In Gowan Ring - Moonlit Missive #30: Tendrils of the Vine (2020)

Symbolist Folk Music from USA Bandcamp: Facebook: Website: YouTube: Subscribe to Moonlit Missives: The Fable of the Nightingale: In olden times the Nightingale never sang at night—from spring through summer he rather sang from morning ‘til night, awakening noisily in the grey-blue dawn along with his friends, and frightening the cockchafers sleeping cozy under the lilac leaves. He fell to sleep in the flowering vines at seven or half past and slept the whole night through. But one summer night, the nightingale slept on an especially youthful branch and during his sleep the horns of the vine, tenacious tendrils grew so thick and so fast that he awoke tied up with entangled legs and helpless wings. Afraid for his life, he struggled in the trap, narrowly escaping by a thin stretch of strength. Since then all through the spring and summer he swears to sleep no more as long as the tendrils grow. At night he sings keeping himself awake, altering themes in jeweled threads of variation, at times panting desperate, intoxicated. We hear him and ache to see him singing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These Brittle, stubborn vines have bound me. I have slept unaware, drowsed in thoughtless slumber. Then startled in fright, I broke all these twisted threads held to my flesh. When the torpor of the night weighs upon my lids I fear the tendrils of the vine and revolt in loud defiance. Unbinding my voice, I awake in the night and look to the sad morning star. To keep from sleep I listen to the sound of my own voice. At times howl loud those things by custom kept inside; then whisper low, afraid of my own exclamations. I want to cry out all the things I know; all that I suppose; everything I imagine; all that enchants, hurts and surprises me... ...But there is always—near the edge of the humming dawn—a cool hand that settles on my mouth, quelling my ecstatic tongue; and I return to the soft sounds of childlike incantations. I no longer know a happy sleep, yet I no longer fear the tendrils of the vine. #InGowanRing #TendrilsoftheVine #MoonlitMissives