Books by Dale Harris

Books by Dale Harris
A Feast of Epiphanies

Though I Walk, A Novel

Daytime Moons and Other Celestial Anomalies, a book of poems

Second Wind

Second Wind
An album of songs both old and new. Recorded in 2021, a year of major transition for me, these songs explore the many vicissitudes of the spiritual life,. It's about the mountaintop moments and the Holy Saturday sunrises, the doors He opens that no one can close, and those doors He's closed that will never open again. You can click the image above to give it a listen.

The Song Became a Child

The Song Became a Child
A collection of Christmas songs I wrote and recorded during the early days of the pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2020. Click the image to listen.

There's a Trick of the Light I'm Learning to Do

This is a collection of songs I wrote and recorded in January - March, 2020 while on sabbatical from ministry. They each deal with a different aspect or expression of the Gospel. Click on the image above to listen.

Three Hands Clapping

This is my latest recording project (released May 27, 2019). It is a double album of 22 songs, which very roughly track the story of my life... a sort of musical autobiography, so to speak. Click the album image to listen.

Ghost Notes

Ghost Notes
A collections of original songs I wrote in 2015, and recorded with the FreeWay Musical Collective. Click the album image to listen.

inversions

Recorded in 2014, these songs are sort of a chronicle of my journey through a pastoral burn-out last winter. They deal with themes of mental-health, spiritual burn-out and depression, but also with the inexorable presence of God in the midst of darkness. Click the album art to download.

soundings

soundings
click image to download
"soundings" is a collection of songs I recorded in September/October of 2013. Dealing with themes of hope, ache, trust and spiritual loss, the songs on this album express various facets of my journey with God.

bridges

bridges
Click to download.
"Bridges" is a collection of original songs I wrote in the summer of 2011, during a soul-searching trip I took out to Alberta; a sort of long twilight in the dark night of the soul. I share it here in hopes these musical reflections on my own spiritual journey might be an encouragement to others: the sun does rise, blood-red but beautiful.

echoes

echoes
Prayers, poems and songs (2005-2009). Click to download
"echoes" is a collection of songs I wrote during my time studying at Briercrest Seminary (2004-2009). It's called "echoes" partly because these songs are "echoes" of times spent with God from my songwriting past, but also because there are musical "echoes" of hymns, songs or poems sprinkled throughout the album. Listen closely and you'll hear them.

Accidentals

This collection of mostly blues/rock/folk inspired songs was recorded in the spring and summer of 2015. I call it "accidentals" because all of the songs on this project were tunes I have had kicking around in my notebooks for many years but had never found a "home" for on previous albums. You can click the image to download the whole album.

random reads

... Where No Light Shines

Indulge me with one more nod in Dylan Thomas' direction. I wrote this song last spring based on one of my favorite Dylan Thomas poems. I was trying to write a song around the imagery in Ephesians 5:14-15, where Paul says: "It is the light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: Wake up, O sleeper rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." The same time I was thinking of these verses, I was thinking of "Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines," Dylan Thomas' (very secular) poem about the mysterious light that sometimes breaks in the darkest places of the human heart. And as I thought of Paul, and Ephesians 5:15, and Dylan Thomas, it struck me how this in-breaking light, which transcends all human logic and reason, shines so much more radiantly in Christ than anywhere Dylan Thomas himself looked for it.

Anyways, you can click play below to hear a rough recording of the song that emerged out of these meditations, or you can read the original poem here if you're interested.

Light breaks where no light shines

Light breaks this heart of mine

Where no seas run, burst out the heart's tide

And broken ghosts look out through my eyes, there

Light breaks where no light shines



Dawn breaks in blackened skies

Dawn breaks through all my lies

Where coursing blood slides to the sea

Through coursing veins to the heart of me

There light breaks where no light shines



Wake, O sleeper, rise up from the grave

And Christ will shine his glory on your face

Wake, O sleeper, rise up from the grave

And Christ will shine his glory on your face

And light breaks where no light shines



Sun breaks on sleeping earth

Sun breaks to bring new birth

When logics die and answers fade

And foaming seas sweep my heart away

There sun breaks where no light shines

[click here to listen]

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