I was invited out as astronomer-in-residence for the Bamfield Three Stars Festival. Set my telescope up right on the beach. Overhead, the sky was doing what it does out there on the west coast of Vancouver Island — no light pollution, just depth. Stars you can reach up and touch.
The waves had bioluminescence in them. Every time they broke, there was this faint blue-green glow. Hard to look at the eyepiece when the ocean is doing that.
And somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew my oldest daughter had been here. She did the West Coast Trail three or four years ago. Walked these same beaches. Stepped on that same dock. I sat there and thought about that — the ghost of her having been on these same footsteps.
"Your scent is salt and cedar. Your shoes on the dock are gone."
That line wrote itself. There is still a lot of guilt on my part. Or at least my perception of it. Hard to separate the two after all this time. I know I did the best I could for her, but sitting there in the dark, knowing she had stood in this same beautiful place, it all came through at once.
I pulled out my phone, opened voice notes, and just jammed a few lines. This is what came out.
Voice note from a beach in Bamfield, BC. Telescope on the sand. Bioluminescence in the waves. A daughter's ghost on the dock.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
The stars in Bamfield, so bright you can touch them
They swirl about your fingers like white sparks
The galaxies as old as time swirl above
And the dark water keeps your secret
[Pre-Chorus]
Hold still, don't move too fast
Let the night come close
Every breath turns silver
Every wave says stay
[Chorus]
Bamfield stars, Bamfield stars
White sparks in your hands
Bamfield stars, Bamfield stars
Old light over the land
They swirl, they swirl
Above us, above us
[Verse 2]
Your scent is salt and cedar
Your shoes on the dock are gone
I watch the sky lean lower
Like it wants to sing along
[Pre-Chorus]
Hold still, don't move too fast
Let the night come close
Every breath turns silver
Every wave says stay
[Chorus]
Bamfield stars, Bamfield stars
White sparks in your hands
Bamfield stars, Bamfield stars
Old light over the land
They swirl, they swirl
Above us, above us
[Bridge]
If time is only water
Then we are drifting stars
One small town, one wide wonder
Pulled through open dark
[Final Chorus]
Bamfield stars, Bamfield stars
White sparks in your hands
Bamfield stars, Bamfield stars
Old light over the land
They swirl, they swirl
Above us, above us