Downriver

I saw you by the water

Standin’ high beside the tide

And I too shy to speak with you

Came to sit there by your side.

Lovely lady walk with me

Through the flowers and the fields

Take my hand and run around

And we’ll see what time reveals

Oh Love, won’t you go

Down river with me,

Down river with me,

Down river with me,

Down river with me.

When first we went a walkin’ well

You held your hand in mine

And soon we got to talkin’ of

Our days further down the line.

Love, take my hand again

For the time’s been a-comin’ around

For us both to smile and you to say,

“It’s together we are bound.”

Oh Love, won’t you go

Down river with me,

Down river with me,

Down river with me,

Down river with me.

You took me to the water’s edge

And there began to pray

And when I woke up the very next morn’

It was in your arms I lay.

You’re the beauty of my mornin’

You’re the song of my evenin’ sky

And when you took me to that river

Well, you opened up my eyes.

Oh Love, won’t you go

Down river with me,

Down river with me,

Down river with me,

Down river with me.

There’s a river where I met you

There’s a river by your side

A river runs through my hometown

Where I used to hide.

Soon, I will be runnin’ down

This river far from you

Now and don’t you dare come find me

Lest you find our love proves true.

It’s time to let you go.

Down river to sea,

Down river to sea,

Down river to sea,

Down river to…

Down river to the sea, oh won’t you go,

Down river to sea, I’ll let you go,

Down river to sea,

Down river to sea.

I saw you by the water

Standin’ high beside the tide

And I too shy to speak with you

Came to sit there by your side.

When the Aster Blooms

When the Aster blooms, well,

The seasons are a-changin’ from

Late summer to the waking of

An early August dream

I am bound now for leavin’

And it’s time to say good-bye

But I’ll always remember

Late summer sun in your eyes.

Here we are together

Walkin’ slowly by the river

And down the hill from sunset cliffs

And by the oceanside.

We are always together

Taking time from broken lives

To touch the heels of heaven

In our dusted summer skies. 

Chorus 

We rarely spoke in words

You and I, we’d sit together

On your carpet full of fantasies

And blue mountainside

It’s hard still to leave you

As I go off alone

And it’s hard to tell myself

And you, “I’ll come back home.” 

Chorus 

Here we are together

Sittin’ down beside the river

And in gardens full of roses

At the top of slow inclines

And although I’ll always miss you

I look forward to tomorrow

When we’ll sit beside each other

On our little mountainside.

Chorus

Love, I am a-leavin’

And the seasons are a-changin’ from

Late summer to the waking of

An early August dream

We travel through the fog

In your valley this fine mornin’

And I’m gone before the sun will rise

In your eyes, mist today.

Ivory Bones

Casting lots with ivory bones:

Acorns, flowers and old pine cones.

You left me here upon the sea

With only angel’s wings for company.

As I look back at that new year,

I cannot find a laugh nor tear:

All I see is washed out white

Lost in manes of mares that reign the night.

In the dark, I know, I was in pain

Thunder storms of summer rain,

Snow and wind upon the trees

Drowned out cries to God upon my knees.

In disbelief that these were wounds

Far too long, I hid the ruins:

For fear of being held as weak

Silence stole the words that strength would speak.

Of late I’ve wondered how to heal

All these ruins where once I kneeled,

All these stories left untold,

All these ivory bones I’ve come to hold.

The healer finds me by surprise,

Opens up my blinded eyes,

Gives me strength that I may see:

Yours were the hands that wounded me.

My ship returns to my homeland

Where once I prayed in desert sands.

There healing flows from hands I know:

Where love is deep, new seeds may grow.

I will choose the empty path

Marked by neither tear nor laugh:

Cast these bones away at sea

Your hands are gone and I am free.

The Druid

My Love, he is a-walkin’ alongside those waves

If only, I could wander there beside him all my days

Deep peace would come to me, Love, like the swan rests in the bay

If only I could wander there beside you and the waves.

He’s off across the waters, past the mountains in the sky

It’s there, I look each evening as the stars begin to rise

And it’s there, I’ll look each dawning at the first light on the hill

It’s there I’ll look each morning, for my Love he calls me still.

If I could build a ship, Love, like my fathers long before

I would cast off from the mountains to the skies that I adore

I would sail upon the dust, Love, that lights up by the moon

Just to anchor there beside you, where we met upon the dunes.

The Druid, he waits ‘til evening, and the swan she waits ‘til dawn

For the spell upon the waters of the Bay to all be gone

And my Love, he is a-waiting, far beyond my rollin’ hills

Though I ask of him no duty, but to wander where he wills.

When comes the time for harvest of summer days gone by

And fire’s in the mountains that I’ve known for all my life

It’s then I’ll see my own love from across those rolling waves

And it’s then we’ll walk together, under stars for all our days.