Does Sound Have a Shadow
A "Body of Work" no 14 -- Goodbye, My Friend
Hi! Welcome to “A Body of Work.” It’s the occasional Tuesday space here on “Living in a Body” where I dig deep into Hal history and pull out a musical gem. Be sure to click the Soundcloud link below to hear the song “Does Sound Have a Shadow” I hope you’ll enjoy and share this post with a friend. Thank you!
In the early 2000’s,
and I had a pretty amazing run of collaborations in songwriting. I loved that process of writing together. I always felt that I was a better writer when Margot was there to bounce ideas off of and to reign it all in. I don’t readily have the full list of songs that we wrote together, but there were some great ones. Songs like “Shine On” and “That’s Kent,” that played very important roles in my life as a singer/songwriter.One of the songs we wrote was called “Does Sound Have a Shadow.” It’s a mysterious song full of questions that probably can never be answered. I guess those are possibly the best kinds of questions. Somehow, I can see that the silent life that I’m living these days could be the shadow side of sound. I’ve spent my life immersed in music making and now I lived in its shadow, silence. Possibly the “goodbye” at the end of the song is me saying goodbye to my beloved music. “I see us in the wind, you and I… “
I hope you enjoy. Hal
Does Sound Have a Shadow
Does sound have a shadow?
Does it fall into a place I cannot see?
Does it follow the dark of the river?
Or the lining of the dusk in the trees?The sound that I know is never ending
It falls into the place where I feel
The echo of the river rippling water
In the call of a bird in the field.Her sound is the echo
This shadow I’m listening
I’m wading through silence
Of sorrow born in waterI hear this bird calling
Her sound whispered crying
A shadow of longing
Her flight to become free
She’s soaring to the sea.Does sound have a shadow?
Does it hide inside the waiting of the trees?
Does it hope to lead a journey to remind us
Of the silence in our circle you and me?Goodbye my friend,
I see us in the wind, you and I
You are on your way
Goodbye, Goodbye.Does sound have a shadow?
- H. Walker and M. Milcetich
It’s funny how things go. That was our first song transformed from a poem I had written. And recently, I placed the verses at the onset of a larger prose piece also filled with unanswerable questions, and foreshadowing of things I was going to feel that made no sense. Similar but different to your struggle. Song and poetry capture more than we can know.
Thank you so much for sharing this song and your thoughts! I think our souls sing a song, make music, for as long as they exist, and that's forever.