March 4-Track Song 1: The Night Army

Art by Billis Helg

For this month, I decided to write on the theme of hope, after reading Friedrich von Schiller’s poem “Hope”:

This is no empty, flattering delusion

Generated in a fool’s brain,

It manifests loudly in our heart:

We were born for something better.

And what the inner voice says

Does not deceive the soul that hopes.

(Translation by Stanley Appelbaum)

I wrote a first verse and it seemed to have a sense of Revolutionary-era America to it, so I started looking more into subjects from that time to guide the song. I recently caught part of a biopic on Harriet Tubman on a flight home, and it caught in my memory. I read more about her life, and this song became anchored in her work as “conductor” of the Underground Railroad. To walk continually in that darkness of the unknown, under threat of death, the certainty that you are giving up any chance of a comfortable life - the people who do this have a stronger, fuller sense of what hope is than most of us know. It’s a hope that goes beyond mortal life.

The final stanza reflects what Frederick Douglass wrote to Harriet:

“Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day – you in the night. ... The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism.”

Recording:

Track 1: Guitar

2-3: Vocals

4: Piano

Lyrics:

If you don’t believe you’ve got a steady enough aim

If you’ve got a sweetheart calling out your name

If you’ve got a house to keep, if you’re feeling afraid

Walk away

Not everyone can hang upon this rope

Some might prefer what’s waiting back at home

Bread on the table and a half-kept hope

unattained

In the village where the comfortable sleep

Under a blue sky, and decline to speak

On hell, and all else that disturbs the peace

Of the grave,

There are some quiet ones who witness the flame;

They know its power, and can speak its name,

Secretly waiting for a soul to save

From the blaze

Wait for a knock

All the lights go off

And the door is unlocked

If you don’t need a life that goes very far

To be sheltered for a season and kept away from harm

If you’d rather sing your glory to the silent stars

Join our line

You can walk with us through the dead of night,

Merciless darkness with no sign of life,

And we will carry you to the dawning of the light

And cross the line