Isn’t It Good?
by HANNAH-JASMINE BRUNSKILL
Dig, pick, gather and sweat,
turn the wheel and cast the net.
Dig, pick, gather and sweat,
work the land, let’s not forget
our ancestors who worked this land
who paved our way with brave bare hand.
Dig, pick, gather and sweat,
dance with strangers, friends just met.
Go round and round, again and again
connect you to me and us to them.
Dig, pick, gather and sweat,
call from your heart and together, let
our elders hear words of our gratitude ring
“Isn’t it good?” we dared to sing.
Dig, pick, gather and sweat,
drums beat the beat of our hearts as we get
louder: answering the taiko’s call
to empower, inspire, to include all.
Dig, pick, gather and sweat,
turn your wheel, and cast your net
Dig, pick, gather and sweat,
Isn’t it good? We won’t forget.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hannah-Jasmine Brunskill is the Founder and Director of Taiko Journey, leads a community taiko collective, and Zasso, a performing taiko group in Devon, UK. HJ was a 2012 recipient of the Winston Churchill Fellowship to deepen her taiko knowledge and experience taiko around the world. She brought the first TaikoPeace workshop to the UK in 2012, and Ei Ja Nai Ka to the UK Taiko Festival for the first time in 2013. A School for Social Entrepreneurs graduate in 2014, HJ committed to make Taiko Journey's social objective to nurture and sustain the wellbeing of individuals, organisations and communities through taiko.
