I Sing the Salmon Home Digital Program

Digital Program

Original Music inspired by I Sing the Salmon Home

The Bushwick Book Club Seattle
presents
Original Music Inspired by
I Sing the Salmon Home Poems from Washington State
(Rena Priest, ed.)
March 16, 2024
at Town Hall Seattle

Hosted by Wes Weddell

Supporting Organizations: Empty Bowl Press & Save Our Wild Salmon

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Featuring Musical Performances from
(Click name for primary link, * = first Bushwick appearance, ^ = lyrics included below)
Rights to all song lyrics ©/℗ the individual artists, reprinted here with permission

Leah Walters

Shaun Crawford
Instagram YouTube SoundCloud

Mark Ippolito*^
Instagram

Alexis*^

Mägi Ensemble^
Facebook Instagram
music: Ailisa Newhall / words: Amy Gulick’s poem “Fade” / translation: Egija Ungure

LaVon Hardison^
Facebook Instagram Bandcamp

High Turnover*

Christine Gunn*
Bandcamp

Jess Pillay
Facebook Instagram X/Twitter YouTube Bandcamp

Shelby Natasha
Instagram

Plus the Bushwick Quiz, and more!

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Connect with Bushwick
Website Facebook Instagram X/Twitter YouTube Bandcamp #bushwickbookclub

2023-2024 “Bushwick Bestiary” Mainstage Season at Town Hall Seattle, Rabbit Box Theare, & online

Original Music Inspired by I Sing the Salmon Home: Poems from Washington State (Rena Priest, ed.)

PERFORMER-PROVIDED LYRICS
Rights to all song lyrics ©/℗ the individual artists, reprinted here—exactly as submitted—with permission

Mark Ippolito
River Me Home
Title Source: Jill McCabe Johnson’s poem “Bedded In Wet Rock Like Any Other Roe”

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Getting drunk on

the brine of the ocean

Toughens my scales

I slice through the sea

Sweet smell of the river

still has a pull on me

Something so strong…

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Orcas and eagles

Around every corner

Battered and bruised,

I’m tattered and torn

Calm in the shallows,

I’m not staying long

Something so strong

Something so strong…

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River me home

I need the fresh waters

River me home

I sing my song

Keeping my promise

Been away too long

Something so strong

–

Journey complete

I rest in the grasses

Bones washed clean

but I’m not gone

Forever I live in trees,

roots and branches

Something so strong…

–

River me home

I need the fresh waters

River me home

I sing my song

Keeping my promise

Back where I belong

Something so strong

–

Alexis
Croquettes (Safe Place)

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Some days I’m swimming upstream,

The push to thrive gives me the drive towards what I need.

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You used to be out of reach,

Unless incased in tin, bones in, but Mom still made you a feast.

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From canned to fresh has been a grace,

I still remember the days when it wasn’t the case.

So far I’ve come, so much I’ve faced,

I’ve finally made it to a sense of a safe place.

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Maybe I’m over my head.

I’ve moved my feet to lands where your diamond mines line beds.

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I wouldn’t call it easy.

But each day I smile and feel I’m learning to be free.

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I’ve finally found more of my kind.

A truly precious school of friends is hard to find.

So far I’ve come, so much I’ve faced,

I’ve finally made it to a sense of a safe place.

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Why do you visit the sea? What makes you return? You spend your whole life on that dream.

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You know, I think it’s lovely. Maybe, one day in another life, I’ll try it for me.

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For in this life you’ve made me strong,

You were my favorite when days had gone so wrong.

So far I’ve come, so much I’ve faced.

I’ve finally made it to a sense of a safe place.

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I’ve finally made it to a sense of a safe place.

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I’ve finally made it to a sense of a safe place.

Mägi Ensemble
Isgaist
music: Ailisa Newhall
words: Amy Gulick’s poem “Fade”
translated into Latvian by Egija Ungure

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Pasaki man, ko tas nozīmē

Piederēt mājas straumei

Es vairāk nezinu

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Laši ir prom

Upes dvēsele ir noslīkusi

Es esmu apmaldījusies

–

Pastāsti man, ko tas nozīmē

Pateikties mājas straumei

Es vairāk nezinu

–

Atvadīties no zivīm

Pamest zemi

Ko lai tagad daru?

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LaVon Hardison
Awesome

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You said, let’s go look at some fish

and I looked at you sideways with “ Really”?

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It’s a strange date, but I like you the best

out of all of the folks I’ve known lately.

–

I thought it was weird cause I’m a city girl

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and the outdoors is a dangerous place.

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But you said, “They are making new life”

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I was being polite and said, “Awesome”.

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We walked through the mud, the rain

through ferns, Oregon grape, wet and chilly

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And you laughed as I began to complain:

“you mentioned fish and not rain. How far? Really?”

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I thought it was hard cause I’m a city girl

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and the outdoors is a baffling place.

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But you said, almost there, we’ll come upon some

I was being sarcastic, said, “Awesome”

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I stood there, breath caught in my mouth,

silver dollars strewn all about- peeling.

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Dead and dancing over rocks and dry ground,

climbing ladders not found, Icarus dreaming

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It’s amazing and disturbing I’m a city girl

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and the outdoors is a crazy place

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Standing in this living and feeding

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Breathless, I whispered, “Awesome”

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Bridge:

From forest to ocean and back again

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Returning again to their home

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Fighting upstream, Smelling redd again

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Dreaming and thrashing through foam

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It’s amazing and disturbing I’m a city girl

and the outdoors is a crazy place

Standing in this living and feeding

I just kept on repeating, “Awesome”

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