(Work in progress subject to final revision)
INTENTION: Phase#2 is the element of Fire and is intended to capture the unspoken yet palpable disquiet Australia felt as a nation while experiencing and witnessing the Black Summer Fires of 2019-2020. No one was untouched by the extraordinary scale of it. The song creates a space to share collectively the feeling of grief and loss with a sense of reckoning, questioning and resolve.
v.1
©Forallearthkind 2024
(solo male)
The day has begun
But I can’t feel the sun
Heavy sky, glowing red
Burning leaves
Rain on my head
v.2
(solo older female)
We’ve made the house safe
What’s precious we’ll take
(solo child)
Wish I could pack,
Every Tree
Birds at dawn
And all the wild things
Hook
(Adults)
How much more
Can we afford to burn
v.3
The heat’s off the charts
The wind, super charged
Building up, over days
Now it builds
Great walls of flames
Hook
(Adults)
How much more
Can we afford to burn
How much more
Can we ignore and turn away
Chorus ( All)
When I meet tomorrow’s sun
A fire in me’s just begun
I will change what we’ve become
Answer the burning question
What on earth can be done?
Bridge
And it breaks through the lines
That I’d held in my mind
With this hell fire rage
That is more than man made
And we’ve left it too late
to leave
Run to the water’s edge
to breathe
Where do we go from here?
Chorus (All)
When I meet tomorrow’s sun
A fire in me’s just begun
I will change what we’ve become
Answer the burning question
What on earth have we done?
What on earth have we done?
-Instrumental Fire Storm-
Coda/Requiem (children)
And the fallen can’t be counted
They have no names
And their homelands
Have been silenced
It’s our turn, we will learn
It’s our turn, we will learn
To sing them up again
When I meet tomorrow’s sun
For all Earthkind 