Jennifer Brown
‘With the dawn of middle-age it dawned on me that I had accumulated enough experience to let my own voice sing out with confidence about issues and perceptions that ahape my reality as a lesbian feminist -farmer-builder-teacher-mother-photographer-musician-social change activist … I see music as a very special way of communicating which can profoundly shape our ever-growing awareness and energies. Not only can it articulate our realities and our visions, but it connects us together in a way that is quite unique and magical’ (letter, 1989.)
Listen to Songs By Jennifer Brown
Patchworking by Jennifer Brown
‘It seems to me that cutting people off from the flow of life and demanding that we concentrate on one kind of task for large blocks of time each day is one of the roots of violence in human societies. Many people who are not bound in to someone else’s 9-5 job agenda structure their working day by moving through a variety of different tasks interspersed with play, childcare and social contact. This is very particularly the way women outside the workforce often function’ (letter 1989).
Song Lyrics
Patchworking, that’s my way, that’s how I organise the day
Bits and pieces of work and play; patches of rainbows, shadings of grey
Sewn together in a fine array
Patchworking
Little one wakes me with the sun, lets me know the day’s begun;
Wants a drink and something to eat, climbs in bed with his little cold feet
I answer questions with my brain still asleep,
Patchworking
Feed the chooks and milk the cow, pick some apples, they’re ripening now
Take the chainsaw and cut some wood, fiddle the fuse till the engine comes good,
Pump some water, I know I should,
Patchworking
Write a song and sing some more, do the dishes and sweep the floor
Stop for a cuppa with friends that call, play a bit with kids and a ball, then
Back to building that unfinished wall,
Patchworking
Patchworking through the day seems to me a balanced way
To meet the flow of needs and time and not pursue that rigid line
Of nine to five that undermines your sanity;
Time alone in meditation, time together in conversation
Watch the eagle’s soaring flight, gathering fuel in the fading light,
Kindle a fire to warm the night
Patchworking; patchworking; patchworking.
Birthing Song
The song below demanded to be included in this collection – a significant experience for many women.
Song Lyrics
1.Nine months now, you’ve lived inside my body;
I’ve watched my belly rising and I’ve felt you stir within;
A tiny seed planted and nourished in my womb
And ready to reach your fragile branches to the sun.
And the pains are growing stronger by the hour,
I can’t hold you safe inside me any more;
I am opening, opening to make your passage through,
In the miracle of one becoming two
2.All night now I’ve laboured for your birthing;
I’ve done the work that women have done for centuries before;
I’ve been beyond exhaustion and gone on anyway
And now I’m longing to hold you in my arms, my tiny babe.
And the pains are growing stronger by the hour,
I can’t hold you safe inside me any more;
I am opening, opening to make your passage through,
In the miracle of one becoming two.
3.Well, here you come, a few dark hairs just crowning;
You’re pushing through, you’ve found your own impetus now;
And the midwife works with skill and concentration
And my sweet lover is there with gentle hands to catch you.
And the pain breaks hard in waves upon my shore;
I can’t hold you safe inside me any more;
I am opening, opening to make your passage through,
In the miracle of one becoming two
4.And at last I feel relief in separation,
I gaze at you in wonder as I hold you to my breast;
The lifeline’s cut and the tide of life has carried you out to sea
But at least for a while, I hope you’ll swim alongside me.
The pains of birth have gone and we’re at peace now;
I can hold you safely here in my strong arms;
I can feed you full of sweet warm milk and sing you off to sleep,
And watch the miracle of newborn life unfolding.