Today came a letter with a lovely response to the recently published article: Guest post: The questions that are never answered, by James Bonser. It included this video of a song that I have never previously heard. It had been sent to me, to wish me well for my up-coming operation for a new knee! I had received much from John Denver’s music – so want to thank Jackie for her thoughtfulness. She wouldn’t have known anything about my affection for Denver’s music – so again, serendipity arrives just when needed!

The Wandering Soul

In this magic hour of softening light
The moments in between the day and the night
The instant when all shadows disappear
The distance in between the love and fear

There’s a longing deep within the wandering soul
It’s like the half that understands it once was whole
Like the two who only dream of being one
Like the moon whose only light is in the sun

There’s a danger in forever looking outside
You start to believe that all your prayers have been denied
And you forget the sound of your own name
And thus begins the suffering and the pain

I wanted an answer, I want to know why
I wanted to know just what to do and what to say
I wanted a reason, I want to know why
Can there never be heaven right here on earth and peace inside

Inside my heart
Deep in my soul
Within each part
And in the whole

There’s a promise in the journeys of the mind
You begin to believe that there are miracles you will find
And that someday you’ll remember who you are
The seed within a bright and shining star

That’s like the flame that lives within a hungering heart
That only awaits a gift of love for it to spark
Into a fire that burns forever, endlessly
Like the river that can’t help but meet the sea

In this magic hour between the dark and the dawn
In the space between the silence and the song
Suddenly the mystery is clear
That love is only letting go of fear

Love is the answer and love is the way
Love is in knowing just what to do and what to say
And love is the reason, love is the why
And love is in heaven right here on earth and peace inside.

John Denver – The Wandering Soul

You may need to scroll down a little if you want to read the lyrics:

Isn’t it rich? Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground and you in mid-air
Send in the clowns
Isn’t it bliss? Don’t you approve?
One who keeps tearing around and one who can’t move
But where are the clowns? Send in the clowns
Just when I stopped opening doors
Finally finding the one that I wanted was yours
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines
No one is there
Don’t you love farce? My fault, I fear
I thought that you’d want what I want, sorry my dear
But where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns
Don’t bother they’re here
Isn’t it rich? Isn’t it queer?
Losing my timing this late in my career
But where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns
Well, maybe next year

LOVE IS A LOADED PISTOL

Billie crept softly into my waking arms
Warm like a sip of sour mash.
Strange fruit for a sweet hunk o’trash.

Panic at the stagedoor of Carnegie Hall:
‘Famous Jazz Singer Gone AWOL’.
Must have left the building body and soul.

On a creaky piano stool tonight
as the moon is my only witness
she was breathing in my ear
”This time it’s love.”

But love is a loaded pistol
and by daybreak she’s gone
over the frozen river, home.
Me and Johnny Walker
see in the new age, alone.

Stay with me again
tonight Billie,
Time is a wily trickster.
Still an echo in my heart says
“This time it’s love.”

© Thomas Dolby 2010

Dr. Viktor Frankl. A Jewish psychologist and scholar who, on finally being freed from the Nazi concentration camps of WW2, was able to write his extraordinary book Man’s Search for Meaning.