Prayer songs for difficult times.

Cuerpo Inmenso and Aguas are two songs that arrived in the midst of acute political grief in 2021 during state-sanctioned human rights abuses against Indigenous people in Colombia and Brazil. 

These prayer songs ask us to sense the sharp edge of our denial and the heavy weight of our arrogance and to do so with honesty and humility while acknowledging that it is hard and heart work.

These are songs that sing through an opening between hope and hopelessness. They are prayers that hold the hand of pain while remembering ourselves land and accepting death as a teacher.

The invitation is to listen with your skin.

CUERPO INMENSO

[English Translation]

a big metabolic body

with broken bones

in between the silence I notice

how we are addicted to the power

and to the pleasure

of denying that my abundance

is the cause of so much scarcity

In order to heal the wound

we must cry the grief

of a world that burns

of a life-way that leaves us empty

In order to heal the wound

that so deeply hurts

we must move in song

we must care deeply for each other

It is not about right or left

It is about the depth that is stored in the roots

in the hands that weave,

in the hands that hold

those that sow the corn seeds

and the plantain, the beans, the potato,

the hands that sow the resistance, the resilience, 

the winds, the waters, the bloods. 

our mother earth

with broken bones

and in between the silences I notice

that we are addicted to the power

and to the pleasure

of denying that my arrogance

is the cause of so much scarcity.

AGUAS

[English Translation]

waters that run from the mountain to the soul

tear by tear they dry up

rivers that run from our eyes

to the ocean

when are we going to re-member?

our lineages

turn to the suns of daisies

ashes, re-memeber me 

death, remind us

you are burning

mother

we are burning no

mother

I am burning

mother

you are burning.

more.

extinguishing fire

running through our veins

you are burning

mother

you are burning

more

waters that run from the mountain

to the soul

Tear by tear they dry up

rivers that run from the eyes

to the ocean.