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Winning Covid poem to release as a single by Manchester singer songwriter Emma Mould
Published: Friday, 11th December 2020
Photo of Manchester singer/songwriter Emma Mould.
Human Touch, the winning poem of a competition to help people to express their feelings about Covid-19, has been made into a song by Manchester singer songwriter and musician, Emma Mould.
Human Touch, the winning poem of a competition to help people to express their feelings about Covid-19, has been made into a song by Manchester singer songwriter and musician, Emma Mould.
Hilary Walker from Wigan won the competition with her powerful poem has been released as a song today, Friday 11th December 2020.
Human Touch will be available to download and stream on all major outlets including Spotify, Itunes, Google Play and others.
And it will be followed by an official video in the coming weeks.
Shabaz Ahmed of community organisation Building Bridges Pendle said:
“We ran the Living in Hope poetry competition as part of our Good Neighbours Project to celebrate community, friendship and strength in Lancashire as we face the pandemic together.
“We asked people of all ages and backgrounds across Lancashire to express their feelings about the virus and our virtual competition encouraged a unique outpouring of poetry,” he explained.
“The song translates across all faiths, ages and cultures, highlighting our most basic human need, for the touch of kindness and affection.
“The key message is about living in hope and Hilary Walker has conveyed that beautifully," he stated.
Hilary Walker said:
“I work as a Funeral Celebrant and wrote the poem Human Touch after my first experience of not being able to shake hands with a grieving family, early in the pandemic.
It was, and continues to be, a desperately heartbreaking situation.”
“I entered the poem in the competition as I felt the message might relate to others,” explained Hilary.
“I’m so excited that my poem has been turned into a song, thanks to the amazing creativity of singer songwriter Emma Mould,” she added.
You can see and hear Hilary reading her poem on Youtube via the Pendle Building Bridges website: www.buildingbridgespendle.org.uk
The song has been commissioned by Building Bridges Pendle and produced by Dan Stirling.
Councillor Mohammed Iqbal MBE, Leader of Pendle Council said:
“We work in partnership with Building Bridges Pendle and are part of a Pendle Task Force working together to reach out to our community to help people stay safe during the pandemic.
“This online competition has given our community a new way of reaching out too, as we celebrate our shared humanity and keep our strength up during these challenging times,” he added.
About Emma Mould
Human Touch will be Emma Mould’s seventh single to be released in 2020. Often compared to Adele and Tracey Chapman, Emma Mould has been singing professionally since 2015 and has never looked back. She has since played at various venues across Manchester and has contributed on BBC Radio.
Her debut album Kites and Chasms was released in September 2016 and was featured on the BBC programme Introducing Manchester.
Human Touch by Emma Mould is available to pre-order via DistroKid
● Facebook: Emma Mould Music
● Twitter: @EmMould
● Instagram: @emmamouldmusic
● Website: www.emmamould.co.uk
Images including single cover: Images – www.andrewparker.photography
Human Touch by Hilary Walker
The first human language is touch Instinctive
Automatic Second nature
Touch comes before speech Before sight
Skin on skin begins each individual journey
In life, in death,
In times of great despair touch is there We reach out, we grasp hold Sustained Soothed by human contact
We respond to those in need Hand on hand heeding their pain
But when touch declares war When touch becomes the enemy
When touch brings the biggest global threat the world has ever known Our lives are turned around
Thrown upside down Postponed, cancelled indefinitely
We retreat and seek
A different kind of empathy with our fellow-man Find new ways to care
To just be there
Virtually communicating a means of healing Technically alleviating anxious feelings
Of intense sorrow
Heart on heart until tomorrow
When the world will re-open And invite us back to living When the sun will shine
And mankind will be forgiving
When we will appreciate all that we ever had And all we ever needed to survive
When tears dry and smiles grow And the power of human touch Is restored in all its glory
Skin on skin Hand on hand Heart on heart
The first human language is touch
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