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| Songwriter Deborah "Ferron" Foisy. |
a) look for a way to move it; or,
b) look for a way around it.
Perhaps this songwriter should not be included in this series. Ferron's work may be too personal and nuanced for us option "a)" activists; she is very much a plan "b)" survivor. Hers is a hyper-romantic solipsism-for-two that doesn't recognize a group larger than a lover's triangle, let alone the politics that might govern it.
And the coldest bed I found does not hold one but it will hold three.
I hope you never have to know what that can mean.
She doesn't speak of election day, but of every day. Her focus is not the 54% who vote but the 46% who don't. Her songs focus not on an optimistic future but on a poignant past that has brought us to an awkward present. She doesn't write anthems, she writes narratives, more like Harry Chapin and Joni Mitchell than Bruce Cockburn and Buffy Ste. Marie. Her songs are longer and less rhythmic than those by John Prine and Carly Simon. Her verse is more like prose, new each time you hear it, than verbatim memorable poetry. You will probably not sing Ferron songs in the shower.
"I read this book about how some scientists tried to get primates to paint. For 10 years they worked on it, and nothing happened. Then, one of the monkeys suddenly began to paint, and what it painted were the bars of its cage. So, in my writing, I believe I'm painting the bars of my cage so that I can get out. This is something you have to get done before you can meaningfully move on in any way." - Ferron
Deborah "Ferron" Foisy rarely speaks directly about the sexual and physical abuse she suffered as a child and teen, but it's stitched into every line. In the words of one critic, she lives and writes entirely in parentheses. And somewhere there is humor. We saw this on Day 2 with "Testimony". We revisit it with "Shadows on a Dime", "Ain't Life a Brook?", "It Won't Take Long", "Girl on the Road", "I Never Was to Africa", "Our Purpose Here", "Harmless Love", the heart-wrenching, autobiographical "Shady Gate", and the visceral beauty of "The Cart". Still, there is no better example of this than "Cactus":
Lyrics:
It's been a year
since you left home for higher ground.
In the distance I hear a hoot owl
ask the only question I have found
to be worthy of the sound it makes
as it breaks the silence of your old town
These letters are another way to love you.
It takes trouble, and it takes courage to be free.
But you 'll find, it you are soft enough, love will hang around for free.
And the coldest bed I found does not hold one but it will hold three.
I hope you never have to know what that can mean.
It's safe to say I took the long and winding path.
And were it not for loving friendships
who knows how long I would have lasted.
You're young one day but youth is rude
and while you watch it walks right past
and then...hey...you get your chance to think like me.
When I was young I was in service to my pain.
On sunny days you'd find me walking miles to look for rain.
And as many times I swapped it all just to hop a moving train.
Looking back, it was a most expensive way to get around.
And I found that all the world could love you save for one.
And I don't know why it is, but that kiss will be the haunted one.
You'll pine and weep and you'll lose good sleep
and you'll think your life has come undone,
until you learn to turn and spurn that bitter wind.
Because it'll probably be the one you least expect to,
who will wager through your storm with you,
who will give your fears respect...
who will melt your burden down...
though you probably don't want that yet,
still...the odds fall sweet in favor to an open heart.
Seems to me the tools for being human are wicked crude.
They're not so slick and smooth and shiny
as some stranger might allude.
And while your longest night might test you,
you don't be scared of solitude.
And remember what is shared is also true.
Because there's a place where the water races wide.
And you could be hard pressed (in the muck of time)
just trying to reach the other side.
You learn to find the only way, or you learn to say you tried.
It seems to me a lot of little towns were made that way.
Now while I'm at it...let me tell you about the moon.
Because I heard some people talking,
looks like we're probably going to have to move there soon.
All I know is the face it shows at midnight
is not the one it shows at noon.
But I bet it's a standing kind of wistful from over there.
In a word, I heard that life is a cactus tree.
And should you find a way to break it's skin,
won't you have a drink for me.
But if you're standing near a cactus,
you're probably where you shouldn't be.
Isn't this why you left your home, though you love me.
Now when I imagine life is only time and space...
then I guess I've seen the best of it upon your tender, loving face.
And the faith that you bestowed in me gives me a solid sense of place.
I learn to say...Fire, Water, Earth and Air...
I learn to say Fire, Water, Earth and Air...
I learn to say Fire, Water, Earth and Air...
I'll see you there.
Links:
Day 1 (The Inauguration) - "Hands" - Jewel
Day 2 (The Million Woman March) - "Testimony" by Ferron, sung by Marcelle Davies Lashley
Day 3 - "Ruins" - by Cat Stevens
Day 4 - "Eve of Destruction" (1964) - by P. F. Sloan performed by Barry McGuire
Day 5 - "Hypersensive Jester" - by Denny Guy
Day 6 - "Teresa" - by John Stewart
Day 7 - "Black Boys on Mopeds" by Sinéad O'Connor
Day 8 - "Burn, Baby, Burn" - by Bruce Cockburn
Day 9 - "Black Day in July" - by Gordon Lightfoot
Day 10 - "Democracy is Coming" - Leonard Cohen
Day 11 - "First We Take Manhattan" - Leonard Cohen
Day 12 - "Cactus" - Ferron
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