2025 Competition Entry:
A Kind Word by Joan Ashmore
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Genre
Folk
Artist
Website
Co-writer(s)
no
Performer(s)
Joan Ashmore (self) – vocals and banjo
Description
This song is about an experience I had 23 years ago. My son was born premature and spent his first three months in the NICU. I can’t think about that time without remembering the grandfatherly gentleman who anonymously shared that space, that difficult winter, with me. He seemed alone and I had surmised his wife was near her end of life. My son eventually came home and we left the hospital behind us, but I will forever regret never having reached out to the gentleman. The atmosphere was so heavy and isolating and small kindness might’ve been a helpful release for both of us.
Bio
I bought myself a rescue banjo on my 40th birthday, wrote my first song a few years later and many more since!
Lyrics
A Kind Word
Winter, St. Luke Hospital
Some weeks in and there’d many more
Our paths crossed every day
Different but the same
Turning pages until visiting hours
We never spoke a word aloud
Each morning I’d see you get off
The elevator floor number three
Worrying a timeworn wedding ring
I knew what that floor was for
I wondered about the days in store
How many together yet to go
Was she helping you prepare to be alone
[CHORUS]
I could have said hello
I could have asked her name
I was in a hard beginning but you were facing an end
May I tell you today what I couldn’t say back then
I hope that she went gently unknown friend
May we never leave a kind word unsaid
And I’d get off on number four
With bottles pumped the night before
Though sometimes I went up to five
Where the babies looked so strong I’d shut my eyes
Every fading afternoon
I’d see you, think you saw me too
Broken bookend strangers, me and you
Waiting in the ground floor reading room
[CHORUS]
I could have said hello
I could have asked her name
I was in a hard beginning but you were facing an end
May I tell you today what I couldn’t say back then
I hope that she went gently unknown friend
May we never leave a kind word unsaid
[BRIDGE]
What did I think I could have said anyway
To let you know weren’t alone
Anything but the pain
Do you think it’s going to snow?
Wouldn’t that be nice
I just don’t know
Every fading afternoon
I’d see you think you saw me too
Broken bookend strangers
Unknown friends
May we never leave a kind word unsaid again
May we never leave a kind word unsaid
Winter, St. Luke Hospital
Some weeks in and there’d many more
Our paths crossed every day
Different but the same
Turning pages until visiting hours
We never spoke a word aloud
Each morning I’d see you get off
The elevator floor number three
Worrying a timeworn wedding ring
I knew what that floor was for
I wondered about the days in store
How many together yet to go
Was she helping you prepare to be alone
[CHORUS]
I could have said hello
I could have asked her name
I was in a hard beginning but you were facing an end
May I tell you today what I couldn’t say back then
I hope that she went gently unknown friend
May we never leave a kind word unsaid
And I’d get off on number four
With bottles pumped the night before
Though sometimes I went up to five
Where the babies looked so strong I’d shut my eyes
Every fading afternoon
I’d see you, think you saw me too
Broken bookend strangers, me and you
Waiting in the ground floor reading room
[CHORUS]
I could have said hello
I could have asked her name
I was in a hard beginning but you were facing an end
May I tell you today what I couldn’t say back then
I hope that she went gently unknown friend
May we never leave a kind word unsaid
[BRIDGE]
What did I think I could have said anyway
To let you know weren’t alone
Anything but the pain
Do you think it’s going to snow?
Wouldn’t that be nice
I just don’t know
Every fading afternoon
I’d see you think you saw me too
Broken bookend strangers
Unknown friends
May we never leave a kind word unsaid again
May we never leave a kind word unsaid
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