After watching interviews with spouses of career military members, one interview inspired me to write the song Elijah, about the partner of a soldier. Each night after the children went to bed she left a light on above their back porch. She spoke to her husband through this light while he was away on his third tour of duty expressing her hope for his safety. “It’s a cruel world we must leave”. The home front is often as hard to bear as the war front, as revealed in the chorus. “We are the broken hearts of peace”.
This week’s poem, Algonquin Love, is from my first book, XXVII - Twenty Seven.
Joy Brooks - Vocals
Fredrick Brooks - Guitars
Chris Pezzarello - Drums/Tablas
Robbie Grunwald - Accordion
Produced by Fredrick Brooks and Robbie Grunwald
Mixed by Robbie Grunwald
Mastered by by Justin Gray - Immersive Mastering
<Click here to listen to Elijah>
ELIJAH
There’s a light on my soldier
Holds a silence we share
Oh Elijah
Come home
Your daylight is here
On this dark road you travel
Truth is blind unseen
Oh Elijah
My love
It’s a cruel world we must leave
Chorus
We are the battle
That no one can see
We are the broken hearts of peace
From these shadows that bind us
I cry out your name
Oh Elijah
My heart aches
For the memories of our days
Chorus
© Fredrick Brooks - 2017
+++++++++
Algonquin Love
Her eyes turn liquid, emerald.
Our makeshift nest of field and green
Is only surpassed by its wondrous blue dome.
We surround ourselves with skin, hair and flesh.
And I am lost by the sense of this
Our equality
The way hair sparkles in transparent sunlight
The commitment of self to another.
Joy - Opeongo
© Fredrick Brooks