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Florence Welch has shared a collective poem about solidarity and support through quarantine, made from comments submitted by fans.
The Florence & The Machine singer put the call out to her followers on Instagram, in a bid for people to “come together in a different way” during social distancing brought on by the coronavirus outbreak.
“Please write one line you would like to add to a ‘Collective Poem’ and I will try and piece it together,” she wrote. “If you are feeling afraid, anxious or isolated I send you so much love. I am feeling the same. But creativity is a small blessing.”
Now, she has shared the results on Twitter. Check out the ‘Collective Poem’ below.
Collective Poem
Written by youpic.twitter.com/uV2M5uW2XL
— florence welch (@florencemachine) March 19, 2020
“Alone, yet together,
Threads apart weaving as one,
I am worried about what the future will bring for my mother,
I lit a match for you,
In the calmness of my room,
Rituals return to the stovetops and altars arrive in our bellies.
“And I shall wait three days, 20 years,
Or even an age for a brighter moment,
Falling in love,
Like never before,
On opposite sides of a long-locked door,
And one day looking back,
I will find a reason to hug you tighter.
“I recall the hands touching the violin while exiting the church,
Every petal a loved one,
The gathered children looking out.
“Sometimes I forget the sun,
But there it is again,
Spring is pouring from my mouth,
I’m enjoying feeling small and perishable,
Then becoming the sky,
I let myself fall in.
“And then it all began,
This drowsiness is scary,
The days blurred,
I kiss your ribs because I want to feel the way you breathe,
I keep the smallest stick wedged in the door.
“The God in me begins to pray and knows that we sung choruses from our balconies,
To give ourselves some company,
Hiding from the phantom in our city,
An overwhelming sense of contradiction,
Staying away from what I love out of love,
I was waiting for the birds to tell me it was over,
Afraid as a fevered child, bound to the bed.
“Just look for the grace of your mother, my daughter, the health care worker,
Who comes with a cloth for your head,
A long forgotten astronaut caught in the atmosphere,
And as it spins aimlessly,
And now alone in the dark,
It remembers how to breathe,
How to close its eyes,
How to simply be.
“Maybe this i permission, to rest, to love, to breathe, to make beauty in madness,
Music in silence, to write letters, to say sorry, to feel our bodies, to feel compassion.
Maybe this is a lesson in deepest truths and simplest pleasures.
Will we ever again be asked to stay still to save lives?
“Early spring thaws the ground enough to make it kind to girls who run barefoot through woods,
Palm leaves glittering in the sky,
A hurricane of fear,
And despite it all, we’re still here,
Only now we understand the perils of our fathers.
“Somewhere out of it but right,
Right here,
Now is our turn to take care of you.”
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the UK to avoid venues, pubs, clubs, restaurants and other forms of “unnecessary contact” as the government attempts to stretch out the peak of the crisis, before then pledging millions in grants and loans to secure these spaces’ future. A campaign has also been launched for fans to buy a “digital pint” to support independent venues.
Yesterday saw 40 Underground Tube stations closed down as the capital works to prevent citizens being in public spaces.
Recent weeks have seen many gigs, tours and festivals cancelled across the world to prevent the spread of coronavirus – with Glastonbury 2020 among the latest events to be pulled.
Many artists have since taken online to host virtual gigs to music fans while much of the world is in quarantine or self-isolation.
The post Florence Welch shares ‘collective poem’ about life in quarantine made from fan comments appeared first on NME Music News, Reviews, Videos, Galleries, Tickets and Blogs | NME.COM.
