NIGHT SKY (2018) LYRICS
STARLIGHT
The storm has come, and nothing will be as it was, and was, and was. It is time to mourn the losses, to leave this place, and to lead onwards, out, and through.
My darling my darling I can’t let you in
Dearly departed are most of my kin
My love and my lover I bid you adieu
Regret only that I can’t travel with you
And what of my mother I haven’t the words
I’ve only this saucer and cup that was hers
My brother my brother who won’t speak my name
The shame that I’ve done to you you’ve done the same
By only the starlight I follow the line
Made by the river and carved out by time
I look to the willow that grows in the sand
Turning with sunlight the air from the land
LIFT ME UP
If I could tell myself then, what I know now, I would say: “You are beautiful, you are strong. You are so, so good.”
Don’t you worry now
And don’t you cry
You can wait it out
Don’t you fret my love
Don’t you shed a tear
You can erase the doubt
Lift me up stand me tall
Hear the voices both great and small
Give me wonder give me grace
Grant forgiveness in the darkest place
Follow your heart
Lift your spirit up
Touch the stillness with your tongue
Write the words down as they come
Light the candles I’ll count each one
Light them with moonlight light them with sun
Follow your heart
Lift your spirit up
Change the orbit of every part
Make them wider and farther apart
Some see nighttime some see the day
Look on both sides see more that way
Don’t you worry now
And don’t you cry
You can wait it out
Don’t you fret my love
Don’t you shed a tear
You can erase the doubt
TO THE NORTH
There is a lot we can learn from geese.
Spell the formation
Birds on the skyline
An arrow to the north
Follow the water
The winter has forgiven
Sunlight on its surface lights the way
Soon with the sunrise
So too as the crow flies
We can make our way from here to there
Sunset turns to moonlight
Miraculous wonder
Keep us as we lay our spent selves down
Chasing a feeling
Not knowing but believing
The grass is greener every northward day
Over the rooftops
Under the cloud line
We can see forever and away
And when you tire
The weight on your shoulders
The wind can fall heavy on your wings
My darling you can fall back
We’re right there behind you
A witness to these things
ROBIN HOOD
Robin Hood is a selfless hero; someone who uses their life for the greater good, and who seeks to right what is wrong. Here, we see him with one foot in the lay world of love and all things earthly, and one foot way out in the spiritual ether, where our deepest callings ring out.
My darling let down your long hair
That I may take some comfort there
I’ve been reading the signs
It won’t be long
My love won’t you swallow your pride
Be at peace with your Maker
My love if you’re lost
What becomes of us then
More can be said than be done
And I have but these hands of one
I’ll turn every stone
Take every chance
To step to the edge of my pride
Into the hands of my Maker
And fall
It’s here in the crease of your palm
In the cards that I’ve drawn
I’ve been reading the signs
It won’t be long
His footsteps are heard on the ground
Startled she wakes at the sound
My love you are here
Blessed is the night
My darling let down your long hair
AURORA IN THE MEADOW
This one is a sister song to my friend Brett Nelson’s tune, Potato Country. Both are tellings of the same love story from different perspectives, and both draw on the imagery of the prairies and the mountains, including the aurora borealis - the northern lights - as seen in the prairie sky.
I learned to grow
Where the winds are wild and the land is worn
Where the rivers cut the earth
Turn the soil to mud and clay
I learned to grow
I learned to walk
Reaching out a prairie mile and looking up
Stepping one foot then the other on the flatlands of my home
I learned to walk
I learned to look
To the earth the sky the spaces in between
To see the coming colours of the grass that’s not yet green
I learned to look
(Chorus)
Like aurora in the meadow we are tall
Beneath a thousand points of light I counted them all
Amidst the stir and wonder you found my hand to hold
And I found in your woolen coat a comfort from the cold
Onward to the mountains the mountains high
Where the land is brave and rough and lives in the sky
Where the one I love with their heart resides
Onward to the mountains
We raised our children in the valley
The rivers there run rich with polished stones
Between the river and the garden where your hands had built our home
We raised our children
(Chorus)
I learned to mourn
The losses of my life laid on the earth
Buried in the prairie soil that grass may grow anew
I learned to mourn
Like aurora in the meadow
EVERYDAY
Sometimes, what started out as a song with lots of words, written oceanside on Vancouver Island, changes. Sometimes it sheds its words, and metamorphoses into an instrumental trio number, bowed with daring abandon.
FOR HILDEGARD (CANON IN B PHRYGIAN)
Naturally, I have a favourite 11th century nun. Hildegard von Bingen was a visionary, writer, scholar, herbalist, and composer. Deeply spiritual from a young age, she lived much of her childhood in a monastery in Germany, which she later grew up to lead.
This song is a medieval canon - a melody that interlocks with itself in layers. It is written in Hildegard’s favourite scale, the phrygian mode, and it borrows from her style, incorporating upward leaps to the highest notes, symbolizing the reach for spiritual growth. She’s so cool. The lyrics are loosely based on her life of spiritual calling.
I with my head held tall
Clothed in my mother’s shawl
Called to the towers high
In the season of goodbye
In the season of the sun
I with my heart of one
Call to the angels high
Bless this lover with the sky
When the snowfall yields to rain
When the rivers flow again
I with my Maker stand
Behold the turning of the land
Listen to the in between
Where the here and there convene
Call to the heavens wide
Sing them to the earthen side
When the cold wind touches the shore
It will have been a year or more
Called to the towers high
In the season of goodbye
LA PLAINE
Au Manitoba, nous habitons la plaine, sur cette terre exposée, vulnérable, là où il n’y a rien entre nous et toute la création. The prairie is a vulnerable place, where there is nothing between you and all of creation. Voici La plaine.
Nowhere to hide there is nothing between me and the stars
No one to lie to there is nothing between me and my pride
Prends ton courage en main et laisse-toi emporter
Écoute le refrain du vent d’été
La pluie séduit le grain de blé enterré
Inspire la repousse de mon âme brisée
I hear the summer wind call out my name
Where the endless sky echoes the plain
Et quand je m’oublie je me laisse emporter
Le vent me pousse dans le dos
Et mon cœur sans abri soudainement débridé
S’éveille de son repos
Et quand je m’oublie je me laisse emporter
Le vent me pousse dans le dos
Et mon cœur sans abri soudainement débridé
S’éveille de son repos
BROKEN PLATE
We are whole, even when we are broken.
You treat me like a broken plate
That can’t be glued together
A pitied sharp array of parts that have no place together
And I wanted you
I could see that I was hurting you
With every door I closed
With every stone I laid
With every pathway that I made
I had to make it mine
My heart is not your harvest
Not yours to reap and sow
Not even if you’re taking what you think I owe
I owe you nothing
Don’t you do that when you look at me
Like there’s nothing where my heart should be
Like I’m better off as you and me
Like there’s nothing good that I could be
I’m gonna pull it off
And you are the one who can’t sit still
Who twists his words who bends his will
You are the one who can’t give up
Even when you’ve given up enough
You treat me like a broken plate
That can’t be glued together
A pitied sharp array of parts
That have no place together
BURY MY HEART
The tide. Wow. The in and out breathing of the ocean, the pulsing heart of the earth, the dance of the moon and the sea. What a place to bury my heart. Written on that red earth island on the east coast.
Bury my heart
Bury my body
Bury my heart in the sea
Where the air won’t travel
Earth turns to gravel
Bury my heart
In the sea
Blood of the ocean
A pulse in slow motion
Bury my heart in the sea
Breath of the mother
Love of the other
Bury my heart in the sea
Call it in
Call it out
Call it in
I don’t know what they told you but it wasn’t true
Bury my heart
The shallow water
And the tide that brought her
Bury my heart in the sea
Carry together
The now and forever
Bury my heart in the sea
Bury my heart
Bury my body
Bury my heart in the sea