Lantern for Tomorrow

Lantern for Tomorrow
Sandra Long

Lantern for Tomorrow

A Conversation That Blooms Through Time

Intro
Lantern for tomorrow
Lantern for tomorrow

Verse 1
I found a map in the margin light
Where the coffee cooled and the day went quiet
Little stars in the ordinary
A spoon, a key, a dog beside me

I drew a line where the weather changed
Through rooms I thought I’d rearranged
But every path I nearly missed
Was writing itself in invisible ink

Pre-Chorus
And somewhere between
What was and what will be
Something unnamed
Started unfolding in me

Chorus
Today-self leaves a lantern on
For the one who wakes with dawn
A little flame in a folded world
Saying, this is where to find me

Each star a memory
Each line a choice
Each silence holding
A half-heard voice

I was wandering
But I was not lost
I was mapping the garden
Of things I almost forgot

Verse 2
There are coordinates in the scent of rain
And spruce smoke ghosting the windowpane
Old notes folded into drawers
And the way a place becomes a door

I used to think the meaning came
Like thunder, gold, a holy name
But it grows in the tender small
Where nothing dramatic happens at all

Pre-Chorus 2
And somewhere between
The seed and the bloom
I found a room
Inside the room

Chorus
Today-self leaves a lantern on
For the one who wakes with dawn
A little flame in a folded world
Saying, this is where to find me

Each star a memory
Each line a choice
Each silence holding
A half-heard voice

I was wandering
But I was not lost
I was mapping the garden
Of things I almost forgot

Bridge
Please let this little understanding
Survive the night somehow
Let morning find the thread again
And place it in my hands now

A conversation blooms through time
Rooted in what I couldn’t find
The voice I left, the ones I found
Each detour turned me back around

Not every treasure shines at first
Some blooms begin below the dirt
Some selves return by hidden roads
To read the notes their old selves wrote

Final Chorus
Today-self leaves a lantern on
For the one who wakes with dawn
A little flame in a folded world
Saying, this is where to find me

Each star a memory
Each line a choice
Each silence holding
A half-heard voice

I was wandering
But I was not lost
I was mapping the garden
Of things I almost forgot

Outro
In the spaces I forget
I found a way back to myself
In the spaces I forget
I found a way back to myself

A map, a bloom, a lantern lit
A future hand returning it
A map, a bloom, a lantern lit
A future hand returning it

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Same Ocean (new song)