Song For Daniel

Sky, heavy as bellrope
Is ringing the changes
August has cried
In her swell-bellied labours

She climbs up the steeple
And waits for the chime
Halos of rain on the conifers shine
Halos of rain on the conifers shine

I'd like the world to stop
Just for one morning
And tell me the hour
Now this kingdom is fallen

The livery's decked
And the courtiers are bloody
And lillies grow now
From his mouth and his body

And I could pound nettles
Till my hands were blistered
But swans crowd the lake and no -
I'm not their sister

In pedallos once we were brave sailor men
One two we fell, and then we stood again...
In pedallos once we were brave sailor men
One two we fell, and then we stood again...

I want to be grand
To mourn as an actor
Playing a bit part
So I don't have to feel this

Extend my arm gracefully
Sipping in silence
Bone china, behind a veil
So not to see this

And I searched without walls
And I searched without finding
I search like a blindman
With fortune to guide me
In pedallos once
We were brave sailormen
One two we fell
And then we stood again...

Roots, pale in September
And tender as memory
They flower in the roofing
And seed in the belfry

Silent in amber
That once winter time
We slept safe as houses
My brother and I
We slept safe as houses
My brother and I