Circle Game
(source: "Rise Up Singing", Peter Blood and Annie Patterson, 1992.)
(words and music by Joni Mitchell)

Thanks very much to Erin Bates, who e-mailed me this song!

Yesterday a child came out to wander

Caught a dragonfly insider a jar

Fearful when the skies are full of thunder

And tearful at the falling of a star.

Chorus:

And the seasons, they go round and round

And the painted ponies go up and down.

We're captives on the carousel of time.

We can't return, we can only look behind from where we came

And go round and round and round in the circle game.

Now the child's grown ten times round the seasons

Skated over ten clear frozen streams

Words like "when you're older" must appease her

And promises of someday make her dream.

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now

Cartwheels turn to cartwheels through the town

And they tell her "take your time, it won't be long now

Before you drag your feet to slow the circle down."

Now the child of yesterday's grown twenty

Although some dreams are lost, some grandeurs coming true

There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty

Before the last revolving year is through.