Songs for the People
—Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Let me make the songs for the people,
Songs for the old and young;
Songs to stir like a battle-cry
Wherever they are sung.

Not for the clashing of sabres,
For carnage nor for strife;
But songs to thrill the hearts of men
With more abundant life.

Let me make the songs for the weary,
Amid life’s fever and fret,
Till hearts shall relax their tension,
And careworn brows forget.

Let me sing for little children,
Before their footsteps stray,
Sweet anthems of love and duty,
To float o’er life’s highway.

I would sing for the poor and aged,
When shadows dim their sight;
Of the bright and restful mansions,
Where there shall be no night.

Our world, so worn and weary,
Needs music, pure and strong,
To hush the jangle and discords
Of sorrow, pain, and wrong.

Music to soothe all its sorrow,
Till war and crime shall cease;
And the hearts of men grown tender
Girdle the world with peace.

My friend Tamara and I did a bead exchange from the various beads we each are using to make our treasure strands.

This is the one I created with the beads she sent me:

[Image description: A strand of beads of many colors and sizes.]

It’s a fabulous mix of amber, jasper, moonstone, glass beads, metal beads, and beads that I don’t recognize and she can’t remember what they are.

It’s now the longest strand! Since I have to re-string the strand for Loki that came undone at PantheaCon in February, I will make it a bit longer to keep a proper symmetry with this one.

First, though, I need more jump rings—somehow, I only have tiny ones that aren’t the right size for attaching to the brooches. Pictures to follow once that happens!

[Image description: A teaser shot showing just the corners of the cards and one part of a rune from this week’s reading.]

From our friends at The Audubon Society: “This beautiful short dance film by Sarah Bush Dance Project, artist in residence with Richardson Bay Audubon Center, in partnership with sound designer and composer Miles Lassi. A contact call is a type of call used by birds for the purpose of letting other birds know their location. We listen for these calls to learn the language of the birds and to make contact with the more-than-human world.”