Changing of the Guard

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Rick Davies © 2005 All rights Reserved

 

The Changing of the Guard comes just once in your life

Tell me how the old Guard knows

That time it has taken its toll on the bones

Out o’r the stars we must flow, yes

Out o’r the stars we must flow

 

You watched the sun rise and set each day

The world goes on with its work

But one time I knew you when you were so young

Feet planted solid to earth, yes

With a quick strength and a broad shouldered girth

 

Chorus: Oh the summer time brings you around

And flitter of the whippoorwill, simple enough

It gets you on your feet again, but life is tough

For an old boy bent and grey from years of hangin’ around

 

On one moonlit evening, alone at night

We drew plans up to conquer the world

I never did see you looking so right

In your midnight repose near the fire, yes

While planets and universes whirled

When I first found you lying quite lifeless

I knew you had taken your leave

A warm October evening, the wind sadly singing

As you floated your soul on the breeze, yes

As you floated your soul on the breeze

 

The Changing of the Guard comes just once in your life

To this truth humble men hold

Now you glance from afar, and you smile if perchance

The new Guard’s enactment’s so bold, yes

The new Guard’s enactment’s so bold

 

 

Secrets

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Rick Davies © 2005 All Rights Reserved

 

Oh, in late evening, steady as a flame

In my heart for loving you

I lift my song, and float it in the wind

And the flame and the incense glows

 

Don’t cast aside the quiet of the hour

And the voice of the nightingale

Tonight you can tell me secrets from your heart,

 And I’ll try not to be afraid

 

Spoken: Bring me the bell, the flute, the harp, Oh send me to the sea

Time passing, a dream, a life of art, with paint like falling leaves

 

Oh watch the winter, a film of life gone by

 With steady gaze, find a brand new start

 Tonight you can test me, I’m even to the task

 If morning brings your surrendered heart

 

 

Sunset City

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Rick Davies © 2005 All Rights Reserved

 

 Late at night, in June I favor, thoughts of you when first we’d meet

 Your hair fell down in curious laughter, in morning light our hearts were born

 To face the world from then together, come what may we’d ever hold

 Ring the bells and shake the rafters, touch my brow your story’s told

 

School days, wine, and late night talks, and music playing overtime

It’s true they say your heart was with me the day I looked into your eyes

Take my soul, it’s gladly given, shower me with your love divine

Since the morning’s just out over the hill, guess I’ll just stay the night

 

In decade’s verse we’d fall together, our children grew to womanhood,

In fields of love and times ever after, I think these days on growing old

You’ve carried the burden of our world on shoulders small but strong and true

It’s been just too damned long since I sat down and wrote a song for you

 

Did I let you into my world, did you think the choice was mine?

And, by the way did you ever know there’s miracles showin’ in your eyes?

I tell you this ‘cause I can’t bear to have you not know how I feel

There’s dreams enough to change our world, it’s only you who makes it real

 

Have I told you how I love you, have I knelt before your eyes?

When you breath your sweet love on me, I could be in paradise

Going down to Sunset City, hoping there to greet my guide

A one-way visit, that’s just the way, I think we should spend our time

 

 

Avatar

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Jane Sytek © 2005 All Rights Reserved

 

Oh Avatar

I long to hear the echo of your flute

So Play, Play on

Pierce through the mist of shadow-land and gloom

You call across the river

But I’ve lost sight of you

Lotus of Love

I long to hear the echo of your flute

 

Enchant the woodlands and the canyons with your song

Entice the stones and field mice ‘till they sing along

Cradle my storms and reckless passions in your palm

Dance through my dreams and guilded visions all night long

 

Lacing the air with sylvan magic with your sound

Cascading astral music, I’m inward bound

Amid the crosses that I lay upon the ground

I see light instead of darkness all around

 

And I’ll float over the water, ‘till I’m lost in You

Give me the sweetness of your honey, I’m wanting You

Sift all my reason with compassion, I’m glimpsing You

Take all my memories and my sorrows, I’m beholding You

Take all my memories and my sorrows, I’m beholding You

 

 

Hurricane (on the edge of 7)

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Rick Davies © 2005 All Rights Reserved

 

I’ve been caught in a hurricane

Oh for some time now

What’s come over me?

The wind was lifting mother and child, they smiled as they sailed for me

 

I wonder what time it is down south

Are the preachers singing about us both?

“Francis and Clare, or Barnabus and Angelique” ?

In later days we’ll scribe our distance, we’ll wave as we sail, the sea

 

Chorus:  Island Times, bring both waves

And sunny days, always

I remember your early days

I knew your name when you were a child

When we were lost, parted by time

Now here you sit on the edge of seven, with me

 

Now we try to sit

On the edge of a flowing mystery

When the time is coming ‘round and ‘round and ‘round

And the storm brings with it

All of our history

In later days……..

 

 

Tried to Reach the Gold

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Rick Davies © 2005 All Rights Reserved

 

Riding on a stallion near the end of the world

Where the ocean and the lightning meet

You looked in my eyes and you called me by name

And the fire in your eyes told me everything

 

You smile in love, the storm gathering from above, you play “scare” with me

 

I knew the answer would come to me

If I could only keep respect in the scene

But I’m no director, there’s no plot in this play

And justice to the villain’s twenty riddles away

 

You smile in love, the storm gathering from above, and you dance with me

 

Chorus:

Does anyone remember warrior’s names in the morning

When they’re storming the gates all night?

Seven wild horses stand tame in the morning

But the Horseman retreats in fright

Does anyone remember warrior’s names in the morning

When the Horseman retreats in fright?

 

The stars say the time is now my love

For the world’s heart to miss a beat

Move if you want to the end of the tale

Archers flying arrows in perditions war

 

You smile in love, the storm gathering from above, and you dance with me

 

Chorus

 

I chose the hinterland where eyes could not quite see

And I looked to find a reason why you played games with me

And it seemed to me that you could tell what my heart seeks

And where I need to be

 

Oh I know time for our being here is growing old

 

And we feel a sense of disbelief as the “clay” goes back to soil

But I stand here looking at the time (well spent) that we have tried

To reach the Gold

 

 

Alone in Thoughts

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Rick Davies © 2005 All Rights Reserved

 

I wonder where your heart is now

On this day of innocence

I woke to find that you had flown

‘tis one day longer than the last we tried

 Oh in waiting for your call, I wonder where the hoping goes,

 I think of things I might have done, to bring you home, to give you joy

 I wonder ‘bout the dream you’re on, I hope for you a happy one

 I think today I’d like to be, alone in thoughts of you and me

 

Rain is falling at my door

So much harder than it fell before

This sonnet that I sing for you

My love is sent, and love is true

I wonder what you’re thinking now, do you remember the times before?

The clock was my old ally then, I’m open now to better ends

I wonder ‘bout the dream you’re on, I hope for you a happy one,

I think today I’d like to be, alone in thoughts of you and me
 

 

A Haunted Look

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Jane Sytek ©2005 All Rights Reserved

(Inspired by a trip we made to hear Mother Teresa address a group in Louisville, KY)

 

We traveled so far to hear you speak

Old and frail you seemed to me

But when you spoke your words split the air

 

Such very important tongues were struck

As dumb as wizards down on their luck

Made clean before intense love so rare

 

Big words and actions the world reveres

Of politicians and kings and seers

Who wave and pose within publicity’s glare

 

But in an instant their deeds are done

It’s harder to face the morning sun

Endlessly giving, when no one seems to care

 

Chorus: 

Take heed of the eastern prophecies, their promises may be ours to keep

But we fly toward the flame, an endless sea, of doubt desire and wrong

Will we ever be wise in our present time? Do dusty old books still claim our minds?

Read them clearly to help us to find, a journey not so long

 

A haunted look a desperate eye

Shaming me as I pass by

Hurry on pretending I don’t care

 

Theology quakes before the truth

Pure ideal known in our youth

Of simply knowing when to serve and where

 

The poorest of the poor you say

Are those we know and see each day

Why search beyond, they surround us everywhere

 

And yet I knew it was not for me

To solve this mystery across the sea

I found it here almost more than I could bear

 

Chorus:

 

So give me that power that you possess

Completely free me of idleness

And breathe in me that light beyond compare

 

So give me that power that you possess

Completely free me of idleness

And breath in me that light beyond compare

And breath in me that light beyond compare

 

 

Child of Passion

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Jane Sytek ©2005 All Rights Reserved

 

Oh child of passion

Oh little one, little one

Why do you cling so, what do you see

Why won’t you tell me?

You seem so frozen, no inner fire to warm you

Or are you just drowning in quiet apathy?

Do you stare at the glow of some refuge imagined?

Or are you seeing the specter of your own reality? 

Horrific night visitor moving in shadow

Is it one you thought loved you, and are you torn in two?

 

You look so young

But your eyes seem so ancient

Like empty windows that only can hint at the splendor

Of a ruined old castle reflecting the night dew

From pools of false promises of those who protect you

 

Will you break free of this ancestral prison?

Do you remember your joyful days of trust and innocence?

Longing for harbor

Peering through darkness

One you thought loved you

Are you torn in two?

 

Oh child of passion

Oh little one, little one

Why do you cling so, what do you see

Why won’t you tell me?

You seem so frozen, no inner fire to warm you

Or are you just drowning in quiet apathy?

 

 

Haridas

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Rick Davies ©2005 All Rights Reserved

(In the Court of Lahore, India, Sadhu Haridas was buried beneath the surface of the earth in the courtyard while guards kept a watch.  After 40 days, he was disintered and was pronounced dead....but to the astonishment of the English and French physicians attending him, he resumed his breathing and walked away.)

 

Oh Haridas, did you have a nice slumber?

Were the days great in number that you rested from the world?

Oh Haridas is the cost of your lesson

Or the promise of redemption that you held in your heart

Worth the gaze of the doubtful, accounts of the curious

What now have we learned?

 

Oh Haridas, show us what you can show us

 

Twice when we left you for dead others watched to see

What your life might stir, and later come to represent

Oh Haridas, in a manner reverential

We lower our gaze paying homage to your name

But the gaze of the doubtful, accounts of the curious

What now have we learned?

 

Oh Haridas show us what you can show us

 

Chorus: Oh Haridas show us what you can show us, bring us the story of your days

Bring me forever in a straight supple bow, and promise you won’t turn away

 

Oh Haridas, tell us how you remember

Being bigger than ever in the grip of the reaper

Can we live in same manner with you as the teacher

Or do you sail for tomorrow with me none the wiser?

Oh the gaze of the doubtful, accounts of the curious

What now have we learned?

 

Oh Haridas show us what you can show us

 

 

Tree Planter

Album: From The Shadow of the Citadel

Words and Music by Jane Sytek ©2005 All Rights Reserved

(For Jane's brother Phil Sytek)

 

You were always the big one, unfettered, untamed

Unrooted, moving around

I stayed here, and watched you with wonder

Lone traveler to barren ground

 

The seeds of these giants begin in your hands

toil with vengeance, palm calloused as bark

Each clod of bare soil, all carefully planned

Forever your imprint will mark

 

Chorus: 

Tree Planter, is it still in your memory, the love and the visions we shared?

Remember, as your soul journeys onward, there are many back here who still care

 

Reliant on no one, disguise hard at keeping

Precarious nature, uncertain, unsure

But your faith in my music still touches me deeply

Your unwavering kindness will always endure

 

As death is illusion, and life is just dreaming

They dance with each other like waves on the sea

A merciless veil, I found myself weaving

Perception and truth don’t always agree

 

Chorus: 

Tree Planter, is it still in your memory, the love and the visions we shared?

Remember, as your soul journeys onward, there are many back here who still care

 

A wild gale blows through the woodlands you sowed

Whirling branches and leaves ascending

Will your spirit be loosed, will it lift your strong soul

Will you sail on the wind never ending?

 

Will your little one lift his face to the sun?

Catching the breeze in his yellow hair

Will he just for a moment catch whispers of your love?

Will it lift him up too, will he know it’s you?

 

Through the filtering sunlight my eyes caught you winking

Now I know it was all a grand joke

You live on, what could I have been thinking?

No sorrow, at last I awoke

 

You have gone, but in place of your sadness

Tall forests, you’ve done your part.

Safe havens and a home for leaf dwellers

Did I say you live on in my heart?

 

Tree Planter, is it still in your memory

the love and the visions we shared

Remember, as your soul journeys onward

There are many back here who still care

 

You have gone, but in place of your sadness

Tall forests, you’ve done your part

Safe havens and a home for leaf dwellers

And did I say you live on in my heart?

 

Did I say you live on in my heart?