What is “Solstice Light” about?
"Solstice Light" gathers the album's central idea into one song: a narrator who has spent the winter as a held-in breath learns that the dark was never empty but was holding the light she had yet to become. The chorus rises through the longest night, and she leaves the door unlocked and the kettle on for her future self. The title track closes Solstice Light and, at five minutes, is its longest song, ending with a promise to go up and meet the sky.
Solstice Light lyrics
Midnight in a northern room
Snow remembering my name
Every window is a moon
Every silence is a flame
I have been a winter thing
I have been a held-in breath
I have been the shape of waiting
Waiting wearing out my chest
And the dark was never empty
And the dark was never cold
It was holding every version
Of the light I've yet to hold
Solstice light, solstice light
Rising through the longest night
Rising through the longest night
Solstice light, solstice light
I have been the dark that waited
I have been the dark that made it
Now I am the rising line
Solstice light, solstice light
Aurora combing through my hair
Static humming in my chest
Every cell a tiny prayer
Every silence a request
I will leave the door unlocked
I will leave the kettle on
For the version of myself
Who has already become
And the dark was never empty
And the dark was never cold
It was holding every version
Of the light I've yet to hold
Solstice light, solstice light
Rising through the longest night
Rising through the longest night
Solstice light, solstice light
I have been the dark that waited
I have been the dark that made it
Now I am the rising line
Solstice light, solstice light
Tell the sky
Tell the sky
I'm coming up to meet it
Tell the sky
Tell the sky
I was born to meet it
(Solstice, solstice, solstice)
(Solstice, solstice, solstice)
Solstice light, solstice light
Rising through the longest night
Rising through the longest night
Solstice light, solstice light
I am the dark that waited
I am the dark that made it
I am the rising line
Solstice light
Solstice light
Solstice light
(solstice... light...)
(solstice... light...)