I am ice and dust, I am sky

Writing with Kate Bush and the falling snow

Welcome to Writing with the Seasons, a series of writing prompts, ideas and inspiration. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up here!

This dispatch is inspired by Write & Shine’s winter season of morning writing workshops on rest, comfort and pleasure, including in books, films and music.

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Hello friends!

I often write with music. Lately it’s been only Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow (2011) on repeat. I love albums full of feelings and landscapes I can live inside. This exquisite wintery album of seven songs is set against a background of falling snow.

The song ‘Snowflake’ is about a noisy world hushed by snow, with Bush's son Albert singing as a falling snowflake. It evokes a winter scene where we drift across a white landscape, over forests, in the darkest of nights.

The world is so loud, keep falling, I'll find you, Kate sings.

Spacious and sensual, there’s silence woven into the flurrying passages of piano and voice. As reviewer Joe Kennedy says, it’s like gazing from a window watching a blizzard rise and fall.

I played ‘Snowflake’ at Write & Shine this week for a freewriting prompt. We listened and wrote together for the song’s full 9 minutes and 47 seconds, followed by 5 minutes of quiet. It was a dark winter morning, hours before sunrise, and twenty-five of us sat in our separate Zoom rectangles, surrounded by the song, the snow falling in our minds, our pens moving across the page.

I am ice and dust and light, Kate sang. I am sky and here.

I was immensely moved by the experience and I think others were too. I love creating writing prompts that delve deep. If I feel a little tingle in my body as I generate a prompt, I know it might allow others to delve into their deeper feelings.

This felt perfect for a winter workshop: January's darkness draws us inward, offering clarity and insights. It’s a time to let our thoughts and emotions surface, to listen and be receptive. This gentle, sensual, otherworldly song gave us the space and stillness to really hear ourselves.

The great Kate Bush!

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Try it yourself and let me know how you get on!

Writing prompt: Wake before sunrise and write as you listen to Kate Bush’s song ‘Snowflake’ from 50 Words from Snow. (It’s on the Kate Bush YouTube channel!)

Let the music guide you. Listen for repeated phrases and patterns in both the imagery and the music. This is a freewriting exercise, so simply write down any images, memories, and ideas that come to mind. Keep the pen moving for the duration of the song.

Allow 15 minutes: 10 minutes for the music, followed by 5 minutes silence to keep writing and then wrap up.

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January 2025. This essay is by Gemma Seltzer who runs Write & Shine, a programme of early morning writing workshops. Artwork by Paulina Kozicka.