Say it's here where our pieces fall in place
Any rain softly kisses us on the face
Anywhere means we're running
We can sleep and see 'em coming
Where we drift and call it dreaming
We can weep and call it singing
Where we pray when our hearts are strong enough
We can bow 'cause our music's warmer than blood
Where we see enough to follow
We can hear when we are hollow
Where we keep the light we're given
We can lose and call it living
(Chorus)
Where the sun isn't only sinking fast
Every night knows how long it's supposed to last
Where the time of our lives is all we have
And we get a chance to say
Before we ease away
For all the love you're left behind
You can have mine
Say it's here when our pieces fall in place
We can fear 'cause the feeling's fine to betray
Where our water isn't hidden
We can burn and be forgiven
Where our hands hurt from healing
We can laugh without a reason
(Chorus)
~ Sam Beam (Iron & Wine)
Oh, this song is so beautiful! And it's brand spankin' new! Iron & Wine's new one, Beast Epic, will be released on August 25. (Just in case you are not familiar with Iron & Wine, the ampersand is a little confusing. Iron & Wine is primarily Sam Beam, although he does engage many other fine musicians when he records.) The title of his new release refers to "a story where animals talk and act like people" which, according to Beam, "sounds like the perfect description for the life of any of us." Amen!
These are the kind of lyrics that I think I need to read several times before I am settled on their power. To be honest, I think Beam walks that fine line between exhaling psychobabble and saying something really profound. I do know which line grabs me the most. Every night knows how long it's supposed to last. There is so much to draw from that line. The Universe knows what it's doing? Darkness deserves as much attention as light? We are not in control? Or, as another fine lyricist tried to tell us years ago, "Let it be."
"I have been and always will be fascinated by the way time asserts itself on our bodies and our hearts. The ferris wheel keeps spinning, and we're constantly approaching, leaving, or returning to something totally unexpected or startlingly familiar," opines Beam. And speaking of time, today I will be marking it in a happy/sad way. My best friend JoAnn died 17 years ago today. Her daughter, Francesca, was 17 at the time. Francesca is well aware that, from today forward, she will have lived longer without her mother than with her. She has asked me to spend the afternoon with her to honor her mother, and I am touched beyond words that she has chosen me. I will finally get to meet her two little boys! There will be no way to escape the reality that JoAnn has missed out on that love, and it will be hard to balance the joy and sorrow that Francesca and I will feel.
But as Sam Beam has said about his new effort, "This collection speaks to the beauty and pain of growing up after you've already grown up. For me, that experience has been more generous in its gifts and darker in its tragedies." I suspect Francesca knows exactly what he means.
For all the love you've left behind
You can have mine
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