The Impossible Sky
©2013 Stephen R Coffee
Ruth, the farm wife, describes her love for their family's meager home and the harsh landscape around them. From Rain Follows the Plow, here performed by Caroline Ferrante with the Rain Follows the Plow Orchestra.
Finalist: Great American Song Contest 2017
Gold, Folk Category: Mid-Atlantic Song Contest 2019
Alternatively, listen to The Glimpses' version on SoundCloud:
Dear Sister, It’s so nice to read your letter
I so rarely get to visit
living out here on the farm so far from people
do you really want to hear
about the way we homesteaders live?
Well it’s hard, maybe harder than expected
imagine my surprise
to find out that what we’d call our house
was really just a hole in the ground
our neighbors, the centipedes and snakes
But the sky, the impossible sky
this ever-changing dome
it truly is our home
and the earth, the bountiful earth
the endless horizon
it’s all here
the air so clear
the stars so near
These days, my husband is the tallest thing I see
we have to ride down to the creek
to find a tree
the way we stick out above the grass
we must look like stray whiskers
on the face of the earth
and the wind, oh the storms they are so fearsome
they stomp around like giants
and hurl their thunderbolts
we scurry like the little owls
and prairie dogs
and dive into our burrow in the ground
But the sky, the impossible sky
this luminescent dome
it truly is our home
and the earth, the bountiful earth
the endless horizon
it’s all here
the air so clear
the stars so near
Last evening, we walked between the furrows
all the way down to the fence
at the far end of the field
and I felt love, yes love
for the little shoots of green
so tender, and yet so brave
but the sky, the impossible sky
we wheel around within it
you can feel the planet spinning
and the earth, the bountiful earth
the endless horizon
it’s all here, the air so clear
the stars so near
More songs for your listening pleasure:
Alice
Soundtrack of one man's journey through the Australian Outback
Indian Joe
Where are your people? From Rain Follows the Plow
Maria
A lonely voice from the borderlands
Deepwater Requiem
Epic folk tale treatment of the Horizon disaster
To the Light
Close encounters with the past--and the inevitable future
Castle of Thorns
The distance between here and there
Going to the Ukraine
Those Ukraine girls make me scream and holler.
Praise the Drugs and Pass the Ammunition
Regarding the War on Sanity
Mert's Mix
An appetizing Okie Rap
The Writing on the Wall
Song and video about visiting my dad's old home place.
The Foundation
a momentary detour on the way into town
Guantanamo
Still relevant, eighteen years later