seed water sun - Side B
please enjoy the 'gallery walk' of seed water sun. Songs have been paired with the artwork of Samantha Captain. Samantha is a nature photographer that captures pure light!
Photo by Andre Ouellet (artist permission granted through Unsplash)
Sleeping on a bench in the Heathrow airport. Trying to get to you on a broken plane.
One more delay and I’ll swim the channel. Trying to get to you through the Irish rain.
One night in Belfast the closest kind of love.
Haven’t seen you in a year and here we are just lying here.
Irish family just downstairs and there’s no ring upon your hand my dear.
Your kiss is like a lightning strike - lighting up green eyes tonight.
Tangled up in blankets we fall silently to the floor.
Peat fire burns in the corner of the room. Pink Floyd vinyl Dark Side of the Moon.
Drinks with Sinn Féin and the Ulster men . Laid down the weapons for a treaty pen.
One night in Belfast the closest kind of love.
Haven’t seen you in a year and here we are just lying here.
Irish family just downstairs and there’s no ring upon your hand my dear.
Your kiss is like a lightning strike - lighting up green eyes tonight.
Tangled up in blankets we fall silently to the floor.
We’re tourist now in a northern town. A trip to the border and the walls are down.
Troubles are over and there’s peace this year. A ring in my pocket and your breath in my ear.
One night in Belfast the closest kind of love.
Haven’t seen you in a year and here we are just lying.
Catholic family just downstairs and there’s no ring upon your hand.
Your kiss is like a lightning strike - lighting up green eyes tonight.
Tangled up in blankets we fall silently to the floor.
About this song
When the story of the Northern Ireland peace accord is mixed up with young love you get one night in Belfast. The true story took place in the 90s in a pub in Derry when this oblivious American ordered a ‘black and tan’ and was nearly thrown out by some Ulster unionists. The night then took a fortunate turn with a first-hand education on the ‘troubles’ by those who lived in a locked down city with barbed wire and machine guns at the hard border and the peace accord just weeks away. All the while the young Americans were in love, trying to figure out their own young troubles, and yes, there was a ring in my pocket.
artwork by Samantha Captain
We’re going to find each other like lightning finds mountains,
like songs find heart strings, like flowers find spring.
We’re going to kiss like snow on the ocean,
like sunrise in the treetops, like wind across sand.
In the dawn’s light how’d you find me? I’ve gotten so good at being alone.
Sometimes we’ll fight like fire on kindling,
like water through canyons, like thunder and wind.
Then hope returns, spring sap in a maple,
a flush in your cheeks, and a song on my lips.
In the dawn’s light how’d you find me? I’ve gotten so good at being alone.
You circle eyes wide not a sound not a sound…
We’re going to love like snow loves a mountain,
like dew loves a flower, like a blanket loves cold.
We’re going to love as patient as winter,
as urgent as spring, as bold as stone.
In the dawn’s light how’d you find me? I’ve gotten so good at being alone.
You circle eyes wide not a sound not a sound, all caution aside, rush in, crush in, rush in.
Sweet lover crush in.
About this song
After writing dark songs for a few years, a few close friends challenged me to write a love song. They said it will be good for your creative process to be closely hemmed in to the constraints of love. The song started out as a joke (thus the title) but then it quickly evolved into the love story that needed to be told – the real grit of enduring love – all wrapped up in simile.
artwork by Samantha Captain
Dropping pennies in the well, shooting stars up in the sky,
no one tells you how to lose what you never dreamed you’d have.
Horseshoes hanging by the door, acorns scattered on the floor,
rabbits feet and lady bugs and charms around my neck.
Starlight, star bright, I wish I may, I wish I might…
Wish you back to me, wish you back to mine,
wish you back to when it all made sense you and I.
I spin and I cry. Forever more you said, forever more passed by.
Daisy petals on the wind, love me or love me not,
eyelashes upon my cheek, a breath blown to the air.
Light a candle just to see, my heart isn’t mine,
my heart doesn’t beat for me, it doesn’t beat in time.
Pulled a thousand clover leaves, piles and piles around my knees,
desperate for most anything to fill this hole inside.
Wish you back to me, wish you back to mine,
wish you back to when it all made sense you and I.
I spin and I cry. Forever more you said, forever more passed by.
About this song
One day on a lake in some boats in the sun, I co-wrote these lyrics with my sister. I’m a dark soul and she’s a romance novelist so naturally we were up for a perfect collision. This story is intentionally silent about its protagonist so that it has space for everyone’s lost forever more.
Photo by Markus Belanger
Forgiveness is the last gift to give
Not left in the corner or behind the tree
Not back at the apartment or the boot of the car
But held close and buried with time.
Forgiveness I found in the trees
It’d been there so long waiting for me
Picked up and carried home as weightless as love
What to do with you we’ll just have to see
Forgiveness is the last gift from me
Not wrapped up in paper and bows with a card
But thrown to the wind carried by wood nymphs and sprites
Across the ocean and laid at your feet.
Forgiveness has set us both free
Tying up loose ends and see through your eyes
Above the lake on Monkton ridge intentions are clear
A gift, a sign, a goodbye.
Forgiveness is the last gift to give
Not left in the corner or behind the tree
Not back at the apartment or the boot of the car
But held close and buried with time.
About this song
This song is for my dad, Frederick Richard Belanger, who passed on July 31, 2022. Dad was a lifelong musician and could bring the life out of his clarinet and old Selmer tenor saxophone. He served his country proudly. He taught us to love nature, to ski hard mountains, and to make maple syrup. Like so many of us, I had a difficult relationship with my dad and this song is the forgiveness journey I went through before he left this earth. It has been a hard year of grieving but we were able to send him on his way with his burden’s laid down and his heart at peace. We miss you.