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.