Higher Lyrics

There are days when there are no words

And it feels like all of this will turn

To dust before me

On those days I am mustard seed small

And all the world is a wild wind.

There aren't enough poems to gather me

All I know is the cruel shapes words can take

In a mouth

In a brain

Still I offer metaphors as magic

On stages across the world

I weave stories about love and redemption

I let one heartbroken woman weep in my arms

And then another

I say to her

That I am here and you are listening

Is a kind of touching

From one end of my poem

To everywhere you carry it

Is a tether that means you are never alone

And I mean it

But I don't know how to also say

Even my own body is a dam breaching

A message chimes in like a joyful bird

A girl says my poem tugged her back

From taking flight at the edge of everything

She wants to know how to be brave like me

When I receive it

I am in fetal position

The reflection on the screen is my ragged face

I run my tongue over the grit of my teeth

I want to tell her

Sis the bravest thing I will do today

Is get out of bed

Instead I write

Thank you

Thank you

I am so glad you chose to stay

My sister threads the sound of my voice

through the needle of her intuition

And she knows

She pulls me together

Gathers me at the seams

A gentle stitch dipped in the grace

I cannot offer myself

In her words I hear this poem

There's a garden

Where wildflowers like us grow free

The sun shines endlessly there

And in the heat

A breeze will fall upon you

Like a cool hand to your forehead

In this garden

The soil is rich and ready

And we are not fearful there

We do not pour our dreams in the ground

To be buried there

We plant them to bloom in spectacular colour

So on the hardest days

Shower the earth with your best intentions

And if you're lucky

A thin blade will push through

To remind you what is worth fighting for

Somewhere there's a dream

Searching for you

Running toward you

Calling out to you

Waiting until you are ready to answer