MCKENNITT, Loreena

All Souls Night

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides

Figures dance around and around

To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness

Moving to the pagan sound.

Somewhere in a hidden memory

Images float before my eyes

Of fragrant nights of straw and bonfires

And dancing till the next sunrise.

I can see lights in the distance

Trembling in the dark cloak of night

Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing

A waltz on All Souls Night

Figures of cornstalks bend in the shadows

Held up tall as the flames leap high

The green knight holds the holly bush

To mark where the old year passes by.

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides

Figures dance around and around

To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness

Moving to the pagan sound.

Standing on the bridge that crosses

The river that goes out to the sea

The wind is full of a thousand voices

They pass by the bridge and me.