and the moon don't talk to me anymore
and starlings swing on the skeleton in a cage
pecking at the fat and the meat and the seed
and through my dirty window
the cherry blossom was always plastic
bought for a fiver from down town China town
and the moon don't talk to us anymore
and my white tablecloth is stained with coffee
which came from a country already in flames
and the moon don't talk to us anymore
she is rising fat and full and furious with grief
a mourning that washes up with tide after tide
and the tide that rises with the moon
the salt water crashing to shore
and the moon won't talk to me anymore
and the night is dead and the dark is long
and the rain pours down like the sky's all a river
and the moon don't sing
and the moon wont sing
and the fear spreads and seeps into everything
like a bad smell and like smoke under your door
and the moon don't talk to you anymore
you have memories of sleeping in your clothes
like a bad dog on a blanket on the floor
are these memoires or premonitions?
you just don't know anymore
because the moon won't talk to you anymore
and the moon hangs heavy
and the sun has turned his back
and all I see is his coat of clouds
and the rain washes any decency away
but the sound of the washing machine is a comfort
it's like the sound of the sea from what you remember
from a postcard someone sent you from before
remember? it was stuck to your fridge door
it said I wish you were here
and I do, I wish you were here
because the moon won't talk to us anymore
the fridge feels safe, so stock up the store
you hope the delivery man washed his hands
cleaned his van, sanitised his face
and has no next of kin
and we buzz on the internet like bees
oh we are the lucky ones, aren't we?
hiding at home, locked in our houses
wearing pyjamas and boosting the heating
try not to think of the poor or the elderly
those that 'aint safe and those that aren't eating
think of the food banks, the people in cages, all ages
and the kids that needed that one hot school meal, it got real
all the folk who cannot afford the bills
the unpaid time off work, the medicine, the pills
and the moon 'aint shining anymore
her milky face seems clotted with uncertainty
and the gods are all stone cold silent today
and the blue sky is box set you binge in a heat wave
hope is at the bottom of a well
and there's a hole in my bucket
but I keep turning the handle
because this too will pass
and nothing is forever
and all pigs are equal
but some pigs are more equal than others
speeding off in private jets to bunkers leaving their brothers
when they voted in this mess, it's flawed
and the moon won't talk to them anymore
and the moon don't talk to them anymore
and well we all didn't picture it this way
you hum along to an empty fridge
you talk to the washing machine
because it's face is as round as the moon
your stand there clapping at a feeling
with scratch marks on the door and the ceiling
and the moon don't talk to me anymore
and the moon don't talk to me anymore
(c) Salena Godden. London. March 2020
And
The Moon
Don't Talk
To Me
Anymore
The Moon
Don't Talk
To Me
Anymore
words by Salena Godden and music by Anna Phoebe
WATCH NOW
youtube: https://youtu.be/oK4rWFW5KVU
Before the Coronavirus pandemic, poet and author Salena Godden and violinist and composer Anna Phoebe were on the phone planning a collaboration for a special live show at York Festival Of Ideas - The event was planned for June 2020. Although they had not worked together before, they were excited at the prospect of this new collaboration. Due to the pandemic, the festival was cancelled, but the two artists decided to experiment and make work in lockdown remotely. And The Moon Don't Talk To Me Anymore is the first of these experiments. Salena and Anna both hope to perform this work live on stage one day, this work contains that wish.
The first raw drafts of this poem were written under the March full moon, in the early days of the UK lockdown, as the Coronavirus crisis exposed cracks and flaws and inequalities and a need for change; a time to envision ways to rebuild and reconnect. This work is centred in exploring that, our connection and disconnection, the social, the political, the environmental and the spiritual. By sending files of words and music, audio and film via emails and the internet the two artists are connected by the work and a shared human expression and experience.
This is the blues: the feel of this piece is a melancholy moon bath. This piece is like a candle we light under this May full moon with acknowledgement of human loss and universal waves of grief felt by so many. We are all under the same moon, but we are not all safe and equally protected and cared for. There are waves of miscommunication, panic, anger, fury and outrage, but there are also waves of hope and kindness, we hold onto that love, riding waves of hope through all of this: Hope is at the bottom of the well ... but I keep turning the handle.
Anna Phoebe:
Anna Phoebe is a composer on cross-genre collaborative projects, working with science, poetry, dance and art. Between Worlds is an ongoing project communicating science through music. She is currently collaborating with the European Space Agency, writing a musical response to their Earth Observation Data, tracking climate crisis. She has previously worked with Cancer and Alzheimer’s research at the University of Kent, writing a 40-minute choral/ensemble work, which premiered in 2019. Anna won Best Composer at the Underwire 2019 Film Festival for her score for short film ‘Belittled’. She is currently scoring soundscapes set to ‘England Poems from a School’ - poetry written by refugee children living in the UK, working with Lorraine Ashbourne and Andy Serkis. As a performer Anna Phoebe has toured concert venues, arenas and festivals throughout the world, both as a solo artist and with multi-platinum selling bands including Roxy Music and Jethro Tull. Her band supported Bob Dylan at the Rock Legends Festival in Poland. Anna’s instrumental duo AVAWaves released their debut album Waves in 2019 on One Little Indian Records. She is currently touring and recording with Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement recipient, Nitin Sawhney CBE - www.annaphoebe.com
Salena Godden
Salena Godden is a poet based in London. She is an author, activist, broadcaster, essayist and memoirist whose work has been widely anthologised. She has had several volumes of poetry published including most recently Pessimism is for Lightweights (Rough Trade Books) and a literary childhood memoir, Springfield Road (Unbound). Her timely poem Pessimism is for Lightweights was donated to The Peoples History Museum, Manchester, where it is now on permanent display - The work was unveiled in February 2020 to mark the museum's 10th birthday. Salena has recorded several albums, most recently her spoken-word album LIVEwire (Nymphs and Thugs) which was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award in 2017. Canongate pre-empted world rights to her debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death, described by the publisher as an “electrifying genre- and form-defying firestarter." This debut will be published in the new year, January 2021. www.salenagodden.co.uk
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