A Breath of Song
  • Episodes & Show Notes
  • Gratitude Jar
  • Year One
  • Year Two
  • About
  • Songwriters
  • Juneberry Music
  • Contact
  • Episodes & Show Notes
  • Gratitude Jar
  • Year One
  • Year Two
  • About
  • Songwriters
  • Juneberry Music
  • Contact
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Songs to uncover wellness
Pick a song & sing along!

9/29/2021 8 Comments

17. Ancient Green

« PreviousNext »
Song Ancient Green
Words & Music​ by Kathleen Hannan
Lyrics
1. I lay under a tall oak tree,
Asked the Goddess to shelter me.
She wrapped me up in ancient green,
ancient green. 

(twice)

​2. All my tears,
all my tears.
all my tears,
the river’s gonna wash away.

(twice)
Picture
​Notes: Kathleen says she caught this comforting song while lying on a huge rock next to the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, crying her heart out over a relationship that was transforming.  A beautiful oak tree was growing out of the rock, and as the song was born her sorrowful feelings washed through with the sound of the river, and she was left feeling whole, and at peace with the way things were. She also shared this story with me, "One time I sang the song in a show with a group of women drummers. Their teacher, a lovely African man, also played with us in the concert and rehearsal. After I taught them in the rehearsal and we had played it for a while, the African drummer told me that the song felt like an African song to him. That was one of my happiest moments, since I have for so long felt inspired by African diaspora music. And I did not really feel like I wrote that song... it just came through as a whole as I cried by the river." 

Songwriter info: Kathleen has been writing, collecting and sharing songs for over 50 years. Her songs were awarded a North Carolina Arts Council Songwriter Fellowship. She currently leads the Bodies, Voices & Spirit Choruses in North Carolina and Maine, and is also a Dances of Universal Peace leader. She's a student of the Heart, and she facilitates The Work of Byron Katie.

Links:
Kathleen's blogpost & recording of Ancient Green with guitar, bass, piano, and drum. (So much fun to sing with!) 
​https://www.kathleenhannan.com/song-blog/songs-for-our-journey-26
Kathleen's online presence: www.kathleenhannan.com
Kathleen's chorus: 
https://bodiesvoicesandspirit.weebly.com/
Kathleen's song blog, which is searchable by title, subject or excerpts from lyrics: https://www.kathleenhannan.com/song-blog

Kathleen's most recent CD is Seen & Unseen: Songs from the Light of Midlife
Purchase CD here: https://www.kathleenhannan.com/seen--unseen-cd1.html
Lyrics are here: https://www.kathleenhannan.com/lyrics--credits.html
Photos from the recording process: https://www.kathleenhannan.com/photos.html


Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Ionian (major), round with possible harmonies, or optionally could be taught as a layer song

​Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Tip Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
8 Comments
Clint
9/29/2021 11:49:36 am

Great song, very calming, wonderful ensemble! I sensed a kind'a analogy: Her tears nurturing the oak tree as the Goddess wraps her in green (tree leaves?) then the river gently washes it away. Energy and mater in constant transmutation; the pages of our lives emergening in the form of our very own hand/mind selected conscious.

Reply
Kathleen Hannan
10/1/2021 05:59:43 am

Thanks Clint,
I love what you wrote. That song came through in 1990, and in all these years of singing it, I never thought about my tears nurturing the tree. I had only thought of being nurtured by the tree, and by all of nature. But reading your words I feel the truth that I am not separate from the tree, and that the whole is constantly transforming, so of course I am the nurturer as well as the receiver of nurturing. Thank you for this insight into the song and into the moment on the rock in the forest by the river when the song was born.

Reply
Patricia
9/29/2021 07:52:38 pm

What wonder-full thoughts, Clint, literally -- I love "constant transmutation".... Thanks for posting!

Reply
margery phillips
10/3/2021 12:23:57 pm

i love this dong and the harmonies. each episode gets better and better. Maybe that’s because I do too!

Reply
Patricia
10/5/2021 07:38:41 pm

I love this observation, Margery! -- I think we are probably both getting better together, side by side here...

Reply
Clint
10/9/2021 10:08:24 am

Hi Kathleen, you might enjoy this: "Kurt Vonnegut observed in discussing Hamlet during his influential lecture on the shapes of stories. “The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad,” Alan Watts wrote a generation earlier in his sobering case for learning not to think in terms of gain or loss." https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-stoic-s-key-to-peace-of-mind-seneca-on-the-antidote-to-anxiety?utm_source=pocket-newtab
We separate ourselves from nature, most devastatingly each other. And un-grounded our fears grow to irrational heights. Our irrational thought dominates and we lose our presence of mind. Maybe, either way I just wrote this to tell you that I love you and that just like you I'm on a journey too!

Reply
bt
10/22/2021 03:52:48 pm

Hi Patricia, Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed listening to this dear familiar song coming from a stranger far away; though not a stranger, for we all share song and breath. I've been part of Kathleen Hannan's Women's Bodies, Voices, Spirit chorus for many years, and it is truly a gift to hear her song coming through new channels. Thank you!

Reply
Patricia
10/25/2021 05:05:43 pm

Hi bt --
Thank you so much for this comment. I was honored to be given permission to share this song, which is so beautiful and comforting -- I love having it singing inside me. Lucky you for getting to spend so much time with Kathleen in person!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021

    Categories

    All 1:1 (Unmetered) 12:8 2:2 3 3:4 3 Layer 4:4 5 & 6 Mixed Meter 6:8 Accept Acceptance Sing Be Grateful Belonging Be Present Breathe Calm Celebrate Change Cycles Darkness Dawn Determination Earth Empower Enough Farewell Fire Flex Flow Friendship Future Gather Generations Generosity Gentle Grieve Grow Heal Heart Home Hope Journey Joy Legacy Light Listen Love Lullaby Moon Night Notice Nuts & Bolts Open Pain Play Rain Release Rest Round Scale: Aeolian (minor) Scale: Dorian Scale: Ionian (Major) Scale: Minor Scale: Mixolydian Scale: Mixolydian Flat 6 Shadow Shame Song Form: Ballad Song Form: Call & Response Song Form: Echo Song Form: Harmonized Song Form: Layer Song Form: Round Song Form: Unison Song Form: Unison With Separate Harmony Line Song Form: Verse And Layer Song Form: Verse & Chorus Song Form: Zipper Songwriter Conversation Stars Sun Tend Time Trauma Trees Trust Water

    RSS Feed

Come sing songs to help uncover wellness! We present these companion songs in a relaxed way that makes it easy to learn and join in.
All original art by Patty Piotrowski,
pocket song singer
Logo by Patricia Norton,
aided and abetted by Hannah Gross
All text content (except quotes)
created by Patricia Norton
​©2023 Juneberry Music, LLC

Join Us

Subscribers receive artwork by Patty Piotrowski, musings by Patricia, and occasional extras.

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture