The Night Shines Like Fireflies.

3 a.m, Berlin, and a Broken Heart.

The Night Shines Like Fireflies

There it goes,
and here it comes.

Say goodbye to the past,
and welcome the future with a wide-eyed smile.
Welcome today with open arms—
whatever it brings.

Whatever pitfalls:
be it screaming naked in tears,
banging your head against the wall because she decided to leave,
clutching clumps of your hair and pulling hard at their roots,
wiping tears from the stained and cracked wooden floor,
or just staring into space in a daze for hours on end,
whilst somber songs float delicately around your room.

Whatever triumphs land on you:
the joy of opportunities that drip down from the sky,
whether they bring success or failure—
the spark of a new love igniting a freshness in your stomach,
or the realization of being happy in one’s contorted body.

These are the moments when the secrets of life are revealed.
They open up and announce themselves
in all their unashamed glory.

So, constantly scrub at your skin that seals the pain,
and rub away the past to reveal something new,
something untouched,
something clean and pure—
fresh from a world of regrets,
where choices were made through fear.

Realize that this is a moment to embrace.
Whilst yesterdays are filled with sorrow
and girls on mortuary slabs,
know that today is filled with blossom
from autumnal trees.

Each day brings light,
so treat yourself to those pleasures—
the ones you have negated before,
the ones you believed you didn’t deserve.

Feed yourself the sun.
Don’t be afraid of this light.

Love people—
O! The Glorious People—
who enter your life and delicately push you forward.

Cherish the moment you are in.
For once,
start to live,
start to breathe,
and start to believe that
it doesn’t matter whether you choose the right road.

All that matters,
all that counts,
all that really counts,
is that you pick up your weary feet from the floor
and move forward in a direction.

There may be mistakes and regrets,
glories and failures,
but there will be love and laughter,
tears and heartache.

And whilst the mornings can sometimes be filled with darkness,
the night shines like fireflies.

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Notes & Reflections.

I wrote The Night Shines Like Fireflies in Berlin in 2007 (!), whilst documenting and photographing a band’s (Supergrass) final album being recorded at the legendary Hansa Studios.

I was heartbroken after the end of a married love affair (I was the other man; for a decade, I always was). It was the kind of heartbreak that leaves you hollow, where even the city’s pulse feels out of sync with your own. I was lost—untethered, raw, and drowning in the echoes of what was.

Then, one night at 3 a.m., it all spilled out. There was no planning, no pause, no edits—just a surge of grief, reflection, and the fragile thread of hope woven through the darkness.

Berlin Fotoautomat 2007

I’ve never edited it because it feels like a time capsule, holding that exact moment when I was broken but also beginning to heal.

This poem isn’t about resolution. It’s about movement, however small, however uncertain.

And now, multiple lifetimes away, I revisit the poem that changed my life. It carried me through a time when I needed it, and for that, I will also be grateful.