The Lost Words Blessing — Various Artists

Lyrics inspired by Robert MacFarlane & Jackie Morris’s book “The Lost Words: A Spell Book“, honoring words from the natural word that have been disappearing from a widely used children’s dictionary since 2007, replaced with modern words which the editors thought were more useful to today’s kids.

Music by: Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter, Jim Molyneux, Kerry Andrew.

The form of the song is inspired by Scottish Gaelic blessings, particularly from a collection of poems, prayers, incantations, and lore called the Carmina Gadelica.

This music video shows the artists creating the song:

Lyrics:

Enter the wild with care my love
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you travel far from heather, crag, and river
May you like the little fisher set the stream alight with glitter
May you enter now as otter without falter into water

Look to the sky with care my love
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you journey on past dying stars exploding
Like the gilded one in flight, leave your little gifts of light
And in the dead of night my darling, find the gleaming eye of starling
Like the little aviator, sing your heart to all dark matter

Walk through the world with care, my love
And sing the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you stumble through machair sands eroding
Let the fern unfurl your grieving, let the heron still your breathing
Let the selkie swim you deeper, oh my little silver-seeker
Even as the hour grows bleaker, be the singer and the speaker
And in city and in forest, let the larks become your chorus
And when every hope is gone, let the raven call you home