Chapter 3: Home Is
The story
If this collection of songs is a journey, then this
final track is the return, not to a house or a
postcode, but to something far deeper. Home
Is is about arriving at the place where all the
fragments of life begin to settle and make sense
after you’ve made the long journey.
As a child I had little idea of that long journey lying by my teddy in the afternoon listening to the beautiful sound of leather on willow while my neighbours played cricket in the field outside.
I had little idea where I would belong. Over
time, home became not one place but many: the
university digs where we drank home brew well
before it was ready, the quick snog in a foggy
park, and the songs I sang in smoky folk clubs.
I wrote this song as a kind of inventory, not of
possessions, but of feelings. It strings together
snapshots of life through the lens of affection
– leather on willow, fog on forgotten streets,
travelling fairs, shagpile carpets and electric
fires.
These are not grand monuments. They are the
fabric of ordinary life, stitched lovingly into
memory. Because after a life lived between
cultures, I know how often we migrants are
asked, “But where is your real home?” This song is my answer. It’s everywhere and nowhere. It’s not bricks and mortar. It’s a feeling I carry within.
The chorus doesn’t arrive like in the other songs.
Instead, the lyrics build like a quiet reflection,
layering memory over memory until they
culminate in a final verse that carries all the
meaning:
Home is my echo, my last refrain
The place I’ll return through thunder and rain.
Home is my joy in each step I tread
A place where all my dreams will be fed.
It is a song for return – not to where I started,
but to who I’ve become. It recognises that home
is also the people we’ve loved and lost, the loving
woman I married, the children we’ve raised, the
friends who stayed, the voices that echo when the room goes quiet.
As this album and this book comes to a close,
I think of all the versions of “home” that have
held me. Each one left its mark. Each one
gave me something. And this final song
is simple, soft, and certain and my way
of saying thank you. To all of them.
And to you, reader and listener – may you
always carry your home within you.
Lyrics
Home is teddy beside your pillow
How sweet the sound of leather on willow.
Home is where Jasmine fills the night air
The merry go round at a travelling fair.
Home is losing your way in the fog
The park bench where you had your first snog.
Home is the twinkle of stars at midnight
Each time you see your love at first sight. Home is MFI and fitted shagpile It’s grandma’s picture that makes us all smile. Home is that cuddle with your first born Electric fire that keeps our hearts warm. Home is my echo my last refrain The place I’ll return through thunder and rain. Home is my joy in each step I tread A place where all my dreams will be fed.
