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Devil's Work (for DLB)

by Claire Donato

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about

My old friend and digital language art community member Damon Loren Baker passed away on June 4, 2020 in Decatur, IL. We lost touch but frequently corresponded between 2015 and 2018, a difficult period of loss in both of our lives.

June 4, 2020 also marked the eighth day of protests against police brutality in New York City. On this night, I recorded myself singing atop the sound of helicopters hovering above my Brooklyn apartment in Brooklyn—a stripped-down, imperfect act of musical journalism.

A memorial service was not planned for Damon, nor was an obituary run. I've been thinking about him, and desire to meaningfully honor his spirit. So I'm uploading this small act of musical journalism, "Devil's Work," in a gesture of remembrance.

Damon used this eponymous phrase—"devil's work"—in a 2016 note to me. We originally met in Providence, a noun denoting the protective care of God. I recorded this song, whose lyrics are collaged from bits of St. Teresa of Ávila's The Interior Castle (1588), across from a stone church. These synchronicities and symbols do not amalgamate into meaning, nor death with dignity. They are merely a cluster of stars. However, I locate registers of deep beauty in this constellation, and I hope you do too, and so too do I hope there is beauty to be found in the failure of my music, and that the soul alive in it reaches beyond this dimension into the next.

As I was typing this statement, my computer flickered and went dark (the battery was not low; my computer was not overheating), as if someone somewhere was listening.

Burn brightly, Damon. I hope the world beyond this world is tender, just, capacious, weird, and unconditionally loving.

Finally, if you are reading this, please consider donating to a mutual aid fund. We need each other now more than ever: mutualaid.carrd.co

With love,

Claire

lyrics

Oh my god
How great are these trials
The soul will suffer
Within and without

O my lord
There is nothing to fear
But the soul plunging into
Grievous infirmity

For god's sake
The soul is near
And its nearness relieves
My troubles

At its very worst
This is the devil’s work
Straining every nerve
To explain to you this love

credits

released July 13, 2020

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Claire Donato Brooklyn, New York

I write songs on my bed, practice Zen meditation, illustrate myself naked in fish tanks, take 35mm photos, and am the author of some books, essays, poems.

Here's an EP I made when I was 20: friendshippa.bandcamp.com
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