songs ~ and painting ~ from new CD
lightning song creature and toe ~ oil and collage by j. spies
Snow in Paradise after reading Howard Zinn's "People's History of the Unites States"
I came to Lowell three years ago
I left my mother’s farm
The work would be so clean, they said
Weavin, spinnin’ yarn
The wages would be good enough
I could buy some silk
Save my money, I’d have time
I could read a book
There will be snow in paradise shining on the ground
Snow so deep and warm and sweet, I’ll lay my body down
But I get up so early, dragged by a factory bell
I work in a close and noisy room, it’s a manufactory hell
I don’t want to pull these threads through the bobbin’s eye
I don’t want this cotton dust, making me cry
Oh here comes my overseer struttin’ by my loom
I don’t want this dirty work in a dirty spinnin’ room
I am going home, I am going home
$1.25 for my room and board, I am going home
I will not stay here, I will not stay here
I won’t rise to the clang of the bell
I will not stay here
There will be snow in paradise shining on the ground
Snow so deep and warm and sweet, I’ll lay my body down
Lay my body down
Remember My Name ~ written for Danny Pearl
Yes, I am a sailor in a midnight squall
Yes, I am a racehorse in a burning stall
Sometimes I feel my heartbeat like a bird in flight
Then I can feel the shining of the morning light
Sometimes my name is sunny like a day in July
I know my name will carry me like a boat till I die
I cannot know the time or place or wonder why
The truth will always lead me one step at a time
I know my love is endless
Beyond right or wrong
I know I believe in everyone’s song
I know that my tune will carry me along
When you remember my name
When you remember my name
About Crying I have learned to leave my hands alone
the feelings falling from the bone
not touching others as they cry
let them know their own good-bye
I've seen it happen in a room
before I came to sing a tune
hardening back to the earth
a person goes from heart to hearth
in one breath
seen it like a sail filling
eyes and windows
running, spilling water
I am following a river
anger
both the fire and the fireman
burning out the depths it takes
to love again
felt it as a listening
gratitude in every seam
who’s the player, what’s the chord
happiness is the lord
of crying
I am following a river
c 2009 words and music by JoAnne Spies
from "North Avenue Honey" CD
Music for People 
