Pain cuts like a plow into the ground
The ground of your being, the earth of your heart
Watch the soil turn, churning and hurting
Preparing for new life to start

Why dig so deep? Why make me bleed?
I’ve grown attached to this grass and these weeds
One day, I’m told, a garden will grow
But all that I’m doing is kicking up stones

So, furrow the ground, and furrow your brow
Nobody promised that you’d never fall
Wipe off the sweat, take a deep breath now
And leave yourself spaces for awe

Look for the birds eating the worms
Dug up and brought to the surface in turn
Two seeds are sown, just one will grow
What will take root or die, nobody knows

No, don’t look behind, nose to the grind
Eyes straight ahead, just keep doing your part
Once you complete the tilling and weeding
The barrenness might break your heart

But listen in close, still there’s a pulse
The heartbeat of myst’ry that cannot be known
This desolate dirt, the lungs of the earth
Are sighing in labor and groaning for birth

So, furrow the ground, and furrow your brow
Nobody promised that you’d never

(c) 2016 Sarah S. Howell

The Plow

Grapes in Virginia

A Little More

With Fiona Burdette on cello, Pat Lawrence on bass and backup vocals, and Martha Bassett on backup vocals.

Fly Away

Said I once met a woman, said her name was Truth
And that's what she spoke, and now I'll tell it to you
She said, "I've plowed and I've planted and I've gathered in,
But all of the profits went to powerful men."

She said, "Ain't I, ain't I, ain't I,
Ain't I a woman?"

She said, "I bore five children, set 'em on my knee,
Then watched them all sold into slavery.
And when I cried with a mother's grief,
Well, no man but Jesus ever listened to me."

She said, "Ain't I, ain't I, ain't I,
Ain't I a woman?"

"You say I can't have the right that you, sir, can,
'Cause you are like Jesus in that you are a man;
Well, tell me--where did your Christ come from?
From God and a woman, God and a woman,
Man had nothing to do with him!"

She said, "Ain't I, ain't I, ain't I,
Ain't I a woman?"
She said, "Ain't I, ain't I, ain't I,
Ain't I a woman?"

(c) 2015 Sarah S. Howell
Lyrics based on a quote by Sojourner Truth

Ain't I a Woman?

https://sarahshowell.wordpress.com/2017/06/20/girl-eats-alone-summer-songwriting-series/

When a girl eats alone
She says I am still whole
Even when I'm a party of one
I might sit here and read
Or buy myself a drink
But I don't need a man to have fun

When a girl cuts her hair
She says I just don't care
For the pressures of patriarchy
These long, flowing tresses
The makeup and dresses
Do not make me womanly

When a girl gets tattoos
She says I get to choose
What goes onto this body I own
My skin is not yours 
To control or enforce
It is my jurisdiction alone

When a girl eats alone
It's not sad, it's not wrong
It's a sign of the courage she has
She's not sitting at home
She won't wait by the phone
She's already found love that lasts

(c) 2017 Sarah S. Howell

Girl Eats Alone (version 1)

I'm not as mysterious as I want you to think I am.

Sarah Howell

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