Bruce Abbott Music Originals

The Light Within His Eyes

Categories: Pop
From the album Pop Songs, Poetry & Other Flights Of Fancy.

Description: Shortly after my brother Dennis died in Florida on December 2, 2017 I booked a flight from Boston to Orlando to visit my sister-in-law and two other brothers and sisters-in-law who live in the area. On a cold day I took a pre-dawn bus from Hyannis and on the way a full moon followed me all the way into Logan Airport. I began a poem on that bus ride and finished it upon my return a week later. I shared the poem with my family and my wife Lisa commented that it could be set to a song. I was just starting to consider ideas for that when I got a call from my brother's step-daughter letting me know that her son, Tyler Hall, had the same thought about setting the poem to music and had in fact begun the process. I loved the idea and contacted Tyler to talk about it. He recorded guitar and vocal tracks that he sent to me and to my delight they were completely unlike anything I would have created! I offered a few suggestions, he tweaked and emailed me his final tracks to which I added soprano saxophone, piano and bass. We dedicate this lovingly to the memory of Dennis Abbott, November 23, 1944 - December 2, 2017. 
Recording Info: Tyler Hall - music composer, vocals & guitar; Bruce Abbott - lyrics, soprano saxophone, piano & bass. Tyler Hall (aka T Hall) is a musician and producer living in Nashville. You can hear his music on his SoundCloud page by clicking here.
The Light Within His Eyes is in 4/4 time and uses a two-bar four-chord cycle:  ||: Dm / Gm / | Am / C / :||
The Light Within His Eyes
(for my brother Dennis)

There's a journey I must make
If I'm to heal my soul.
I'll start before the dawn
Beneath the coldest moon.
I'll watch the world unfold
Into the graceless day,
Into the simple tune
That he would sing.

There's a trail that I must take
To say my sad goodbye.
I'll tie my tired shoes
Beneath the heartless sky
Where owls and wild hawks fly
On feathered wing.

And the moon will set
And the sun will rise
And I won't forget
The light within his eyes.

We know the heart must break
Under sorrow’s heavy toll.
We know there's no escaping
All that time will yet unfold.
There is no shortcut path
To circumvent life’s highs and lows.
And why seek that anyway?
Why settle for some middle ground
Of emptiness, of nothingness,
Of little felt and nothing found?

So now I make my sojourn
To whisper bleak goodbyes.
To hold the people who he loved,
To share the weight of our weary sighs.
And try to heal our hearts
From death’s bitter sting.
​
And the sun will set
And the moon will rise
And we'll not forget
The light within his eyes.

Bruce Abbott – December 2017

Copyright Info

The free sheet music on this page is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Under this license you are free to copy and redistribute the material but you must provide appropriate credit, use only for non-commercial purposes, and you may not create derivative works. Please contact me directly to request permissions beyond the scope of this license.
If you perform or record my music please give it proper credit according to this license and inform me of the performance or recording. Any video and/or audio links as well as copies of concert programs will also be much appreciated!
Enjoy!
Bruce​​
originals@bruceabbott.com