Songs for the Vesper Issue (A Selection)
Venus is rising on Half Mystic Journal. Opus II, Issue III: Vesper sleepwalks to life on July 28, plucked like a violin string from that quicksand hour before dreaming. Our new issue features poetry, prose, & visual art by Jordan Escobar, Justin Groppuso-Cook, David Eileen, Russell Karick, Maria Gray, Ava Chen, Abigail Sims, Joel Peckham, K.M. Hanslik, Hana Saad, Kaitlin Tan, Rucker Manley, arushi (aera) rege, es k. harvey, B. Sancho, & Jaydra Johnson. In a summer that resembles more burnt-out lightbulb than firefly jar, the Vesper issue descends unhurried as smog or sleep paralysis, inevitable as the ouroboros’ endless coil. It is a sound the throat produces only once, at the last lit edge of the world.
As the sky hardens to obsidian, we’re honoured to share our annual staff & contributor-curated playlist, including the first glimpse of Issue XIII’s featured art: songs for an event horizon, a bell tolling in a vacuum, a cicada’s song harsh & generous enough to wear twilight to bone. A shattered mirror multiplies the face of darkness, silence textured & breathing, the body made uncertain of its edges. You’ve been here before, in the dream that returns you always to the same locked room. The door opens only inward. You’ve been knocking all night. Come inside.
“Eat Your Young - Bekon’s Choral Version” by Hozier
Come and get some
Skinning the children for a war drum
Putting food on the table selling bombs and guns
It’s quicker and easier to eat your young
“Biting Down” by Lorde
Skip a hit, don’t make a sound
It feels better biting down
Breathed so deep I thought I’d drown
It feels better biting down
“GØD” by KiNG MALA
So you wanna be a god?
You pray for power in the dark
Don’t mistake this for an omen
This is your chance to be chosen
“What Could Have Been” by Ray Chen and Sting
I am your ghost, a fallen angel
You ripped out all my parts
I couldn’t care what invention you made me
’Cause I was meant to be yours
“Cavity” by Prewn
In the morning I’ll try to let you know what I know
I don’t wanna go blind just ‘cause I take you off of
My back and oh, my heaven is a boarding
Tag, I want it, I want it better
“O canto do cisne negro” by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Instrumental
“Crack Baby” by Mitski
Blank open eyes watch the moon flower bloom
It’s been a long, hard 20 year summer vacation
“idea 1” by Kelela
Something ain’t right
Freezing the pulse
But you make sure to hide
“Solitaire” by Sophia Stel
Reach out for the first time
No, you don’t reciprocate it
God, it’s been a long time
Well, now I wish that I had waited
“all the time” by Deb Never
The things I need, I want more light
To fill the room, to feel inside
Our days are long, the years go by
A fear I can’t escape with time
“Real Big Sky” by Emma Ruth Rundle
What starts out in the nighttime
Follows you in the morning light
I watch you sleep
I watch you fade
I will keep the light on as you change, even
Even though you can't stay
“Mercury” by Sleeping At Last
No one can unring this bell
Unsound this alarm, unbreak my heart new
God knows I am dissonance
Waiting to be swiftly pulled into tune
“Apocalypse” by Cigarettes After Sex
Kisses on the foreheads of the lovers wrapped in your arms
You’ve been hiding them in hollowed-out pianos left in the dark
“It’s Never As Bad As You Think It Is” by Ohio Martinez
It’s never as bad as you think it is
It’s never as bad as you think it is
Even if it’s worse
“Raindrops” by Elori Saxl and Henry Solomon
Instrumental
“Wearing Pants Again” by Annie DiRusso and Ruston Kelly
I love pain as it’s settling in
I think I said too much
Fuck, I wish that I didn’t
Love the sound of water
As it’s swallowing me whole
“Are You Sick of Me Yet?” by Dizzy
I am just a rotten kid
I am just somebody’s friend
Always circling a scab
That I did invent
“God Is Alive / Magic Is Afoot” by Buffy Saint-Marie
Though laws were carved in marble
They could not shelter men
Though altars built in parliaments
They could not order men
“I Know the End” by Phoebe Bridgers
I’ll find a new place to be from
A haunted house with a picket fence
To float around and ghost my friends
No, I’m not afraid to disappear
“Fourth of July” by Sufjan Stevens
Did you get enough love, my little dove?
Why do you cry?
And I’m sorry I left, but it was for the best
Though it never felt right
“Vespers, op. 37: IV. Peaceful Light” by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Пришедше на запад солнца
Видевше свет вечерний
Свете тихий, святыя славы достоин
еси пет быти гласы преподобными
“Erik’s Song” by Slowdive
Instrumental
“Big Houses” by Squalloscope
I want trees instead of gravestones and nothing to confess
I’ve got a soft spot for your ancient books of horror stories
“Closer” by The Tiny
My face beneath the streetlamp
It reveals what it is lonely people seek
“Claws in Your Back” by Julien Baker
Living with demons I’ve mistaken for saints
If you keep it between us, I think they’re the same
“Arabesque No. 1” by Claude Debussy
Instrumental
“Koyaanisqati” by Philip Glass
Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi
“91” by Bleachers
Just like you, I can’t leave
I know what I’m not
Just like you, I can’t leave
I’m here, but I’m not
“Blood Upon the Snow” by Bear McCreary and Hozier
Every bird, gone unheard
Starving where the ground has froze
The winter sunrise, red on white
Like blood upon the snow
“Like It’s the End” by MALINDA
So why don’t we shut all the doors now?
Smoke seeping in through the walls
I’ll lie on the floor at your feet now
Kiss me open, let me fall
“Cowpoke” by Isaiah Sheffield
Instrumental
“Pool (Stripped)” by Samia
How much longer ‘til it’s midnight?
How much longer ‘til the morning?
Are my legs gonna last?
Is it too much to ask?