Today is the 22nd anniversary of the first time I contacted the girl who became my wife. Here is the song I wrote and sung for the occasion last night.
There’s a certain precious magic in communication When distant souls discover they are close; Two lonely hearts that have their homes in separated nations Take a chance, and thus a friendship grows.
That friendship can plants seeds of love that sprout and grow and bloom, And multiply the joys and stakes of life, Until the two stand side by side as blushing bride and groom, Forever to be joined as man and wife.
I’m so glad I started down this path that led me to your heart And grew my soul immensely on the way, So I’ll do my utmost to always play my part In blessing you, my treasure, every day.
After far too long to get it ready, I am pleased to announce the release of Without Love, There is No Life, available on most streaming and music platforms, complete with a music video on youtube.
All options for listening to and downloading the song can be found here
The song has been tweaked and expanded on since the poem version, originally inspired by multiple scenes in Nobility Among Us, and even since the live performance a year and a half ago (which was less than an hour after the piano accompaniment was worked out with the extremely talented Daniela Zoubková).
She is back again providing the piano, Petr Mares is on the guitar, (whose talents you may know from Did you Know? and A Tale of the Once and Future King) and I provide the vocals. I edited the music video using freely available stock footage and imagery from Pixabay and Unsplash. English closed captions are available in the youtube video for the hard of hearing and non-native English speakers, and Czech subtitles are available.
Listen, watch, enjoy, and share with those you think will appreciate it.
Lyrics:
Love is full of purity. It shows patience and humility. Love is not a selfish lust; Instead, love gives a grounds for trust. Love gives a child security. Love gives a thing its beauty; Because, without love there is no life.
Love is a many-splendoured thing. Love gives a broken man new wings. It perseveres, no matter what the cost; If you have love, you’re never truly lost; Love, seeing all my flaws; Love, guided by higher laws; You know, without love there is no life.
Love simply wants to hear the truth. Love, it is not eternal youth. Love is more than soothing noises, ‘Cause love steps up and makes hard choices. Love lasts through the ages, It’s written on all life’s pages. You see, without love there is no life.
It makes the ordinary great, Won’t mind if you are late, Won’t leave you to your fate, This is love.
Love puts you in harm’s way. Though you try, you can’t always save the day. Love is there to share your pain, To weep and help you on your feet again. Love is a healing flow. Love gives you room to grow. You know, without love there is no life.
Love looks you in the face. Love helps you find your place. With love, you can forgive the past, Move on and build a peace to really last. Love is where you find your worth; If you’re loved, you’re more precious than the Earth. You see, without love there is no life.
Love is full of light. Love does what’s right. Love is patient, love is kind. Love is humble, but not blind. Oh, love is beautiful! Oh, love is wonderful! You know, without love there is no life.
It shows you you belong, It admits when it is wrong, It’s majestic and it’s strong, This is love.
But love is not every time returned; Love is not something you have earned. Sometimes our care isn’t even prized; Instead our thoughts are utterly despised. True love goes on caring anyway, Even when we walk the other way; It knows that without love there is no life.
Love is how your soul can truly shine. Through love, I am yours and you are mine. Love expressed is such an open book; A life of love is worth a closer look. Can it be, that here is love for me? Come explore this greatest mystery, And see that without love there is no life.
**EDIT** Czech subtitles are now available, translated by Petr Mares. It is not meant to be singable and is not always an exact translation, the emphasis was on the beauty and flow of the text while capturing as much of the original meaning as possible.
Kde není láska, tam chybí život.
Láska – ta je vždy čistá, Plná trpělivosti a pokory, Není sobeckou vášní, Ale právě naopak: je základem vzájemné důvěry. Dítě pocítí v lásce bezpečí A každá věc jen v lásce nabyde své krásy. Protože kde není láska, tam chybí život.
Láska je něco nadmíru zázračného. Je to láska, co dá zlomenému nová křídla. Láska vytrvá, ať to stojí cokoli. A máš-li lásku, nikdy nejsi ztracený případ. Lásce nejsou moje chyby skryté, Řídí se nicméně vznešenější logikou. Totiž tam, kde není láska, tam chybí život.
Láska chce znát pravdu takovou, jaká je. Láska není slib věčného mládí. Láska je víc než plané konejšení. Umí se vydat i cestou těžkých rozhodnutí. O tom, že láska přetrvá věky, se dočteme na každé stránce života. Ono totiž kde není láska, tam chybí život.
Věci běžné promění ve skvělé, nerozladí ji zpoždění, nenechá tě napospas osudu. Taková je láska.
Láska tě neušetří těžkostí. Rád by ses jim vyhnul, ale není to vždy možné. Ale je tu láska, aby sdílela tvou bolest. Aby s tebou plakala a pomohla ti znovu na nohy. Láska je proud moci uzdravení. A láska ti dává také prostor k růstu. Totiž tam, kde není láska, tam chybí život.
Láska ti hledí do tváře, A pomůže ti přijít na to, kam patříš. V lásce dokážeš odpustit věci minulé, dokážeš jít dál a budovat trvalý pokoj. V lásce najdeš svou pravou hodnotu. Když jsi milován, jsi vzácnější než celý svět. Ono totiž kde není láska, tam chybí život.
Láska je plná světla; udělá to, co je správné. Láska je trpělivá a vlídná, je pokorná, ale nikoli slepá. Jak nádherná a úžasná je láska! Víš, kde není láska, tam chybí život.
Láska ti dá najevo přijetí. A pokud se mýlí, dokáže to uznat. Je vznešená a silná. Taková je láska.
Láska nicméně není vždy opětovaná. S láskou to není něco za něco. Občas zůstane naše snaha bez ocenění, někdy se setká dokonce s opovržením. Pravá láska i tak vytrvá. I tehdy, když je jí odpovědí lhostejnost. Ví totiž, že bez lásky není skutečného života.
Teprve v lásce se tvoje duše skutečně rozzáří. Skrze lásku jsem já tvým a ty jsi mou. Láska vepsaná do stránek otevřené knihy, Život v lásce stojí za bližší prozkoumání. Mohu se opravdu i já setkat s pravou láskou? Pojď, prozkoumej to největší tajemství. A přesvědč se: není života bez lásky.
As promised, here is a recording of the song I sung to my wife on our nineteenth wedding anniversary, attempting to make it as romantic a moment as possible. I dressed up smartly and had flowers and chocolates waiting for her by her favourite armchair when she came home from her sign language lesson, her brother was hiding upstairs with his car parked around the corner so she wouldn’t notice him being there. As she was looking at the flowers, he came down the stairs strumming the guitar and I began to sing:
You can also listen to the song via the major streaming services, as well as purchase the song for download on amazon, itunes and other online stores.
Did you know?
Did you know, when you go,
In my heart you leave a hole?
My life isn’t full without you,
You’re worth more to me than gold.
When you smile, for a while,
I feel like I can fly;
It’s like heaven’s doors are opened,
For you I’d walk a hundred miles.
My heart is ever open
To you, my precious one;
Every time I bring you joy
It is the greatest prize I’ve won.
The day you said you were mine
I truly came alive;
I can’t imagine how to live
Without you by my side.
All the stars, with their cars,
And their hotel rooms and bars,
Are just wandering empty souls,
They don’t have half the joy that’s ours.
I’m so blessed to possess
A companion on our quest
To raise our children strong enough
To cope with every test
My heart is ever open
To you, my precious one;
Every time I bring you joy
It is the greatest prize I’ve won.
The day you said you were mine
I truly came alive;
I can’t imagine how to live
Without you by my side.
Yet here you are, my shining star,
I love you just as you are.
My apologies, I should have posted this yesterday. It is a song (to the tune of “A Song About Heartbreak” by Daniel Thrasher) about our duty to those that protect us and have given their lives throughout history to keep us free.
When you’re under attack…
When you’re under attack,
Things look so black,
And it seems you might crack;
To get back on track,
And see what your soul lacks,
Take a look back:
Remember the heroes who stood at the gates
When evil clouds gathered, to spare us our fates.
They strengthened each other and stood side by side,
To weather the onslaught and beat back the tide
Of enemy fury, missiles and blades;
Some armoured like titans, some stealthy as shades.
When push came to shove, they didn’t give ground;
When faced with old terrors, new courage they found
On a lonely hill, to the bone all chilled,
Through sheer force of will, they watch us still.
To pay back the way that they lay down their lives
Let’s honour and treasure our husbands and wives,
Raise God-fearing children with love and respect,
And give them a place they’ll be proud to protect.
Let them know, that you love them so,
So their hearts will glow as into the night they go.
This is the other song I was commissioned to write, and is much more ambitious in its scope, in that it requires at least six parts, so would take a very brave musical group to attempt it. The initial tale was of a last Christmas mass being held in a crumbling church before its scheduled demolition and conducted by an aging traditionalist priest being pushed into retirement by a young ‘progressive’ bishop. Instead of simply retelling it in song, I expanded it into a dramatic Valjean/Javert-style confrontation between the two complete with a narrator, congregation and angelic chorus, plus some basic stage direction.
Dominus Dixit
Narrator:
The town abounds with Christmas cheer
As we near that time of year;
But at the church upon the hill,
There’s little seasonal goodwill.
With wrinkles on his hands
An old priest humbly stands
Before a younger bishop
Who has ambitious plans:
Bishop:
“I don’t care about tradition,
This is now the modern age;
We’ll knock down this crumbling mission
And then turn a whole new page,
“We’ll build a towering school of philosophy
To break tradition’s chains and set men free;
No more chants of stale encrusted liturgy,
We will march on forward to modernity.”
Priest:
“No, we will not change a thing,
We’ll be here and we will simply sing
Gloria Patri, et Filio,
et Spiritui Sancto.”
Bishop:
“You’ve got one more week, then I can have you replaced
To give this place a welcome change of pace;
People who’ll follow the trends of fashionable thought
And make all the changes that they ought.”
Priest:
“No, we must not change a word
Of what two thousand years has stood;
Foundations must not be destroyed
Or else, we fall into the void.”
Bishop:
“I’ll give you one more chance to prove me wrong,
To keep up with the times and show you belong
To this age of progress, wonders to behold
With your midnight mass, don’t leave me cold.”
Narrator:
The priest retreats to his small room,
Falls to his knees and in the gloom
All week he cries out fervently
With tears and pain and urgency:
Priest:
“Am I blind to the signs of the times,
Or is this the world that I must fight?
“What can I do? What can I say?
How can I find the narrow way?
“Your saints worked through the centuries
Should we be more than mere trustees
Of what they all have handed down;
Dare we resculpt their holy crown?
“My faith is weak, my body frail,
But in You I cannot fail;
I will stand on what I know
You have approved for us to sow.
“Give me strength and wisdom, too
To know what You would have me do.
Let not my slowing mind obscure
Your loving heart, so true and pure.”
Narrator:
The day arrives, all is prepared,
Though some things could not be repaired;
The wooden crèche is incomplete,
Its heralds missing from their seats.
The bishop notices and scoffs,
Bishop:
“Tradition clings to what is lost.
The angels have abandoned you,
A sign so clear it could get through
“Your hard old head to see your fault:
Look at this decaying vault,
‘Tis only fit to be torn down
And something better for this town
Built in its place to serve their needs,
Not merely chant outdated creeds.”
Priest:
“You’ve made it clear, you’ve had your say
Now let me have my final day.”
Narrator:
A handful of old congregants
Sit in nervous cognizance
Of what hangs over this old hall;
The priest stands from his old oak stall.
The bishop sits with a scornful look
As the priest reads from his gilded book:
Priest:
Dóminus dixit ad me:
Fílius meus es tu;
ego hódie génui te.
Narrator:
Some try to read and sing along
With tired notes that come out wrong.
They falter, stop in shame and groan
Until he is again alone.
Priest:
Quare fremuérunt gentes,
et pópuli meditáti
sunt inánia?
Narrator:
Disheartened he begins to slow
And his surrender starts to show,
Then as he sings the next few words,
Two voices from above are heard:
Angels:
Gloria Patri, et Filio,
et Spiritui Sancto.
{Melody}
{Angelic harmony}
Narrator:
Angels:
The congregation looks around
To find the source of this sweet sound
Inspired by this heavenly noise
All those present add their voice.
Sicut erat in principio
et nunc et semper
et in saecula
saeculorum. Amen.
{All voices: Melody plus angelic harmonies, an additional (ordinary) harmony joins in on ‘Quare’, ‘Gloria’ and ‘Sicut, to represent the congregation gaining more confidence and strength in their singing.}
Dóminus dixit ad me:
Fílius meus es tu;
ego hódie génui te.
Quare fremuérunt gentes,
et pópuli meditáti
sunt inánia?
Gloria Patri, et Filio,
et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio
et nunc et semper
et in saecula
saeculorum. Amen.
{Above repeats with additional bass voice(s)}
Narrator:
When the chorus is complete and each eye sheds joyful tears
And hearts are moved by beauty like they haven’t been in years,
Many search in vain for whence those voices came
That lit their souls on fire with a bright eternal flame.
The balconies were empty, the vestries were unmanned,
There’s nothing in the doorways that could make a sound so grand.
The bishop, shaken to his core, desperate to find out more,
Rushes up some spiral stairs to find beside some broken chairs
Up in the loft are standing two carved wooden figurines;
The angels from the crèche had not abandoned them it seems.
Contrition overwhelms him and he falls onto his knees,
Confessing sins and attitudes and making humble pleas,
Then carries the two angels down to put them in their place
To herald the Lord’s coming with self-sacrificial grace.
The old priest welcomes him back and together they will stand
To proclaim the Christmas message to this precious, blessed land.
A few years ago, I was approached to convert two different stories of Christmas miracles into singable lyrics to be put to music as part of a Christmas album. I composed and sent off the lyrics, but heard no more about efforts to produce the music and record them since then. I’ll share those lyrics with you now, and perhaps one Christmas in the near future their uplifting harmonies will bring joy and hope to an audience.
It is so long ago that I can’t remember the melody I had in mind for this first one, which concerns a secret meeting of Christians in the darkest depths of Soviet Russia. I will share the other one next week, if I can work out a way to format text into two columns in a blog post.
When the Light Came Down
In a land of cruel repression
And an atmosphere of dread,
The threat of disappearance
Hangs over every head.
The Cheka took the clergy
Who failed to hide themselves;
The gulag’s thirst is never quenched
For bloodshed in its cells.
In a barn out in the country
The faithful dare to meet
To celebrate the Nativity,
That great day in history
When the Light came down
To redeem the earth;
The Word made flesh
Through a pauper’s birth.
The pastor sees a boy he knew
And baptized long ago,
Now grown into a strong young man
Trudging through the snow.
The pastor’s smile is tempered
By a dark but nagging thought;
“Where has he been all of these years,
What battles has he fought?
“Is he lost, in need of saving,
Or an agent of the state,
Here to observe, inform on us
And seal our awful fates?”
But the Light came down,
Leaving heavenly bliss,
To be sacrificed
For such a wretch as this.
His mind made up, the pastor calls
For quiet, then he reads
The words of the old liturgy
That address their deepest needs:
For peace on earth, goodwill to men
And glory upon high
To God who is owed all our praise,
And all things beautifies.
When the pleas move on to ask
For blessings on the nation,
A look upon the young man’s face
Betrays his consternation.
For the Light came down
And showed the world its sin;
Men preferred the dark
To being changed within.
All there commend their lives to Christ
With confident conviction
Alone the young man holds his tongue,
Won’t mouth the benediction.
Sins are confessed, repented of,
Forgiveness is proclaimed.
God’s Mercy is extolled and
Calls to holiness are made.
The Eucharist draws nearer,
God’s purity declared;
His Holy Spirit invited into
All those thus prepared.
Then a Light shone down,
Into that dusty place;
An instinctive fear
Flooded every face.
Could that light be the Cheka,
Arriving to arrest
The faithful for their brazenness,
And thought crimes unconfessed?
No, it’s something more profound,
This old barn is now holy ground,
Each heart is filled with joy and peace,
Each guilty conscience finds release.
The young man stumbles forward,
Pleading for his soul,
The great light struck him blind and he
Now longs to be whole.
For the Light came down
To heal our ills;
Not for fortune, fame,
Or a thousand hills.
“I was here at the state’s behest
To report on faith expressed
In anything but the Soviet
And failure to quail at their threats.
“Forgive me, for I have betrayed
All for which you worked and prayed;
I believed their vicious lies
About you and all they despise.”
The old men gather round and pray
For the scales to fall away
From the eyes of his heart and head
To revive what once was dead.
For the Light came down,
Offering new birth,
To flee the snares of sin
And live a life of worth.
This has been a long time coming, and I am happy to finally announce the launch of Hard Moon by David Hallquist.
It was a pleasure to edit this book (as well as the rest of the trilogy), and I’d like to think I made valuable contributions to making it as awesome as it is.
Injected with an alien monster, left for dead, and now hunted by the most powerful men in the solar system.
Surprised to find himself alive in a freezing medical waste dump on Luna, and with an alien creature trying to devour his body and mind from the inside, Brandt Wills slowly remembers who he was and how he got in this mess. He discovers he is not the only victim of a hellish secret laboratory performing vile experiments on humans. His only way forward is to fight for his life, his sanity, and his soul against the most powerful forces in the solar system.
Enjoy David Hallquist’s thrilling debut novel and book one of the outstanding Singularity Crisis trilogy
Books 2 and 3 are available for preorder, and will go on sale on the 13th of January and of February.
Lyrics, melody and vocals by Ben Zwycky, musical accompaniment by Sean McCleery
Cover art by Corey McCleery
Selected images and colliding planets animation from pixabay
Stock effects from footagecrate.com
Jupiter image from NASA Juno Mission
Balcony figures by Lee Madison
3d modelling and animation in Daz Studio, audio editing in audacity, and video editing, animation, additional effects and post production in Hit Film Pro by Ben Zwycky.
Lyrics to the song:
There is No War That Can be Harder Fought
There is no prize more worthy to be sought,
There is no war that can be harder fought,
Than for the fate of your own very soul,
For eternal are the stakes and goals.
There is a beast that grows inside of me;
One of great strength and raw hostility.
I do not dare let it take full control,
For each time it takes an awful toll.
Its powers have saved my life so many times,
Down in these dank and deadly lunar mines.
The ones who forced this beast into my veins
Shall reap a vast and wrathful hurricane.
I must survive and tell of what I know,
And put an end to this great horror show;
To think that with this monstrous form they can
Improve upon a mortal man?
This is my goal, for now at least I live,
This is the sacrifice that I must give,
To fight for justice, stop those evil men,
And perchance, to find true life again?
So endure! And persist!
Against all expectations inhumanity resist!
Take control! Reach that goal!
Against all expectations work to purify your soul!
Win this war! Beat the odds!
Bring down those men who see themselves as mighty demigods!
(to the tune of “You Raise Me Up” by Rolf Løvland/Brendan Graham)
The Angels Roar
The angels roar in triumph at Your victory,
They stand astounded at Your wondrous plan;
Your glory far outweighs all our sufferings,
Your beauty lifts our hearts with hope again.
Your promises are surer than the mountains,
The path to you is hard but worth each step;
You give us strength to walk on through the deepest pain
Your gift of life is mightier than death.
So when our days are full of heavy burdens,
When it seems the darkness never ends,
There’s one thing of which we can be certain:
We have in You the greatest of all friends.
The world is lost and drowning in its hubris,
Devoid of kindness, bitter to its core,
So deserving of consignment to the abyss,
And yet you came to offer so much more.
The angels roar in triumph at Your victory,
They stand astounded at Your wondrous plan;
Your glory far outweighs all our sufferings,
Your beauty lifts our hearts with hope again.
It’s my wedding anniversary today, here is this year’s poem/song. This one was a bit of a rush job to produce after coming back from DragonCon, so is a little less polished than I would like.
There’s no Force upon the Earth
There’s no force upon the earth
That will make me doubt your worth;
There’s no place on earth that I would rather be
Than beside you every day, united on our way
To claim the prize that shines eternally.
‘Cause your love is true, and it’s seen me through
So many times of darkness and despair;
You give me strength to stand with your loving hand
And all the signs that you so deeply care.
More than silver, more than gold,
I hope that I grow old
Surrounded by the fruits of our great love;
When bound to you I’m free, you are the one for me,
The girl in the whole world I’m most proud of.
The Zwyckyverse 