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about

An exploration of home and belonging, in all their contradictions.

lyrics

LYRICS:

Home is the hand into which we curl our fist
Home the body against which ours perfectly fits
Home the way the heartbeat synchronises
And how the centre of our gravity gently shifts to become
Mutual, something between two
bodies who accompany one another through
This world

I want you near and far
I want you wherever you are
I want you in silence
I want you in sound
I want you when you’re high
I want you when you’re down
I want to play, seriously
At this game that we are playing
Of being you, and being me

And now they’re holding at the gate, the plane is late
It’s only two pm but it feels like seven which is great
For these few hours of flight will be what I take for night
And what I take for my sleep

Look at that poor babe in arms, already wailing
No idea of what awaits him
No idea of time nor space, but at least
Pressed to his mothers breast, in a darkened place
All circumstances are the same
Surely this is what we know
This is what me mean by, home and safe

And do we not learn this first
Do we not learn this first?

That home is the hand into which we curl our fist
Home the body against which ours perfectly fits
Home the way the heartbeat synchronises
Home the way our centre of gravity gently shifts to become
Mutual, something between two
Bodies who accompany one another through
This world

With wet stone and salt water
Penitence and paint
With breaths first drawn on foreign soil
I have built this house of clay

These restless feet, they never set well into concrete
The faster they run, the less they feel
The running tears the roots to pieces
To settle them took many years
To calm that gate, hush that hurry
Turn escape into homecoming
Find out how and where I want to be

And when I go it will be gone
These are not lands carved by generations
This is a tender garden and it needs tending
If I’m to ever feel that I’m not only renting

You see
I have no soil of my own
I have no soil of my own
I have no soil of my own

I have no soil of my own
No native land, no mother tongue
Self exile is in my bones
Exile itself a thing I own

I worked hard to make a home
And learn to share what I had made my own
Now you go half the world away
To the kind of place that I escaped

How can I choose between
Your beating heart and a life slow-crafted
I’d hung my ambitions from the rafters
Said, I’m done with all that pushing, fighting, shoving
I want a life of quiet loving

I want you, near and far
I want you, wherever you are
I want you in silence
I want you in sound

I want you when I’m high
I want you when I’m down
I want you with my coffee
I want you with my tea

I want you when we’re dancing
And quiet with a book in the evening reading
I want you when I’m worried
I want you when I’m free

I want you when times are tough
And when they’re easy and in-between
I want to play, seriously
At the idea that home might be

Where our bodies meet

credits

from The Bird My Brethren (+ bonus track), track released December 1, 2022

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Blanche Ellis London, UK

A London born, Barcelona based, singer songwriter with a focus on poetry, a love of the melodic leaps of Joni Mitchell and the intimate, confessional words of Leonard Cohen. Leaning into the scratch of homemade recordings, the low-down blues of Karen Dalton, the easy darkness of Gillian Welch, the swing of Billie Holiday's ballads and the soft edges of sleepy Delta Blues. ... more

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