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This is the fifth in a series of blog entries about the songs on the upcoming album “Hello Cruel World”, to be released January 2012.

Savannah, Georgia, 2010


I got no use for harps and wings

I got no time for foolish things

There is no heaven, there is no hell

There’s only you, my dark angel

 

There are people who come into your life who seem too pure for this world. For them, the membrane that separates our protective delusions from the cruel world is paper-thin. They feel too acutely, empathize too much. Often, and perversely, they’re the ones who come into the world with the heaviest burdens. They wear a halo of vulnerability, but conceal a deep strength, too. They are the old souls.

Maybe they’re the real angels. Maybe heaven, and hell, are here, now. In pursuit of some idealized version of the future, and of ourselves, we overlook what’s staring us in the face. Our ragged, imperfect selves, living in our ragged, imperfect present. Each others’ angels, each others’ saviors.


and if there is no hereafter

and there is only here

life is still a beautiful disaster

ah, but we both know that, my dear

 

BeliefNet.com has featured “Dark Angel” as their Song Of The Week. Click on the link to preview the song. Many thanks to Rodney Crowell, who sings the duet vocal on “Dark Angel”.

“Dark Angel” by Gretchen Peters
© 2011 Circus Girl Music (ASCAP)
from the upcoming album Hello Cruel World

photo by Gretchen Peters (all rights reserved)

By |

This is the fourth in a series of blog entries about the songs on the upcoming album “Hello Cruel World”, to be released January 2012.

New Orleans, 2010


Earthquake shook the California ground

Took a freeway out and some buildings down

Well I’ve never felt the earth move under my heels

But I got a pretty good idea how it feels

 

Flood, fire, earthquake, hurricane, tsunami. We go from calamity to calamity. Hello cruel world. Meanwhile the world spins on, unconcerned, deaf to our questioning. Why is this happening? What does it mean? We seek explanation, we blame God, we blame each other, we blame the Other. We look for signs and portents. To infer meaning from random events – it’s hubris, it’s human. Does nature make mistakes? Does God? Is it possible that none of it means anything, or more probably that the answer is so far beyond us that we can’t comprehend the question?

We build our houses on fault lines; we give our most vulnerable selves to each other – and sooner or later disaster strikes. Keep your heart and your door closed and you may be able to avoid pain, but you never feel the wild aliveness of the world. Open your heart and you risk it all. Love is a natural disaster.


They say it was a miracle no one died

Just two people hurt and some wounded pride

Love takes everything in its path

And leaves you breathless in the aftermath

 

“Natural Disaster” by Gretchen Peters
© 2011 Circus Girl Music (ASCAP)
from the upcoming album Hello Cruel World

photo by Gretchen Peters (all rights reserved)