Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
From the album "A Dark Murmuration of Words" out now - emilybarker.com/words
The meaning of "home" is a recurring theme in my songwriting. I found myself writing about it again in the midst of what felt like a watershed moment last year when the world's media turned its attention to the climate crisis.
I started, once again, to ask myself if it is time at last to return to my first home – by the Blackwood River where I grew up and where my family still live. It's a question that seems to have no answer, despite the number of songs I have dedicated to it.
This year everyone's life has taken another, unexpected existential turn – I've talked to friends who have found themselves asking similar questions and perhaps struggling to put a finger on where that safe place is that they would return to if they could.
For me, it's not just a physical place, it's also a moment in time – ‘home’ is my childhood: naïve and splashing in the river after school on hot, summer afternoons where crickets clicked a casual tempo and life felt immortal. I feel incredibly fortunate to have those memories, like a luxurious soft blanket I can wrap myself in when the worries mount up.
I hope you all are safe and well out there, and that this song can give you pause for thought and help connect you with your own safe place, wherever that may be.
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RETURN ME
Return me to where my eyes first glimpsed
Sun-kissed folds of your Blackwood lips
I’ve been gone so long
Time is moving on
Come with me to another land
Our skin can thin together hand in hand
I’ve been gone so long
Tell me will you come?
The hues of your summer haunt my way
I feel the path we’ve known begin to stray
Chosen journey many selves ago
Turned to me with a mind of its own
Am I following?
Knowing where I’ve been?
I’ve loved this movement every coast to coast
Fell for others but I love you most
I’ve been gone so long
Tell me will you come?
The hues of your summer haunt my way
I feel the path we’ve known begin to stray
So come with me to another shore
We can learn a new way to mourn
Are you following?
Knowing where you’ve been?
(words: Emily Barker; music: Emily Barker and Ted Barnes)
#ReturnMe #lyrics #adarkmurmurationofwords #lyricsvideo #home #childhood #nostalgia #blackwood #river #bushfires #climate #environment #safe
=========================================
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From the album "A Dark Murmuration of Words" out now - emilybarker.com/words
The meaning of "home" is a recurring theme in my songwriting. I found myself writing about it again in the midst of what felt like a watershed moment last year when the world's media turned its attention to the climate crisis.
I started, once again, to ask myself if it is time at last to return to my first home – by the Blackwood River where I grew up and where my family still live. It's a question that seems to have no answer, despite the number of songs I have dedicated to it.
This year everyone's life has taken another, unexpected existential turn – I've talked to friends who have found themselves asking similar questions and perhaps struggling to put a finger on where that safe place is that they would return to if they could.
For me, it's not just a physical place, it's also a moment in time – ‘home’ is my childhood: naïve and splashing in the river after school on hot, summer afternoons where crickets clicked a casual tempo and life felt immortal. I feel incredibly fortunate to have those memories, like a luxurious soft blanket I can wrap myself in when the worries mount up.
I hope you all are safe and well out there, and that this song can give you pause for thought and help connect you with your own safe place, wherever that may be.
======================================
RETURN ME
Return me to where my eyes first glimpsed
Sun-kissed folds of your Blackwood lips
I’ve been gone so long
Time is moving on
Come with me to another land
Our skin can thin together hand in hand
I’ve been gone so long
Tell me will you come?
The hues of your summer haunt my way
I feel the path we’ve known begin to stray
Chosen journey many selves ago
Turned to me with a mind of its own
Am I following?
Knowing where I’ve been?
I’ve loved this movement every coast to coast
Fell for others but I love you most
I’ve been gone so long
Tell me will you come?
The hues of your summer haunt my way
I feel the path we’ve known begin to stray
So come with me to another shore
We can learn a new way to mourn
Are you following?
Knowing where you’ve been?
(words: Emily Barker; music: Emily Barker and Ted Barnes)
#ReturnMe #lyrics #adarkmurmurationofwords #lyricsvideo #home #childhood #nostalgia #blackwood #river #bushfires #climate #environment #safe
=========================================
STAY IN TOUCH:
Sign up to my newsletter: emilybarker.com/subscribe
emilybarker.com
facebook.com/emilybarkerhalo
twitter.com/emilybarkerhalo
instagram.com/emilybarkerhalo
