Cohen Leonard Ballad Of The Absent Mare Lyrics

Ballad Of The Absent Mare Lyrics

Say a prayer for the cowboy
His mare's run away
And he'll walk til he
finds her
His darling, his stray
but the river's in flood
and the
roads are awash
and the bridges break up
in the panic of loss.

And
there's nothing to follow
There's nowhere to go
She's gone like the
summer
gone like the snow
And the crickets are breaking
his heart with
their song
as the day caves in
and the night is all wrong

Did he
dream, was it she
who went galloping past
and bent down the fern
broke
open the grass
and printed the mud with
the iron and the gold
that he
nailed to her feet
when he was the lord

And although she goes
grazing
a minute away
he tracks her all night
he tracks her all
day
Oh blind to her presence
except to compare
his injury here
with
her punishment there

Then at home on a branch
in the highest tree
a
songbird sings out
so suddenly
Ah the sun is warm
and the soft winds
ride
on the willow trees
by the river side

Oh the world is
sweet
the world is wide
and she's there where
the light and the
darkness divide
and the steam's coming off her
she's huge and she's
shy
and she steps on the moon
when she paws at the sky

And she
comes to his hand
but she's not really tame
She longs to be lost
he
longs for the same
and she'll bolt and she'll plunge
through the first
open pass
to roll and to feed
in the sweet mountain grass

Or
she'll make a break
for the high plateau
where there's nothing
above
and there's nothing below
and it's time for the burden
it's time
for the whip
Will she walk through the flame
Can he shoot from the
hip

So he binds himself
to the galloping mare
and she binds
herself
to the rider there
and there is no space
but there's left and
right
and there is no time
but there's day and night

And he leans
on her neck
and he whispers low
"Whither thou goest
I will go"
And
they turn as one
and they head for the plain
No need for the whip
Ah,
no need for the rein

Now the clasp of this union
who fastens it
tight?
Who snaps it asunder
the very next night
Some say the
rider
Some say the mare
Or that love's like the smoke
beyond all
repair

But my darling says
"Leonard, just let it go by
That old
silhouette
on the great western sky"
So I pick out a tune
and they
move right along
and they're gone like the smoke
and they're gone like
this song