Darkness/Evening

Deep Within the Night

Guitar accpt mp3

Piano accpt mp3

Stars in spin, all but one
Deep within the night
Stillness dwells in all things
Deep within the night

Infant born, cries of hope
Deep within the night
Wonder prays heaven to earth
Deep within the night

Breaths of steam rising up
Deep within the night
Grateful tears streaming down
Deep within the night

Fragile life comes once more
Deep within the night
Milky Way shines Amen
Deep within the night

(optional last verse)

Wings of awe, carry me
Deep within the night
To the place God is born (love is born)
Deep within the night

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Piano score Cooper Sherry.
© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission., please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Here’s a simple song you can sing together for Advent/Christmas/Solstice/Winter. For me, it captures some of the wonder that I remember feeling as a young boy. Wonder looking up at Orion’s Belt in the December sky. Wonder at the soft singing while holding a candle on Christmas Eve. I still long to feel that wonder all these years later. Wonder and gratitude, perhaps two sides of the same coin.

Thanks to Cooper Sherry of Tacoma WA for creating the lovely piano score.

In The Blackness

In the Blackness

In the blackness is the sign of your eternity
Cover us O God with this good night
In the blackness lie the farthest reaches of your love
Cover us O God with this good night

Chorus:
Be our company in the fertile soil of midnight
Be our company in the rhythm of our rest
Be our company in the dark behind the starlight
Cover us O God with this good night
Cover us O God with this good night

In the blackness is the blanket of your gentleness
Cover us O God with this good night
In the blackness are your warming arms around the earth
Cover us O God with this good night

In the blackness is the silence of creation born
Cover us O God with this good night
In the blackness we can hear you humming freedom songs
Cover us O God with this good night

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2015 Bret Hesla.
All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Her Song Spins a Blackness

Her Song Spins a Blackness
© 2016 Bret Hesla

1. Her Song spins a blackness full of stars.
Her Song wakes the wonder in my heart.
Let ev’ry string strum, strum with gratitude
that Her Song comes spinning all the world
On this pregnant holy night.
When Heaven gave a tiny kick…. inside the belly of the earth.

2. Her Song swells the apple on the tree.
Her Song tethers Mary to the babe.
Let ev’ry voice cry, cry with gratitude
that Her Song comes swelling all the world
On this pregnant holy night.
When Heaven gave a tiny kick…. inside the belly of the earth.

3. Her Song weaves the magi with the poor.
Her Song soothes the fear of letting go.
Let ev’ry horn blow, blow with gratitude
that Her Song comes weaving all the world
On this pregnant holy night.
When Heaven gave a tiny kick…. inside the belly of the earth.

4. Her Song woos the shepherds to the dance.
Her Song thrums in strangers shak-ing hands.
Let ev’ry foot jig, jig with gratitude
that Her Song comes wooing all the world
On this pregnant holy night.
When Heaven gave a tiny kick…. inside the belly of the earth.

Words and music by Bret Hesla
© 2016 Bret Hesla, bret.hesla@gmail.com. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Here’s a Christmas song I love; it’s so fun to sing with the congregation. Expansive imagery for the divine. The pregnant earth. Mary, shepherds, magi, and the infinities. Try it out.

Evening Is Falling

1. Evening is falling like the first evening
Peeper is calling like the first frog
Praise the dark singing. Praise for the evening
Murmers go winging all through the bog.

2. Sweet resurrection compost is breaking
Like the first making of the first soil
Molding in wetness under the leaf pile
Broken completeness where She has toiled.

3. Gentle the black heart soul of the evening
Born on the wine-dark face of the deep
Hues of contentment color the midnight
All is renewed in circles of sleep.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This song is basically “Morning Has Broken” for the other end of the day. I keep looking for other ways to rewrite the same song: that darkness is good, death is a natural returning, there is a spirit within it all somewhere that long for. From the collection: Singing Prayers for the Earth.

Come Rest From Your Labors

Come Rest From Your Labors

1. Hang up your tools
Put down your pen
Hand off your work
Unglove your hands
The good night awaits
Come rest from your labors now.

2. Lay down your head
Empty your mind
All will be still
All will be fine
The good night awaits
Come rest from your labors now.

Bridge:
Oh, let the Brush that paints upon
The canvas skies with sunset love
Apply great swaths of scarlet calm
Upon your setting soul.

3. Come softly sing
Come gently pray
With thankful hearts
Let all things fade
The good night awaits
Come rest from your labors now.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

When my friend Tom invited me to help write some songs for an evening prayer service, I wrote several using imagery of twilight, of dusk, of turning from day to evening. This moment of transition, this letting go, this fading toward darkness, has captured me; I think it’s a key moment in our rhythm, a key need in our daily healing, a key attribute of the love behind all things.

Like a Seed Upon the Breeze

Like A Seed Upon The Breeze

1. Like a seed upon the breeze of night
Letting go and carried into flight
Take our longings into You, Soft Wind of Peace
Carry us on.

2. Like the crimson of the afternoon
Turns at evening into rich maroon
Let our spirits gently fade in you, Dear Friend
Deepest Of Hues

Ch:
Spirit let us now depart in peace
In the shadows of your warm embrace
Spinning on the axis of your midnight grace
Carry us home.

(repeat ch.)

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This was written as a sending song for an evening service. It’s part of a suite of songs for evening, that highlight the turning of the day, the goodness of the natural rhythms, positive images of darkness, and the healing of letting go.

Wonderful Story / In The Turning

Wonderful Story

Leader: We’re a part of a wonderful story —
All: A story that started in darkness.
Leader: We’re a part of a beautiful song
All: that began long ago in the silence.
Leader: And each night we return to the darkness
All: Each night we return to the silence
Leader: to be renewed by the Teller of the story
All: And restored by the Singer of the song.

[segue into the song In The Turning]:

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This is a short call/response piece, designed as a lead-in to the song “In the Turning.” I’m especially thinking of an evening service.

Heads up: The song includes some non-stale language in place of “God.”

In The Turning

In the Turning
1. In the turning of day back into evening,
In the turning of light back into gray,
In the turning of business into pleasure,
In the turning of struggle into play,
In the turning of planning into dreaming,
In the turning of sunlight back to stars:
Turn us back to you.
Turn us back to you,
Ever Turning Love.

2. In the turning of springtime into summer,
In the turning of dormant into grown,
In the turning of flower into fullness,
In the turning of harvest into home,
In the turning of scarlet into snowfall,
In the turning of winter into mud:
Turn us back to you.
Turn us back to you,
Ever Turning Love.

3. In the turning of crude ore to invention,
In the turning of engine into rust,
In the turning of handshake into ally,
In the turning of empire into dust,
In the turning of enemy to neighbor,
In the turning of greed to common good:
Turn us back to you.
Turn us back to you,
Ever Turning Love.

4. In the turning of expert into mentor,
In the turning of upright into hunched,
In the turning of now into forgotten,
In the turning of body into mulch,
In the turning of memory into meaning,
In the turning of sadness into song:
Turn us back to you.
Turn us back to you,
Ever Turning Love.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Piano accpt. Zach Busch.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This song works well paired with the call/response “Wonderful Story” as a lead-in, which evokes the big bang, emerging from dark and silence.

This song is part of the suite of songs I’ve been working on as part of a project to write a new evening service.

Were You There In the Dark In the Park

Were you there?
Were you there when we sang side by side
in the dark in the park by my home?
Were you there?

Did you help
Did you help Michael row the boat ashore
in the dark in the park by my home
Did you help.

Did you lean on me there as we sang
in the dark in the park by my home …?

Did you shout on Salaam aleikum
in the dark in the park by my home …?

Did you hear angels near to the ground
in the dark in the park by my home …?

Did you know thousands sang long ago
in the dark in the park by my home …?

Were you there when we sang side by side
in the dark in the park by my home …?

A song to remember the great community singing tradition in the Minneapolis parks from 1919 through 1956, where each summer there were nightly sings held, with average nightly attendance in the thousands. find out more at Minnesota Community Sings.

Turn My Heart to Peace

Turn My Heart To Peace

1. Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright.
Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray to God my soul to keep.
Turn my heart, Turn my heart
Turn my heart to peace.

2. Silent night, holy night,
Wish I may, wish I might
Trust the words I claim to believe.
Learn to give as I have received.
Turn my heart, Turn my heart
Turn my heart to peace.

3. Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright.
Hear my prayer, God, hear my song.
As I wake with each new dawn,
Turn my heart, Turn my heart
Turn my heart to peace.

4. Silent night, holy night.
All is calm all is bright.
God who calls us to love our foes.
Help us heal this world of woes.
Turn my heart, Turn my heart
Turn my heart to peace.

5. Silent night, holy night.
God of love, all unite.
Change our fear to community.
Change our pride to equality.
Turn my heart, Turn my heart
Turn my heart to peace.

Peace prayer, evening song, whose lyrics also work to the tune of Silent Night, if you adjust the last two lines to be “Turn my heart to peace, Turn my heart to peace.”

Slowly, Slowly the Evening Falls

1. Slowly, slowly the evening falls Till the stars appear.
Slowly, slowly my thoughts unwind; Clouds within me clear.
Slowly, slowly the silence grows Like a snowfall piling deep.
Slowly, slowly the darkness calls me to sleep.

Ch:
Praise the God of the evening, Mother of the fertile dark.
Praise the God of the silence in the void between the stars.
Send your holy shadows. Cover us, O God of might.
Make us whole and keep us in the womb of the night.

2. Softly, softly a graceful cat tiptoes o’er the ground.
Softly, softly a tiny bat flies without a sound.
Softly, softly the aspen leaves tremble in the midnight wind.
Softly, softly moves my breath in and out again.

3. Gently, gently the heavens turn. Galaxies recede.
Gently, gently a tender root reaches down in need.
Gently, gently the sweethearts play in the shadows of love.
Gently, gently the dew descends from the blackness above.

4. Sweetly, sweetly sings the moon from the eastern sky.
Sweetly, sweetly sleep comes and I close my eyes.
Sweetly, sweetly I walk in dreams, going where no feet have trod.
Sweetly, sweetly I rest my soul in the arms of God.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Tune based in part on Norwegian American folk tune, Kan du glemme gamle Norge. © 1992 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Admin Augsburg Fortress. Also licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Back in 1994, I wrote of this song, “We need to stop demonizing the dark. In too many of our songs and language we use the worn-out metaphors of ‘day is good and night is bad’, or ‘God is light, evil is dark’ etc.”

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s still so true. I wrote this song to celebrate the sacred goodness of the dark, and the healing this that happen in the night. For the tune, I have blended some original melody lines with a heavy dose of fragments from a Norwegian-American folk tune which was one of my grandma’s favorites.

Note: For full keyboard accompaniment, see the songbook, “Global Songs, Local Voices.“

Deep Within the Night

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Piano score Cooper Sherry.
© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission., please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

In The Blackness

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2015 Bret Hesla.
All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Her Song Spins a Blackness

Words and music by Bret Hesla
© 2016 Bret Hesla, bret.hesla@gmail.com. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Evening Is Falling

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Come Rest From Your Labors

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Like a Seed Upon the Breeze

Wonderful Story / In The Turning

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

In The Turning

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Piano accpt. Zach Busch.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Were You There In the Dark In the Park

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2011 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Turn My Heart to Peace

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 1990, 2006 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Slowly, Slowly the Evening Falls

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Tune based in part on Norwegian American folk tune, Kan du glemme gamle Norge. © 1992 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Admin Augsburg Fortress. Also licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.