#To share the space with simple living things/ Infinitely suffering/ but fighting off/ Like all creation/ The absence of itself

[sigilmint]

shakes hozier as hard as i can demanding to know who told him about good omens s2 when he was writing unreal unearth

[youcouldbewonderful]

did hozier know that writing first time meant he was directly responsible for what that did to my mental health

[edalynn-ink]

Hozier is so crazy like who writes the words:

“this life lived mostly underground

Unknowing either sight nor sound

‘Til reaching up for sunlight, just to be ripped out by the stem

Sensing only now it’s dying

Drying out, then drowning blindly, blooming forth its every color in the moments it has left

To share this space with simple living things, infinitely suffering, but fighting off, like all creation, the absence of itself.”

ONLY TO FOLLOW IT IMMEDIATELY WITH “but AnYwAYs-”

[munchmemes]

hozier lyrics, unreal unearth edition

❛ your reflection can't offer a word to the bliss of not knowing yourself. ❜ ❛ no closer could i be to god or why he would do what he's done. ❜ ❛ what you live in, it finds a way to live in you. ❜ ❛ your heart has such darkness. ❜ ❛ i wanna be gone. i wanna run so far, i'd beat the morning. ❜ ❛ before the dawn has come, i'd block the sun if you want it done. ❜ ❛ let all time slow. let all light go. ❜ ❛ i don't need to know where we begin and end. ❜ ❛ i'd still know you, not being shown you. ❜ ❛ the first time that you kissed me, i drank dry the river lethe. the liffey would have been softer on my stomach all the same. ❜ ❛ some part of me must have died the first time that you called me baby. ❜ ❛ some part of me came alive the first time that you called me baby. ❜ ❛ these days, i think, i owe my life to flowers that were left here by my mother. ain't that like them? gifting life to you again. ❜ ❛ oh, to share the space with simple living things infinitely suffering but fighting off, like all creation, the absence of itself ... but anyway. ❜ ❛ some part of me stayed alive each time that you called. ❜ ❛ whatever keeps you around, it keeps you around. ❜ ❛ when i was young i used to guess, are there limits to any emptiness? ❜ ❛ how could you think i'd scare so easily? ❜ ❛ my life was a storm since i was born. how could i fear any hurricane? ❜ ❛ i would do it again if i could hold you for a minute. ❜ ❛ what good would it be on the far side of things? ❜ ❛ i would not change it each time. ❜ ❛ heaven is not fit to house a love like you and i. ❜ ❛ i feel lighter than i have in so much time. ❜ ❛ how could i fall when i am lifted by every word you say to me? ❜ ❛ if anything could fall at all, it's the world that falls away from me. ❜ ❛ if you need to, lean your weight to me. ❜ ❛ if we fall, i only pray, don't fall away from me. ❜ ❛ i'm starving, darling. let me put my lips to something. ❜ ❛ you can't buy this fineness. ❜ ❛ we can celebrate the good that we've done. ❜

❛ we had nowhere to go and every desire for going there. ❜ ❛ i heard once, it's the comforts that make us feel numb. ❜ ❛ it was just our turn being blamed for a world we had no power in. ❜ ❛ i haven't felt it since then. i don't know how the feeling ended. ❜ ❛ i know being reckless and young is not how the damage gets done. ❜ ❛ we knew what our love was worth when we had nothing. ❜ ❛ i miss when we did not need much. ❜ ❛ you were steering my heart like a wheel in your hands. ❜ ❛ all i needed was someone when the whole wide world felt young. ❜ ❛ hold me like water or hold me like a knife. ❜ ❛ you and i burned out our steam chasing someone else's dream. ❜ ❛ how can something be so much heavier but so much less than what it seems? ❜ ❛ you only feel it when it's lost. getting through still has its cost. ❜ ❛ if there was anyone to ever get through this life with their heart still intact, they didn't do it right. ❜ ❛ we didn't get it right but we did our best. ❜ ❛ knowing that everything will end should not change our plans. ❜ ❛ all things end. ❜ ❛ there are some things that no one teaches you that come natural as a dream you didn't know that you were in. ❜ ❛ the awful things we do to make the head go quiet. ❜ ❛ you may never know your fortune until the distance has been shown between what is lost forever and what can still be known. ❜ ❛ i don't wanna be anything but i would do anything just to run away. ❜ ❛ go look another way. ❜ ❛ look, i wanna be loud. so loud, i'm talking seismic. ❜ ❛ i will not be great but i'm grateful to get through. ❜ ❛ the memory hurts but does me no harm. ❜ ❛ the moment i knew i'd no choice but to love you. ❜ ❛ there's a part of me, i'm afraid will always be trapped within an abstract from a moment of my life. ❜ ❛ you know, the distance never made a difference to me. ❜ ❛ so, i thought you were like an angel to me. ❜ ❛ it ain't the being alone. it ain't the empty home. you know i'm good on my own. ❜ ❛ so much of the living is the being unknown. ❜ ❛ do you know i could break beneath the weight of the goodness i still carry for you? ❜ ❛ there are some people who are better unknown. ❜ ❛ darkness always finds you either way. ❜ ❛ after this, i'm never gonna be the same and i am never going back again. ❜

[padfootagain]

Love in Verses (XVI)

Chapter 16 : ‘Only the things I didn’t do crackle after the blazing dies’

Hi! Here is new chapter! Let’s see Andrew’s reaction after New Year’s Eve!

I hope you like this chapter! Tell me what you think!

****

Pairing: Hozier x fem!reader (professor!AU)

Warnings: slow burn, angst, hurt, hurt/comfort, tooth-rotting fluff in later chapters, some scenes in later chapters will have heavy sexual themes even if it’s not explicit nsfw description, so minors here

Summary: Your life seems perfect. You're engaged, your career is thriving as you become an assistant professor at Trinity College, and this Andrew Hozier-Byrne you're sharing an office with seems to be a nice guy you hope to call a friend soon. Life seems to be smiling at you... until everything goes sour. When your fiancé breaks up with you, your perfect world shatters. And when your colleague also gets his heart broken soon after, your shared office seems to be a curse rather than a blessing. But Andrew seems determined to mend your broken hearts... Will things finally go according to plan?

Word Count: 2287

Masterlist for the series – Hozier’s masterlist – Main masterlist

Burning the Old Year

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.   Notes friends tied to the doorknob,   transparent scarlet paper, sizzle like moth wings, marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,   lists of vegetables, partial poems.   Orange swirling flame of days,   so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,   an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.   I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,   only the things I didn’t do   crackle after the blazing dies.

Naomi Shihab Nye, Words Under the Words: Selected Poems, 1995

Andrew was lying awake.

Eyes set on his ceiling, sunbeams streaming in from the window, painting waves in shades of white over the plain surface. Elwood was playing with the ball you had gifted him that day, on the beach, gnawing at it and pushing it with his snout across the room before catching it again. The sound of movement, of another life by Andrew’s side, was reassuring. The world wasn’t empty. There were other living things he shared this world with. Like flowers, and trees, and the birds that were chirping in the pine tree near his window, getting their feathers gorged with sunlight. Seaweeds. Fish. Moss spreading on rocks. That flower that pierced the concrete last night.

Andrew grabbed his notebook again, his black pen, felt his mind quieten as he wrote.

To share the space with simple living things

Infinitely suffering but fighting off like all creation

The absence of itself

Anyway… he was thinking of you.

You ended up going to your place together last night. He didn’t go back to the party, didn’t see Sam again. Instead, he asked you if you wanted to go home, and you hesitated. He could hear your voice speaking those words again, the ones that broke his heart…

I don’t want to be alone right now…

The way he took your hand in his, gave you a reassuring smile.

You don’t have to be.

There was a promise, in these words he had offered, one that went beyond what even Andrew was aware of as he spoke. Still, he gave it freely, made you smile again. He followed you in the uber you called, then into your street, into the staircase to your place, in your living room. You chatted for a while, carefully avoiding to mention Frank and Sam. You made him laugh with your long list of new year resolutions that he knew already you wouldn’t keep. He couldn’t remember who had proposed first to play Mario Kart, but he had the time of his life playing with you, laughing as you both tried to cheat. He lost. Pretended to have let you win.

When he was about to leave, you hugged him; tightly, as if to hold him back.

Thank you so much, for being here.

You spoke as if he had done you a favour. He hadn’t. He wanted to be there more than he was willing to admit.

He could have stayed at the party. Sam was in an amazing mood, they had been talking, more so than they had done in months. She was smiling, and enchanting, and beautiful, and made his heart warm. He was quiet, for most of the time, but he didn’t mind. As long as she would stay…

It had been working for him, this crazy plan of yours. Sam had barely spoken to Frank while Andrew was near. She seemed so happy to see him, to talk to him, it felt like good old times. At one point, she had even taken his hand in hers.

But Andrew had kept an eye on you, worried after the fiasco regarding your part of the plan. When he saw you taking your coat, he knew you would leave.

He couldn’t explain it. Even now, after having slept, after thinking about it for hours, he couldn’t explain it. But as he saw you disappear down the hall, the only thought Andrew had was to follow you. The only thing he wanted was to leave too. The only person he longed for, in that moment, was you. Insane. Illogical. Sam was there, talking with him, it was his chance to get closer to her again, to talk with her about Frank and that stupid wedding… but Andrew didn’t. Instead, he excused himself, followed you outside, caught you before you would leave. The fear that clenched on his heart as he saw you standing there, by the elevator, was so fierce his hands were shaking.

He didn’t think when he told you to wait for him, when he hurried back inside to get some champagne, grab his coat. He told Sam he was leaving, she was disappointed. He had longed for that reaction so badly. And yet you were standing by the lift, out there, and he needed to follow you, he wasn’t sure why. It didn’t matter. He simply hurried outside. When you told him he should go back inside, the look of boredom on Sam’s face as he spoke about the things he loved flashed before his eyes, and he thought you didn’t want his companionship anymore, and what if you left too? What if you didn’t like him at all? What if he needed to change for you, would he?

He would. He would be quiet, the way he had been with Sam during the night, he would erase himself for you to stay, he would shrink down as much as he could until you could barely notice he was there at all, as long as you stayed.

You’re never boring.

He jumped as his phone buzzed, resting on his bedside table. It made Elwood look up as well, the ball in his mouth.

Two texts, one from Sam, one from Alex.

Happy New Year, loser! Want to drop by tonight? Have a beer?

Andrew smiled at Alex’s text, accepted the offer.

Hi, Andy! Just wanted to check in, see that you came home safely last night.

Andrew hummed as he answered Sam’s text.

Hi! Yeah, got home safe and sound. No worries. Thanks for last night, btw

Sam was typing immediately after receiving Andrew’s message, he waited to read her new text.

Do you know when Y/N left? Apparently she’s home now, but Frank is worried she might truly have been sick last night. He feels bad for asking her to stay.

Frank was worried about you?

Andrew clenched his jaw, tightened his hold on his phone as he typed an answer, tapping on the screen too hard.

She’s fine, tell him not to worry. I took her home last night, she was okay. When I left, she was going to bed. She just needed to rest, I reckon.

He noticed the tiny bubble showing Sam was typing, it disappeared and reappeared several times. It took her over two minutes to answer.

Good news! Thanks, Andy xx

He raised a surprised eyebrow, the ghost of a smug smile on his lips. Two minutes, for four words?

He thought about last night again, how he got into an uber to your place. And before that, the glass of champagne he had drunk with you, how soft your skin was under his palm, how warm you were in the cold air of the night. The colour of your eyes as he lost his thoughts and busy mind into their shades. How you looked up at him, asked him about his glasses out of the blue. He chuckled at the memory. What a strange question to ask? His smile wavered, faded.

He could feel the burning of your skin against his, the gentleness of your touch as you brushed your fingers against the most vulnerable part of his face. He felt so completely at peace then, while the pads of your fingers lingered over his eyelashes and eyelids. He felt human. He felt… happy.

I think you should wear whatever you like. Although… I love your eyes. And you look soft with your glasses on. It makes me feel safe.

You were a little over tipsy at that point, that was probably why you spoke so genuinely.

He liked wearing glasses. He liked their anchoring weight on his nose, and he didn’t like the itching that came with contacts in the evening. You liked it too…

He wanted you to feel safe with him. He wanted you to be yourself when he was around, he didn’t want you to change a single thing, he wanted to… he wanted… God, at that moment he wanted to kiss you so badly…

When the countdown had ended, Andrew had kissed your forehead instead of your lips, although he knew the kiss lasted for too long. He couldn’t help it. It felt wrong to pull away, to not feel you against his mouth anymore.

And then you were smiling, so beautiful under the dual light of lampposts and moon it was painful to look at you. Andrew closed his eyes as he remembered the feeling of your lips on his skin, how you kissed the corner of his mouth, how time had stilled…

He could have kissed you then. He could have turned his head, just slightly, barely a movement at all, and he would have kissed you. There was no denying that he regretted not doing it, even though he chose not to recognise why he felt that way.

Instead, Andrew stared at his ceiling, sunbeams streaming in from the window, painting waves in shades of white over the plain surface. And Elwood was still playing with the ball you had gifted him that day, on the beach, gnawing at it and pushing it with his snout across the room before catching it again.

And Andrew thought of you.

“Christ, you look awful.”

“Thanks, mate! You look like shite too!”

“Your hangover was clearly worse than mine.”

“I won’t deny it, I had a blast last night.”

Alex and Andrew hugged, laughing. Alex had been away for a few weeks, it felt good to have him back in Dublin.

“Can’t believe you ditched us, by the way,” admonished Alex. “You should have come, we had so much fun.”

But Andrew shrugged.

“I had another invitation.”

“From Sam, I know. You absolute lunatic.”

Andrew chuckled.

“Is your crazy plan working at least?”

Alex offered his friend a bottle of beer, before he would bend down to pet Elwood, that Andrew had obviously brought along. Alex let the dog lick his face in excitement, laughing at the ticklish sensation. Andrew smiled at the sight.

“It went well for me last night,” Andrew nodded, drinking a gulp of the cold beer.

“Is she leaving her new fiancé for you, then?” Alex asked, half-teasing, half-something else that Andrew didn’t like at all, although he couldn’t identify the tone.

Alex joined him on the sofa, Elwood settling down by Andrew’s feet and curling up for a quick nap.

“Not yet,” Andrew answered with a coldness to his quiet voice that wasn’t usual for him.

Alex heaved a sigh.

“Did she give you some of her attention, at least.”

“A lot, actually.”

“You are aware that if she loved you, like… truly loved you, you wouldn’t have to seek her attention that way. You know that, right?”

Andrew didn’t say a word, he merely drank again.

“Game?” Alex asked, unwilling to let a heavy silence settle on his friend.

Andrew nodded, a smile back on his face.

“Sure!”

“Mario Kart?”

“I’ll kick your arse.”

“In your wildest dreams, maybe.”

“Hey, you might be surprised! I’ve been practicing!”

“Oh, so that’s what you do when I’m not around? You train to beat me at Mario Kart? That’s very sweet, Andy. I know you think of me all the time…”

“Shut up!” Andrew laughed, playfully shoving Alex while he stood up to get the game ready. “I’ve been playing recently, ‘s all. With Y/N.”

Alex threw him a glance, but Andrew didn’t notice.

“With Y/N? Is she any good.”

“Better than you.”

“Impossible. I’m a champ!”

“She would kick your arse so fucking hard…”

“Maybe we could play together sometime, then.”

Andrew felt warmth spread across his chest at the thought. He couldn’t refrain his smile.

“Maybe,” he merely hummed.

“Was Y/N at the party last night, too?”

“Yeah, she was. We left together. It didn’t go so well with Frank though…”

“Poor thing.”

“Yeah… she was upset. We played Mario Kart at her place after. And Zelda, actually. I helped her, she was stuck.”

“A true knight in shining armour.”

“Very funny,” Andrew rolled his eyes, grabbing the control Alex was handing him.

“She seems to be good craic, that Y/N.”

“Yeah, she is,” Andrew nodded.

“You should invite her to one of our evenings!”

“We don’t have anything planned for a while.”

“Your birthday?”

“We’re playing a gig on my birthday.”

“You’re still coming, by the way? I’m counting on you as our vocalist, Andy…”

“I’ll come, don’t worry. I told you I’d do it. When was the last time I let you down like that?”

“2012, the Anúna rehearsal…”

“God, I can’t believe you’re still talking about that… it was years ago!”

“You didn’t show!”

“I’m sorry! Stop bringing that up! It was one time. The only time I broke a promise! Give me a break.”

Alex laughed, playfully nudged his friend.

“Anyway… you should ask her to come and see us! It would be fun!”

But Andrew rolled his eyes.

“I highly doubt she’d be interested in that.”

Andrew didn’t like the way Alex stared at him. He knew what that stare meant. The obvious criticism of the woman he had loved for years.

He didn’t say anything about Sam, though, not out loud. He merely looked at the tv screen, chose a character to play with.

“You might be surprised,” was his answer.

Andrew didn’t answer, picked the vehicle he wanted to play with instead. His heart was beating too fast, his throat clenching now. He didn’t think you’d be interested in spending Saint Patrick’s Day with him, playing some covers and traditional songs in a tiny pub. He didn’t think you would come. He would be surprised if you were interested in that part of him.

And what if you didn’t surprise him?

[its-gremlin-time]

When Hozier said “the memory hurts but does me no harm” and when Hozier said “some part of me came alive the final time you called me baby” and when Hozier said “and just knowing that everything will end should not change our plans when we begin again” and when Hozier said “I remember the view streetlights in the dark blue the moment I knew I'd no choice but to love you” and when Hozier said “If these heights should bring my fall let me be your own Icarian carrion” and when Hozier said “strap the wing to me death trap clad happily with wax melted I'd meet the sea under sunlight” and when Hozier said “To share the space with simple living things infinitely suffering but fighting off like all creation the absence of itself

Anyway”

[radiocurrency]

'First Time' by Hozier is so 70's era Devil Minion coded 😍

Sensing only now it's dying

Drying out then drowning blindly

Blooming forth its every colour

In the moments it has left

To share the space with simple living things

Infinitely suffering

But fighting off like all creation

The absence of itself

Anyway

Some part of me must have died

Each time that you called me baby

But some part of me stayed alive

Each time that you called

Each time that you called

[namaiki-fuyu]

The second verse of First Time really didn’t need to fucking do that huh

These days I think I owe my life

To flowers that were left here by my mother

Ain't that like them, gifting life to you again

This life lived mostly underground

Unknowing either sight nor sound

‘Til reaching up for sunlight

Just to be ripped up by the stem

Sensing only now it’s dying

Drying out then drowning blindly

In the moments it has left

To share the space with simple living things Infinitely suffering

But fighting off like all creation

The absence of itself

Well, Anyway…

Good Christ, Andrew wtf man

[maskingme]

First Time?

Hozier? Sir? For the First Time?

That song knocked me tf out are you kidding me

"These days i think i owe my life to the flowers that were left here by my mother? (Aint that like them?)--Gifting life to you again?-- This life lived mostly underground, unknowing neither sight nor sound, till Reaching Up For Sunlight just to be ripped out by the stem? Sensing! Only! Now! Its dying! Drying out then Drowning blindly? Blooming forth its every color? (In the moments it has left) To share its space with simple living things--Infinitely Suffering-- But! Fighting off! Like All Creation, the absence of itself

But Anyways????"

THE WAY THAT KNOCKED ME ON MY ASS-

[hbhtasm]

THESE DAYS I THINK I OWE MY LIFE

TO THE FLOWERS THAT WERE LEFT HERE BY MY MOTHER

AIN'T THAT LIKE THEM GIFTING LIFE TO YOU AGAIN

THIS LIFE LIVED MOSTLY UNDERGROUND

UNKNOWNING EITHER SIGHT NOR SOUND

TIL REACHING UP FOR SUNLIGHT JUST TO BE RIPPED OUT BY THE STEM

SENSING ONLY NOW IT'S DYING

DRYING OUT THEN DROWING BLINDLY

BLOOMING FORTH ITS EVERY COLOR IN THE MOMENTS IT HAS LEFT

TO SHARE THE SPACE WITH SIMPLE LIVING THINGS

INFINITELY SUFFERING BUT FIGHTING OFF LIKE ALL CREATION THE ABSENCE OF ITSELF

Well anyway

[darlinghowl]

hey don’t cry. these days i think i owe my life to flowers that were left here by my mother ain’t that like them gifting life to you again this life lived mostly underground unknowing neither sight nor sound til reaching up for sunlight just to be ripped out by the stem sensing only now it’s dying drying out then drowning blindly blooming forth its every color in the moments it has left to share space with such simple living things infinitely suffering but fighting off like all creation the absence of itself. anyway. okay?

[wordsinhaled]

every so often i forget crowley IS a canonical hozier enjoyer and then i remember

and i know everyone’s heard “take me to church,” but like, listen. it really is the most crowley song???

the only heaven i’ll be sent to is when i’m alone with you

if i'm a pagan of the good times, my lover's the sunlight. to keep the goddess on my side she demands a sacrifice; drain the whole sea, get something shiny (acts of service crowley acts of service crowley acts of service crowley)

something meaty for the main course; that's a fine-looking high horse. that looks tasty—that looks plenty—this is hungry work (“have an ox-rib…”)

and then i picture crowley after aziraphale leaves - lying on the floor of his new flat, all concrete and sharp edges again. newly moved in, and he’s listening to unreal unearth and staring up at the ceiling

i mean, have you actually imagined crowley hearing “first time” after aziraphale goes back to heaven?

remember once i told you about how before i heard it from your mouth my name would always hit my ears as such an awful sound

this life lived mostly underground, unknowing either sight not sound, ‘til reaching up for sunlight just to be ripped out by the stem; sensing only now it’s dying, drying out then drowning blindly, blooming forth its every color in the moments it has left to share the space with simple living things; infinitely suffering but fighting off, like all creation, the absence of itself

the last time it was heard out loud, the perfect genius of our hands and mouths were shocked to resignation as the arguing declined; when i was young i used to guess, are there limits to any emptiness? when was the last time? c’mere to me, when was the last time?

and “francesca”???

if someone asked me at the end, i’d tell them “put me back in it.” darling, i would do it again. if i could hold you for a minute, darling, i’d go through it again. though i know my heart would break, i’d tell them “put me back in it.” i would not change it each time. heaven is not fit to house a love like you and i

“who we are”???

you and i burned out our steam chasing someone else’s dream; how can somethin’ be so much heavier but so much less than what it seems? darling, we sacrificed, we gave our time to something undefined. this phantom life sharpens like an image, but it sharpens like a knife

i literally think he’d have to turn off “first light” after the first verse

you know he’d track down mister andrew hozier byrne just to ramble at him over a whisky, you just couldn’t leave off at “from eden,” could you, when i said ‘have at it’ i meant, y’know, that thing artists do, what is it? artistic liberties, not a bloody prophecy

poor crowley being subjected to this record. i feel for him, i really do

[plantanarchy]

My poor neglected houseplants this winter.... something something to share this space with simple living things infinitely suffering but fighting off like all creation the absence of itself. If you even care.

[shroudkeeper]

To share the space with simple living things

.. infinitely suffering, but fighting off like all creation.

[dailyeca]

these days I think I owe my life to flowers that were left here by my mother... reaching up for sunlight / just to be ripped out by the stem... blooming forth its every color / in the moments it has left to share the space with simple living things / infinitely suffering but fighting off — like all creation — the absence of itself well, anyway...