1. Prologue

1. Prologue
 
This is the turning of the year
The final scene before the curtain falls
The squirrel, warm within his bed
of leaves cannot hear the wind
that blows around the chimney pots
For like the pilgrim of the year gone by
He sleeps
 
Once he was a young man
who laughed in the spring
And lay beneath an upturned sky
on long hot summer days
 
But with autumn he grows mellow
He looks over his shoulder
Down the long year path of no return
 
Already he is but a memory
Fading like a shadow on the wall
But time with restless footsteps
hurries by and now beside the road
There stands the pilgrim
of the year to be
 
2. Winter Song
 
Falling leaves turn to gold
Silver flowers on my window
Spirit of the fading year
gently slips away
He knows not where
He cannot say, oh no
 
Naked trees in the sky
Stars are shining clear and cold
The minstrel of the ages
sings of oh so long ago
An age old tune without a name
No one knows
 
In the white falling snow
The pilgrim travels on
His face towards the sun
Beyond the open road he travels on
 
Past the lamp shining windows
And faces by the fire
Before the midnight hour
For Christmas time
has come around again
 
Go to sleep, little child
You shouldn't be awake
Go to sleep little child
Time to let the night go by
 
Waiting for the sound of a magic sleigh
The chimneys not too tall they say
Or the roof too high for a reindeer to fly
No not too high for a reindeer to fly
 
The clock strikes twelve
on a street below
They hurry to a church to pray
"Forgive our sins and negligence
Accept our humble penitence
It's been a year ago today
Since we were here"
 
Choir gently sings an anthem
Not too loud or out of key
Congregation turn eye corners
When the plate goes round to see
Who gives the most on Christmas day
The most on Christmas day
 
Twilight days are slipping far away
Just sand into an hour glass
For winter time is slowly passed
And cannot last forever
 
North wind turn your back
upon the doors that you have blown
West wind melt the organ pipes of ice
That glitter on the eaves
of the houses in the town
 
And the sun wakes up the flowers
That slumber through the winter
And warms the sleepy faces
Waiting for the spring
 
3. Spring Poem
 
The skies of steel
and fields white with frost
are memories of yesterday
 
And while scarecrow children
search the hedgerows and splash
through muddy pools for secrets
The spirit of the spring
with the sunbeams on her hair
shakes the sleeping earth
 
And with the pilgrim by her side
She murmurs in the trees
And in the ears of all who listen
"Now time to wake for winter has gone"
 
4. Spring Song
 
Green April comes
With flowers in her hair
She smiles again and like a child
cares nothing for tomorrow
 
She spreads her wings
Catch her if you see her
in your mind's eye
For she smiles in a Mona Lisa way
 
Sun is rising
from a cloud above your head
When you instead are sleeping
 
All is knowing, all is growing
And no one knows
which way their mind is blowing
 
Green April comes
And now she finds
her work is almost done
And like a child
cares nothing for tomorrow
And like a child
cares nothing for tomorrow
And like a child thinks only for today
 
5. Summer Poem
 
The pilgrim wanders with the spirit
of the spring, enchanted
As if tomorrow will never come
 
But time is running out
And as she bids him farewell
Only the echo of her voice remains
 
For now she flies
On the bare back of the south wind
Across the naked mountains
Above the winding rivers
Breathing gently on the meadows
 
Scattering her flowers
into the grass and the hedgerows
vision slowly fading, fading
Fa