I visited the lake’s edge to calm some current stress of life. Rather than the stillness I was expecting, the water seemed to be dancing in agitated spines matching my restless state. A quick shadow passed over me and, in ancient instinct I flinched and ducked; it was a red tailed hawk. I realized then that my life had been a series of battles; most of my own making, and that this moment represented an intense desire to end all conflicts, to find a peaceful existence with the world around me, and the world within…
A thousand silver swords
Glint upon the water
And the warrior knows
A battle looms ahead
Bristled on his neck
Are the hairs that rise to tell him
There’s a thin-frayed line
Between his life and death
The wingtips of the soaring hawk
Flash shadows on the weary
All the battles ever fought
Are aching in his bones
Somewhere along his journey
Youth’s passion has gone bleary
And the wizened warrior turns away
The memory of enemies
Creep into his dreaming
And the vision of his battlefields
Never fades from sight
The beads of sweat, the blinking lash
The cold stare of the desperate
The foul breath upon his face
Makes him restless in the night
He’s fought with blinded bravery
But this fight will be different
Nothing has prepared him
For the thing that he must do
The enemy before him now
Knows no fear or danger
His soul will not release him
Till there’s nothing left to lose
If he could tell the young
Of the stench and of the horrors
If he could only find the words
The young heart to persuade
He’d say the greatest battle
Will come when life is dimming
And you finally find the strength
To turn yourself away
Kim: guitar, vocal, bodhran
Ken: guitar, vocal
Al: fiddle