music by Jay Ansill, words by Anne Hills
© 1995 Raven Heart Music / ASCAP

From Anne’s albums Angle of the Light and Fragile Gifts

During the Philadelphia production of Brian Friel’s “Lovers” which  Jay Ansill and I worked on the winter of 1995, director Aaron Posner brought Brueghel’s “Icarus” to the cast as an example of suffering and disaster surrounded by everyday activity. That painting inspired this early version of one of the songs Jay and I wrote for the production.

The farmer looses his horse from the plough
The fisher ties his boat to the shore
While in the yard, a girl unties the wash from the line
And hands make knots in twisted twine
And everything is bright.

A mother sits by the fire and sighs
The baby in the cradle still cries
While on the lake, the sun sinks down in a crimson tide
And branch and rope and flesh collide
And everything is blood.

The blackbird sleeps in the top of the tree
The rabbit burrows deep underneath
While in between, untouched but dressed by the moonlit leaves
A lover swings on a careless breeze
And everything is bone. Everything is blood. Everything is bright.