It is really nice being able to write a blog again, as it has been a while. It is also so nice to know that certain people exist. Nicki Kris, a singer-songwriter based in Raleigh, N.C. In addition to being a fantastic musician, created a great podcast called Sisters in Music which "promotes and encourages collaborative musical works, performances, and educational opportunities among women in the music and entertainment industries." It is an amazing podcast and mission, and I am proud to be a small part of this growing community. Nicki interviewed me, and I am so grateful. As a woman basically still in the incipient phases of my musical journey, it is such a privilege to have a sisterhood of musical mentors to tap into, and I will definitely pay it forward when I am able. So please check it out on May 9th at 8pm ET/5pm PT! I am so excited to share it with you, and more interviews in the future!
Do you ever get swept away with a romance novel? Maybe you are all not hopeless romantics like me. André Aciman wrote a novel in 2008 entitled Call Me By Your Name about two young American men falling in love in Italy one summer in the 1980s. Their days were “numbered” because of the discriminatory nature of society. I have read the follow-up novel Aciman wrote recently, Find Me, and that is why I ended the song the way I did…
Ever since high school, I have obsessed over romance stories (with a tragedy-bent). I watched the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli’s film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and began a year or two of watching it at least once a week. I read the play, and I performed both roles when I was on the Forensics Drama and Debate team. Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting gave a superb performance, the best I have ever seen.
In Aciman’s book, the prose carried me to a place of sweet joy as well as frustrated impotence…and the result is this song. Enjoy! Also…share with me any works of art that have touched you so viscerally that it caused you to create something…thank you! And thank you André…
Numbered
I wake up and know that it is all sinking
Our diamond-crusted reef… I am blinking
Fire tears through me as I feel when we first met!
I hold my breath as our sun sets
I can’t believe that I forgot to remember
That you and me, our days were numbered
I had eaten the crumbs on that path back
To myself, and I know I can’t find my way
My eyes, liquid love at our memories
As I realize the door is locked, and I have no keys
Back in the house of my soul I crawl
Your portrait is on the wall
There, I stare (2x)
Time will thicken my skinny membrane
Covering my thoughts and flesh of you, untamed
I run at top speed away to you
Only go the distance through me
Where are you?
You’re here, you’re near…
Listen on Spotify, get a high-resolution download of the song by signing up for my newsletter.
Hello everyone and thank you for coming to read this blog. I truly appreciate it.
This song was simply inspired by the breathtaking images I have seen of the southwestern U.S.A. The rusty red rocky landscape of the Grand Canyon, the ancient Joshua trees, and the “milky turquoise” of the Colorado River…these made me think of the themes of beauty in rough terrains, how to find love for yourself and others during the rugged parts of your life. The Colorado River seems like such a salve flowing through that dry part of the planet, and the color of its water heals. I hope to go there one day! Have you? What experiences can you share, about this area or any place, that offered a feeling of peace and wellness for you and your spirit, when you felt like you were inside a dark cave in your mind and life?
Thank you for your input – here are the lyrics for Turquoise. Enjoy!
Turquoise
Verse 1
Flailing around, stubbing toes
In crazy town, blue-black crows
Crusty view, no one knows
You hold my hand, in that cave we go
Refrain
Your river cuts through, making waves
My curves are soothed, echoes in my cave
Milky turquoise caresses me
Diamonds in the dark, Joshua trees
Post-refrain
Stay close to me…my thorns can creep
Your voice dives deep…strong hands can bleed
Verse 2
Climbing slow up the crags of my
Jagged soul, scratched up thighs
Cool aloe, you apply
No more burns in green skies
Repeat Refrain
Post-refrain
Breathe lungs, aware…send my own flare
Blood-knuckles up that rock-face…I remember the way!
The way! The way! The way! The way! (2x)
The End, thank you!
Listen on Spotify, get a high-resolution download of the song by signing up for my newsletter.
Thank you for coming to this blog – I would like to introduce you to my second single called Searching. I wrote this song when I wanted to explore the feelings I can get from time to time being in a long-term relationship. We don’t learn from a book how long-term relationships should work. We all usually look at what our families’ and friends’ relationships are like, those of our partner’s as well as our own. My life-mate and I have all kinds of examples, healthy and dysfunctional, to view with a non-judgmental eye… we pull from them what we want and what we don’t. Every relationship partners make their own rules for health and happiness, and so do we.
To begin this exploration, I just did a stream-of-consciousness brainstorm of all the feelings I have at this stage in my relationship with my husband – 20 years now! I wanted to create with the soundscape of this song the flexing stages of grace and peace with confusion and longing. A longing for what we had in the past; what I long for in the future because there seems to be a growing pain happening in the present; and then the feeling of the resolve and effervescence of coming back together after traversing these mountains in our understanding of one another. We are always searching for the truth, looking at each other in confusion, anger, listlessness, and pain…but with deeply empathetic listening, we can also look with love, relief, kindness and understanding. I wanted to end the song with such resolve.
May you all experience joy and resolutions, intrigue and fun, in all the relationships you have on this planet.
Here are the lyrics for Searching for you to enjoy:
Searching by Kristine Moon
Hazy, clenching
I see you in your duties
Burning my insides
Climbing up our new building
No more abandon, but
Clasping the never-horizon
Is it the same?
Do you call my name?
I am here
I hang here
I feel hard, I feel soft
I breathe deep trying to smell you
I still need you, I still need you.
Searching for your
Fingerprints you left in me
Is it a chore?
The cinders from our chimney…
Remind me of our hearth
When your wool would wrap around me
Our windows are thick
Ice fractals can stick
I stoke it
You stoke it
We feel hard, we feel soft
We are always together
On this floor of ours
On this floor of ours.
Are you aching inside tonight?
Your eyes are open wide
We curl up by that fire
Whispers reassure me
We built that chair
We built that staircase
To climb up with our hands
We go outside
We pull our tides
In the warm, wet sand
Always shifting sandcastles from our beginning
A new moon sighs
A new moon tries
Kissing my closed eyes
Searching, finding, losing, and binding
A new moon thrives
A new moon ties.
That’s it, thank you, good people.
Listen on Spotify, get a high-resolution download of the song by signing up for my newsletter.
I wrote this after experiencing the darkness that can come with motherhood, within my own life and within the lives of my friends and family. I wanted to write a song that brings some awareness around maternal mental health, especially new moms with young children. So ladies, don’t worry, it all gets better, and seek support and help around your pregnancy and beyond… I love you! Also for all of you living with mental health mountains to climb, I am here with you, you are not alone and you will make it through to the light!!! The lark is a bird who sings when going into flight at daybreak… that is you too, my loves.
High five my hearts,
Kristine Moon
Lark by Kristine Moon
I was drowning in the darkness, now I am a lark
With a message for you, through, you… Come here to me
I am ready to break these gates, on a motorcycle chase
Lone tree, say “Cheese!”… and naked man, stand up, and be, with me, be… a useful memory
I walked into the vacuum, of my mind in the grip of doom
Sailing into the clouds, my pinky snatched the fabric of day, just in time, mine, time… I made it out this time… time, I made it out this time!
They’ve torn me many times, the wolves of the night
Orange and blue skies, bruised eyes, yesterday is far away, far away, far away!
I was drowning in the darkness, now I am a lark
With a message for you, come through, you… Come back to me!
Listen on Spotify, get a high-resolution download of the song by signing up for my newsletter.
