When Daylight Comes to an End

This song is part of the Songbook of Symbols, a collection inspired by ancient and archetypal imagery. I begin writing each piece with a single symbol. I read about the symbol, sleep on it to let the unconscious begin to churn, and the next day begin writing. I write with minimal conscious control. The aim is to let the symbol speak for itself, but filtered through my own unconscious. The result is always a surprise to me.

The symbol here was Dusk. I love the idea of the time between day and night as something separate, a time of change, when things get quieter but also a little more tense. I live next to a forest and as I wrote this, I just looked out the window and wondered what happens out there just after the sun sets. I also think we’re living in a time when it seems the darkness is approaching (or already here). But of course, as frightening as that is, we know that the dawn will break eventually and the daylight return.