Kindness (single)
Jami Sieber and Kim Rosen have been exploring the poem “Kindness" by Naomi Shihab Nye for many years in live events. In 2008 it became a transformational medicine for Kim when she suddenly lost all her savings. Learning and speaking those lines by heart turned the crisis into deep transformation that continues to bless her today. “Before you know what kindness really is / you must lose things...”Jami soon joined her on cello, improvising potent melodies to deepen the medicine of the poem. When Jami composed “A Love Song for Humanity", Kim's voicing of the poem found its home. Together they have offered “Kindness” interwoven with “A Love Song for Humanity" as a central heartbeat of their live offerings.
In October, 2021 in the midst of the pandemic, they met at the edge of the Puget Sound drawn by an urgency within them to dive into themes of grief, gratitude and letting go. The bounty of music and poetry that poured through them was startling — more than 20 hours of collaborative creations were recorded! The first album born of that time was Feast of Losses, produced in 2022.
It has always been their intention to bring forth more of the gems that emerged from that creative convergence. “Kindness” is the first of a series of recordings that will be released over the next few years. Eventually Jami and Kim envision these single tracks creating an album tentatively entitled, This Mortal Time, featuring poems by Ellen Bass, Raymond Carver, Lisel Mueller, Annie Lightheart and Leonard Cohen, among others.
The root of the word kindness is kin, which means related to, of the same nature, the same family — a family that overflows our known circles of connection to touch others we’ve never met in cultures and countries beyond our edges.
At this time in history, when it seems that voices of divisiveness are filling the airwaves, may this offering be a sanctuary in which to slow down, realize how connected we are, and let the kindness that is alive at the very core of each of us germinate a contagion of healing for the world we share.
Poem by Naomi Shihab Nye
Music by Jami Sieber, "A Love Song for Humanity" from the album Timeless (Out Front Music, 2013)
Spoken Word by Kim Rosen
“Kindness” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye.
Copyright © 1995. Used with the permission of Far Corner Books.
For CD Liner Notes click HERE.
Cover Art Image by Galen Garwood
"Kindness" is available by digital download only