Act 1 · Track 12

By the Forest's Edge

A man who fled a throne room gathers a few people by a forest spring and starts a church.

pov

a community by the water

genre

Folk Americana

key & meter

F major · 4/4

scripture

Mosiah 18

Lyrics

Intro

(Warm fingerpicked acoustic guitar, sustained mandolin tremolo)

Verse 1 — solo male, "I"

I left the soft chair years ago

I left the soft robe

I have been teaching in whispers

In houses

In barns

One at a time

I told them what the prophet told me

Before they killed him

I told them about the One who is coming

I told them the name

The name no one else would say

Verse 2

(Upright bass enters, fiddle adds texture)

And they came

A few at a time

A man with calloused hands

A woman with a child on her hip

A boy who could not read

And one who could read everything

We met in the forest by the spring

Where the king's men do not go

Where the water is cold

And the trees are tall

And no one is watching

Chorus — first communal harmonies enter

(Listeners: warm mixed harmonies, growing across the song)

By the forest's edge

By the cold spring water

We will bear one another's burdens

We will mourn with those who mourn

We will stand with those who stand

By the forest's edge

Verse 3 — POV begins to shift, "I" and "we" alternating

I baptized the first one in the spring

The water was cold

He came up shaking

And he laughed

And the others laughed with him

And then they were not laughing

And we covenanted

We covenanted by the water

To carry each other

To name the One who is coming

Out loud

For the rest of our lives

Bridge — light pump organ enters, full "we"

We have no temple

We have no king who blesses us

We have no walls

We have a forest

We have a spring

We have each other

We have a name

Final Chorus — full ensemble, larger congregation harmonies

(Listeners: full small congregation, layered close harmony)

By the forest's edge

By the cold spring water

We will bear one another's burdens

We will mourn with those who mourn

We will stand with those who stand

By the forest's edge

There is a name that is coming

There is a One who will come down

And we will be ready

Outro — strips back to guitar, mandolin, and one voice

I am not in the back of the room anymore

I am at the edge of the forest

And the water is cold

And the people are here

And the words I wrote down by candlelight

Are the words we say out loud now

Behind the Song

The first warm song on the album

After the dread of the previous song, this one lifts. The musical weather changes. A community has formed, and the song lets the listener feel that change before the lyrics describe it. The fire of the previous song has become light.

The pronouns are the ecclesiology

Verse 1 is all ‘I’ — the priest alone. Verse 2 is ‘they’ and ‘we met’ — the community forms. Verse 3 starts in ‘I’ and shifts to ‘we covenanted.’ By the bridge, only ‘we.’ The listener experiences the church being born one pronoun at a time.

Third time the phrase appears

‘There is a name that is coming / there is a One who will come down’ — heard first from a king, then from a prophet at the moment of his death, now from a community by water. Same hope, three mouths.

A hymn sung by people who just learned it

The song was written so the harmonies could grow across the song — starting as one or two voices, becoming a small congregation by the end. The arrangement is the church forming, voice by voice.