Morning's Chauffeur

Not a slither of light at the horizon
Still the birds were bawling through the mists
Terrible, invisible
A million small evangelists

How they sing: as if each had pecked up a smoldering coal
Their throats singed and swollen with song
In dissonance as befits the dark world
Where only travelers and the sleepless belong

- Sasha Dugdale, Dawn Chorus

The days are less long than they were even a week or two back, as summer threatens to morph into fall. My early morning commute is now a lights-on drive, with just enough darkness (or just little enough light, if you prefer) that the rear-view mirror will soon need to be flipped into night mode to shield me from the bright contrast of the headlights behind me. Almost, but not quite yet.



The Brad Mehldau Trio eases me into the morning commute, gently swinging a slightly deconstructed rendition of the old Hoagy Carmichael standard, Nearness of You. And someplace about mid-tune the sun slips above the trees, somewhat faded behind the layer of grey across the sky.

If you listen closely some morning, when the sun swells
Over the horizon and the world is still and still asleep,
You might hear it, a faint noise so far inside your mind
That it must come from somewhere, from light rushing to darkness,
Energy burning towards entropy, towards a peaceful solution,
Burning brilliantly, spontaneously, in the middle of nowhere,
And you, too, must make a sound that is somewhat like it,
Though that, of course, you have no way of hearing at all.
- George Bradley, The Sound of the Sun

Bright or grey, wet or dry, I do love the early morning hours. It is the time of the day I find most sensorily tactile and the primary reason I have come to prefer cars that allow me to remove, drop, or roll back the top to sweep the morning into my passenger seat to accompany me on the drive in to campus. Though which of us is the driver and which the passenger is open for debate.

Today's commute playlist:
- Brad Mehldau Trio: Nearness Of You
- Annie Lennox: Why
- Tingstad & Rumbel: Empire Builder
- Toro & Moi: Still Sound

- Posted via Hermes.