Thursday, August 4, 2011

A Chant for Lammas--and my Garden

photo by Georgia Etheridge

Happy Lammas, All!  Here is the lammas chant from Calendars.  Though it says two voices, we performed it the other day in four groups of voices, just moving through the poem three times, and it worked out great.  If I can get the technology down, I'll also add the audio version from the Calendars CD



                                                LAMMAS CHANT

                                                   (August 1)
                                               
                                                      (two voices,  alternating)


Fill the earth's belly full.

Fill the earth's belly full.
Bring the food, bring the grain.
There are cold months ahead
Give them peace in the ground.

Bring the food, bring the grain.

Fill the earth's belly full.
bring the food, bring the grain.
There are cold months ahead.
Give them peace in the ground.

There are cold months ahead.
Give them peace in the ground.

Fill the earth's belly full;
bring the food, bring the grain.
There are cold months ahead.
Give them peace in the ground.


From Calendars (Tupelo Press, 2003)

3 comments:

Ms. said...

There are cold months ahead indeed, though some states in 102 + degrees would be hard pressed to believe it. I think the Llama chant might help them gain some peace of mind, if not on the ground.

Annie Finch said...

Thanks for your comment! Every harvest time implies that there will be other times that bear less fruit, times with less available. . . the cold months! Lammas is a festival that has grown on me as I've gotten older; it seems more deeply significant now than it used to...

Toyin O. said...

Nice chant.