letters from the heart of a friend

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.

-rainer maria rilke

Tugging at the darkness, word upon word

Dreaming of Mercy Street...

i've been listening to peter gabriel today as a companion to the rain.

briefly i thought about when i gave you that book of anne sexton's poetry and wondered if you read it anymore.

In my dream,
drilling into the marrow
of my entire bone,
my real dream,
I'm walking up and down Beacon Hill
searching for a street sign --
namely MERCY STREET.
Not there.

what a memory to have on such a day. sometimes i wish that my nostalgia would just go away and then i instantly regret that wish. my soul becomes confused and the seams still unravel.

this weekend i saw something amazing. i saw the things that i think God really intends for us to see. i saw about 200 people come together to raise money for Grace House. 200 people walked downtown to the tune of about $10,000.

miracles happen every day.

then i saw twice that many people come together saturday night to celebrate diversity and love in every form. music carried us through and the energy knew no bounds. i feel renewed.

and I am walking and looking
and this is no dream
just my oily life
where the people are alibis
and the street is unfindable
for an entire lifetime.

is the street unfindable? i don't believe that. not for me. the vision might be blurry, but it's not completely gone. my heart overflows with need to seek it out.

i'm ready.
i'm ready.

Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy

from the bowels of baroque pop

sometimes i think that hope is gone for good, new slowcore. i often wonder if i'll be left with the catalogues of belle & sebastian to keep me warm in the winter. however...

i've been listening to the Pernice Brothers (thank the god that NPR finally spotted them or i probably would have kept this secret to myself) since i found out about the similarity of their sound to the zombies. in addition to that purchase of the crane wife you are already supposed to have, i highly suggest you find "Zero Refills" or "Automaton" somewhere on the internets (preferably you should just buy the latest, Live a Little) and listen. no, no. really LISTEN. it's so good and pleasant and you'll swear it's colin blunstone breathing whispers into that mic.

if you are into the likes of the apples in stereo or mr. bacharach (which i know you are), you'll really like these kids.

well done.

note to self: talk more about those gems you're keeping to yourself.
note to readers: if you haven't gotten the newest YLT album, you're really missing out.

But I'm here with my hands on my heart

how can one band be SO GOOD??

your mission for today: get The Crane Wife, the new Decemberists' album.

i can't seem to string the words together to do it justice just yet. hell, i probably won't ever do it justice, but there's still a review coming.

until i do, here's a picture of a camel. it was hanging out in a field with zebras and longhorns just outside of dallas. see those trucks in the background? that's I-20: