“Blessed the traveler who journeys the length of the light” — Dan Fogelberg 1951-2007

I’m saddened today to learn of Dan Fogelberg‘s death. Some of his songs have kept me company, as well as inspired me, during a lot of my life. And they are still among my all-time favorites. The first two that come to mind are “Nexus” and “In the Passage.”

Very sad. I’ll miss him.

“Nexus” (from The Innocent Age, 1981)

Across the vein of night there cuts a path of searing light
Burning like a beacon on the edges of our sight
At the point of total darkness and the lights divine divide
A soul can let its shadow stretch and land on either side, either side.

And balanced on the precipice, the moment must reveal
Naked in the face of time, our race within the wheel
As we hang beneath the heavens and we hover over hell
Our hearts become the instruments we learn to play so well.

Chorus: Wealthy the spirit that knows its own flight
Stealthy the hunter who slays his own fright
Blessed the traveler who journeys the length of the light.

Outside the pull of gravity beyond the spectral veil
Within our careful reasoning, we search to no avail
For the constant in the chaos, for the fulcrum in the void
Following a destiny our steps cannot avoid.

Across the vein of night there cuts a path of searing light
Burning like a beacon on the edges of our sight
At the point of total darkness and the lights divine divide
A soul can let its shadow stretch and land on either side.

In a spiral never-ending, are we drawn towards the source
Spinning at the mercy of an unrelenting force

So we stare into the emptiness and fall beneath the weight
Circling the Nexus in a fevered dance with fate.

“In The Passage” (from The Innocent Age, 1981)

There’s a ring around the moon tonight and a chill in the air
And a fire in the stars that hang — so near, so near.

There’s a sound in the wind that blows
Through the wild mountain holds
Like the sighs of a thousand crying souls, crying souls.

There’s a time when the traveller is fated to find
That insight has turned his gaze behind, behind

And the steps taken yesterday will beckon again
And lead to his weary journey’s end, journey’s end.

And in the passage from the cradle to the grave
We are born, madly dancing
Rushing headlong through the crashing of the days
We run on and on without a backwards glance

But I cast my fate with the wife of Lot, I turned my gaze around
Knowing neither what was sought nor what was to be found
Heeding weakness, feeding strength, O life at length is frail
I seek again the river’s source through time’s dark shadowed veil.

In the fast fading century as we spin through the years
I pray that our failing vision clears, our vision clears.

And in the passage from the cradle to the grave
We are born, madly dancing
Rushing headlong through the crashing of the days
We run on and on without a backwards glance

The places dash and the faces dart like fishes in a dream
Hiding ‘neath the murky banks of long forgotten streams
The lines of life are never long when seen from end to end
The future’s never coming and the past has never been.

There’s a ring around the moon tonight and a chill in the air
And a fire in the stars that hang so near, so near.