Gallowbraid
      Ashen Eidolon

1. 	Ashen Eidolon

I remember sunlight dancing across her face
Patterns in my mind, gently etched in gold and amber
The warmth of summer riding sweetly on her breath
A warmth recalled only in memories of halcyon yesterdays

Now summer has ended and the warmth is gone
Nothing but a braid on the gallows trees remains to mark her passing
In autumn's wake, sorrow took her as its own
My heart was buried with her there beneath the bleeding oak

She died alone in that mournful glade
No comfort sought nor gained in hateful solitude
She flew on wings as black as seething night
Oh where was I, thou blighted, cursed wood?

Gold and ochre
Behold the tapestry of the fall
There is a beauty
A certain subtle grandeur
In the withering that consumes us all

Among the sightless trunks and boughs
Bare feet upon forgotten soil paths
That leaves blind her desperate plight

Yet ravens watched from every branch
And witnessed mute her final fall
With solemn caws they called her dead
And flew into the granite sky

Time fades away yet sorrow remains

And as her final song she sang:
'I will fade as night conquers day
I am the ashen eidolon, the deepest shade of grey'

She shuddered with the flaming leaves
Her veins spat golden gouts of burning life
That swirled upward against the pouring rain
Which came down hard as iron coffin nails
It splintered wooden limbs and shattered stone
And pounded on her lifeless, paling corpse
It gave her leave of what she could no longer bear
And forged for her a gilded tomb


2. 	Autumn I

instrumental


3. 	Oak and Aspen

I close my eyes and hear the stream as it passes
Moments lost to whims of time
Held close by the embrace of aspens
Wrought through with a sorrow I cannot define
I breathe in the autumn air
And lift my face to the sky
All I hear are echoes of despair
As I watch the seasons wither and die

Do the oaks feel this distant pain?
Can the pines offer me relief?
Have the aspens wept with the rain?
Does the forest know his untouchable grief?

Now I wander on forever
Down these oaken halls of sorrow
Seeking solitude in the autumn months
Through days so long and hollow
Fallen leaves pave the path I walk
Barren branches lead the way
Bringing shelter from the sun
And days so far away

The beauty of this forest sings to me
Through words of wind and verse of falling leaves
Its song is one of sorrow and days long past
The time is gone but the memories always last

For all this time I have been searching
For why the skies are grey
All colour lost to time and sorrow
The sun put out by pain
As autumn leaves keep on dancing
And pay no heed to me
My journey through these wild landscapes
Is all that I have left

I come across a quiet river
That wanders through the trees
I stare into its running waters
And fall onto my knees
In resignation to the forest
That's held me for so long
I close my eyes and drift away
Into nature's evensong


4. 	Autumn II

instrumental