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Have You Ever Tied a Knot in Your Handkerchief

from The Wondarium: Songs For Kids by Jeni Hankins

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    The Wondarium started with a dream. I dreamed I was combing the beach for shells with my friend Alfred then a message came through the air from his wife Sarah. She said, "The Hippopotamus says bring her back some treasures."

    The next morning, I told my dream to Alfred over the telephone who later sent a chorus to me about Hippo. But before I'd heard his chorus, I'd written two verses about her as well. Once I listened to his chorus, I realized that my verses fit in with the rhythm of what he'd already written.

    Alfred and I call this ESP (extrasensory perception) songwriting. We write a lot of songs this way. Once we realized that both of us enjoyed making up songs that would suit children, we wrote another and another and another. We didn't think about them in a methodical way; they just dropped into our minds over the course of about a year.

    What makes these songs particularly for kids? Well there's something free about them, something nonsensical, and something playful. These are things which I always loved in songs I heard on Sesame Street or on Pete Seeger records.

    Not all adults are open to a song about the virtues of string, whereas kids seem to understand. But I was pleased to meet an adult after the first public performance of these songs who said, "I know you wrote that string song for kids, but I like it too." Perfect.

    Songs for kids, songs for free thinkers, songs for nonsense-lovers, songs for socks, songs for bears, boats, beans, and hippos.

    Come one, come all. Take your chances in The Wondarium.

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of String Unraveller Demo May 2021, The American Dream (Harlis and Freda), Voice Memo Demo, I'm Letting Go of You – Kitchen Single, The Wondarium: Songs For Kids, A Body is a Delicate House, I Fell Into the Fire, The Loneliest Snowman, I Fell Into The Fire – Limited Edition Handprinted, and 18 more. , and , .

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lyrics

Have You Ever Tied A Knot
In Your Handkerchief?

Have you ever tied a knot in your handkerchief
to remind you of the things you have to do?
Have you ever felt your memory is like a sieve
and everything you need has fallen though?

Have you ever blown your nose the next day
(and thought):
I wonder what this knot in my hanky’s for?
It’s crazy but it’s true;
these things remind me most of you.

It’s not that I don’t miss you.
It’s not that I don’t care.
I’m sure I meant to kiss you.
I must have made a note somewhere.

Did you ever watch a goldfish going round his bowl
swimming past the castle every day.
Though he really isn’t going any place at all
there’s lots of lovely castles on the way.
They say that an elephant won’t forget,
but I haven’t met an elephant yet.
So I can’t be sure you see
if the elephant remembers me.

I gathered you a bouquet
of pretty blue forget-me-nots,
but somehow in my own way
I managed to forget what I forgot.

Although my thoughts will wander –
they must from time to time –
if it makes the heart grow fonder,
forgive the absence of my mind.

Did you ever find you locked your keys inside
and only have yourself to blame?
Did you ever write a number on your hand some time
and found that it had washed out in the rain?
But there’s one thing that I know for sure,
though my memory may be poor,
the one thing I won’t do
is forget that I’m in love with you.

credits

from The Wondarium: Songs For Kids, released December 13, 2022
Music and Lyrics by Jeni Hankins, Lulu Wall Music, BMI,
Alfred John Hickling, Sweet Pea Music,
and Billy Kemp, Willbilly Music, BMI.

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Jeni Hankins London, UK

Jeni Hankins grew up in the coalfields of Appalachian in Southwest Virginia among a family of miners, moonshiners, and journalists. Her writing pulls the grit, gumption, and keen sense of observation out of that heritage like drawing water from her grandmother’s well.

In every song, Jeni’s “true sense of place shines through – old as the hills, but brand new at the same time.” ... more

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