(sung low and slow, one voice at first, then joined by the circle around the fire) (Verse 1) The night is heavy, the wind is cold, We lay you down on the cedar and gold. Your sword is still, your laughter gone, The owls are calling the whole night long. I touch your hand, it will not take mine, Victory in death is still death, my heart finds. (Verse 2) We wrapped you gentle in moss and yew, Rowan berries for the red you knew, A sprig of oak from the ridge you loved, A feather fallen from the hawk above. The flames are waiting to set you free, But my heart is slow to let you be. (Chorus (soft, almost whispered)) Ashes, ashes, quiet and slow, Carry them softly where wild winds blow. Sleep now, victorious, under the spark, The longest night is kind to the dark. (Verse 3) Yet look, the fire climbs bright and high, It dances the way you laughed at the sky. It roars like you when the battle turned, It sings like you when the mead was burned. Your courage leaps in every flame, And I almost hear you speak my name. (Verse 4) You hated cages of stone and steel, You said the earth was the only wheel That turns us all to life again— Seed and leaf and the running rain. So let the fire give back what’s hers, The wild green world that always was yours. (Chorus (louder now, voices lifting)) Ashes, ashes, rise and fly, Ride the smoke to the open sky. Dance now, champion, wild and free, The oldest road is calling thee. (Bridge (half-spoken, half-sung over rising flames)) You are not gone, you are going home— Into the root and the river-foam, Into the hawk and the thornwood tree, Into the storm that will not bow the knee. Every green thing will remember you, Every green thing will carry you through. (Final Chorus (strong, glad, and unafraid)) Ashes, ashes, bright and high, You are the spark in the living sky! Run now, companion, antler and wing, Laugh in the fire, laugh in the spring! We light this pyre with love, not tears— You are the forest that never disappears. You are the forest that never disappears.
