Episode 00 Mother of My Mothers

This is a placeholder while I sort out doing some actual content! This is a sea shanty I wrote for my dissertation about my fear of drowning because of the inherited trauma of being descended from enslaved people.

Co vocals and beautiful harmonies by Anna Fruen to whom I shall always be grateful.

Credit is also due to Florence Welch for the inspiration from Sky Full of Song.

Find me on twitter at @thepontypoet

Poem transcript

Mother of My Mothers - A Shanty 

After Florence Welch 

Oh mother of my mothers 

I feel you in the storm 

I reach for you and  

Know that for 

Tonight I’m not alone. 

The father of my fathers 

Is lost beneath the waves 

While the man with gun 

And bible wants to tell me 

Jesus saves. 

And I was sitting at my window 

Gazing out across the sea 

And in my grief I swear that 

You were looking back at me 

Whispering the music 

Of a land so far away 

Calling me back to a place 

I always want to stay. 

Mother of my mothers 

No matter where I roam 

I will always look upon the sea 

And wish that I was home. 

Lying on the ocean floor 

With seaweed in my hair 

Singing with the sirens 

songs of love and songs of care. 

Hand in hand 

I’m so frightened now. 

I’m scared to die. 

Pull me down 

Where we all drown 

Leave me where I lie. 

And I can tell that you are with me 

As the storm begins to break 

When the wind is wrapping round me 

And my heart begins to ache 

It feels like something’s gone 

That I never got to grasp 

was lost down on the seabed 

In one last choking gasp. 

And silence is a virtue 

Or so I have been told 

So we’ll be oh so quiet 

In the deep and in the cold 

And when the ships are gone 

On rocks they’ve run aground 

We’ll drift up to the surface 

Where our songs of love abound 

Mother of my mothers 

No matter where I roam 

I will always look upon the sea 

And wish that I was home. 

Lying on the ocean floor 

With seaweed in my hair 

Singing with the sirens 

songs of love and songs of care. 

take my hand 

I’m so frightened now. 

I’m scared to die. 

Pull me down 

Where we all drown 

Leave me where I lie. 

I thought I was flying 

But maybe I’m dying now 

I thought I was swimming 

But my light is dimming now 

I thought I was sinking 

But I am clear thinking now 

Mother of my mothers 

No matter where I roam 

I will always look upon the sea 

And wish that I was home. 

Lying on the ocean floor 

With seaweed in my hair 

Singing with the sirens 

songs of love and songs of care. 

Hold my hand 

I’m not frightened now. 

Not afraid to die. 

Pull me down 

Where we all drown 

Leave me where I lie.