I enjoy my visits across the Pennines to visit Rev Debby, and on my summer visit this year, she introduced me to a beautiful picture book called “The Lost Words”. It’s an over-sized picture book by Robert Macfarland and Jackie Morris, and was written as a response to the removal of everyday nature words from a children’s dictionary, as those words were not being used enough by children to merit inclusion. What were these obscure words? Acorn, bluebell, kingfisher, and wren – amongst many others. Macfarlane explained: “We’ve got more than 50% of species in decline. And names, good names, well used can help us see and they help us care. We find it hard to love what we cannot give a name to. And what we do not love we will not save.” Each lost word is worked into an acrostic poem – or spell – to conjure the word, and the creature it names, back into our consciousness. Each spell is then superbly illustrated by Morris, and embellished with gold leaf.
The Book of Lost Words has grown into a movement for activism, and now includes an album of “Spell Songs”, which concludes with “The Lost Words Blessing”. I listened to this song with Rev Debby, and knew I would include it in this year’s Creationtide season music. I just needed to find the sheet music! The lyrics are:
Enter the wild with care, my love, and speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you travel far from heather, crag and river
May you like the little fisher, set the stream alight with glitter
May you enter now as otter without falter into water
Look to the sky with care, my love and speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you journey on past dying stars exploding
Like the gilded one in flight, leave your little gifts of light
And in the dead of night my darling, find the gleaming eye of starling
Like the little aviator, sing your heart to all dark matter
Walk through the world with care, my love, and sing the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you stumble through machair sands eroding
Let the fern unfurl your grieving, let the heron still your breathing
Let the selkie swim you deeper, oh my little silver-seeker
Even as the hour grows bleaker, be the singer and the speaker
And in city and in forest, let the larks become your chorus
And when every hope is gone, let the raven call you home
Tom and I performed this song for the congregation after the service on 14 October 2025, during which the theme had been Fauna.
You can listen to the Lost Words Spell Songs here https://www.thelostwords.org/video/ and here are Tom and I with “Lost Words Blessing”: https://youtu.be/mJzyvsCG43Q
Carol P
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 