Overhill and Underhill

 1. The Progress of Souls

As through the land at eve we went,
Overhill and underhill,
And along the watercourse way,
We had seen into the soul of things.
We two,
Birthed alone into the world,
Together for a moment in a car.
Carrying our burdens,
We raced against the sky,
Against the ending of the day,
To keep these memories savored
Somehow to preserve the pulsing of life
Before it could be washed away.
This is the reason we sing.
This is why we will always sing:
So that we never forget
What the moment revealed
From the secret fountain
On the mountainside.
O highway we travel
You express us better
Than we express ourselves
As endless as beginningless
You turn nothing away
You are the universal road
For traveling souls
Forever forward
Ever before us
All parts away
All parts away
All parts away
For the progress of souls

2. Sound on the Mountain

Was that a sound on the mountain?
How could we both have heard it,

Silent as it was?
Do you still hear it now?
Do you remember?
We stepped off that stone wall
We were so uncertain and scared
But we held each other
As we looked into the infinite
And a future life we would not know
Together
But in that moment
Our shelter
Gave us courage
We made a promise then
To face what came
With eyes open and hearts untamed
And we fell into the sky
Starting rings
Ever-spreading
Over the Earth
Forward, backward, outward  and out of time
Do you hear it now?
Whenever we remember
The distance doesn’t matter
Whenever we remember
Neither does the time
Stop now and remember
Do you hear the song
In the sound on the mountain?

3. The Origin of Songs

I know now

The origin of songs
Is a seed inside each one
A seed sown long ago
Watered by that silent spring
The secret source of everything

When I came down the mountain
And went alone into the forest
I wrapped myself around a tree
And this began in me
This began in me

You were there
You led me to the opening
You taught me how to sing
But when I asked you for the song
You were gone
You were gone

So, now I do my best
To listen and remember
And to carry on
To carry on

4. Along an Endless Highway

I can only linger so long
In these memories of you
The green is gone
It’s winter, now
And I am going grey
And now I can’t remember
What it was I wanted to say
To you
There were many things
We meant to do
Now, all I have are memories
I relive them as I write them
But none of this brings you back
None of this can make it green again

We are moved along an endless highway
We begin, we go and gain
Momentum by the pull of gravity
And the persistence of memory
Promise pulls us forward
Toward something we remember
Long ago and deep inside
In either way, bound by time
Are we ever really free?

Ah, but at the still point
On the mountaintop
Where the fountain
Springs upward from the stone
There the clear water comes
From some source unseen
We can mix it with the pigment
The blood and clay and carcass
Of the Earth
We can run like a river  
Along a watercourse way
Overhill and underhill
As through the land at eve we go