Below are the lyrics in progress of this collectively created song, created to inspire people to take action on climate change at the time of COP26 in Glasgow November 2021. More adaptations and contributions are welcome!
Come to the gathering: Saturday 9th October 2021 at Mildmay Community Centre
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-meaning-of-being-human-song-the-gathering-tickets-168932767455
Lyric from Lucien 25/08/21 tidied up and with an option for line 8 suggested by Ann Bliss on 25/08/21:
The Earth is Our Home
Listen to the people
Hear what we have to say
We require action
We have to find a way
In every town and country
Fossil fuels must fall
We must reach zero emissions
In three decades, not four
In this decade, none more/not four
We must stop the fires
We must stop the flooding
We must be the change in Climathon
We must not be silenced
By the carbonisers
We must build a future for everyone
The world is in our hands
The earth is our home
What’s stopping us now?
Lyric suggested by Arif Jamal on 26/08/21
Measly male misers
Misery makers
We're gonna crush your ego
Expose you fakers
You lie for profits
Greed and growth
Laying waste to the planet
While you brag and boast
To us you are the dumbest of fools
Brats spat out of public schools
You can't expect us to follow your rules
When we'd be much better off being led by mules
So we're giving you notice
We're taking the power
The world needs saving
from men who devour
Arif Jamal added on 26/08/21
We are the m/we.
Ann Bliss added 27/08/21
I am the m/we. We are the m/we.
lyrics added by Jonathan Chadwick on 24th September 2021
Listen to the people
Listen to the Earth
Our home, the earth
Listening to the people
Everywhere, there and here
Hearing what it tells us
And what we have to say
Calling out for truth
We are taking action
This day, our day, this day
We have to find a way
This day, our day, this day
Everywhere, there and here
Our home, the earth
Our home, the earth
Oh the power is with us
With us, with us is the power
But our earth is burning
The winds are wreaking havoc
The droughts are like a plague
Oh the power is with us
With us, with us is the power
But we have wrecked the balance
With our needless greediness
The earth must be re-made
Regenerate our earth
Reconsecrate our earth
Never too late, our earth
Our home, the earth
Our home, the earth
Ecosystem destruction
Biospheric disruption
environmental desecration
Social devastation
No good speaking truth to power
Power that’s based on lies
We are giving power to truth
In our voice and in our eyes
amendment added by Arif Jamal 25th September
the whites of our eyes
Fake leaders time is past
This is the people’s hour
Time of our lives has come
Beating time on the drum
We know how to do it
We know how to keep our world safe
Working it out from the top to the bottom
We know how to keep the world safe
Our Earth, our home
In every house n town n region
We don’t want no fossil energy
We reach out for zero emissions
We reach out for equality and justice
The earth must love its people again
And the people love the earth
Lets treat each other with respect again
From the global north to the global south
We must spread the sweetness back
All the resources that have been robbed
Must be subject to repatriation
This is the secret of regeneration
Oh mother Moon, softly shine
Over our earth and seas
Teach us your lovely sway
From dark to light
Your changing still moving time
Scintillating peace
Bring justice like the play
Of gentleness and might.
Lyric by James posted by Lucien Windrich on 24th September
A Generation of Heroes
Every generation
Has its role to play
Though we are the last of them
If we can’t find our way
The people call for answers
They ring out in dismay
Though we may be the last of them
If we don’t find a way
The call, the plea
The need for us to be
A generation of heroes
A generation that believes
That we… will…. find…. a way
The children find their voices
The birds rejoice to sing
And we must make our choices
And commit everything
To hope
To pray
To pledge
That every day
That in this hour of darkness
We will find a way
We'll make the dark moon shine
The night is black
The beast it prowls
Hungry for our children's future
Our eyes are white
But we can't see
The shadow of this evil creature
We live in fear
It'll bring the end
To all of life on Mother Earth
So we gather round
And close in tight
Extinguishing the burning hearth
And we sing to make the dark moon shine!
Sing to make the dark moon shine!
We sing to make the dark moon shine!
Harbinger of doom it's not your time!
The beast it wants
To fell the trees
With lies
To satiate it's greed
And forest screams
It's on its knees
Begging stop
Please, please, please!
And we sing to forest to heal its pain!
Sing to forest to heal its pain!
We sing to forest to heal our pain!
Cos we are forest, we are the same!
And this is how
We'll beat the beast
That shameless cheating joker
With mothers, sisters
Grans and others
All bathed in bright red ochre
Singing for life
For blood
And the sacred
Bringing laughter
And love
In place of the hatred
And we sing to make the dark moon shine!
Sing to make the dark moon shine!
We sing to make the dark moon shine!
Harbinger of doom it's not your time!
lyrics from Ingrid Lewis 30/09/21
1st melody: e_o_e_o_e_i_e – e_o_e_o_e_i_e i
Hear the song of our Mother Earth,
Sing the song of our Mother Earth
Turning patriarchy into MWE,
To guarantee Mother Earth’s diversity
Then sung only in vowels e_o_e_o_e_i_e – e_o_e_o_e_i_e i whilst 2nd melody is sung in words
2nd melody: i_e_i_e_e.e_i_e_i_e_e.e
She birthed it all you see
In great diversity
She is the source of big and small
She really did give birth to all
We need to grow and flourish
So let’s not drown her in our rubbish
Oh, planet Earth is our Mother
We truly do not have another
So treat her well, for life to be
In sweet diversity
Melody 2 then sung only in vowels i_e_i_e_e.e_i_e_i_e_e.e
AND/OR
3rd melody:
mwe mwe mwe mwe mwe,
oh truly mwe
1st melody
Hear the song of our Mother Earth,
Sing the song of our Mother Earth
Turning patriarchy into MWE,
To guarantee Mother Earth’s diversity
2nd melody:
Because of women giving birth
You and me are here on Earth
What’s done to HER is done to us
And we have clearly had enough
It was the greed of just one brother
who raped and stole from all the others
So overturn the Alpha Male
his legacy has now gone stale
We did it once when we came together
He really does now change our weather
The misery is this
Some of us still take the piss
1st melody
If we don’t change then life on Earth is doomed
So let us change for everything to bloom
It can’t be one it’s gotta be us all
Cause if we don’t together we will fall
Men and women will you please unite
To help in this most important fight
2nd melody
Against climate emergency
We need to end patriarchy
We are fed up with your greed
Stop taking more than you need
1st melody
Hear the song of our Mother Earth,
Sing the song of our Mother Earth
Hear the song of our Mother Earth,
Sing the song of our Mother Earth
Turning patriarchy into MWE,
To guarantee Mother Earth’s diversity
2nd melody
For this to be we have to turn
The you and me into a mwe
Then sung only in vowels i_e_i_e_e.e_i_e_i_e_e.e or mwe mwe mwe mwe