Celtic descant of a few days ago, I painted hope as fragile. Today I've reviewed what Emily Dickinson had to say about hope:

Hope is the thing with feathers 

That perches in the soul, 

And sings the tune--without the words, 

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard; 

And sore must be the storm 

That could abash the little bird 

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land, 

And on the strangest sea; 

Yet, never, in extremity, 

It asked a crumb of me.

Tough little bird. Tougher than my hope, it seems. Maybe it's just the cold getting me down. Mostly I love the third line. 

My Peace Mountain Mediaworks partners (Roger & Melanie Hoffman and Steven Kapp Perry, the Scripture Scouts crew) and I are wrapping up a presentation for second-graders to perform. Melanie wrote a lovely song, below, and I just wrote Roger to ask him if he would send me over an MP3. I want to play it through on guitar (it was written on piano) and see if it fits into Roses and Hope.

There’s so much to do, so much to know.

Please share your light so I can grow.

Then I will find my way to go,

If you’re there.

When I make mistakes, please try to see

Who I really am when you look at me.

There’s so much that I can be,

If you’re there.

I need someone strong. I need you

to believe in me

and stand by my side as I make my dreams come true.

Thank you for all the things you do

That help me know I matter to you.

I can always make it through,

If you’re there.

I need someone strong. I need you

to believe in me

and stand by my side as I make my dreams come true.

            And I’ll stand by your side. I’ll be with you.

            Together we all can make our dreams come true.

©2011 by Melanie Hoffman

*Here's the order as it stands. The titles in green are the entirely new songs.

Mother of Oceans 

The Woman and the Moon     

I Want To Be Near

Tender Mercies 

Dumb As a Hammer

Hope, Like Smoke                (centuries-old accompaniment)

I Want To Go With You

Take the Mountain Down    (new verse)

Something Like a Rose

Into Your Heart

Roses and Hope 

If You’re There

A Once Broken Love 

I have some more hymns worked up for guitar. I think I’ll include them as “hidden tracks” on the CD--tracks that aren’t listed in the packaging, but which show up about ten seconds of silence following the last listed song. I have some hymns worked up for guitar. I think I’ll include them as “hidden tracks” on the CD--tracks that aren’t listed in the packaging, but which show up after about ten seconds of silence following the last listed song. 

That's not always a good idea. Three CDs ago, I played some hymns on guitar for Steve Perry. He liked them a lot and told me I should record them. So I made “Front Porch Hymns and Humns.” But the humns wound up outnumbering the hymns, and I’d added vocals to the hymns I had, so I put in the straight unsung guitar performances as hidden tracks. A couple of years later, I asked Steve if he was enjoying the guitar hymns. He said, “What guitar hymns?” When I first gave him the CD, he’d immediately loaded the tracks he could see into his ipod and put the CD on a shelf. He’d never been aware of the music he’d asked me for! Now he is and, perhaps to atone, he’s playing them on the radio pretty regularly.

All the above could change, and probably will. But not until I’m over my cold. And when I'm over my cold, I'll figure out why these paragraphs look so funny.