Songs for the Elegy Issue (A Selection)

Half Mystic Journal’s Issue X: Elegy comes out in one week, & we’re buzzing with gentle ache & harrowing hope. This issue walks the line between holding fast & breathing out. Right now, that feels like a song every one of us could learn from. Preorder your copy for first access, featuring art, poetry, & prose by Philip Schaefer, Gavin Yuan Gao, Brittany Adames, Meg Reynolds, Anthony Thomas Lombardi, DeeSoul Carson, Katrinka Moore, Emily Zogbi, Paola Bennet, Geoff Anderson, Esther Kim, Emma Chan, Esther Sun, Tori Grant Wellhouse, Taylor Gianfrancisco, myself, Abby E. Murray, Laura Mei Roghaar, & Maria Chiara Piglione.

There is no place in this issue that death doesn’t circle, no vacuum that silence didn’t fill long ago. Issue X is a prayer against forgetting, a promise to bear witness even where music falls short. & when the time comes to let go of what it can’t live without, the elegy issue knows what it means to wake into memory. It knows that in a world touched by song, there exists no such thing as extinction. We so deeply appreciate your support as we work to compile this new collection; we’re a small & independent press with big things on the horizon, & every share & preorder helps keep us going for years to come.

Elegy will be here sooner than you know, & in the meantime, we tried something new this issue in lieu of our traditional staff-compiled playlist. Please enjoy a series of songs chosen by Issue X’s contributors, a mix to light up all that desperate quiet & sing the grief alive…

“This Far” by Kina Grannis

so I’ll keep going through the motions
creating comfort where there is none
coming to terms with the notion
I’ll be okay

“Walk Alone” by Laura Marling

I was born to love
I was put upon this earth
I was doing fine without it
now I can’t walk alone
I can't walk alone

“Night So Long” by HAIM

I say goodbye to love again
in loneliness, my only friend
in loneliness, my only fear
the nights end
then I say goodbye to love once more
no shadow darkening the door
until your memory is gone

“Funeral” by Handsome Ghost

over now, oh, but something still remains
thunder clouds roll and then the lightning came
everything, everything stops
everything, everything stops

“Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1” by the Mountain Goats

do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive
do every stupid thing to try to drive the dark away
let people call you crazy for the choices that you make
climb limits past the limits
jump in front of trains all day
and stay alive
just stay alive

“Spent Gladiator 2” by the Mountain Goats

stay alive
maybe spit blood at the camera
just stay alive
stay forever alive

“Sometimes It Snows in April” by Prince

sometimes it snows in April
sometimes I feel so bad, so bad
sometimes I wish that life was never ending
but all good things, they say, never last
but all good things they say, never last
and love, it isn’t love until it's past

“Summer’s End” by John Prine

the moon and stars hang out in bars just talking
I still love that picture of us walking
just like that old house we thought was haunted
summer’s end came faster than we wanted

“Cry Baby” by Janis Joplin

come on and cry, cry baby
cry baby, cry
cry baby
oh, honey, welcome back home

“Sunset on M.” by Dardust

[instrumental piece]

“Ask the Mountains” by Vangelis

ask the mountains
springs and fountains
why couldn’t this go on?
couldn’t our happiness go on?
ask the sun that lightens up the sky
when the night gives in, to tell you why

“Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” by Kendrick Lamar

when the lights shut off
and it’s my turn to settle down
my main concern
promise that you will sing about me
promise that you will sing about me

“Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” by Marvin Gaye

hey, mercy, mercy me, oh
hey, things ain’t what they used to be
what about this overcrowded land?
how much more abuse from man can she stand?

“Achilles Come Down” by Gang of Youths

Achilles, Achilles, Achilles, come down
won’t you get up off, get up off the roof?
the self is not so weightless, nor whole and unbroken
remember the pact of our youth
where you go, I’m going, so jump and I’m jumping
since there is no me without you

“Poor Atlas” by Dessa

there’s a book full of plans
at the feet of poor Atlas
titled ‘For Man’
but the architects only drew blanks
now there’s nowhere to go
but go back, go back, go back, go back

“A Year in the Garden Shed” by Tigers on Trains

and you drank yourself right down into hell
it was you and God in a cheap motel
and you dug your grave on the bathroom floor
and finally found what you were looking for
and you sing: death is not a curse
it's the only thing that's keeping us alive

“Passenger Seat” by Charli Adams

I guess I’m the one to blame
you never asked me once to rid you of your pain
forty miles down I just race
anything to get your voice out of my brain

“marjorie” by Taylor Swift

if I didn’t know better
I’d think you were still around
what died didn’t stay dead
what died didn’t stay dead
you’re alive, you’re alive in my head