Begun in 1979, The Bright Fish has taken longer to complete than any song I have written.   Specifically the verse about the mandolin and the one about the the walking man and the fish come from that period.  The music was written in 2000 along with the final lyrics.  Ironically it is a song about passing from youth into old age, a metamorphosis that the song itself has gone through. 

The meaning of the fish is not entirily clear to me, and so it remains an enigma, and my alter ego.

The Bright Fish    

When I was young the days were long
And longer still, the hours
I spent my time in reverie
And dreamed of gilded towers
For wealth, or work, or worldly things
I had no will to barter
The world was round
The sky was blue
And music flowed like water

When summers dying embers waned
The world grew cold and steely
Where once I walked through fields of green
The leaves have all turned early
This cold and spicy winter air
Will only last a season
When my heart turns from sweet despair
To joy beyond all reason

I dreamt I was a mandolin
And a beautiful woman played it
The sound she made was rich and true
And no one else could make it
Bun I am not a mandolin
I'm just some kind of pilgrim
Who walks this well worn path alone
'till true love comes to fill him

A man is walking by a stream
Between the light and shadows
A bright fish catches water fly's
And darts back through the shallows.

John Boehmer    © 2004