written for the night

Last night I was starting to feel a little stressed out. Then I remembered that I had ordered the newest Over the Rhine CD that afternoon with an immediate digital download. So I loaded it up to my phone and went for a walk.

It is quite possible that this album was written just for this night, me, the Bellingham city lights, and the sound of the wind tossing my hair and scarf and my worries away through the pine trees away into the dark night.

"I sing the be-bop apocalypse
leanin' to you, God's hands on my hips
grip the midnight microphone
steal every cell of my flesh and bone"

"we were born in the dirt on our hands and knees
but started out climbing deciduous trees
we learned to sway ridiculously high
hungry to taste mouthfulls of sky"

"I still dreamed for a love to outlive us
and I still pray that this night would outlast us
And redeem some small thing...
far beyond me"

"Blossoms begin
like the tip of a spear
or the curve of a tear
from a soldier who weeps
seducing the god of lost years falling by"





"Sometimes all we believe
turns out to be just a scam
just trying to get my world
get it undamned"





"I've got a thousand lost songs
(all too many, they just got away)

I've done a thousand things wrong
(far too many for me to name)

but I'm not too far gone to fall headlong
into the arms that love me"






"oh yeah, by the way
what a waste that I still love you
after the mess you've made"

"all I wanna do is live my life honestly
I just wanna wake up and see your face next to me
every regret I have, I will go set it free"





"days like this
you think about the ones that love you
days like this,
have you ever seen the sky at such a clear blue?"






"all my favorite people are broken
believe me, my heart should know

some prayers are better left unspoken
I just wanna hold you and let the rest go"

"all my friends are part saint and part sinner
we lean on each other, try to rise above

we're not afraid to admit we're all still beginners
we're all late-bloomers
when it comes to love"

At about the middle of my walk, I saw the silhouette of a deer against the Christmas lights of someone's home. He stood there in the driveway and just stared at me as I walked closer and leaned up against a streetlight. He kept looking around, up and down each end of the street, like he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself.

If it were possible, I would have taken a picture of both of us just standing there on opposite sides of the street, staring at each other.