Seasonal thoughts

The words of this song have so many meanings. For all the farmers preparing for winter, for all the gardners putting their gardens to bed for the season, and for all of us who are gathering our strength and energy for the coming year, with all its challenges and as yet unknown possibilities...

(PS. The words are great, but the song is even better. I encourage you to check it out on Judy Collins’s double CD, “Forever: An Anthology," or download it from iTunes for all of $0.99. One of this season's best holiday buys, IMO.)

Fallow Way
Words and Music by Judy Collins © 1997
Universal Music Corp. (ASCAP)/ The Wildflowers Company (ASCAP)
(Administered by Universal Music Corp.)


I'll learn to love the fallow way
When winter draws the valley down
And stills the rivers in their storm
And freezes all the little brooks
Time when our steps slow to the song
Of falling flakes and crackling flames
When silver stars are high and still
Deep in the velvet of the sky

The crystal times, the silent times
I'll learn to love their quietness
While deep beneath the glistening snow
The black earth dreams of violets
I'll learn to love the fallow times.

I'll learn to love the fallow way
When all my colors fade to white
And flying birds fold back their wings
Upon my anxious wanderings
The sun has slanted all her rays
Across a vast and harvest plains
My memories mingle in the dawn
I dream of joyful vagabonds

The crystal times, the silent times
I'll learn to love their quietness
While deep beneath the glistening snow
The black earth dreams of violets
I'll learn to love the fallow times

No drummer comes across the plain
To tell of triumph or of pain
No word of far-off battle's cry
To draw me out or draw me nigh…

I'll learn to love the fallow way
And gather in the patient fruits
And after autumn’s blaze and burn
I'll know the feel of still, deep roots
That nothing seem to do, or need
That crack the ice in frozen ponds
And slumbering in winter's folds
Have dreams of green and blue and gold
I'll learn to love the fallow way
And listen for the blossoming
Of my own heart once more in spring

As sure as time, as sure as snow
As sure as moonlight, wind and stars
The fallow time will fall away
The sun will bring an April day
And I will yield to Summer's way.