the deepening ground

The beauty of Pisces rests in the tethering. Flipping back through all my drafts of this song, one phrase remained constant: “tether me to you.” The story of Pisces goes back to the mythology surrounding Typhon, the most awful monster the world had ever seen, with a hundred dragon heads with black tongues and eyes that blazed fire. This beast emanated a cacophony of sound, blending ethereal voices with bull bellows, the roar of lions, the yelp of puppies, and the hiss of snakes. Typhon became the father of such nightmares as Cerberus, Hydra, and Chimera, and is equated with destructive typhoon winds. Part monster and god, he was determined to rule in place of Zeus.

The two fish tethered together are said to be Aphrodite and Eros who escaped from Typhon by either jumping on the backs of two fish who swam them to safety, or the gods themselves transformed into fish in order to escape. As the story goes they were tied together so they would not be separated in their flight. The song celebrates that bond, as seen in marriages and even between the Great Shepherd and His sheep. You’ll find plenty of pairings in the song, from the repeated lines in each stanza to the two lines of the chorus. And at the same time, those pairings are tethered together by rhymes and united as one complete stanza or one chorus: the two becoming one.

Ultimately, this tethering is to a source of hope, love, and peace that cannot be swallowed by “black-tongued darkness” nor dissolved “in fearful streams.” Although the “bleak winds blow,” we are tethered to the one who not only calms the storm, but calms our troubled souls, the one who took on mortal flesh that we might walk the streets of gold.

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Pisces

Vincent H. Anastasi - 2024

Tether me to you, don't ever let me go
For black-tongued darkness seeks to swallow hope
Tether me to you, don't ever let me go
And trade this mortal flesh for scales of gold

Over and over, bleak winds blow
Over and over, calm my soul

Tether me to you, don't ever let me drown
Though a hundred dragons seek to drag me down
Tether me to you, don't ever let me drown
And bear me up on sweeter currents' sound

Over and over, bleak winds blow
Over and over, calm my soul

Tether me to you, don't ever let me leave
When my resolve dissolves in fearful streams
Tether me to you, don't ever let me leave
And bind my fickle heart to love and peace

Over and over, bleak winds blow
Over and over, calm my soul

Tether me to you, don't ever let me go

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