Gifts for Holding

February 13, 2025

by Cosette Beaudin

What’s above,

Deeper than beneath.

Vast abyss it may seem,

When I focus upon other things.

Forget I may,

Where I came from.

Stars remind us.

To look up,

Beyond our lives,

Are many more.

Selfish ideas think,

We’re who earths for.

For the moon gleamed,

Before I know.

I’ve been gone longer,

Than alive to grow.

I’ll be gone longer,

Than I can pretend to know.

Short visit, sweet gifts.

Land lets live,

Guests of the abyss.

• More about the poem

I felt inspired by the lands generosity we experience, and the responsibility that comes with being given gifts we aren’t mean to keep. 

Icy Roads
January 4, 2025
Lyrics by Cosette Beaudin

I like to be with myself
Throughout this winter spell,
When it can be so cold.
And when the roads are icy,
I know it might be a way for me to tell.

It was warm until it wasn’t,
Was it warm until it wasn’t,
Like you?
Why aren’t you warm like you used to?

The snow is cold, and it glistens.
The road is slick, I’ll start drifting.
I’m here to chat, I’m here to listen.
But without any words, I’m just guessing.

If this is right for you,
I must decide what to do.
Do I stay?
Do I kiss him?
Do I go?
And I’ll miss him.

The roads are icy
’Cause it’s warm and then it’s cold.

When I’m confused, I’ll take the answer as go.
When roads are icy, I’ll still drive and take it slow.

When roads are icy, I don’t stop, I just slow.
When I’m confused, I’ll take the answer as go.

Hail Unanswered

By Cosette Beaudin

What does it mean

When it rains during winter, but it’s not supposed to until spring?

How can it be

Weather feigns the way it used to comfort me, no routines it’d once bring,

Stability now a shadow,

Tranquility loud and shallow,

Screams of hail and hurricanes.

No mother answers; ears ring.

The screams grow louder as we grow numb.

To the hurt, our world succumbs.

Violence to a high degree

Is the silence of you and me.

Climate change rages now,

Like a child asking how—

How can we watch

While they bleed?

How can’t we stop

When there’s so much need?

“Did you try?” asks our unborn child.

“Kid, we used paper straws… after a while.”

When It’s Quiet

March 9, 2025

Lyrics by Cosette Beaudin

When it’s quiet,
I don’t feel alone.
My memories
Are my loved ones’ home.

Don’t care who they’ve become,
Lived times never undone.
My memories will never feel the sun.
Light I hear them laugh in the hours passed.
I can’t rewind; broken things could never last.
At peace in past.

To heal inside a cast,
Is not to be new again.
Once a broken thing,
Move on and don’t pretend.

When it’s quiet,
I don’t feel alone.
My memories,
My loved ones can call home.

Are they still there?
Thin as air?
In my heart, I call their home.

When it’s quiet,
I don’t feel alone.
My future waiting,
My dreams call her home.

And will it ever be for real?
The joy is not to steal.
It’s real enough for me,
To have lived it in my sleep.

When it’s quiet,
I don’t feel alone.
People all meet in love,
That I don’t even know.

I call their hearts my home,
I call their hearts my home.

• More about the song

When you’re a kid, and things are messed up around you, you can’t always tell the full story.

And if you have the privilege of having some cousins, friends, or siblings your age that you have fun with- you don’t always even take the time to dwell on things and figure it out.

You might be at a dinner sitting down- almost done your food, adults start yelling, fighting, or even crying.

And my cousins and I would look around at each, side eyes that said “let's go play”. We’d finish our plates super quick so no one had a reason to keep us and slide down our chairs under the table and out the door. To have the best most unsupervised time ever.

I love them so much. I love the times we had as a kid so much, crazy to know now just how much all the adults were going through. And because we got to be kids together, adventure, we had this golden age of fun amidst abusive chaos.

I like to think that even with everything in the world right now, kids can still have those moments with one another. I like to think that even though times, people, and places have changed. A memory lived on within itself, untouchable, and all the love that existed during the memory is within it too, within me. Recesses with friends who’ve changed, sleeping on the kitchen floor with pets who’re now gone, or climbing a tree I wouldn’t dare try my weight on now (though I do still enjoy climbing a tree time to time). 

What’s existed before, always will, and the memories presence within myself keeps me company wherever. That’s what this song is about.

Horizon Lights

Lyrics by Cosette Beaudin

It’s a cloudy night,

The opaque sky.

Relenting not a light.

No matter how star-bright,

Is beyond.

Is beyond.

For so long,

Is star beyond.

It’s a cloudy night,

And the opaque night

Relents not a light.

No matter how star-bright,

Is beyond.

Is beyond.

But here I am,

Twinkling eyes.

Not at the sky,

But at the human mind.

For there are constellations in the valley below,

Like the sunlight reflects off snow.

I see how pretty

People be

During a cloudy sky,

During an opaque night,

Where no starlight,

No matter how bright,

Can find a way through-

To find a way to you.

When you’re looking high

At a cloudy sky,

The lights surround you.

The stars haven’t found you

Through a cloudy night.

Look elsewhere for your light,

On cloudy nights,

On cloudy nights. 

Thank You, Hardworking James

February 9, 2025

Lyrics by Cosette Beaudin

A man held the door,

For a woman who seemed confused.

His expression was thoroughly used,

But kind.

He held the door

For another eight people more.

Reactions varied.

But he still carried,

His cane in one hand.

He held the door

At a Brekka he’d been before.

Kind and working,

Strictly serving

The ideals that he’d been born.

Kindly working,

Strictly serving

The ideals that he’d been born.

Before all this time had passed,

How easily did he laugh?

Who has he watched open doors?

Who’s he been a good man for?

Is he trying to relieve a guilty core?

Once a watcher,

Of chivalry.

Once waist high,

Now nearly seventy.

As time went on,

The little boy is gone.

Just a man stands here,

Living with tomorrow’s fear.

Without any job to go,

The bakery, he showed

His hardworking class,

And people passed

Until they wanted in.

A man with so much nerve

Asked, “What purpose does holding the door serve?”

He wanted to work,

But offers were skirted.

Said he was too old,

But he still won’t fold,

And without a job, he’s hurting.

Maybe without the time

Spent working, he felt—

One girl gave him a look.

Another went and mistook his kindness.

She wasn’t sure—was he asking for money?

Looking at her shirt?

Only fourteen minutes had passed,

And someone he let in—

He outlast.

Out the door where they’d been before,

Thanking him with a cookie.

And another once more,

Out the door,

Thanking him with a box of goodies.

You could tell that James was pleased.

Feeling needed,

And his sore knees

Clutched the cane,

And the door opened again.

With his honest efforts,

And another one came,

And he got a goodie again,

Recognized for his efforts.

So many—I got a bag,

Left out where all the people had come

Through to the road.

He smiled at the brown paper,

It didn’t feel like a favour.

To arrange his earnings neatly,

In the paper, and care sincerely.

Thanked him for, his hard work.

Asked his name, James answered.

Another person brought him sweets.

I hope kind peace, James gets to meet.

Seen by the Trees

February 3, 2025

Lyrics

Precious are their leaves,

I like to be seen,

When it’s only the trees.

Precious they let go

Of their leaves, to make way for snow.

Precious we let go

Of the things we get to know.

I like to be seen,

When it’s only the trees.

I like to be heard,

When I’m just another bird.

Precious are their leaves,

That they let go to make way for snow.

Precious are the things

That we love and must let go.

Roots deeper than we can see,

They stand tall,

To show the rest of we,

That to know, you have to grow.

And to sprout, you have to sew.

I like to be seen

By my kin, by the trees.

I like to be heard,

When I’m just another bird.

That Once Began

January 27, 2025

Lyrics

Don’t let the moment pass you,

Don’t let your ego outlast you,

I’d rather give my heart away.

Beats will ripple beyond one’s dying day.

I don’t know the name

Of my great-grandmother’s mother.

But I feel her flame,

In some moment or another.

I’m sure,

Because our actions' origins are a blur,

I’m sure,

Because my actions' origins are a blur.

And I try my best to be intentional,

But how can I?

When my head’s so full

Of thoughts reflected from a disco ball,

That’s spinning, at our own fall.

I try to check how I look,

I find my nose inside a book,

For thoughts of the world

Resonate and bleed.

Ain’t it beautiful how in others,

We see ourselves?

Makes me smile when I see two people laughing.

It makes me hopeful when I see in-love people passing.

Cause yet again,

Another reflection,

Of something that once began.

Closer to

January 23, 2025

The world is so quiet,

And knows I’m there.

Reaching out the distance,

Cause I’m scared.

Asking softly,

If I’ll conquer my fear,

I get so much closer, 

Feels good to be near,

The world,

Feels good to be near,

The world.