Reagan M. Sova - "The Holy Dead See"

Fleet Foragers of Brooklyn, New York, USA is proud to present...

"The Holy Dead See" by Reagan M. Sova

Video directed by Lucy Holland
Instagram: @hollandedits1
TikTok: @hollandedits8

The band: Dog on lead guitar, Junglefish on bass, Mike Murray on drums, Rafael Valles Hilario on organ, and Reagan on guitar and singing

More from Reagan:
https://reaganmsova.substack.com/

"The Holy Dead See" is from the album Shagbark after Dark, which was was recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered at Tooth Mountain in Antwerp, Belgium by Rafael Valles Hilario. Shagbark is available now on Fleet Foragers: sites.google.com/view/fleetforagers/

Lyrics:
i’m so human
i sent my heart to that tree
where the blade was glinting
calling out to me

by the river stealing time
in a land of green
until i go forth
and am no longer seen

unsaddle all the horses
let them graze
where the holy dead see
flowers on my grave

in the grotto shooting dice
where the thunder rolls
with the golden times
stirring in our souls

feel the world
come crashing down
our savior’s just a day away
speaking the tongue
of the ghosts
it’s a holy tongue
and its heart is beating

i’ve seen death dancing
like a flame
in the glow you know
i’m sharpening my blade

i write in a trance
so awfully deep
i mar the mountain
turn to light inside a dream

feel the world
come crashing down
our savior’s just a day away
speaking the tongue
of the ghosts
it’s a holy tongue
and its heart is beating

we finish with raw
prelinguistic groans of pain
the name of G-d
but all the spirit riders i’ve known
across the bridge
they ride with me

--
When I was about four or five years old, I had ventured into the woods with another boy (we’ll call) Haskell. Stuck into the bark of a great tree was a jack knife, and I registered this object in all its glory, mystery, and magic. It became a part of me in my boyhood, on my way to becoming a man, learning to read, finding a deer freshly dead with its leg caught twisted up in a metal fence. I was probably about nine when this happened. Haskell and I used our knives to disentangle the leg, went and got shovels and candles, and at dusk buried the beast with a song.

The day I discovered that knife, I returned home in the evening to find my father smearing blood over the doorpost of our home. “This, to ward off the Angel of Death,” he said, “coming for the first born son, which is you.” I dreamed that night the Angel of Death pursuing me down through dewy fields of grass to a river where I slipped, and when he reached his sharp-claw hand, I said, “But my father smeared the blood.” He said, “I have never played by the rules, you fool.” This dream inspired a scene in my book, Wildcat Dreams in the Death Light, but to finish, I drew the tree knife, and as he reached to take me, I slashed forward catching the throat. His blood flew out, black like ink. When I awoke in my bed breathing hard – shit you not – there was wet grass on my feet.

Lastly, this song was inspired by the constant deferral of the Moshiach and the ostensible silence of Hashem, which has broken the minds of many strong and intelligent people. It is a day-in-day-out battle, to stay on the burning-candle side of hope. I learned to read relatively late in life, at 10, and more than a couple decades later, also slowly, I experienced another symbol-system sea change, meaning I learned to read the world differently. Interpret it differently. Hashem is not even finished creating the world. There is a horizon we must endeavor to meet. Perhaps it is like Franz Kafka said, the Messiah will come when he is no longer needed.

Wildcat Dreams in the Death Light is available from First to Knock:
firsttoknock.com/products/wildcat-dreams-in-the-death-light-reagan-m-sova