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Marie McGilvray: Music

Calm

I wrote this song after a chance meeting with a stranger. I went to get a pedicure, and the sweet vietnamese woman who was tending to me told me a heartbreaking story about how she had lost her baby girl a year prior. She was still very guilt ridden and even asked me if I thought she did the right thing in caring for her sick child. It turns out she did not have health insurance and so the local hospital discharged her baby from the neonatal intensive care unit. She died 2 days later. Her story stayed with me for days and I grieved her loss as well as the state of healthcare in this country. I wrote this song as a way to soothe some of that grief.

I want to wrap you in the blanket you threw away

when baby Sarah died, left your arms and this earth

I’d hold you close, keep you warm

melt the cold and dark

calm your tender aching heart

 

I would calm, calm you love

Calm, calm you love

 

I want to rub your head sing you a lullaby

until we chase away your guilt and regret

I’d bring you sleep, dreams from above

 extract the voices harsh

calm your trembling anguished thoughts

 

I would calm, calm you love

Calm, calm you love

 

I wish I could say something profound to take your sorrow away l

ife is strange loss makes a space for love, beautiful love

 

Let me calm, calm you love

Calm, calm you love

 

 

MARIE MCGILVRAY: vocals, acoustic guitar MICHAEL ROJAS: keyboards MATT SLOCUM: cello, cello arrangements RON GOMEZ: percussion