Jennifer Kimball

Thank you to everyone who came out to our live shows this Spring! It's been such a joy to play the songs from Avocet out in the world. And I have loved singing the last four gigs with my good friend and harmony compatriot Rose Polenzani. And for fun we got to add Kris Delmhorst to the chorus at Click Workspace in Northampton! Alec Spiegelman, Deni Hlavinka and I played a whole bunch of gigs last Fall and around the cd release date in March. And we'll be at it again in the Fall.

I was so honored to have Mary Burchenal, author of the "Barn," which inspired "Build You a Barn," read her poem at our Milton Arts Center show on June 2. I will include it below. And you can also hear me read her poem in my interview with Lisa Mullins at WBUR here.

Happy summer - be a positive, creative force in the world and try not to let the shitshow get you down.
Jennifer

Barn

For Paul Witteman, 1943-2013

Maybe now you can build a barn

big enough for all of us

at once.

Maybe you can build a barn

with a large door that slides wide enough

for all of us to step inside,

tilted forward or backward as we are,

each carrying in our arms

our missing of you.

Some roll it in like a loaded wheelbarrow,

some drag it in like

a heavy-headed sledgehammer,

some cradle it like a sharpened ax.

Maybe you can build a barn

big enough to let us stand laden together

for a while,

dusk coming on,

before finding the familiar hooks

we know you, in your ragged baseball cap,

have hammered in.

Maybe you can build a barn

strong enough to allow us to lift and hang

from your posts and beams

what we have carried here:

as much missing as we can bear.

--Mary Burchenal