lost words blessing

saying peace

The lost words blessing

You can hear this poem as a song here

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 machair 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.

Authors Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter, Jim Molyneux, Kerry Andrew.

showing peace

Image: Andreas Schantl

doing peace

The theme today is peace and our planet

In 2018, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris produced a book called The Lost Words Spells. They wrote the book because so many words about things in nature have disappeared from young people's everyday language. Since 2007, for example, the editors of the Oxford Junior Dictionary have been removing words from the dictionary that no longer seem relevant to the modern child. These words include: acorn, bluebell, ivy, fern, moss, blackberry, dandelion, lark, raven, heron, starling, hazel, heather, goldfinch, grey seal, otter and kingfisher. These words were removed to make way for other words like: attachment, blog, broadband, chatroom, database, committee, and voice-mail.

This poem / song, was written in Scottish Gaelic folkloric form by a group of European musicians – Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter, Jim Molyneux, Kerry Andrew. The form is inspired by blessings in Scottish Gaelic, particularly from a beautiful collection of charms and incantations called Carmina Gadelica. It is offered both in hope and light, and in grief for the losses yet to come.

listen to the song, read the poem and look at the picture. Do you know the word for the animal in the picture?
talk to your oldest relatives. What words from nature can they remember that are no longer spoken?
write a song or a poem using that word, or one of the others above, to bring it back to life!

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