30
Jun

Similarly instrumental in marking the creative path ahead was an encounter between Hawley and a friend who had recently lost his wife. “We were talking about astronomy. I’ve spent my whole life looking up at the stars, but for this person, it was a relatively recent thing. I asked him why he had taken it up, and he said, ‘I’ve always been interested, but I took it up because I wanted to see if my wife’s face was there.’ It hit me like a bullet that this level of loss could be turned into something so beautiful.”

    Singing in the dark,
    On our way home, the day is done for sleepy
    ones.

    On the fire escape,
    My telescope, that scans the evening sky.
    If I could see it all,
    All to be lost, in the galaxy of distant stars.

    Did I see your face?
    It weighs so much, to be alone tonight.

— Richard Hawley, talking about the track Don’t Stare at the Sun from his new album Standing at the Sky’s Edge.