Letter Full of Promises
August 28, 2021 - Reading time: 2 minutes
A love letter full of promises. That's right. Have you ever had one? ... Well I have, and I'm gonna recite it to you. If you had one, you'd know just how I feel. And it goes like this.
Oh, darling, do not now be lonely,
lonely anymore
I shall be the lover
Waiting at your door, oh love
Letter full of promises
Oh, dearest, I shall be the moonlight
In the clear blue air
And the sparkling stardust
That will kiss your hair, oh love
Letter full of promises
Oh, sweetheart, I shall be the sunshine
Calming down your fears
And the gentle breezes
Cooling off your tears, oh love
Letter full of promises
Honey, I shall be the shadow
Lying at your feet
Longing to embrace you
When again we shall meet
Darling, do not now be lonely
Lonely anymore
For I am here beside you
Here forevermore.
—"Teenager's Letter Of Promises" (1959), Juanita Rogers;
sampled by Ben Babbitt for Kentucky Route Zero, interlude The Entertainment
At dawn she lay with her profile at that angle
March 7, 2019 - Reading time: ~1 minute
Which, when she sleeps, seems the carved face of an angel.
Her hair a harp, the hand of a breeze follows
And plays, against the white cloud of the pillows.
Then, in a flush of rose, she woke and her eyes that opened
Swam in blue through her rose flesh that dawned.
From her dew of lips, the drop of one word
Fell like the first of fountains: murmured
'Darling', upon my ears the song of the first bird.
'My dream becomes my dream,' she said, 'come true.
I waken from you to my dream of you.'
Oh, my own wakened dream then dared assume
The audacity of her sleep. Our dreams
Poured into each other's arms, like streams.
—"Daybreak",
Stephen Spender
The tide is running high, my love,
July 9, 2016 - Reading time: ~1 minute
The blossom’s almost done,
It falls without a sigh, my love,
Like mist dies in the sun.
The wind is blowing wild, my love,
It rattles the window pane,
It cries like a lost child, my love,
Her tears fall like the rain.
A child you’ll never know, my love,
For I could not make you stay,
You followed the high tide’s flow, my love,
And a ship took you away.
Our tears could fill the sea, my love,
Beneath this cruel sky,
For you’ll not come back to me, my love,
Though the tide is running high.
—"The running tide",
Jane Dougherty
A Long Way
October 3, 2015 - Reading time: 2 minutes
There’s a time in our lives
To return, sacrifice
Wild grass has grown high
On the path between our lives
There’s a light in the trees
It’s closer now, I’m on my knees
Oh Father, forgive me, please
I came a long, long way back home
To see you one more time
‘Cause I came a long, long way back home
To see you and say Goodbye
Father’s hands work the ground
Turns the soil, lays it down
Everything done and said
Lives beyond the quick and the dead
Heritage passed along
To the sons like a blessed song
So raise your voices on high tonight
We came a long, long way back home
To see you one more time
‘Cause we came a long, long way back home
To see you and say Goodbye
To hold you and say Goodbye, Goodbye
—"A Long Way", Home (2015)
Josh Garrels
November 24, 2012 - Reading time: ~1 minute
Little Owl (Athene noctua). Photographed by Danny Laredo.
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