Reaching out through words & music

Content and Track Samples

 

1.       Picnic, by Susan Crawford, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

2.       Open Me, by MJ Abell, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

3.       Solitude, by Sara Phelps, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

4.       Blessed Is The Woman-Video, by MJ Abell, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

5.       Ode to the Wordy, by Jean Jay, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

6.       For Julie, composed and performed by Jim Luellen

 

7.       Rocking You After Midnight, by MJ Abell, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

8.       Borrowed Copies, by MJ Abell, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

9.       Elaine Tells Me, by MJ Abell, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

10.   Right or Kind?, by Jean Jay, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

11.   Prayer for Self-Acceptance, by Linda Farrenkopf, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

12.   Amazing Grace, sung by Sara Phelps

 

13.   Fingertips, by Kate McSweeney, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

14.   No One Knows, by Jean Jay, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

15.   For Love, by Karen Hunley-Pifher, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

16.   Wisdom's Waters, by MJ Abell, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

17.   We Are Children, by Karen Hunley-Pifher, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

18.   For She Who is Being Tried, by MJ Abell, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

19.   I'm Lonely, by Tani Colvin, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

20.   Bittersweet, by Sue Mogan-Mattison, performed by Jim Luellen

 

21.   Letting Go, by Linda Farrenkopf, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

22.   When We Pick Apples, by MJ Abell, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

23.   Borne Into the Light, by Sue Mogan-Mattison, Jim Luellen, and Sharon West

 

24.   My Mother's Jumpers, by MJ Abell, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

25.   Wisdom, Radiant Guide, by MJ Abell, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

26.   My Precious Child, by Jean Jay, Jim Curlis, and Sharon West

 

Thanks to Tom and Reilly Anne Harrington, father and daughter, tickler and tickled on My Precious Child.

 

My Mother's Jumpers

 

© 2002 MJ Abell

 

In her bedroom

 

my mother sewed jumpers

 

encircled us with her yellow tape

 

mended our pants.

 

We grew up amid doll quilts,

 

Tammy clothes that matched our own,

 

ric-rac trim and searches

 

for her thimble.

 

Snips of thread ran through our rugs

 

like lost veins.

 

 

While her machine gathered our sleeves into cuffs

 

traced our middles to make a dress

 

of a bodice and a skirt,

 

I lolled on her high bed with the cherry posts,

 

keeping her company

 

as the venetian blinds striped the wall,

 

the stale smells of passion safe

 

beneath the white chenille spread.

 

 

She never told us she loved us

 

not straight out.

 

I grew up thinking those were words

 

for when the bedspread lay folded back-

 

love for children was assumed

 

like the cup of water I boiled for my father

 

as soon as I got up.

 

How could she know we’d search our childhoods

 

for a single phrase?

 

 

 

I think about her

 

when I draw the covers about my son,

 

practice telling him I love him

 

while he is too small to know

 

I am still trying out the phrase

 

tugging its seams

 

searching its pockets.

 

 

Borne Into the Light

 

© 2002 Sue Mogan-Mattison

 

 

I am beaten down, but still I rise

 

Out of the earth of which I am part.

 

I gain strength from unworldly ties,

 

From the depths of a burdened heart.

 

Unfettered are my mind and soul,

 

Flesh and bone don’t cry.

 

A slave they will not make me

 

If I decide to fly.

 

 

Still I rise to maiden heights

 

And leave them all behind.

 

I stand on mountains of mortal ash

 

And proclaim my peace of mind.

 

I stand with all the world’s oppressed;

 

Our union in one, strong.

 

Our story knows no color;

 

It knows no joyful song.

 

 

Still I rise, and in the end

 

My life will not be owned.

 

And peace will lie about me;

 

My spirit be enthroned.

 

And I will be the noble queen

 

Of land that is my soul.

 

When I am borne into the light

 

as darkness takes its toll

 

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