Song for a Photograph
There’s a certain moment, if you’re lucky enough
When you might so viscerally
Understand so hard how all of us
Are all members of the human family
Some people hear a song, others fall in love
Some people leave home and see the world
For me it was in an article I read
Just a photo of a little girl
She was maybe three years old
With a mop of curly brown hair
Despondent, standing on the ruins of her home
Clutching a little teddy bear
Ain’t it something how a heart can melt like that
Just from a single picture frame
How an image can make sense of everything that matters
And you don’t even need to know her name
Because we all know children just like her
We want to make them safe and hold them tight
And we can't imagine how someone could do this
And create such a sight
I might forget the details of whatever it was I read
But that photograph is seared in my mind
The photo of the girl that was a photo of all the children
All of humankind
The greatest lessons that I ever could have learned
Didn’t come from all the stories that were filed
Nor from all the speeches or statistics
But from one photo of a broken little child
NEW YORK/NEW ENGLAND! Various house concerts seem to be coming together along with other things in October, but there’s plenty of room for the Ministry of Culture to do more of them.
TEXAS! I'm thrilled to be returning after way too long to the state I was based out of for years, where my first child was born, and which I hold so close to my heart, for so many reasons. I'll be in Austin on December 11th. I'd love to play elsewhere, too! Hit me up.
CALIFORNIA! Kamala Emanuel and I will be doing another tour of California in late January/early February. I'd love to hear from anyone there who might be inclined to host a gig somewhere. I'll start bothering people individually now...
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