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Prayer Flags (9/11 healing song)
The day after the attack, my downtown New York City neighborhood was a locked-down war zone, smelling of molten metal, tears and devastation, and preternaturally quiet.
And, plastered on every available surface were handmade flyers announced those missing after the September 11 attack, posted overnight by desperate loved ones. Pizzeria windows, mailboxes, bus stops, delis—all had become instant shrines, lit from below by dozens of candles placed on the sidewalk.
Along with many of my neighbors, I spent long hours in silent and sympathetic contemplation of these heart-rending pieces of paper. Here were pictures of people just like me and my friends, cradling newborns or standing proudly on their wedding day.
Written on them were desperate, loving words penned in moments of almost unimaginable anguish by people whose husbands, wives, or parents had simply not come home—or, worse, perhaps, who had called and said they were getting out and coming home but never did.
The flyers reminded me of Tibetan prayer flags, flapping in the warm breeze. (Prayer flags—also called “wind horses” —are common in Tibetan Buddhism; their purpose is to purify the air with the prayerful words written on them.) It was almost too much to bear. And yet we, the neighbors and friends of these people, felt duty-bound to bear witness, to pay respect, to send love and light.
As I stood there, a simple and haunting melody was born in my head, and the words I was reading practically flew off these pages and rearranged themselves in stanzas in my mind.
The next day I took off from work, booked an afternoon in the studio, and recorded and mixed this song live.
Although “Prayer Flags” is obviously a very sad song, I prefer to think of it as a healing song, and one that is very respectful to the people who helped it come to be—and to whom it is dedicated.
Please, give it a listen, and share it.
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marcfarre posted this
