From the recording You Can't Kill Light
The Poem "Luz de Luna" is written by my mother, the Spanish artist Pilar Pobil. Born in Mallorca, Spain, she immigrated to the US in the late 50s. This poem is about herself, a widow living in Utah, looking at the mountains and having memories and longings for her island in the Mediterranean sea.
I wrote the song about 15 years ago, before the poem had been written. I was visiting another island in the Mediterranean, Sardinia, and was feeling connected to my roots.
The song was shelved for many years, but when I recorded it this spring I kept feeling that it was missing something. Then I remembered this poem that my mother had read to me a few years ago. I called her up and asked her to share it with me over the phone. As soon as I heard it again I realized that it was almost a mirror of the song I had written - I, a woman from the Utah mountains who was now back in my motherland.
This is almost always a part of the immigrant story - in some ways to always be a stranger - both in your new land, but also in your homeland. And for the children of immigrants, too, there is a strong rope that keeps pulling you from one allegience to the other. A neither here nor there'ness aspect to your identity, but one that is also deeply enriched by both past and present.
My friend Rosario Sammartino, an immigrant from Argentina, read the poem for the recording and once it was in the track it felt as if the song had found its center.
Lyrics
Where I am the ceiling’s high
The walls are two feet deep
The light slants through the windowpanes
I wake up from my sleep
There’s not a lot that we can do
I don’t know what to say
Today I won’t be coming home
the same I went away
One day the Mother comes, fills your heart
Don’t say another word, it’s what you’re from, it’s who you are
The palm tree, the golden stone, the crooked street
One day the Mother lies down at your feet
A mystic told me something strange
She made me feel afraid
The tower bells rang through my bones
I fainted dead away
When the world came spinning back
I saw through different eyes
Today I won’t be coming home
the same I said goodbye
One day the Mother comes, fills your heart
Don’t say another word, it’s what you’re from, it’s who you are
The palm tree, the golden stone, the crooked street
One day the Mother lies down at your feet
Bridge – Poem "Luz de Luna"
Sola, mirando el cielo
me baño en luz de luna
que besa mi cabello blanco coma la espuma de aquel mar azul que esta tan lejos
Sola, sin compartir mi vida
ni la belleza de la noche clara
que me envuelve en frescura con rumores del agua que murmura bajo la sombra de los altos olmos
One day the Mother comes, fills your heart
Don’t say another word, it’s what you’re from, it’s who you are
The palm tree, the golden stone, the crooked street
One day the Mother lies down at your feet
One day the Mother comes, she pulls you close and fills your heart
You don’t say another word, it’s what you are
The palm tree, the golden stone, the crooked street
One day the Mother lies down at your feet
Cerca de las montañas que fueren extrañas en mi vida joven y que ahora me acompañan, compartiendo mi sueño y mi vigilia cuando ya nadia mas está con migo
pero aquel mar azul de mi memoria, aquella isla que perdí hace años existen en el centro de mi alma y vuelvo a ver los rielando en agua a la luz misteriosa de la luna