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# 1 of 20.

though it’s been my own choice to be a remote island, in many ways, and though promoting myself will only ever feel like an ugly suit that’s nine sizes too small, marking the release of a 20-song album i’ve been working on for years with the equivalent of a couple of flares shot into a corner of the sky feels inadequate and wrong.

to give each song its own space, i’ve decided to share them individually here and on my facebook page, with lyrics, over the next little while.  

this is #1 of 20. it’s called “falling box of jewels”, and is the first track from my fifth full-length album, “raised by swans is the name of a man, volume 2: run with the silent wildfires”, which was released on march 30th, 2023. CD copies of the album are available now through bandcamp with (almost) worldwide delivery (volume 1 is finally available as a CD too), and it’s also streaming on a long list of platforms, including spotify, apple music, youtube music, and tidal. 

love,
eric.

falling box of jewels

fading shapeshifters
shadow foxes fooling 
the twilit grey
skirting the eclipse in the frozen lake
burning like a blind spot
i can’t unsee
fall back to elsewhere
you against my chest on the fire escape
or waiting with the seedlings
i’d promised rain
swimming in the scent 
of imagined trees

where we are
we are free
at least until the day 
we are brave enough
to wake up from the dream

colours keep changing
even from a summer that’s long since passed
come dive with me for pearls 
in the molten glass
surface in the milk
of the moon-fed pool
stripped of all armor
kiss me where your fingerprints 
scarred my skin
give the broken record its billionth spin
even if the silence
cannot be fooled

here we are
set me free
even as the rainbow is breaking up
and poisoning the stream
even if the memory 
of our love
is fraying at the seams
at least until the day
i am brave enough
to wake up from the dream

(lyrics and music written and performed by e. howden)