Snow Song Lyrics

The city stood yawning at the dark end of the year

Chimney smoke clinging to the tired-looking rain

Last summer's leaves, dreams and invitations to the ball

Lay greasy in the gutter or had long gone down the drain

And while winter made a treadmill of each day

That barred the way to spring

It fell from a sky of slate

The stillness that the snow brings

Snow on the rooftops threw the moon back at the dark

Out on the marshes you could hear the cattle breathe

Highways deserted, every footfall left its mark

The magpie on the meadow and the fox across the heath.

Frost on the window put the silversmith to shame

With its wild imaginings

They danced like a candle flame

In the stillness that the snow brings.

The thorny undergrowth still waits beneath the drift

Ragged iron and broken stone.

Soon enough to find them when the frost begins to shift

They'll get no sharper if for once you leave them on their own...

Ah but did you hear the silver notes and see the band

Shine like white fire in the shadow of the mill?

Or in the evening hear the notes the bellman sends

Leap from the tower and tumble laughing down the hill?

There'll still be summer and the chatter in the trees

But let them wait to sing

Just sink in up to your knees

In the stillness that the snow brings.