1. Prelude: Incipit (instrumental)

2. The Clock Unwound

Sadness whispers as I rise, with morning light disguised
Secrets lying in bed, asleep and by my side
I walk on burning coals in hopes of cheating time
Clockwork gears turn to rust in pools of soured wine

My precious childhood laughter, once sent out to play
Lies now entombed in lead to save it from decay
The garden overgrown with dreams from yesterday
Borne on broken wings in shades of grey

The garden overgrown with words from yesterday
Broken wings with nothing left to say

The future’s golden promise crumbles into dust
Fills cracks of stale desires with shards of broken trust

The garden overgrown with dreams from yesterday
Borne on broken wings in shades of grey
The garden overgrown with words from yesterday
Broken wings with nothing left to say

Memory is a monster who roams his gilded cage
Beckoning to lonely shadows who hide in haunted caves
Memories last forever, until they can’t be found
Once lost, they slip into the night. The clock of life unwound

II

4. Smother

I lived my life alone in contempt of all the others
When fires began to fade, flames smothered one another
While lost on endless seas, riding waves of blind endeavour
I bowed to heedless gods offering a grand forever

How often that it seems: Here’s the key to all your dreams. Then it’s gone
You try to find a place to hide. Feeling everything you tried was just a lie

I said I knew a way, a knot that tied this all together
But I paid for what I’d lost, trading light for darker weather
The things that led me on; full of weeds of discontent
Husks of hopes that never flowered reflecting things I never meant

How often that it seems: Here’s the key to all your dreams. Then it’s gone
You try to find a place to hide. Feeling everything you tried was just a lie

There was a time, a time of endless summer days
Long nights of wine and untold gentle sighs
Life was sweet and you smothered all my fears
We knew no end, but in love the end is always near

A time, when time ceased to matter
We’d make love ‘til the moon fell from the sky
But in your heart it was a masquerade
You changed, you went and changed into something bitter
You knew the end and all that lives must also fade away

II

As past parades in time all my pictures fade to umber
Even love becomes a crime, everything goes undercover
I live my life alone in contempt of all the others
Fires never seem to fade. Flames smother one another

How often that it seems: Here’s the key to all your dreams. Then it’s gone
You try to find a place to hide. Feeling everything you tried was just a lie

How often that it seems: Here’s the key to all your dreams. Then it’s gone
You try to find a place to hide. Feeling everything you tried was just a lie

5. Plans Askew 

Now the darkness falls like rain upon my hopes and dreams
Then it was all in vain, while nothing’s what it seems
Where will I go when there is no one to turn to
Now, what shall I do? My bridges burning behind me

You thought me for a fool and kept me fed on lies
When you broke all the rules it came as no surprise
By then I knew that there’s no virtue to bind you
Your vain plans askew. Your bridges burning behind you

Now the darkness falls like rain upon my hopes and dreams
Then it was all in vain, while nothing’s what it seems
Where will I go when there is no one to turn to
Now, what shall I do? My bridges burning behind me

The darkness falls like rain
Upon my hopes and dreams
Your vain plans askew
Your bridges burning behind you

And you kept me fed on lies

Then it was all in vain
Your bridges burning behind  you

6. Resignation

Even the future was better before, before the centre couldn’t hold the blood dimmed tide anymore.
I have made peace with innocence having been slaughtered.
Didn’t say I won; just stopped fighting.
Long after the first inkling of the knowledge that the world and life can give no satisfaction.
Death does not worry me; it’s life I am not resigned to.
Nor the mass of men.

There is no great conspiracy to comfort me.
No alliance of foes to justify my defeat.
The truth is, no-one is in control in this rudderless world.
Only the thought of the new world and all that it must mean steels me to resignation, repenting for the appalling silence and acquiescence of good people.
Waves of years and woe on the sea of time, surrounded by others who are drowning.
What have you done, have you cultivated for the common harvest?

II

Where are they now?
What has become of them all?
Of all the powerful?
And of all the many fads they brought with them?
What of their fashions and mannerisms and clever ploys?
Was all of that meaningless waste?
Was it all anything else but a summer’s green on the fields?

Even the future was better before, before the centre couldn’t hold the blood dimmed tide anymore.
I have made peace with innocence having been slaughtered.
Didn’t say I won, just stopped fighting.
Long after the first inkling of the knowledge that the world and life can give no satisfaction.
Death does not worry me; it’s life I am not resigned to.

(c) Gentle Knife 2017.

1. Eventide

The sun rays beaming down and the whole world seems so still
The trees in golden crowns and I am longing to fill
My mind with hope and faith, my spirit longs to be free
A walk on narrow paths, I must find where to be

Come to us, you will find what you need
Sense the air and feel how to breathe
The world is not small, it is open wide
Come to us after Eventide

A sky of blue above, I saw the trees and the birds
The colors of the fall, inviting me to join her
I stepped out of the path, a dense fog creeping on me
My mind lost in the dark, then a voice came to me…

Come to us, you will find what you need
Sense the air and feel how to breathe
The world is not small, it is open wide,
Come to us after Eventide

The world went dark and grey, in my dreams I came to see
I might have lost my way but this is where I must be…
Why won’t you hold my hand, I know you long for me
You must have lost your way, now you’re where you should be …

Our world is open wide
Join after Eventide

The sun came shining down and all the fog disappeared
From my mind and then I saw the world reappear
The world was dark, and in your dreams you came to see
You must have lost your way, now you’re where you should be…

Our world is open wide
Join after Eventide

2. Our Quiet Footsteps

As we were walking, we were talking
So much must rather be left unsaid
Saved for empty moments
Saved for what’s ahead

Beneath our quiet footsteps
A world of moss and stone
Littered with bits and pieces
Of youthful dreams, now grown cold

Forever moving onwards
The past is left behind
Hoping as we walked on
Renewal was what we’d find
Deeper into shadows
Dreaming, lost in time

Answers are where you go. Find them
The oaks, they speak in unknown rhyme
Falling deeper, into shadows, you’re lost in time
Lost in time

The oaks, they seem to whisper
They speak in unknown rhyme
We leave them to their council
As we follow the ancient lines

Answers are where you go go. Find them
The oaks, they speak in unknown rhyme
Falling deeper, into shadows, you’re lost in time
Lost in time

Answers are where you go go. Find them
The oaks, they speak in unknown rhyme
Falling deeper, into shadows, you’re lost in time
Lost in time

3. Remnants of Pride

The velvet moonlight raining down
Shimmering lake, the lonely loon will cry
Ripples run and run aground
Chased by the breeze’s sweet reply

Darkness’ arms surrounding us
Yet there is little trace of fear
The shadows leap, they’re dancing free
From serenity’s quiet sphere

But the fear, it returns, alive in me
Remnants of forgotten pride
How to escape, to find my sight?
Within darkness, where moonlight blinds –
I stare…

… as ripples dance across the lake
I feel the peace now, and serenity
I travel lightly in her wake
Is nothing left, but a faint memory?

To see her dancing once again
Sweet memories gone, they flee from me
She’s spinning ‘neath the morning sun
Watched over by loving leaf and tree

A leaf is blowing across the lake
Is this all that is left of my love?
There’s nothing more to give or take
Within darkness, where moonlight shines –
I’m there…

Her voice is rippling through my soul
Forever lost that which once was mine
For what was one is no longer whole
Within darkness, where the moonlight dies –
I hear…

The breeze returns, now, through the trees
The moonlight veiled by clouded skies
Peace has left, shedding tears of wine
It is time; the night drowns in her silent sighs
In her silent sighs…

4. Tear Away the Cords That Bind

The cords that bind, they held me tight, suspended from a height
My dreams, I found, turned upside down, and hidden from the light
I took them out and tied them up, a package for the king
He carved them up and in a cup, he fed them to the queen

I prayed that I could hide away, and leave myself behind
But now I see that I am trapped, within the cords that bind
The perfect knots that held me down, all tied with loving care
With persistence, I unraveled them but then found no one there

The cords that bind, they held you tight, suspended from a height
The dreams, you found, turned upside down, and hidden from the light
You took them out and tied them up, a package for the king
He carved them up and in a cup, he fed them to the queen

You prayed that you could hide away, and leave yourself behind
But now you see that you are trapped, within the cords that bind
The perfect knots that held hailed you down, all tied with loving care
With persistence, you unraveled them but then found no one there

5. Beneath the Waning Moon (instrumental)

Em, C, D, Em

6. The Gentle Knife – with chords

Em
A forest still
Moss and trunk
Bathed in light
Moonlit struck
C
Forgotten path
Seldom trod
Am7
A whispered song
Em
Through wind-torn leaves

Em
A ghostly mist
Across the fen
Shadows slip
The path grows faint

C
To hesitate
Would be unwise
Am7
In tempting fate
F AMAJ7
Under unseen skies

F
Spirits rise
Within a dream
AMAJ7
They beckon you
To join their dance
F
Mere mortal man
I am no match
AMAJ7
Tales are told
of forests old

Bridge
Am
Arms embrace
Adim
The dance begun
D       C     A
Snake and tarn
D       C     Eb
Beneath my feet

SOLO over bridge

Theme

Em
Breath so sweet
That knows no life
The sirens gaze
The gentle knife
C
The water dark
Our dance complete
Am7
They bear me down
Em
To endless night

Coda:
Em
A forest still
Moss and trunk
Bathed in light
Moonlit struck
C
Forgotten path
Seldom trod
Am7
A whispered song
Em
Through wind-torn leaves

7. Impetus (instrumental)

8. Epilogue: Locus Amoenus (instrumental)

(c) Gentle Knife 2015.