Write Your Name In Ink is about the desire to live a meaningful life in the knowledge that life is fleeting.

The idea of coloured ink came from a story that Ger, one of the Songs of Change participants, told. Her father got her a placement in a stained glass workshop. She loved it there. The coloured glass. The craftmanship. But when her placement was finished, they wouldn’t take her on as an apprentice. They told her it was because they didn’t have a women’s toilet. The coloured glass became ink in the song. And the idea of making your mark.

And this idea of making a mark is looked at through a different lens in the second verse. Through a moment when we are faced with the transience of life.

So you write your name in coloured ink
Leave a trace in hallowed frame
Desire to make
To mark
Remember

So you weave your love in woollen warm
Soothe my fears in mother’s swathe
There’s only now
Today
This moment

Pre-chorus

A breath
A breeze
A life
Release

Chorus

Don’t tread softly
Don’t step lightly
And don’t ——–
Fade away

Ger talked a lot about her father. He worked as a glazier and when she was little, she’d work alongside him. She told a story about a day when she was left in charge of her younger brothers and sisters. Her parents were out. And in the course of play a window was broken. Ger decided to fix it before her parents returned. She’d watched her father cut glass. She knew what to do. The only problem was she didn’t have any glass but she was nothing if not resourceful. So, she repurposed the glass top of the sideboard in the living room and replaced all the ornaments as though nothing had happened. And she almost got away with it.

In response to the exercise about objects Ger remembered a polaroid she had in her possession.

Ger’s Words

Object – associated with a moment in her life

….a polaroid taken in Kilmainham Gaol. I was 13 and I am standing with a group of volunteers and tourists. Kilmainham Gaol was in wrack and ruin. My father wasn’t always good, alcohol, but he put the glass roof on the gaol, it took two years, volunteers working to save it. My dad is gone but in 2016 I got an invite to go to the gaol for the commemoration. I had a look in the logbook and saw my name and my father’s name there.

Michelle’s words

Object – from a particular time in life

My third object is a blanket made by my mother. Ma is real crafty. I never appreciated that aspect of her until I was very sick a couple of years ago and she made me this blanket. It’s made up of squares and each square is a different colour and a different stitch. Me safety blanket. No-one else can use it because I don’t want to wash it.

Haiku

Wool, needles, stitches.
Mother’s love and fears begat
my safety blanket.

And those thoughts led to a bigger contemplation of how fleeting life is. Orla talked about coming to terms with loss. She comes from a big family. As a last exercise participants responded to the provocation.

What is the haiku that you didn’t write?

Orla’s Words

Haiku – unwritten

Seven pairs of shoes
All polished and shiny, lined up in the kitchen
Ready for Sunday

Orla talked of moments when she felt close to those who were gone. Orla walks a lot. The Camino. She climbs mountains. Family hikes on Sundays. And it is in the natural landscape that she finds a deep sense of connection with those she grieves.

Haiku – walking in a place

Memories bring you
back to me, a comfort that
in my heart you’re here.

And in response to an exercise where people were asked what they would like to say to someone who is gone.

What I would say
You will be here in my heart always

Ultimately the song is a celebration. Of life. How wonderful it is. How fleeting it is. And a challenge. Act now. Concentrate on today. Before it’s gone.

So you claim your place in sacred soul
Lead me high to blessed ground
There to stand
Be still
Surrender

So you take your place in fractured skies
Midst the clouds and swallows’ bathe
I hear your voice
Your skin
This last time

Pre-chorus

A breath
A breeze
A life
Release

Chorus

Don’t tread softly
Don’t step lightly
And don’t———
Fade away

Chorus

Don’t tread softly
Don’t step lightly
Don’t ————–
Fade away

Don’t tread softly
Don’t step lightly
Don’t ————–
Fade away