'Let the Raven Call you Home'

"We find it hard to love what we cannot give a name to. And what we do not love, we will not save." Rob Macfarlane

Enter the wild with care, my love, and speak the things you see

Let new names take and root and thrive and grow

And even as you travel far from heather, crag and river

May you like the little fisher, set the stream alight with glitter

May you enter now as otter without falter into water

Look to the sky with care, my love and speak the things you see

Let new names take and root and thrive and grow

And even as you journey on past dying stars exploding

Like the gilded one in flight, leave your little gifts of light

And in the dead of night my darling, find the gleaming eye of starling

Like the little aviator, sing your heart to all dark matter

Walk through the world with care, my love, and sing the things you see

Let new names take and root and thrive and grow

And even as you stumble through machair¹ sands eroding

Let the fern unfurl your grieving, let the heron still your breathing

Let the selkie swim you deeper, oh my little silver-seeker

Even as the hour grows bleaker, be the singer and the speaker

And in city and in forest, let the larks become your chorus

And when every hope is gone, let the raven call you home.

THE LOST WORDS BLESSING THE LOST WORDS: SPELL SONGS

Songwriters: Seckou Keita / Kris Drever / Jim Molyneux / Rachel Newton / Julie Fowlis / Kerry Andrew / Beth Porter / Karine Polwart / Jackie Morris / Robert Macfarlane

"The Lost Words Blessing" is part of a cycle of songs created in response to The Lost Words, by writer Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris.

The Lost Words was created in response to learning that words like kingfisher, acorn, alder, wren, and dandelion had been dropped from the 2007 Oxford Junior Dictionary. Words that apparently were no longer being used by children. They were replaced with words like blog, broadband, and voicemail. This beautifully written and illustrated book sparked a global grassroots movement to re-wild childhood. On the Lost Words website it says their intention is to ‘Sing nature back to life through the power of poetry, art and music’.

This ‘Blessing’ feels like the perfect place to begin our project.

This beautiful song is set to images and videos that I’ve taken here on our 48 acres on the Chilcotin Plateau in central British Columbia, Canada.

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1. machair sands: A Gaelic word meaning fertile, low-lying grassy plain, ‘machair’ refers to a unique habitat that is one of the rarest in Europe; only occurring on the exposed west-facing shores of Scotland and Ireland. Machair habitat is very similar to a fixed sand dune but is easily distinguished by its flat, or gently undulating landscape, and the variety of vegetation types and land-uses. https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/habitats/coastal/machair