You Can’t Drown Out Vermont
Alana Shaw and Bridget Ahrens
Irene was a storm from the tropics
Our dairy farms found her a threat
Our rivers and streams grew to shocking extremes
Vermont was not meant to get wet.
The water is rising around us
The cows are all learning to swim
My Subaru’s up to its eyeballs
And Rutland is full to the brim
The White was a Mad River rushing
The Winooski, a stream running hard
The Otter Creek started to wander
And ended up here in my yard
There’s something afoot with the climate
The rivers are bursting their streams
When I think about global warming
I’m seeing Irene in my dreams.
[bridge]
You bet we will rebuild the bookstore
Side by side all of us will begin
We rescued our sheep using kayaks
Vermonters will never give in.
You can’t drown out Vermont
You can’t drown out Vermont
You can’t drown out Vermont!
Vermont is awash in destruction
It’ll take us some time to dry out
But when neighbors show up with their shovels
You know what Vermont is about.
Oh Irene she can fill up a basement
Irene she can bury a farm
But this rain won’t discourage our people
Or wipe out our Green Mountain charm.
[bridge]
You can’t drown out Vermont
You can’t drown out Vermont
You can’t drown out Vermont!
Ballad of Sally Shaw
Call me leftist, call me cranky
Something stinks at Vermont Yankee!
Where the mountains are green and winters are cold
There’s a power plant that’s getting old
Those of us who live here have concern
The safety tests for this reactor need to add a big fudge factor
None of us would be surprised to learn.
Chorus:
Its pipes -- they leak, Its towers – they fall
Its dryers – they crack And worst of all
The ones in charge, they say nothing’s amiss.
The wells, they glow, the leaks, they pool
Nuclear waste runs by the school
Safety should trump corporate avarice.
Sally Shaw, she’s got some spark
No taste for glowing in the dark
She is not afraid to speak her mind
She’s got a kid, a garden too
She lives inside the plant’s milieu
It’s clear she has a nuclear ax to grind.
Call me leftist, call me cranky
Something stinks at Vermont Yankee!
MS degree beside her name, the NRC called, Sally came
A witness from Vermont to testify
She’d done the research, had the stats
Gave the scoop to those fat cats
Where profit lurks – the truth they just deny.
Thanks Ms. Shaw, the board did say
Now trot along, get on your way
We’ve got us some re-licensing to do
So Sally had to up the ante, stop this unsafe power plant – e
With a handy pack of garden doo.
Her point dilute, Sal got emphatic
Something in her went dramatic
Stirred compost into his drinking glass –
The regulator cringed in fear
“It’s poisoning, so cavalier!
Where does this Vermonter get the brass?” Chorus
Now Sally wears a scarlet C
A terrorist with farm debris
Because she had the gumption to insist
Everyone in Vermont oughta
Have un-tainted drinking water
Corporate money makers sure got pissed!
Call me leftist, call me cranky
Something stinks at Vermont Yankee!
Chorus reprise:
Its pipes -- they leakt, its towers – they fall
Its dryers – they crack And worst of all
The ones in charge, they say nothing’s amiss.
The wells, they glow, the leaks, they pool
Nuclear waste runs by the school
Let’s do like Sally did and say, Vermont won’t swallow this.
Watersong
I’ve been called to by the water/ in the deep part of the forest
Where the boughs bend and the winds dance
In the swirling autumn leaves.
I can hear her from a distance/ and her voice, it pulls me to her
Like the moon does to the ocean
Like the earth does to the rain.
[chorus]
Oh you invented grace, my dear
The ripple and the splash of you
The bending and the crash of you/ the way you set me free
Oh you invented grace, my dear/ the moon invented silver
The way your falling water/ Invented thirst for me.
There’s no secret how to find her/ I can follow all my senses
Distant roar of rushing water/ Glint of diamond through the trees
Water calls me, and I listen/ Stepping deep into her shallows
See the patterns on her surface/ Feel the rock, too, just beneath. [chorus]
Its magic and its fire spark color in the breeze
Squirrels play on carpeting of dancing autumn leaves
The moss that holds your edges fast, the rocks that mark your way
They hold but can’t contain me and your playful dancing spray.
Call to me, fall for me, trace currents in the stream
Bend with me, sing to me, don’t wake me from this dream
Call to me, fall for me I step into your stream
Bend with me, sing to me, don’t wake me from this dream.
And my heart sings with the rushing, and there’s no end to the pouring
I would stand here for a lifetime, with your mist upon my face [chorus]
Spelunking
We’re off on a wild adventure
Spelunking with caution thrown wide
Can you trust that I will return to you
With the essence of me still inside?
Descending with confidence, fearless
To the darkness and coolness and deep
Where I feel my way with my fingers
And the seeing is inward and deep.
[chorus]
The world reveals itself slowly
Unspooling its scenes and its threads
There is so much for me to unravel
And weave it together unsaid.
There is danger above and below me
There is danger, too, lurking inside
When I choose to dive into this moment
There really is nowhere to hide.
The gravity holds me so tightly
My essence won’t spirit away
Will you wait, will you trust
Will you love me?
I’ll be back at the end of the day. [chorus]
Shooting Star
Trace a line across the sky/The stars, they scatter glowing
Watch them as they arc away/I wonder where they’re going
Trace a line across this map/The miles they scatter glowing
Our destination, everywhere/The beauty’s in not knowing.
The arc of the rise and the sweep of the fall
From glimmer to fade on the universe wall
From out of the random, this moment of grace
Defining our paths as we hurtle through space
[Chorus]
Shooting star, I’m here beside you
Shooting star, I’m in your wake
Shooting star, let me fly with you
Every path you choose to take.
Trace a line across your cheek/My thoughts they scatter glowing
I want to know the depths of you/My heart is overflowing
Trace a line across my song/The notes they scatter glowing
I sing them as they arc away/I wonder where they’re going. [chorus]
Rain, Heavy At Times
There’s a stillness in the forest, whispers my name
Distant roll of thunder tingles through my veins
Cooler air comes frolicking against my skin/A gentle rain begins.
A closer flash beside me – chipmunks scurry by
Thunder gently rumbles dancing across the sky
A sudden soaking rain seeps in, warmth upon my cheek/A downpour within.
I see your beauty and your grace
Winds blow through my hair
Grow up the sides of me bursting with tiny buds
I am so alive
The rain dissolves my edges, chords press into my hand
The ocean calls me home, waves upon the sand
The richness of this gentle rain swells up in me, and I am set free.