Into the Ever Bright and Clear

I remember this quite well: it was Christmas Eve 1972 in Sussex, England, when I wrote the original version of this song; a song I can still detect underneath its new (and better, in my view) coat of words and skeleton of melody. The core is the same, the hope is the same.

One day, almost forty years later, I sat down to revisit that song, and finding it both a little immature and wanting, I re-painted it.

This is what I came up with.

I made some final tweaks in May of 2014. Still, the message remains, as ever: We have to wake up.

Into the Ever Bright and Clear I remember this quite well: it was Christmas Eve 1972 in Sussex, England, when I wrote the original version of this song; a song I can still detect underneath its new (and better, in my view) coat of words and skeleton of melody.

The Words:

Once upon a fading notion
now begot by fear
that what we are and what we seek
may never surface here
and for all the subtle hardship
sounding the alarm
days retreat and nights approach
to bring in tow
what means to do us harm

Seems there’s nothing we can do
to dissipate these chains
no fantasy or laughter
no harmony remains
the heart veils cold and clouded
as these raven dreams alight
the morrow has no meaning
to this long this bitter night

We agonize and wonder how
could such a thing appear
is it alive and are they real
these beckonings we hear
dishonoring the honest man
belittling the fool
defiling what we knew as love
to paint the heart
insensitive and cruel

A mystic view considers these
vicissitudes of life
the anguished and the craver
the cruelty and strife
considers them to then descend
to soothe to lend a hand
that we may one day stir again
and rise and laugh
and see and understand

To then perceive the madness
with a wisdom true and deep
to sense and seek and find and slay
what fetters us asleep
to path the night with crystal light
to face and vanquish fear
to rise as sighs of ever life
into the ever bright and clear

P.S. If you like what you’ve heard here and would like to contribute to the creative motion, as it were, you can do so via PayPal: here.