Gently Holding

Verse

Rain lets go on the sill so slow

Your scarf still hangs from a hook I forgot to move

The lamp that used to read like your handwriting now

Just makes a shape soft in the dimming light

Every window I press shows a different year

Grey sky turns gold before it disappears

I keep every leaf that falls, keeps every sound

Maybe holding on is learning how to let go without losing what's left behind

Pre-Chorus

Is it wrong to want this kind of stillness

To hold the quiet instead of you?

Or is it just a version of love that's quieter now

I don't know yet, but I'll learn tonight somehow

Chorus

Gently holding on what we had left behind

The rain lets go and so do I, softly this time

Every goodbye still has an opening, a door I can turn to gold in my mind

Slowly, slowly letting the sorrow unfold

Gently holding on what we had left behind

Verse

Your old guitar leans against the wall now

Fingers find chord shapes that nobody taught them how

I hum something soft I used to sing with you

It's not the same but it feels true

Six months gone and this porch chair still creaks

Like a door swung open for someone walking down an empty street

But every ache I had was waiting on its own rhythm

Waiting to turn into whatever kind of calm comes first

Pre-Chorus

Is it wrong to want this kind of stillness

To hold the quiet instead of you?

Or is it just a version of love that's quieter now

I don't know yet, but I'll learn tonight somehow

Chorus

Gently holding on what we had left behind

The rain lets go and so do I, softly this time

Every goodbye still has an opening, a door I can turn to gold in my mind

Slowly, slowly letting the sorrow unfold

Gently holding on what we had left behind

Bridge

Maybe love was never meant to stay bright always

Just to teach us how to carry the light

To find it in every leaf turning silver

Every storm that washes through me once more

To learn my own name, written small and steady

Not by who I lost but by what stayed, softly

Chorus

Gently holding on what we had left behind

The rain lets go and so do I, softly this time

Every goodbye still has an opening, a door I can turn to gold in my mind

Slowly, slowly letting the sorrow unfold

Gently holding on what we had left behind