Body of Water

This is a poem written by Florence Welch for her music video to “Queen of Peace”. Florence uses the sea as a metaphor for love and unhealthy habits. Vincent Haycock, who… Read More

Jul. 29, 20151 viewer22.3K views

Body of Water Lyrics

To give yourself over to another body
That’s all you want really
To be out of your own and consumed by another
To swim inside the skin of your lover
Not have to breathe
Not have to think
But you can’t live on love
And salt water’s no drink
We're dying of thirst so we feast on each other
The sea is still our violent mother
The blood round here pours down like water
Each wave a lamb lead to the slaughter
And like children that she just can’t teach
We break, and break, and break
And break ourselves upon the beach

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About

This is a poem written by Florence Welch for her music video to “Queen of Peace”. Florence uses the sea as a metaphor for love and unhealthy habits.

Vincent Haycock, who directed the music video, asked Florence to write a poem when they arrived on-set; he felt he needed to capture the Scottish atmosphere in something other than a song.

Florence wrote the poem in one day, and it was recorded that night on the island of Easdale (Scotland). Speaking about it, Florence stated that she has always been attracted to poetry, but was always too scared to write any because it is so raw; there is no music or melody to hide the words or meaning.

Although absent from Useless Magic’s ‘Poetry’ section, it is present in the book in the ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’ chapter. The poem is presented through a scan of its original, handwrited by Florence on a Chateau Marmont notepad.

https://www.instagram.com/p/5udFu1D25X/?taken-by=florence

Florence talks about the poem here: