Ep. 6 “Season’s Grievings”

Afrose Fatima Ahmed has experienced tragedy. In the span of just a few years she lost both her father and her sister. The latter was an absolute shock. Her experience in dealing with this tragedy lead the formation of her poem entitled “Season’s Grievings”. In this episode we discuss the influence that culture and family have on ones work as an artist. We discuss the origins and aftermath of her poem and the lessons she learned from experiencing a premature loss.

Afrose Fatima Ahmed is a hybrid Texan-Washingtonian who writes poems on emerald city streets and at the tops of evergreen trees. she is the daughter of Muslim immigrants from India. Her body and her art live in liminal spaces: polar US borderlands, the division between land and sea, the place where urban density drops off into rural solitude. Afrose comes to poetry as just one avenue for creating experiences of beauty and communion for herself and other people. her writing emphasizes all the senses and acknowledges a world in which humans are suffering and experiencing bliss against wild landscapes that are simultaneously living and dying.

Links:

Afrose Website: https://afrosefatimaahmed.com/Chap Books: https://afrosefatimaahmed.com/publications/

Credits:

Theme song “Rhinestone Rosie” by Lowlandshttps://www.wearelowlands.com/

“Season of Grief”

LYRICS:I am flying high above the earth todayJust to see you one more timeThough I'll never hear you say my name againI'll repeat yours till I die

And the tears come like a rainstormPouring memories out across the floorAnd it feels like I am dyingLet it come like the flood moving swift across the plainThis is my season of grief

Never felt a loss so deep within my soulMy heart is cracked beyond repair.And I'll bleed from it the love I owe to youFor the pains too much to bear.

And I hear our mother cryingAs my shoulders shake and tremble disbeliefAnd it feels like we are dyingLet it come like the wind moving swiftly through the treesThis is our season of grief

So i've learned to bravely give beyond myselfAnd seek the fullness of lifeAnd as I live beyond the age you left this earthI'll pour my grief into the ground.

And let it grow into a gardenI'll harvest beauty from this bitter painAnd it feels like I am thrivingLet it come like the rain bringing beauty from the painThis is my season of griefLet it come like the rain growing flowers on your graveThis is my season of grief.

Written By: Tom RoremRecorded, Mixed and Mastered By: Tom RoremGuitar, Vocals: Tom RoremBass: Tom RoremKeyboard: Tom Rorem