Song for RH ©

Sudden words that broke the news like gunshots in the night
Echo from this granite gesture bristling in the light
No more we'll chase the fox or yon accursed Mako shark
Shoot chestnuts off the trees or break the ebb while it's still dark

No more we'll raise our voices against the clamour of the sea
Watch puffins dive or seagulls wheel or struggle to be free
Frozen mornings on the Creechan Shore with "old" Paddy Doyle
Unforgotten friendships forged in happy grinding toil

Chorus:
Images that still shake us, memories that still bind us
Stories that still take us where the present cannot find us
Though the world you knew is fading fast and nothing stays the same
Old friends fall but our sons' and daughters' hopes and dreams remain

The mists of bitterness and the blindness of ambition
Mock this fleeting stay and blight our puny vision
But now the trail is vanishing, the view is growing clear
Trapped by time and place your intentions were sincere

Through the froth of words we sailed and o'er the raging seas beneath
In the light of all our dreams how little we bequeath
Of wisdom and of love and how much have we betrayed
"But if we care and if we try, that's what matters" you once said

Chorus:
Images that still shake us, memories that still bind us
Stories that still take us where the present cannot find us
Though the world you knew is fading fast and nothing stays the same
Old friends fall but our sons' and daughters' hopes and dreams remain

From Poaching through Ringuinea to the pride of the Green Beret
From the Rock Beneath the Ravens to a better world some day
From this gentle hill you're lying in to the crags where eagles soar
Although our eyes are open wide your like we'll see no more