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Words by Richard Sanger
voice and piano
This song is part of the album and songbook "Wound Turned to Light"; recording available on Redshift Records, TK540, through Bandcamp. May be sung by any male or female voice; contact composer for other transpositions.
October 13, 2023, Toronto, Heliconian Hall
Patricia O'Callaghan, voice, and Lara Dodds-Eden, piano; Confluence Concerts
Lyrics: Last Paddle, by Richard SangerSupper done and the August sunabout to go, the two of yousubtract yourselves from kitchen,from dishes and grandchildren,to take the blue canoeout for one last paddleround our summer sites,these swimming rocks and heron swampsnorth of Pointe-au-Baril.There's a lurch and a curseas you embark, old antagonistsalways ready to goanother round, to skirmishas the canoe wobbles,to spar over ancient foiblesor a loon that's just popped up,then laugh it off like dropsoff a duck's back, splish-splash,resuming your old trucewith gentle, rhythmic strokesand the laughter I hear echoover the glowing wateras I stand and watch you go—the two of you in silhouettein the blue canoe, now black,just an outline that merges intothe dark islands, their ragged skylineof wind-tormented pines,and re-emerges, as the sun consumes itself behind,yellow and orange and blazing red,and the two of you paddle on,paddle out towards the open,the great big Georgian Bay—there,there's no troublesome stripof earth to get in the way,no horizon left to hold you back,no more pain, or sorrow,no ego, it's all washed awayin mist, in this grey-white glowthe lake climbs right into the sky,as I stand and watch you go,your canoe just a speckin the silver distance,the whirls from your paddlesundoing, unspooling like thoughts,or sentences trailing offon the lake's metallic surfacelittle galaxies that spinand expend themselvesand vanish into dark,in which, having stood and watchedyou subtract yourselves from us,I see nothing but you gone—you are the darkness you've leftand the evening's first faint star.
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