Unseen Fence Swing

**Echoes of Clannad** **I. The Listener** Some speak in rivers Some speak in rain Some hold another's sorrow And call it by its name They gather all the fragments That drift from heart to heart And mend the broken music Before it falls apart --- **II. The Keeper** The fence was down by morning The gate had lost its swing No speeches filled the silence No songs were left to sing Yet evening found it standing Against the weather's claim And no one knew who carried The burden just the same --- **III. The Watchman** A lamp burned in the window Long after midnight passed No promise made in language No question ever asked Just one who stayed awake there While storms crossed through the dark A quiet flame uncounted Keeping watch against the dark --- **IV. The Bearer** The boxes grew no lighter The road no less severe The miles stretched on before him Through every passing year He never named the sacrifice Nor measured what it cost He only kept on carrying What others might have lost --- **V. The Witness** A child danced in the sunlight A bird rose from the reeds The world revealed its wonders In small unnoticed scenes And someone stopped to see them Before they slipped away To guard a fleeting beauty From being lost to day --- **VI. The Stone** We praise the echo's traveling The voice across the glen The comfort heard by many Again and yet again But mountains keep their silence And stones receive the rain Bearing all the weather Without a word of claim I've heard the echoes all my life Their music carried far Only now I see the mountain Standing where they are