Song
The Feast of Words (Piano Sessions Version)
From the release: Piano Sessions
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
We sat around the table low
No kings, no crowns, just firelight glow
No feast of wine or meat to spare
But every soul was full in there
[Pre-Chorus]
We broke no bread, we sang no song
But truth was passed the whole night long
[Chorus]
The feast of words — it fed us deep
More than the harvest, more than sleep
We laughed and thought, we cried and knew
That joy can live in what is true
No silver plates, no golden chords
Just hearts alive… at the feast of words
[Verse 2]
August winds, and gentle rain
Tapped the roof like a soft refrain
And in that room, a question stirred:
Is joy not found in spoken word?
[Pre-Chorus]
And when the silence made its place
We saw the Light behind each face
[Chorus]
The feast of words — it fed us deep
More than the harvest, more than sleep
We laughed and thought, we cried and knew
That joy can live in what is true
No silver plates, no golden chords
Just hearts alive… at the feast of words
[Bridge]
A mother’s gaze, a friend’s reply
A soul that asks and won’t deny
[Final Chorus]
The feast of words — we’ll eat again
Where joy and truth don’t ever end
Not every meal is bread and wine
Some are woven into time
The world may mock what it ignores
But joy was born… at the feast of words
Song Meaning
“The Feast of Words (Piano Sessions Version)” revisits the gathering remembered in Augustine’s On the Happy Life, where a birthday meal becomes a conversation about what truly nourishes a human being. Monica, family, students, and friends share more than food: questions and answers become a common meal, and wisdom becomes the good toward which every speaker is invited. The song expands that setting through firelight, rain, laughter, silence, and attentive faces. These are imaginative details, but they serve the dialogue’s central insight that happiness cannot be secured by possessions or appetite alone. The sparse piano arrangement makes the communal scene feel like a cherished memory viewed from a distance. Its warmth comes not from abundance but from presence—the mother’s insight, the friend’s reply, and the willingness to seek truth together. In this form, the feast becomes a model of intellectual friendship: words nourish because love and wisdom give them something lasting to share.
Song Inspiration
Augustine’s On the Happy Life, especially the Cassiciacum birthday gathering where Monica, relatives, students, and friends seek together the wisdom that truly nourishes and makes life happy.
From the Source
Supporting passages from the Augustinus Vox Standard Version (AVSV). Select a source to read it in context.
The Ides of November was my birthday. After a luncheon so slight that it could impede none of our minds, I invited everyone who shared my table not only on that day but every day to sit together in the baths, for a place both secluded and suited to the season presented itself there.
I believe the soul is nourished by nothing other than understanding of things and knowledge.
Additional Details
Song Style: very soft intimate solo piano, delicate contemporary classical, gentle flowing arpeggios, tender emotional melody, quiet reflective mood, warm natural piano tone, sparse minimalist performance