Bioluminescent organisms can create light with their own bodies: they glow. Fireflies exhibit this magic on warm summer nights. I have been enchanted with this phenomenon since the first time I stood on a beach at night and watched the crashing waves flash a bright, almost otherworldly blue. One night the sand itself glowed under my feet as I walked.
The last line of the last verse refers to the true story of astronaut Jim Lovell, then a naval aviator, who landed safely on an aircraft carrier while flying blind, thanks to the guiding light of phytoplankton in the carrier's wake.
lyrics
Dream of twilight, dream of fireflight
Dancing close in darkling groves,
in silent synchronicity
Signals flashing brief and bright,
searching with a living light
For one twin flame who burns the same,
in patient luminosity
While further in the forest halls
The fox-and-fairy-fire grow
Their dusky carpet all aglow
A warning or a welcome call--
Come winds and travelers afar
Their spores will sail and fall like stars
And where they settle they will prosper,
Making more of what they are.
Beneath grey mountains tossing
Beyond the eyes of exploration from above
In sunless mystery
There swims a world of light and colors unimagined
Where courting creatures pulse and flare
And spectral hunters cast their lures from the shadows
And all is strange and silent there
Lights in the sea, lights in the earth, lights in the sky
Where there is life, there is a way to shine
Dreams of dark night, dreams of azure light
Gathering in hollow ringing hills and mountains warm and green
Blue the ghosts who haunt the trees
Shining soft and steadily
To speak in tones and words unknown
And fade at last to lives unseen.
In deep cathedrals of the earth
The glow-worm spins her silken snare
And spends her whole life glowing there
Until the hour of her birth
When, bright as she will ever be,
She builds another galaxy
To rest in its reflection,
Her metamorphosis complete.
Sea-sparkles rise and tumble
They whirl and bloom and rise
again upon the waves to fall in bright blue fire
Sometimes they land among the lovers on the strand
Sometimes they're scattered with the foam
Some nights a full moon will bedazzle and enchant them
Some nights they lead a lost man home
Lights in the sea, lights in the earth, lights in the sky
Where there is life, there is a way to shine
Lights in the sea, lights in the earth, lights in the sky
Where there is life, there is a way to shine.
I could listen to Lauren sing forever. Her writing is vivid and sensitive, sweetly and painfully human--never apologizing for sharp corners and rough edges. The beauty of her spirit shines through. Summer Russell
Singer-songwriter Henry Parker puts his own spin on the classic sounds of '60s and '70s British folk on this wilderness-inspired new LP. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 9, 2021