Jenny's singing of this EXcellent song is one of my all-time faves!!


ODE TO SOIL

Paul Spencer

This planet is a rock that boils and churns
Continents float as the liquid turns
Our island bobs like a raft at sea, or loose debris
And somehow life remains.

This island’s made of solid stone
As dry as a crow-pecked bullock bone
But a layer on top like a vellum skin, both soft and thin,
Supports us all alone.

The soil holds on with a mighty grip
To giant roots so the trees won’t slip
It clothes itself in vibrant green, a fragrant screen
Through which the waters drip.

The soil, the earth in slow routine
Gives forth a beauty so serene
A person who such splendour saw, subdued with awe,
Might think some God had been.

But looking close it can be found,
The beauty springs from underground,
A million living creatures dance, in every ounce,
And miracles abound.

These living things are made of soil
The earth in which they live and toil
And there the Earth receives and gives, the planet lives
In fine and fragile soil.


You can hear Paul do this song himself on: http://paul-spencer.net/2012/07/23/ode-to-soil/


And here’s a snippet of Jenny Fitzgibbon with Jeremy Dunlop from her CD “For the Love Of It” (buy it – you’ll not be disappointed!!) :
https://jennyfitzgibbon.com/2013/07/03/words-to-songs-ode-to-soil-by-paul-spencer/



R-J