Cloudform

lyrics to a song rearranged as prose

So you learned to play the harp
so you could pull the strings
without marionettes, smoke and mirrors
to say your sayings without use of feint or veils
playing clean you say what you mean,

so you learned to sing
and fill the air above you
a voice of its own, now your less alone
in harmonies, in all the shapes and cloud forms
the sky is open just like arms,

so you learned to fly a plane
one you built your bare hands
with chords and strings for making music
on the wings of a song rising
rising as the sun goes down,

and so you learned to be
a soul made out of smiles
the starlit night beyond the sunset
oh, how you breathe as fear as the air
it's all passed away, and now you're above the clouds:

infinite now, infinite again
infinite now as you were then
breathing in, out, breathing in again
breathing in, now, as you were then
now as is then,

and now you're above the clouds.

I admit, I’ve been going through a pretty long dry spell, creatively. The desire is still there, but words just aren’t flowing from my hands the way they used to. Nor do I have the focus - it’s true: fine summer weather is poor for mulling the world over, mumbling to oneself over matte. My yard has been pulled apart for improvement, and the sun is calling me out to play. Perhaps I’ll strike gold out there at some point, but for now I’m finalizing lyrics from songs I’ve written, left somewhat unfinished. I’m standing on the shoulders of work I’ve done in the past, but I think for now I’m okay with that.

As a song, Cloudform came to me pretty fast. It’s a very simple song both lyrically and compositionally - anything more complex would have betrayed the vulnerability behind it. I stumbled over the notes I wanted to use in drop d tuning, and wrote most of the lyrics in an airplane, looking down at the clouds as I flew off into sunset. In the moment, I felt that I was well on my journey towards something I’ve been seeking for nearly my whole life: self-acceptance and peace - internal peace, most of all. Based on my patterns of behavior, I know I’m not necessarily good at both or either of those things. And so this song remains largely aspirational in every way.

In all of it, I really mean to say to myself - I hope you can let go of all those things you carry with you and drag yourself down with, stirring yourself into frenzy. That feeling of letting go of all those resentments, those things that hold yourself down, that harm the people you love and cause resentment in return, that feeling is going to feel very good. I hope to one day find, and I hope you do too.

— Johnny, Under Sky