jowritesongs

Songwriter & singer Jo Girdlestone

Through the Lines

’‘I’m travelling through the lines; wild like a bird

No cage confines me. 

My mind is free, I fly, 

I close my eyes to see’ 


Juana of Castille (1479 – 1555) was also known as Juana la Loca. She spent 44 years of her life incarcerated in a tower where Time stands still. I imagine her feeling buried alive but  refusing to accept this as her story. She escapes it by finding a metaphysical way of transcending the natural laws of Time and Space and even gravity. 

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Lyrics

Who built this tower that surrounds me 

Who took away the stairs? Who threw away the key 

Who stole my power and my liberty

How can I live in a story that doesn’t belong to me 


I’m colouring through the lines

Free like a child before the rules define me

I cannot comply. I defy the law of gravity pushing down on me 

And I fly to the only place I can find

I’m leaving these prison walls behind 


I climb with the sun to the top of the sky

With the eye of a bird myself I spy

Through the window in the bone white stone 

I never knew solitude til I saw myself alone


I’m travelling through the lines, wild like a bird

No cage confines me, my mind is free

I fly, I close my eyes to see


Oh sweet freedom I’m lighter than air

Oh sweet freedom I’m everywhere 


Those lines were drawn for me to follow

But I’m crossing the tropics free to go

Lines on the map, lines in the sky

Through the lines I fly


Through the lines I fly

Through the lines I fly

All content copyright ©2021 Jo Girdlestone except where noted. Home page photograph by Ela Law.

Recordings: guitar & voice - Jo Girdlestone; fretless bass - Richard J Finch-Turner.