Routinely after my morning chores I sit down to my computer for news updates, email, banking/bill paying, and of course blogging. Listening to music is essential to my morning. I have a terrific radio station I've been listening to for quite awhile , it's an internet station out of the U.K.
As I'm aging, I'm more into music that evokes emotion, earthiness, acoustical, pastoral.............FOLK!! Particularly, Indie Folk music. Indie folk music arose in the 1980's and 1990's from singer/songwriters affected by indie alternative/rock music. Festivals like Bonnaroo and Coachella demanded the genres rise. It's a musical style primarily categorized by "independent" smaller music labels supporting progressive folk music artists. I'm sure this genre of music appeals to me because of the many, talented musicians I lived among, hung with, and was friends with, in Northern California many moons ago.
One morning while listening to my radio station, I heard a song that truly hit me to the core....."Resurrection Fern," a twangy, haunting, folksie, pastoral, radiant...............song. It's the epitome of "indie genre" and I fell in love with Iron and Wine, especially the poet Sam Beam. I can actually say, "I want to mother his children"................o.k., well maybe not mother his children but pretty darn close.
After listening to it several times I pulled up a botany website, this is what I found about
the "resurrection fern."
Biology of "resurrection fern" :
a resurrection fern is an epiphyte(non-parasitic, does not grow in the ground, like the ghost orchid) that grows on the branches of cypress and live oak trees. It's name is derived from it's ability to survive long periods of drought. When there is no rain, the ferns will curl up their undersides and turn brown, appearing dead. Then, when the slightest bit of moisture is present, it will immediately "resurrect" and restore itself to it's rich green color. With ferns most water is absorbed on the undersides of the leaf blades, making the resurrection fern particularly clever. These plants can lose almost all their water which is needed to hydrate cells and still survive. Botanists have long held that the resurrection fern could go 100 years with out water and still revive after just one rain shower.
It's hard not to see how this remarkable plant can translate into our own lives. It's a beautiful thing to ponder, but today I'll let you draw your own conclusions.............listen to the song...............!
'Resurrection Fern'
In our days we will live
like our ghosts will live:
pitching glass at cornfield crows
and folding clothes.
Like tubborn boys across the road
we'll keep everything:
grandma's gun and the black bear claw
that took her dog.
When sister Laurie says, "Amen"
we won't hear anything:
the ten-car trains will take that word
that fledgling bird.
And the fallen house across the way
it'll keep everything:
the babys breath
our bravery wasted and our shame.
And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire
both our tender bellies wound in bailing wire:
all the more a pair of underwater pearls
than the oak tree and the resurrection fern.
In our days we will say
what our ghosts will say:
we gave the world what it saw fit
and what'd we get?
Like stubborn boys with big green eyes
we'll see everything:
in the timid shade of the autumn leaves
and the buzzards wing.
And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire
our tender bellies wound in bailing wire
all the more a pair of underwater pearls
than the oak tree and the resurrection fern.
Really good mom!! Sounds just like you! Love you tons.
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